2022 Games for Change Awards finalists revealed

Games for Change, the global advocate for the power of games as drivers of social impact, announced their award finalists for the 19th annual Games for Change Awards. The Games for Change Awards will be streamed at 7:00 PM EDT on July 15th, 2022 as part of the first-ever hybrid Games for Change Festival.

This year’s awards are the most competitive and global in the Festival’s history – with over 400 submissions across nine categories: Best Gameplay, Most Innovative, Most Significant Impact, Best Learning Game, Best Student Game, Best Civics Game, Best Health Game, Best Narrative Game, and Best XR for Change. You can see a full list of finalists below, which unsurprisingly includes a number of games available on Switch now, or heading to the platform soon.

Most Innovative:

• Before Your Eyes from GoodbyeWorld Games
• The Vale: Shadow of the Crown from Falling Squirrel
• Inua - A Story in Ice and Time from Iko - The Pixel Hunt ARTE France
• Unpacking from Witch Beam

Best XR for Change:

• The Choice from Joanne Popinska
• DIAGNOSIA from Mengtai Zhang and Lemon Guo
• Gravitational from Electric Monkeys
• Steps of Privilege from REM5 Studio

Best Civics Game:

• Svoboda 1945: Liberation from Charles Games
• VOXPOP from Gigantic Mechanic
• Dot’s Home from Weathered Sweater & Rise Home Stories Project
• MadeVR: Take me to the end of the Assembly Line from Singing Cicadas

Best Gameplay:

• Road 96 from DigixArt
• Before Your Eyes from GoodbyeWorld Games
• Midnight Protocol from LuGus Studio & Sixty Four
• Lost Recipes from Schell Games

Best Learning Game:

• Lingo Legend from Hyperthought Games Inc.
• Ava from Team Ava
• Culture Overlord from Lucas Vially
• Math Makers from Ululab

Most Significant Impact:

• Svoboda 1945: Liberation from Charles Games
• Blackhaven from Historiated Games
• Dot’s Home from Weathered Sweater and Rise Home Stories Project
• MadeVR: Take me to the end of the Assembly Line from Singing Cicadas

Best Health Game:

• Smileyscope MRI from Smilescope
• REThink Game from Babes-Bolyai University of Cluj-Napoca
• BeatNic Boulevard from skillsgapp

Best Narrative Game:

• Before Your Eyes from GoodbyeWorld Games
• Dot’s Home from Weathered Sweater and Rise Home Stories Project
• The Vale: Shadow of the Crown from Falling Squirrel
• UNSIGHTED from Studie Pixel Punk

Best Student Game:

• There You Are from Funky Dango
• P.A.N.I.K.O. from Bluv Studio
• The Social Engineer from Pascal Jansen & Fabian Fischbach (Zefwih)
• Project Anomaly: Urban Supernatural Investigator from Dark Science