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So long 2019, and thanks for all the fish.
The “fish” in this case (with all due respect to the great Douglas Adams) refers to the ridonkulous 180(!) adventure games released in the past twelve months. That is by far the most in the history of the Aggies, making it harder than ever to pick a single winner, regardless of the category.
But choose we must and choose we did – AG staff, Patreon supporters and readers alike – so it’s time once again to present the Aggie Awards to the crème de la crème of last year!
Don’t let the sheer number of new releases fool you either: this isn’t a case of quantity over quality. Sure, the AAA adventure game may be extinct, and even AA productions may be on the endangered species list. But leave it to the smaller indies to continually impress us with their creativity, ingenuity, tireless work ethic and all-around talent on display. And what tremendous diversity of titles on offer!
Indeed, with so many great games to choose from, it’s easy to miss out on the best of the best, and that’s where the Aggies come in. Though not every game can take home an award, it’s a tremendous accomplishment just to make it this far, so really there are no losers here, only a celebration of gaming goodness that spoiled us for choices.
And now, without further ado, the 2019 Aggie Awards. Enjoy!
Table of Contents
First up: Best Story... the envelope, please!
Best Story: Whispers of a Machine
It bodes well for a dystopian science fiction murder mystery when it’s able to successfully emulate certain aspects of cinematic classics in building its world. But Whispers of a Machine isn’t content to stop there, weaving in plenty of creative touches, compelling themes and intriguing characterizations of its own. This is why Clifftop Games and Faravid Interactive’s narrative collaboration resonates so strongly. Guiding Special Agent Vera Englund of the Violent Crimes unit through the investigation of a serial killer murder spree is gripping enough in its own right, but when it’s skillfully infused with thought-provoking subject matter like man versus machine and human evolution versus software upgrades, it’s instantly elevated to a far higher level of immersion. Add to this a degree of flexibility that allows for different routes based on player choice, and you’ve got a thoroughly deserving winner of our Best Story Aggie.
Runners-Up:
Life Is Strange 2
Disco Elysium
Detective Di: The Silk Rose Murders
Sumatra: Fate of Yandi
Readers’ Choice: Whispers of a Machine
The cleverest mysteries are able to continually baffle and surprise, and Whispers of a Machine is shockingly good at doing precisely that. Called in to investigate what seems to be a homicidal lunatic on the loose in the spunky, survivalist town of Nordsund, the technologically augmented protagonist diligently uncovers a method behind the madness. Characters and plot threads are woven expertly together throughout: a young couple desperate to have a baby, a ho-hum police commissary, a history curator fighting for the future, a suddenly reticent religious devotee. Then, with a twist, the various strands brilliantly recombine as the case reaches its climax. Seldom in an adventure game has evil looked this good, or innocence seemed so appallingly sinister, and for keeping us riveted and guessing all the way, Clifftop and Faravid sweep the storytelling awards for 2019.
Runners-Up:
Gibbous: A Cthulhu Adventure
Disco Elysium
Detective Di: The Silk Rose Murders
Life Is Strange 2
Next up: Best Writing – Comedy... the envelope, please!
Best Writing – Comedy: Hypnospace Outlaw
You’d be forgiven for going into Hypnospace Outlaw thinking it would be nothing more than a tongue-in-cheek, irony-drenched parody of a long-lost era of internet history. And indeed that alone would have been great, but scratch under the surface and you find something much greater: a deeply earnest, loving tribute to a time when the internet was more innocent and more honest, but still weird as all hell. Playing as an Enforcer charged with maintaining order within a fictional OS on the burgeoning World Wide Web, we laugh at Zane’s nu metal-laden homepage and the ego-driven drama of the Freelands because we know those people. We may even have been those people, not so very long ago. It’s funny… because it’s true? But it’s also funny because it’s just plain funny, whether you’re stumbling across Chowder Man’s epic ballad to shaving or accidentally sparking a crusade to protect users’ god-given rights to post fan images of Gumshoe Gooper. Hypnospace Outlaw is hilarious, and even more impressively, it’s authentically human. And now it’s an Aggie Award winner for best comedy writing.
Runners-Up:
Feria d’Arles
Gibbous: A Cthulhu Adventure
Yuppie Psycho
Irony Curtain: From Matryoshka with Love
Readers’ Choice: Gibbous: A Cthulhu Adventure
When seeking inspiration for your debut comedy adventure, naturally you go straight to the master of cosmic horror and those laugh-a-minute gritty detective stories of the ‘40s… Wait, what?! Yes, what makes Stuck In Attic's Gibbous particularly amusing is its unexpected melding of Lovecraft and film noir into a comedic romp filled with amusing banter, bizarre characters, zany scenarios, and plenty of riffs on pop culture ranging from Star Trek to Batman to Evil Dead. Oh, and a wisecracking cat who’s none too pleased to be graced with the power of speech but not afraid to use it. With loads of hotspots and multiple comments for each, there are plenty of gags to go around, giving this Cthulhu Adventure a runaway victory over its competition from our readers.
Runners-Up:
Irony Curtain: From Matryoshka with Love
Disco Elysium
The Mystery of Woolley Mountain
Tangle Tower
Next up: Best Writing – Drama... the envelope, please!
Best Writing – Drama: Life Is Strange 2
The tale of two brothers on the run in an America that pigeonholes them as outsiders, Life Is Strange 2 has a heavy weight to carry. It’s all too easy for drama to cross the line into melodrama, especially when dealing with charged topics like racism and immigration. While DONTNOD’S five-part episodic sequel does occasionally fall into this trap, overall its script is a standout example of dramatic writing in a video game – one that succeeds not because of the so-called “important issues” it explores but because of its critical mass of quiet moments, when characters get a chance to connect with each other and express their humanity. Fighting to stay alive and stick together, Sean and Daniel Diaz are ordinary (for the most part) kids up against impossible odds, and their journey is riveting in large part due to the relatable, colloquial, and believable dialogue they share with each other and a diverse supporting cast, so there’s nothing strange about it taking home our best dramatic writing Aggie.
Runners-Up:
Telling Lies
Disco Elysium
Whispers of a Machine
Mutazione
Readers’ Choice: Whispers of a Machine
In a rural outpost set atop a giant concrete pedestal, Special Agent Vera Englund must find out the truth behind a series of murders in a world filled with open incongruities and buried conflicts. In Whispers of a Machine, a once-advanced civilization has rid itself of robots and computers, yet uses tech implants in humans. Religious strife lies just below a business-as-usual surface. Officials suppress secrets beneath professional postures, love is used to manipulate, and facts can hide as much as they reveal. It’s a difficult balancing act of seemingly contradictory elements, but the dialogues tantalize, probe, disclose and horrify as the detective second-guesses everyone and everything, including her own assumptions. This is a gripping tech-noir page-turner, earning its script a highly merited reader award.
Runners-Up:
Disco Elysium
Life Is Strange 2
Detective Di: The Silk Rose Murders
Gibbous: A Cthulhu Adventure
Next up: Best Character... the envelope, please!
Best Character: Jenny LeClue, Jenny LeClue – Detectivú
Whether it’s the off-putting personality of Sherlock Holmes or the fastidiousness of Hercule Poirot, the great detectives have a tendency to alienate those around them. Young detective Jenny LeClue seems headed down that same road: brilliant but condescending, observant yet standoffish. Throughout her first big case, however, Jenny is forced to realize she can’t do everything on her own and her grudging acceptance of help from others opens the door for true character growth. Which is especially impressive since she’s really a fictional character in a book. And yet she’s so much more, taking on a life of her own and becoming a real person whose isolating walls you’ll want to see come down so she can connect with those around her. A flawed hero, her struggles and personality quirks make her all the more relatable, and for that reason, who but the eponymous star of Mografi’s debut adventure could walk away with our shiny golden statuette for Best Character?
Runners-Up:
Sean and Daniel (tie), Life Is Strange 2
Chowder Man, Hypnospace Outlaw
Kim Kitsuragi, Disco Elysium
Kitteh, Gibbous: A Cthulhu Adventure
Frog Detective, Frog Detective 2: The Case of the Invisible Wizard
Readers’ Choice: Kitteh, Gibbous: A Cthulhu Adventure
So would you say you’re more of a cat person? A huge number of voters certainly are! If you’ve ever wondered what a cat is really thinking, be careful what you wish for. Protagonist Buzz Kerwan finds out in Gibbous when he inadvertently grants his pet Kitteh the power of speech. While remaining in cat form (a fact you’ll be reminded of as Kitteh stretches and even licks herself ungraciously during idle moments), she is ever quick with the quip (usually sardonic – she is a feline, after all) and can occasionally be used to help out in a pinch to go where humans cannot. The real star of a game isn’t necessarily the STAR of a game, and in winning this reader award, Kitteh joins a distinguished list of beloved adventure game sidekicks.
Runners-Up:
Kim Kitsuragi, Disco Elysium
Vera Englund, Whispers of a Machine
Jenny LeClue, Jenny LeClue – Detectivú
Tondbert Ruffskin, Guard Duty
Next up: Best Gameplay... the envelope, please!
Best Gameplay: Outer Wilds
Mobius Digital’s Outer Wilds takes exploration as a mechanic to its extremes. Want to find out more about your cozy home planet of the Hearthians or the mysterious Nomai race and the strange statues they left behind? Explore. Wonder why the sun is going to explode in a fiery supernova in 22 minutes, killing you and everyone else in the universe over and over again until someone prevents it from happening? Explore. Using just a few simple tools, like a signalscope that helps you zero in on mysterious sounds in the distance, a translator, a remote camera, and your space ship, you’ll traverse a wildly imaginative set of worlds, each with its own distinctly different means of interaction, all while gradually uncovering clues to a multilayered story. Though you can, and will, die a bazillion times (that’s an actual scientific count, not an exaggeration), you’ll remember what you learned when resurrected each time to try again. This combination of rich, non-linear open-world exploration and puzzle-solving does involve some repetition, but stick with it and you’ll be rewarded with the Best Gameplay experience of 2019.
Runners-Up:
Whispers of a Machine
Disco Elysium
A Short Hike
Argonus and the Gods of Stone
Readers’ Choice: Whispers of a Machine
While a traditional point-and-click adventure in most respects, the strength of Whispers of a Machine’s gameplay lies in its protagonist’s inventive nanotech abilities. Vera Englund, though fully human, has also undergone augmentations that let her scan for physical and biological evidence, monitor witnesses’ heartrates and identify lies, and enable her with near-superhuman brawn. Players must figure out how to use these skills most effectively, and as the story progresses there are even more powers to acquire that vary according to previous dialogue choices, allowing for differences in puzzle solutions during replays. Cagey use of inventory, interpreting code-like messages, and knowing the precise time to take certain actions add even more variety to the investigation, making for a very well-rounded (and now reader award-winning) adventure experience.
Runners-Up:
Gibbous: A Cthulhu Adventure
Disco Elysium
Eastshade
Tangle Tower
Next up: Best Concept... the envelope, please!
Best Concept: Disco Elysium
Your memory is lost to a miasma of drugs and alcohol. Your necktie talks to you. You say questionable things to everyone around you. Despite it all, you have a job to do. ZA/UM’s Disco Elysium is an investigative murder mystery so thoroughly wrapped in RPG trappings that you’d swear it WAS one. Start playing, however, and you’ll see that it straddles the fine line between adventure and role-playing more seamlessly than perhaps any game before it. Interview people, fill your inventory with evidence, check off tasks in your journal, distribute points across a handful of stats and skills, and along the way make the choices that define you both as a person and an officer of the law. Since there's no combat, just relax and let this text-heavy mystery penetrate your brain with heady ideas affecting wide-ranging emotions from sorrow to humorous relief. Rather than half-adventure, half-RPG, Disco Elysium feels like 100% both, and for that it easily cops our award for Best Concept.
Runners-Up:
Outer Wilds
Heaven’s Vault
DARQ
Lost Ember
Readers’ Choice: Disco Elysium
Last year, Call of Cthulhu and The Council shared our Best Concept award for cleverly integrating role-playing elements into a non-combat adventure experience. This year, Disco Elysium says to those pioneers: “Hold my beer.” Unlike previous RPG/adventure hybrids like Quest for Glory, there is no fighting to worry about (unless you want to get tough), no grinding to be done to build up your character’s abilities. Instead, stat-building, personality traits, skill trees, character customization and more are all weaved into a compelling detective mystery within a rich open world to approach as you see fit. Everything you say and do matters – the choices are wide open and totally yours to decide. For blending the two genres together so brilliantly as to be unable to tell them apart, ZA/UM’s utterly unique debut offering is a unanimous Aggie choice for 2019.
Runners-Up:
Whispers of a Machine
Heaven’s Vault
Hypnospace Outlaw
Outer Wilds
Next up: Best Setting... the envelope, please!
Best Setting: Eastshade
Some game locales are great places to visit but you sure wouldn’t want to live there. Not so with Eastshade, a gorgeously fantastical world of craggy cliffs, mystical caverns, flower-strewn meadows, and rustic cottages that you’ll love spending time in just basking in all the natural beauty. Fittingly, you are here to paint the domed towers and picturesque landscapes, but you will also use your skills as a craftsman and problem-solver while aiding the appealingly anthropomorphic creatures. Wherever you go, take time and soak in the scenery. Admire the snow-covered mountains and glaciers as you carefully navigate icy seas, tromp through terraced gardens, discover an ancient species in hidden caves, catch a thief at a remote island inn, and unite a family across reedy beaches and quaint harbors. And when daylight fades, be sure to watch the stars come out from a stone-molded lookout as night steals softly across resplendent woodlands. For so completely immersing us in its jaw-dropping land of artistry and style, Eastshade takes home the Best Setting Aggie for 2019.
Runners-Up:
Draugen
Detective Di: The Silk Rose Murders
Close to the Sun
The Sinking City
Sea of Solitude
Readers’ Choice: Gibbous: A Cthulhu Adventure
It’s not every day you get to visit Transylvania, but it’s one of several destinations that provide a perfectly fitting backdrop to the unsettling goings-on in Gibbous: A Cthulhu Adventure. From a rundown dock with its rusty boat and threatening purple clouds, to the repugnant plaza of the fish-people, to a looming castle perched high atop its mountain peak, these are places even the sun doesn’t seem to want to shine. But where better to take the fabled Necronomicon to reverse an ancient curse, with weird cults and monsters breathing down your neck? There were plenty of great settings to choose from, but the striking environments of Stuck In Attic’s comic cosmic horror stood slightly above the rest to claim another reader award.
Runners-Up:
Whispers of a Machine
Detective Di: The Silk Rose Murders
Eastshade
Disco Elysium
Next up: Best Graphic Design... the envelope, please!
Best Graphic Design: Trüberbrook
Trüberbrook opens with you pulling up to an abandoned gas station in the dead of night. A purple neon sign flickers idly, welcoming no one in particular as fireflies float dozily through the air. Above this refuge of quiet nothing, the inky darkness of the sky stretches on, peppered with a staggering multitude of stars. This is just the first of many incredibly detailed vistas to admire when you arrive in the titular German mountain village, from postcard lakesides to blizzard-flecked weather stations to stunning treehouse sunsets, all of which bring out the best in btf’s painstaking efforts to blend CG with real sets. Every bit of backdrop here has been hand-built from scratch as a miniature scale model, then captured with a 3D scanner and only then blended with the game’s animated characters. In this day and age where everything seems to be digital, there’s still something awe-inspiring about real settings brought to life, and for doing it so effectively, Trüberbrook takes home our award for best graphics.
Runners-Up:
Eastshade
The Wanderer: Frankenstein’s Creature
Draugen
Hypnospace Outlaw
Readers’ Choice: Gibbous: A Cthulhu Adventure
A great setting doesn’t have to look jaw-droppingly gorgeous to be impressive, but it sure doesn’t hurt. We (and clearly you) fell in love with Gibbous from our first look at its stunning hand-painted artwork in which there’s no such thing as a straight line or right angle. Each backdrop is heavily, beautifully stylized yet incredibly detailed, and the diverse cast of characters is delightfully designed, like the square-jawed, squint-eyed, chin-dimpled protagonist Don R. Ketype, who walks around all game in his trench coat, pointy fedora and shoeless socks. It’s an interactive cartoon with the artistry of Disney and the whimsy of Looney Tunes, but surprisingly dressed up in the deep hues of a dark Lovecraftian tale. Well done, Stuck In Attic.
Runners-Up:
Disco Elysium
Hypnospace Outlaw
Jenny LeClue – Detectivú
Eastshade
Next up: Best Animation... the envelope, please!
Best Animation: Gibbous: A Cthulhu Adventure
How many times have we directed a game protagonist to use an item but all we see is some fade-to-black or generic hand gesture to simulate activity? It’s common for adventures to skimp on costly and time-consuming animations, particularly from smaller indie studios, but Stuck In Attic’s Gibbous: A Cthulhu Adventure flips that notion on its head. The 2D visual style is superb on its own, packed with personality and colour, but what really elevates the appealing presentation is its abundant animation, including delightfully expressive motions from its eclectic cast of characters that really sell the humour, such as private eye Don R. Ketype fruitlessly leaping to clasp a flag or the feline Kitteh showing ninja-like prowess in retrieving out-of-reach items. There are wonderful smaller details too, like when characters lean against furniture while talking or when a tavern patron narcissistically slicks his hair back. This is further perfected in the cutscenes sprinkled throughout, which are as expressive and stylish as any TV cartoon. For that we are pleased to award this Aggie to Gibbous… and do so very animatedly!
Runners-Up:
The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan
Blacksad: Under the Skin
Blair Witch
The Walking Dead: The Final Season
Readers’ Choice: Gibbous: A Cthulhu Adventure
Looking good in a screenshot is one thing, but looking good in action is the bigger challenge for an adventure game, and one that Gibbous manages to handle with aplomb. The wonderful cartoon aesthetic depends on lively animations to bring it to life, and clearly Stuck In Attic made it a labour of love to achieve just that. From wonderful facial expressions and poses and gestures, to strangely zombie-like passersby wandering the streets, to rewarding interactions from the protagonists, there are no shortcuts taken here. Then sprinkle in a few charming cinematics – we dare you NOT to laugh out loud as Kitteh continually bounds into view as the two protagonists race head-first toward the camera – and you’ve got the makings of a unanimous selection between staff and readers for Best Animation.
Runners-Up:
Irony Curtain: From Matryoshka with Love
Trüberbrook
Whispers of a Machine
Life Is Strange 2
Next up: Best Music... the envelope, please!
Best Music: Blacksad: Under the Skin
Pendulo Studios and YS Interactive’s Blacksad: Under The Skin is one of those rare genre games that understands its subject matter's musical conventions and not only delivers, but goes above and beyond expectation. Juan Miguel Martin's jazz paints the scene beautifully and encompasses a wide range of expressions, from moody and suspenseful ("Before the Storm") to energetic ("The Daily Cut") to smooth and atmospheric ("Private Eye"). Martin uses his score judiciously and with a hand that is extremely attuned to the long and storied relationship between jazz and film noir. Likewise, Inon Zur's opening theme is a perfect encapsulation of orchestral noir: freely and unashamedly using frantic, swelling strings, block chords that fall like the blade of a guillotine, and a wailing chanteuse who seems to suffer from such overwhelming apprehension that she is bereft of words and reduced only to raw, husky vocalizations. Despite the many strong challengers, there isn’t a soundtrack more deserving of our Best Music Aggie than this.
Runners-Up:
Hypnospace Outlaw
Mage’s Initiation: Reign of the Elements
Mutazione
The 13th Doll – A Fan Game of The 7th Guest
Readers’ Choice: Gibbous: A Cthulhu Adventure
Not just a pretty face, Gibbous sounds as good as it looks (at least, aside from Kitteh’s cringe-inducing solo vocals). Composed by Cami Cuibus and Liviu Boar, the music offers a surprising range of rich instrumentals from subtle to playful to eerily ominous depending on the circumstance, sometimes even changing abruptly when appropriate. Although completely original, the soundtrack’s inspirations can be felt throughout. At separate times you’ll feel like you’re in a Vincent Price or Humphrey Bogart film, while elsewhere there’s a vaguely Danny Elfman-like vibe. The developer’s Eastern European origins are also keenly felt, and for bringing together such an eclectic mix of tracks, Stuck In Attic scores another reader Aggie.
Runners-Up:
Whispers of a Machine
Disco Elysium
Life Is Strange 2
Hypnospace Outlaw
Next up: Best Acting (Voice or Live Action)... the envelope, please!
Best Acting (Voice or Live Action): Telling Lies
Many a box office bomb has shown us that the mere presence of Hollywood talent is no guarantee of quality. But the right actors in the right roles sure goes a long way, as was clearly on display in the FMV political thriller Telling Lies. Headlined by Logan Marshall-Green, Alexandra Shipp, Kerry Bishé and Angela Sarafyan, whose collective credits include the likes of Spider-Man: Homecoming, Dark Phoenix, Argo and Westworld, the follow-up to Sam Barlow’s Her Story featured an outstanding roster perfectly suited to their characters. Supported by an excellent script, each performer manages to command attention even during the many video clips without a scene partner, carrying out their half of a video chat conversation directly into a camera. Able to believably emote in response to their unseen counterparts and consistently delivering poignant scenes that range from singing a lullaby to a child, to threatening blackmail, to recounting traumatic stories from the past, the cast of Telling Lies was an easy pick for Best Acting Osc… err, Aggie this year.
Runners-Up:
Life Is Strange 2
The Walking Dead: The Final Season
The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan
Whispers of a Machine
Readers’ Choice: Whispers of a Machine
Voice-overs are a much different animal than live performances. In Whispers of a Machine, Ivy Dupler gives a remarkable portrayal of Vera Englund, the futuristic homicide detective enhanced with nanotech abilities far beyond her human capacities. Player choices make Vera’s approach either analytical, empathetic, or assertive, and her tone changes adroitly from detached to sensitive to forceful, making each aspect of her personality believable. Other cast members add their reactions, passions, and quirks to the impressive vocal mix as well, from the Recycler Guy traumatized by an organically processed corpse, to Valter the squeaky geek ventriloquist, to the coroner caustically spouting morbid wisecracks. For our readers it’s an Aggie award-winning performance all around. Take that, Hollywood!
Runners-Up:
Gibbous: A Cthulhu Adventure
Life Is Strange 2
Tangle Tower
Draugen
Next up: Best Sound Effects... the envelope, please!
Best Sound Effects: Lorelai
Sound can make or break a horror story. In Lorelai, Rem Michalski’s traumatic coming-of-age story, it’s not only what you see that propels you through the eponymous protagonist’s nightmare life, but what you hear that will sometimes halt you in terror, afraid to find out what might be crunching right around the corner. Even in the quieter moments, ambient noises add a sinister element. As Lorelai stares at her reflection in the mirror, a clock ticks so loudly in the background that it’s almost like a bomb waiting to explode, reminding you that time is passing and that you must keep moving. Don’t let the banal tones of a leaking faucet plip-plopping lull you into a false sense of security, though, as horrifying effects like pigs squealing madly as they chase after you or the awful wet thunk of a severed head falling to the ground are never far away. For its rich and layered soundscape, interspersing the mundane with the terrible between brief moments of deceptive calm, Lorelai claims the Aggie for Best Sound Effects to the roar of applause.
Runners-Up:
The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan
The House of Da Vinci 2
Blair Witch
A Short Hike
Readers’ Choice: Whispers of a Machine
As is often the case, the real winner here is “no answer,” not because no games had quality sound design, but because we tend to take ambient audio for granted unless alerted to its presence (usually for the wrong reasons). But crank up the effects volume in Whispers of a Machine and you’ll realize just how well its assortment of noises echoes its dystopian contrasts. Some are familiar: voices murmuring and dishes clinking in the canteen, the burble of coffee being poured, the click of a cassette tape pushed into place, and a steel-strung banner creaking in the wind. But then there’s the swoosh of a hovercraft, the grinding pulse of a laser, the buzz of household robots, and the rumble of a drone. There’s even an innovative puzzle that features a background din from which noises must be eliminated to reveal an essential clue. For deftly combining the two seemingly disparate elements into one convincing whole, Clifftop and Faravid take home another Aggie statuette from our readers.
Runners-Up:
Gibbous: A Cthulhu Adventure
Hypnospace Outlaw
Blair Witch
Outer Wilds
Next up: The Silver Aggies... the envelope, please!
The Silver Aggies
Every year there are some excellent games that fall just a little short of reaching the podium for various awards, either finishing as a runner-up or barely missing the finals entirely. With so many awesome titles to choose from, it’s easy for these near-misses to fall through the cracks, and that would be a shame. So while our Silver Aggies may not have precisely the same lustre as our golden statuettes, these bonus categories are another chance to hand out some much-deserved hardware – impressive new releases, all, that are no less worthy of any adventure gamer’s attention.
Best VR Adventure: Ghost Giant
Edging out Groundhog Day: Like Father Like Son as our top VR adventure of the year, Zoink’s charming Ghost Giant not only provides a musical dollhouse world of imaginative beauty to explore, it also has the courage to tackle serious themes like depression and mental illness tastefully without taking away from the childlike playfulness of the gameplay experience itself. Players control the titular massive spectre by manipulating the environment directly, but the only one who can see you is a feline boy named Louis. As you begin to earn his trust, your young companion grows to be more than just a sidekick but a true friend you’ll want to help and protect on his journey, giving the game a heartwarming Pixar feel that is sure to stick with you long after you’re done.
Best Defection: Irony Curtain: From Matryoshka with Love
Before 2019, Artifex Mundi was best known for its prolific catalogue of hidden object casual titles. But with Irony Curtain: From Matryoshka with Love, the Polish developer crossed over into full-fledged adventure territory, and did so in style. Set in 1951, this satirical romp is a classic point-and-click triumph. The protagonist is a young American named Evan who slips from starry-eyed beliefs to jolting doses of reality when he visits the eponymous communist party-controlled country. An irreverent story arc is brought to life by vivid cartoon-like graphics, impressive ambient animation, and tongue-in-cheek situations. Excellent voice-over work and Slavic music create a sometimes surprising, but always entertaining soundscape. Crazy fetch quests, Bronx-cheer-inducing item combinations, and hit-or-miss “official” procedures highlight an engaging gameplay experience achieved via layers of red tape, and watching Evan’s gradual grasp of the obvious (as well as a few well-hidden) truths is amusing and wildly endearing. Who knew life in a tyrannical dictatorship could really be this much fun!
Most Original Adaptation: Elsinore
“Though this be madness, yet there is method in’t.” When you first begin Elsinore, you’ll think you know what it is: a simulation of Hamlet shown from the point of view of one of its lesser characters, Ophelia. By the fifth time you restart Elsinore, it becomes apparent that much more is going on here than the Bard intended – and by the fiftieth time, you just might have a handle on what this game is truly about. Named after the royal Danish castle around which it’s set, this is a clever reimagining that detonates a time bomb underneath Shakespeare’s famous play and tasks you with picking up and making sense of the scattered pieces. With a time-looping structure, a woman of color protagonist, unexpected plot twists, and a huge amount of story to uncover, indie developer Golden Glitch Studios takes Elsinore well beyond its source material to secure a Silver Aggie for 2019’s most original adaptation.
Not to be Lost in Translation: Heaven's Vault
The “Guitar Hero of languages” is how one developer from inkle described Heaven’s Vault, and while you aren’t hastily trying to crack translations in front of a baying audience, the comparison definitely rings true. Playing as feisty archaeologist Aliya Elasra, you’re joined by your robotic companion Six in a hunt across an alternate universe called the Nebula for a roboticist who’s gone missing under very suspicious circumstances. Your interplanetary adventures take you to cluttered markets, arid deserts, gleaming paddy fields and the ruins of temples with questionable ancient traditions. The dialogue is beautifully written and the diverse landscapes equally lovely to explore, but to delve deeper into the fascinating lore you have to learn to translate the pictorial glyphs left scattered on the trinkets and pages you discover in your travels. The game features a vocabulary entirely made-up from scratch that must be decoded using guesswork and similarities to other previously translated words to figure it all out, creating a wonderful pursuit of that “rockstar” feeling of nailing the correct translation that's every bit as satisfying as perfecting the most difficult guitar riff.
Not to be Lost in the Shuffle: Pilgrims
Amanita Design surprised us out of the blue with Pilgrims, a slightly different style of game than the likes of Machinarium and CHUCHEL, and yet the acclaimed Czech studio’s telltale trademarks are all here. Slapstick humour? Check. Funny gibberish for dialogue? Yep. Surreal music and beautiful hand-drawn graphics? Definitely. Better yet, this romp through a dark fairy tale kingdom of beasts and princesses is packed full of inventive twists. Similar to the minigame introduced in Samorost 3, gameplay sees you building a card deck of objects and characters as your inventory to combine and use with scenes around you as your creative mind sees fit. Naturally, flinging the devil character card at a priest has interesting consequences, but what would happen if you’d used the beer card to get our crusty cleric a little bit tipsy first? It's a short game but there's loads of replay value here, with 45 achievements to unlock as you traverse the ever-expanding map, dancing with bears and cooking up magic mushrooms as you go along. And as with the best of Amanita’s games, there is plenty of reason to get things wrong in the most spectacular and hilarious ways possible.
Most Intelligent Adventure: Observation
Don’t mistake No Code’s sci-fi adventure for just another lone-astronaut-in-a-derelict-space-station tale. Observation takes the unique approach of making players not the human survivor, but the AI unit named SAM (System Administration and Maintenance) who must get its charge to safety amidst a series of escalating crises along the way. Sharing an increasingly close relationship with your human companion, you will make use of inventive gameplay techniques to succeed, connecting to various laptops, cameras, diagnostic equipment and more, eventually even becoming mobile as you navigate zero gravity environments within your Low Orbital Space Station. Presented through top-notch graphics and voice acting, the plot begins innocently enough but soon becomes quite sinister, raising questions about your own involvement in the disaster that’s transpired. An intelligent adventure indeed – an artificially intelligent one!
Best Head-Scratchers: Myha: Return to the Lost Island, The Sojourn
Myst fans lament the dearth of puzzle-centric experiences in these times of ever-easier adventures, making Simon Mesnard’s Myha: Return to the Lost Island such a welcome breath of fresh air for puzzle lovers. Originally a small freeware game jam submission before being radically overhauled for commercial re-release, Myha’s locales are enticing, idiosyncratic, and strewn with puzzle clues. It’s a paradise for those who love multi-stepped conundrums. The surroundings can be distracting, so you’ll need to gaze past their surface beauty for crucial details overlooked, whether jigsaw-like symbols in an outdoor classroom or mechanical birds emitting musical notes. Keep searching to find carvings, torn pages, or drawings in drawers, and fiddle with any laptop computers, control panels, levers, and colorful spheres you encounter. And what to make of the stranded rocket ship, a mysterious tower, and secret hidden passages? For the careful observer, answers will gradually start to emerge, but it won’t be easy. This is a great game, but only for those who relish the fun and frustration (funstration?) of a significant challenge.
With over sixty 3D levels of navigation-based obstacles to overcome, Shifting Tides’ The Sojourn provides plenty of brain-straining enjoyment as well. Utilizing teleporting totems, bridge-building harps, and ancient archways to travel back and forth between a shadowy alternate dimension, among other key gameplay elements, players must wend their way through a plethora of increasingly tricky environments to progress past massive cathedral towers, rocky paths and flowing waterfalls, lush foliage, snow-covered peaks and a dark sandy desert. These challenges provide a deep sense of satisfaction when they finally yield to clear thinking and a bit of experimentation. Wrap all this up in a stylish presentation of impressive sights and sounds, then throw in even more difficult bonus “golden scroll” objectives to boot, and you’ve got one splendid puzzler on your hands.
Best Animal Adventures: Frog Detective 2: The Case of the Invisible Wizard, A Short Hike
Sometimes people suck, and what this world needs to brighten it is a little frog with a magnifying glass trying to talk some sense into a rhino named Mary who’s singing at 3am. Frog Detective 2 expands on its predecessor’s deadpan wit and charm with an even wider cast of weird characters to interrogate. Playing as the titular amphibian P.I., this time you’re faced with the important matter of finding out who trashed the parade decorations for Warlock Woods’ newest guest. Once again you must speak to a veritable zoo’s worth of anthropomorphic animals to find out what’s really gone on – even an eye-patch-wearing lion called Ralph – but now you get a snazzy notebook to record your findings, which you can jazz up with stickers of smiling eggs and whatnot. It’s a short game but a delightful little ray of silly sunshine that developer Grace Bruxner has filled with warmth and hilarity.
When not on the job, it’s always nice to get out for A Short Hike. It’s easy to fall in love with the beautiful landscapes and cute animal visitors in indie developer Adam Robinson-Yu’s mountain getaway adventure. Playing as a young bird with limited abilities at first, in no time at all you’ll find yourself high up in the sky over Hawk Peak Provincial Park, soaring past forests and waterfalls and sandy beaches. Exploring the lush outdoors is the focus of the experience, inviting players to freely run, climb, swim or glide while indulging in light-hearted conversations with quirky strangers, a variety of treasure hunts, and even some friendly athletic competitions if you’re up to the challenge. Like any great vacation, it’s over all too soon, but while it lasts this game perfectly captures the essence of adventure and wonder that is not to be missed.
Creepiest Adventures: The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan, Moons of Madness
Supermassive Games is no stranger to the horror genre, first rising to prominence with 2015’s Until Dawn. The debut installment of their Dark Pictures Anthology hits many of the same notes, and unlike its predecessors, thankfully Man of Medan is not a PS4 exclusive. To make the terror work, the developers chose a truly frightening setting: a derelict World War II freighter stranded at sea. A rusted-out ghost ship is more than a little eerie, with distant disembodied sounds echoing through the deathly silence, and that’s before the nightmare creatures and haunting visions show up. The survival of all five young protagonists throughout the night is completely dependent on your choices and quick thinking, and for anyone willing to brave the experience, it’s sure to be a white-knuckle thrill ride.
A little farther from home, the developers at Rock Pocket Games decided to dive into the Cthulhu mythos for their eldritch-themed space horror adventure, committing themselves to delivering a fright fest worthy of its Lovecraftian influence. Relying less on jump scares or overt danger, Moons of Madness opts to present an ever-increasing atmosphere of tension and dread, at times even styling itself in the famed author’s literary voice, creating more than just the usual tenuous connections to his acclaimed body of work. For an intense walk along the razor’s edge of sanity, with its own unique set pieces and a Mars setting far removed from the typical Lovecraft yarn, this is a must-play for anyone interested in slow-burn science fiction terror.
Best Whodunits: Detective Di: The Silk Rose Murders, Tangle Tower
Solving crimes is a staple of adventure games, but usually it adheres to familiar Western influences. Not so for Nupixo Games’ Detective Di: The Silk Rose Murders, with its decidedly Eastern setting during the reign of China’s first and only female empress in AD 684. Based loosely on the real-world Chinese law officer Di Renjie, this is a mystery that ventures into seldom-explored locales and customs to tell a tale of a grisly serial killer, all against the backdrop of escalating political turmoil. With a wide range of tasks to perform – including scouring crime scenes, interviewing an array of interesting suspects, solving actual riddles, and cracking crimes on deduction boards – and simple but distinctive audio and visuals, Detective Di provides a wonderful breath of fresh air for armchair detectives everywhere.
Back in the West, detectives in adventure games almost seem to be superheroes at times, able to deduce your entire life just from some crumbs on your coat. That makes it even more refreshing that the ever-amusing Detective Grimoire and Sally, stars of SFB Games’ beautifully designed Tangle Tower, are just regular folk confronted by a most irregular murder. The pair are called to solve a crime in which it seems a painting is the culprit, a bizarre premise but the perfect opening for a game that sees players uncovering mysteries about two weird and wonderful rival families who all live in the same secluded island mansion. Of course you’ll get to question suspects, uncover clues, and piece together evidence to try to determine who (or what!) the killer is, solving a variety of puzzles along the way. Good luck cracking it before the reveal, though. It’s everything you’d want from a whodunit, with superb visuals and voice acting as the cherry on top. So if you’re up for some laughs and a fun bit of offbeat investigating, grab that magnifying glass and head on over to Tangle Tower.
Best Retro-Styled Adventures: Feria d'Arles, Mage's Initiation: Reign of the Elements
Like its diminutive protagonist, Feria d'Arles packs an incredible amount of wit, charm, and personality into a deceptively small package. Gorgeous pixel art, laugh-out-loud dialogue and a lively soundtrack combine to create an experience more than worthy of comparison to the classics of yesteryear. You won't spend more than an hour or two helping its young protagonist Molly to become France's greatest matador, but every moment in her company is a joy, full of cleverness, colour and character. (And animal lovers can rest easy knowing no bulls are ever harmed.) Games like Feria d'Arles are proof positive that sometimes they do still make 'em like they used to, and do it just as well.
Another prime demonstration that the genre's nostalgic present is easily as enjoyable as its venerated past is Mage’s Initiation: Reign of the Elements. Almost a full decade in the making, Himalaya Studios’ second commercial endeavour proved to be worth every bit of the wait as one of the best retro-style experiences of 2019. With a healthy amount of both the childlike sincerity of the King’s Quest fantasy adventure series and the dangerous combat and stat-building RPG elements of Quest for Glory, along with beautiful background pixel art, excellent writing, superb music and wonderful voice acting throughout its rather substantial play time, this game is both a love letter to the Golden Age of Sierra On-Line games and a modern day hybrid gem in its own right.
Best Kept Secrets: Smile for Me, Sumatra: Fate of Yandi
If you’re going to call your game Smile for Me, you better make sure you deliver a feel-good experience, and LimboLane’s debut adventure does just that. The game will captivate you from the start with a surreal art style that blends together flat paper-like characters, realistic props and 3D environments. But it becomes even more engaging the further you proceed thanks to its cutesy yet sinister world, charming ensemble of misfit characters, and intriguing mix of both old and new gameplay elements. Providing a welcome twist on the familiar point-and-click formula is the “Nod-n-Shake” dialogue feature for its mute protagonist, in which you answer simple questions by physically moving your mouse in a “yes” or “no” motion. All in all, this very bizarre, almost psychedelic adventure about making friends and helping people accept who they really are will surely put a grin on your face and is well worth playing.
Looking like an ‘80s Sierra adventure but blissfully lacking the unexpected risk of death or dead ends, Sumatra: Fate of Yandi by Cloak and Dagger Games provides an entertaining glimpse into the titular tropical rainforest from the point of view of a simple logger just looking to get by. When business interests and industrial espionage intervene, Yandi is stranded in the wilds of the jungle and forced to use only his wits to survive if he’s to return to civilization and his loved ones again. Along with its nostalgic retro look and feel, the game’s greatest strengths are its strong characterizations and intriguing story, touching on themes of family, environmentalism, corruption, and more, giving it a surprising narrative weight that is seldom seen. It’s a jungle out there, but one you'll want to delve deeply into for a fantastic adventure experience.
Best of the Rest: Argonus and the Gods of Stone, Draugen
In the name of the mighty Zeus, the just Athena, and the industrious Hephaestus, hearken to our plea to honour Argonus, a simple mapmaker pressed into service by the gods to free the petrified souls of an island’s inhabitants. In Argonus and the Gods of Stone, your encounters with various towering deities of Greek mythology are truly impressive, but the journey before you is a daunting one. Weaving together various elements of legend into an original story and pairing them with Ray Harryhausen-esque slick 3D visual design, Zojoi’s real-time first-person adventure is a wonderful trip into a world of magic and monsters. Its award may not be fleece-coloured gold, but the Aggies simply wouldn’t be complete without extolling its many virtues.
Ragnar Tørnquist and Red Thread Games may be better known for their sci-fi fantasy epic Dreamfall Chapters, but in Draugen they turned their sights to something a little more intimate. It’s 1923 and Edward Harden and his chatty young ward Lissie have traveled to an isolated fishing village in Norway in search of Edward’s sister. It quickly becomes apparent that something’s not right, however, as the town of Graavik appears to be entirely deserted. The pair naturally begin to investigate, giving players the chance to soak in the eye-popping vistas of this lovely coastal region, and eventually you’ll unveil the dark secrets concealed in this seemingly idyllic place. And with ever-increasing hints of something supernatural creeping in around the edges, Draugen presents a mysterious, melancholy mystery bristling with questions right to the finish.
Fondest Farewell: The Walking Dead: The Final Season
It was never going to be an easy goodbye to Clementine, a character we first met scared in a treehouse and who has grown up through unimaginable horrors right before our eyes. But little did we expect that the fictional drama of the young star’s last outing would be echoed by the real-life crisis of developer Telltale Games being shut down midway through the season. Which makes it even more impressive that The Walking Dead: The Final Season is so good, filled with more punchy thrills and difficult choices after being brought back from the dead by Skybound Games. While there’s ample violence, this series was never about the zombies but rather the human characters and their relationships that made it soar. Here we’re treated to the wonderful dynamic of a motherly Clem and youthful AJ, perfectly mirroring the care that Lee gave all those years ago to his young charge when she was but a little girl. In its focus on the younger generation’s perseverance and determination to survive, there are the usual gut-wrenching moments, of course, but also hope along the way. This is a bittersweet ending, yet a journey we’re delighted to have taken.
Next up: Best Non-Traditional Adventure... the envelope, please!
Best Non-Traditional Adventure: Outer Wilds
Outer Wilds is only 22 minutes long, but it will likely take you 20 hours to complete it. Yes, if you know what you’re doing, you can complete the game in less time than it takes to heat up soup on the stove – in fact, the entire goal is to learn how to do so. Set in the small solar system of the folksy race of purple humanoids to which you belong, you’re tasked with setting off in your homemade spaceship to explore and map out your stellar neighbours. There’s just one pesky issue: 22 minutes after you wake, your sun goes supernova and destroys everything you’ve ever known. Luckily for you (and everyone else), you are resurrected back at the beginning of this severely limited time cycle with the memories of your previous journeys intact – again and again and again.
Thus your mission: to unearth as much of the mystery behind the star’s explosion as you can in your allotted time, exploring bizarre anomalies and accruing knowledge that will a) uncover whatever the heck is going on and b) clue you in as to how to fix it. Fortunately, this galaxy is filled with some of the most inventive and fascinating environments and mechanics ever seen in a game: a planet that crumbles, piece by piece, into a black hole at its core; another that siphons sand from its orbiting twin, radically altering the landscape over time; rocks that operate via quantum mechanics; and ancient alien ruins full of messages to translate. Outer Wilds is a tour de force of open world, non-linear design, packed with clever mechanics, awe-inspiring discoveries, and roasting marshmallows over campfires. You’ve never played anything like it, but now that the gaming world is paying attention, let’s hope this Aggie Award for Best Non-Traditional Adventure helps serve as inspiration to other developers going forward.
Runners-Up:
Disco Elysium
Hypnospace Outlaw
Moons of Madness
Mage’s Initiation: Reign of the Elements
Readers’ Choice: Disco Elysium
With the two traditional reader-award-hogging titans sitting this one out, it was left to Disco Elysium to capably fill the void. And for so many good reasons. This is a choice-laden open world game that encourages you to be a little weird with your amnesiac policeman's persona. Using your upgradeable skills to solve a sprawling murder mystery, no method of approach is off limits. Expect your fragmented subconscious to chime in with advice, sometimes arguing with itself over your next course of action. With genuine role-playing front and center, you can mold yourself into a boastful Superstar Cop, or perhaps a Sorry Cop who apologizes for everything (even if it's not your fault), or maybe even an Apocalypse Cop who prattles unhinged about the impending end of all things. This dense isometric world is positively bursting with memorable characters and exquisite writing so you’ll need to love reading, but for those who do, Disco Elysium is an eccentric, stimulating experience that stands as a new benchmark for player-directed storytelling in video games.
Runners-Up:
Hypnospace Outlaw
Heaven’s Vault
Outer Wilds
Mage’s Initiation: Reign of the Elements
Next up: Best Traditional Adventure... the envelope, please!
Best Traditional Adventure: Whispers of a Machine
For a game that is able to consistently impress across the board, look no further than Whispers of a Machine. We had to check twice to make sure this wasn’t a new Wadjet Eye title, but no, this is a joint tech-noir design effort between Clifftop Games (Kathy Rain) and Faravid Interactive (The Samaritan Paradox) that shares many of the same admirable qualities. Offering up a well-written murder mystery set in a spellbinding future world that’s been to the brink of the machine apocalypse and back, the story is able to deliver a host of intriguing conflicts revolving around the thin line separating the natural and artificial, all completely ancillary to the main narrative.
Not to be outdone, the gameplay sets itself apart by innovating upon the conventional point-and-click formula while still retaining the tried and true mechanics we’ve come to know and love – no small feat. Through the use of nanotech augmentations, detective Vera Englund evolves over the course of the adventure, unlocking previously dormant abilities that aid her in the investigation. These enhancements are significant, as the acquired powers depend on various player choices and can be different on repeat playthroughs, requiring new approaches to puzzles and even opening or closing off specific options entirely. Great voicework, an effective score, and polished pixel visuals round out a highly commendable package that deserves to be experienced by any adventure fan, and one we’re happy to award the title of Best Traditional Adventure of 2019.
Runners-Up:
Jenny LeClue – Detectivú
Eastshade
Life Is Strange 2
Detective Di: The Silk Rose Murders
Sumatra: Fate of Yandi
Readers’ Choice: Whispers of a Machine
In one of the closest votes in Aggie history, AG readers join us in crowning Whispers of a Machine the top traditional adventure of last year. And that's because it does just about everything right that you’d want in a point-and-click thriller. It presents a unique world recovering from near annihilation, and features a memorable protagonist adjusting to potent alterations to her mind and body. A series of seemingly random murders test Vera Englund’s newfound powers of examination and deduction, taking players deep into complex secrets, producing creative conundrums like museum exhibit manipulation and a jigsaw puzzle using tattooed skin. Snippets of backstory provide compelling context as superbly written and voiced dialogues flesh out the whims and motives of the maverick victims and villains. We could go on, but at this point do we really have to?
Runners-Up:
Gibbous: A Cthulhu Adventure
Sumatra: Fate of Yandi
Detective Di: The Silk Rose Murders
Irony Curtain: From Matryoshka with Love
Next up: The moment of truth… Best Adventure of 2019... the envelope, please!
Best Adventure of 2019: Outer Wilds
Some games follow well-trodden paths, while others branch out to varying degrees. But very rarely does one allow players to forge their own course as flexibly as Mobius Digital’s Outer Wilds. Placing you in the role of a Hearthian astronaut, you have a whole star system available to explore in your rickety, makeshift steampunk-esque ship. Traveling between planets, moons, space stations and comets, you must piece together the mystery of how to save it all…in only 22 real-time minutes. It’s space exploration meets Groundhog Day, as after the allotted time the sun goes supernova and you are dropped back on your home planet for another attempt. And another, and another…
Exploration and discovery are at the heart of the experience as you interpret clues left by an ancient alien race in a desperate dash to protect your people, all the while dodging the dangers of space travel like supersized alien angler fish, sandstorms, oxygen depletion, and even just falling from great heights. With high production values, a compelling time-loop concept with incredible freedom to explore what you want and when, along with dynamically changing worlds beyond what’s been seen in adventures before, it’s really no wonder Outer Wilds managed to leave even the toughest of competitors behind to claim the year's top Aggie Award as Best Adventure of 2019.
Runners-Up:
Whispers of a Machine
Disco Elysium
Hypnospace Outlaw
Jenny LeClue – Detectivú
Readers’ Choice: Whispers of a Machine
In what ultimately became a two-horse race, the award for top adventure among our readers not only came right down to the wire, it was practically a photo finish, with Whispers of a Machine barely edging out Gibbous: A Cthulhu Adventure. That tends to happen when you nab Best Story, Dramatic Writing, Gameplay, Acting and Sound Effects Aggies along the way. When the worst criticism that can be leveled against it is that its ending leaves you wanting MORE, you know you’ve got something special on your hands. And even that is addressed with its flexible puzzles and augmentations that allow for replaying the game and making different choices. The indie developer combo of Clifftop Games and Faravid Interactive hit the ground running with their debut solo adventures, but really found their stride in this collaborative follow-up, and we can’t wait to see what they come up with next.
Runners-Up:
Gibbous: A Cthulhu Adventure
Disco Elysium
Hypnospace Outlaw
Heaven’s Vault
And with that, the 2019 Aggie Awards presentation comes to a close. What a staggering number of new adventures to choose from, with such a wide and wonderful range of diversity, offering more than enough for everyone, regardless of tastes, abilities, and preferences.
Not every game could take home a coveted statuette, but we’d like to extend our sincere appreciation to ALL the developers who gave us so many great new gaming memories.
Thanks also to everyone who participated in our reader poll, and to our Patreon backers for their invaluable support.
This year is already off to a ridiculous start for new releases, so we expect more of the same insanity next year. So get playing! See you all again in 2021.
Final Notes
To be eligible, a game must have been commercially released in English for the first time in the calendar year 2019.
Any series designed to be episodic in nature that was completed in 2019 is eligible, even if the series was begun earlier. Conversely, any series that was begun in 2019 but not yet completed is ineligible.
Ports and remakes of commercial games released in previous years are disqualified from contention, though updated re-releases of former freeware games are included.
Complete list of eligible games
Contributors to the writing of this article include: Will Aickman, Jack Allin, Nathaniel Berens, Laura Cress, Evan Dickens, Drummond Doroski, Richard Hoover, Joe Keeley, Kevin Lynn, Merlina McGovern, Maus Merryjest, Emily Morganti, Jason Smith, Pascal Tekaia, Cathlyn Vania and Becky Waxman
The Aggie Award was designed by Bill Tiller.
