We’re delighted to announce the nominees for our inaugural Thinky Awards, shining a spotlight on many of the brilliant thinky games that were released over the past year.

Thank you so much to our everyone who submitted public nominations over the last few weeks. Our curation team have been crunching the numbers and taking a good look over all of your nominations in order to arrive at the nominees you see below. I don’t know about you, but looking at all these amazing games just blows my mind.

Our goal with these awards is not just to highlight the best of the best (as if some kind of objective best even truly exists!), but to elevate as many great games as we can in the hopes that more wonderful people find this space and start exploring deeper.

We’ve brought together a team of more than 30 jurors to vote on these categories over the next few weeks, and we plan to announce the results later in February. Click “notify me” on the below stream to be notified when we go live with the awards show! The date of the show is still subject to change, so you may also want to join our newsletter to make sure you don’t miss any updates.

And those of you who aren’t in the selected jury — don’t fret! We have opened three categories up for a community vote, so you can have your say say! Find out more below.

Have your say!

Of course, we don’t want to leave all of the voting fun to our jurors — you can have your say too! We’ve opened up three of our categories for community voting. Just submit your vote via the following forms:

Voting requires a Google account — apologies for any inconvenience this might cause!

These community vote forms will close at midnight UTC on Friday 2nd February. The winners will be announced alongside the rest of the categories later in February — to be notified about future announcements, please join our newsletter.

Full list of nominees

Game of the Year

The absolute best thinky games of the past year.

This category will be voted on by our team of jurors, but is also open for a Community Vote.

 
 

Most Approachable Game

Games that go out of their way to make thinky experiences approachable to a wider audience and help to bring new audiences to the genre.

This category will be voted on by our team of jurors.

 
 

Most Challenging Game

Games that offer a delightful challenge while still providing a great problem solving experience.

This category will be voted on by our team of jurors.

 
 

Best “Aha” Moment

The thinky games with the best individual “aha” moment, that sudden moment of insight or discovery when everything clicks.

This category will be voted on by our team of jurors.

 
 

Most C̵̮̈͐̀̍̚ú̵͙̳̾͌ͅr̴̢͇͔̳͓͖̆͒̀̇̈̓s̶̤̮̜̝̖͉̈́ȩ̴̬̯͔͐̔͆́d̶̪̫̺͍̺̟̋̏̀̈͘͘ ̸͙͚̫́̈́͂̿̇͘Game

Games that… go places. Subverting expectations, breaking boundaries, twisting their mechanics to an absurd degree.

This category will be voted on by our team of jurors.

 
 

Most Innovative Game

Games that best explored fascinating new directions in thinky design.

This category will be voted on by our team of jurors.

 
 

Best Presentation

Thinky games that had the best overall presentation, including art, sound, music, narrative, writing, and just the overall package.

This category will be voted on by our team of jurors.

 
 

Best Free Game

The best thinky games from the past year that can be played entirely for free.

This category will be voted on by our team of jurors.

 
 

Best DLC

The best DLCs or expansions for thinky games — anything that requires a base game to play.

This category will be voted on by our team of jurors.

 
 

Most Anticipated Game

The not-yet-released thinky games we’re all so excited to play!

This category will be voted on by our team of jurors, but is also open for a Community Vote.

 
 

Best Strategy Game

The best thinky games within the strategy genre, encouraging players to strategize through challenges, making carefully-reasoned decisions in the face of unknowns.

This category will be voted on by our team of jurors.

 
 

Best Pen and Paper Puzzle

The best stateless logic puzzles that you might play away from the screen!

This category will be voted on by our team of jurors.

 
 

Best Journalist / Content Creator

The wonderful journalists and content creators that have advocated for thinky games and introduced many more people to the genre.

This category will be voted on by our team of jurors, but is also open for a Community Vote.

Meet the jury

To help us determine the winners for each category, we’ve brought together a jury of more than 30 wonderful people from across the thinky community — puzzle designers, journalists, content creators, fans of thinky games, and more! Huge thanks to all of these folks for supporting the awards process.

Oh and of course, the few who are also up for nomination won’t be able to vote in the categories they’re nominated for!

Ambie Valdés
Andrea Gilbert
Puzzle designer (logic mazes)
Andy Robertson
Gaming Consultant, Family Gaming Database
authorblues
Twitch Streamer
Bart Bonte
Caroline Clark
Chris Schilling
Deputy Editor, EDGE
Daniel Bross
Tech Lead
Deusovi
Glen Henry
Project Director/Founder
GothicLordUK
YouTuber
Harry Damm
Audio & games freelancer
Hira
Thinky Games Staff Writer
Isi Cano
Elementary school teacher
Jason Marsh
Joel Fox
Puzzle Enthusiast
Joseph Mansfield
Thinky Games manager / developer / YouTuber
Jupiter Hadley
knexator
Time travel webgames
Laura E. Hall
Ludipe
Matt
Thinky Games Staff Writer
mauve
Game developer
MLGityaJ^A
Notan
Puzzle Designer
Patashu
Paula Moore
Admin and writer for LadiesGamers.com
Rachel Heleva
Business Development & Scouting Manager
Rachel Watts
Freelance Journalist
Ryan Kubik
Game Developer
Ryan T. Brown / @Toadsanime
Marketing Director + Head of Games @ Lost In Cult
Syrenne McNulty
Producer, Draknek and Friends
William David
Game Designer, traveling aboard the Swing Swing Submarine
Yvonne van Geloven
Owner and Admin at LadiesGamers.com

Wowza — genuinely such an amazing list of games. If anyone you know is looking for a place to start with thinky games, they could do much worse than playing through a bunch of these games.

Can’t wait to see those results!