It’s finally time: we are delighted to announce the winners of the inaugural Thinky Awards! We hope to showcase some of the very best thinky games from the past year, introducing new audiences to incredible games they may have missed, and giving die-hard thinky fans a chance to celebrate all the amazing thinky experiences we’ve had over the past year.

If you’re looking to play some of these games, you’re in luck: we’ve just kicked off the Thinky Awards Steam sale, featuring many of the nominees and winners (at least those available on Steam), running from February 27th to March 2nd. Go check out some of the amazing games you might have missed and find some awesome deals!

In case you missed it and would rather experience the gradual revealing of the winners and nerve-wracking anticipation, you can catch up on our announcement stream right here:

Otherwise, we have the full list of winners right here. We hope you find some amazing games to try out!

Game of the Year

Winner: Can of Wormholes

Push, slice, ingest, flip, and squish worms in this puzzle game in which you play as a little sentient tin can.

Community Choice: The Talos Principle 2

The Talos Principle 2 is a thought-provoking first-person puzzle experience that greatly expands on the first game’s philosophical themes and stunning environments with increasingly mind-bending challenges.

Runners-up:

Most Approachable Game

Winner: Storyteller

Storyteller is an award-winning puzzle game about building stories. Start with a title, settings and characters and create a story that fits the story’s description. Play with stories of love, intrigue, crime, monsters, betrayal, and more!

Runners-up:

Most Challenging Game

Winner: Can of Wormholes

Push, slice, ingest, flip, and squish worms in this puzzle game in which you play as a little sentient tin can.

Runners-up:

Best "Aha" Moment

Winner: Can of Wormholes

Push, slice, ingest, flip, and squish worms in this puzzle game in which you play as a little sentient tin can.

Runners-up:

Most Cursed Game

Winner: Void Stranger

Place your faith and embrace the Void.

Runners-up:

Most Innovative Game

Winner: Viewfinder

Challenge perception, redefine reality, and reshape the world around you with an instant camera. Viewfinder is a new single player game offering gamers hours of interesting and fun experiences while uncovering the mysteries left behind.

Runners-up:

Best Presentation

Winner: COCOON

From Jeppe Carlsen, the lead gameplay designer of LIMBO and INSIDE — COCOON takes you on an adventure across worlds within worlds. Master world-leaping mechanics and solve intricate puzzles to unravel a cosmic mystery.

Runners-up:

Best Free Game

Winner: N Step Steve: Part 2

The massive conclusion to the N Step Steve saga.

Runners-up:

Best DLC

Winner: Bonfire Peaks – Lost Memories

Get ready to fan those embers and rekindle the campfires in Bonfire Peaks: Lost Memories, a 3-part DLC for the critically beloved puzzle game.

Runners-up:

Most Anticipated Game

Winner: Isles of Sea and Sky

A fantastic, oceanic, open world puzzle adventure. Solve innovative block puzzles while unearthing a mystifying story, gaining new friends that change the puzzle landscape, and unlocking powers that provide more options for how you choose to progress through the enigmatic Isles of Sea and Sky.

Community Choice: World of Goo 2

Use living liquid creatures to build bridges, grow towers, terraform terrain, and fuel flying machines. The world is beautiful, dangerous, and evolving.

Runners-up:

Best Strategy Game

Winner: Shogun Showdown

Shogun Showdown is a turn-based combat game with rogue-like and deck-building elements. Position yourself and attack at the right time, upgrade your tiles and combo them to get ready to face the Shogun!

Runners-up:

Best Pen and Paper Puzzle

Winner: Abdec

Abdec is a forgotten textbook about the writing system of the weird and elusive “Abb” creatures. Their typography resembles devilishly difficult packing puzzles. Due to a fire accident that burnt important pages in the book – the last remaining Abdec book in the world, which was also scanned for this reissue – players need to figure out how the Abdec writing system works completely on their own.

Runners-up:

Best Journalist / Content Creator

Winner: Icely Puzzles

Hey, I do playthroughs of various puzzle content. Currently Baba Is You and other miscellaneous puzzle games alternate every day, and sometimes there are surprise double uploads.

Community Choice: Víctor Martínez

Video games critic at AnaitGames

Runners-up:

Our process and jurors

The Thinky Awards results were determined by a three stage process:

  1. Public nominations – members of the community and the wider public nominated games over a period of just over 2 weeks.
  2. Category curation – a small team curated the public nominations to determine the final nominees for each category, factoring in eligibility, the number of nominations, and whether the game was a strong fit for the category.
  3. Judging – a team of 33 jurors from across the thinky community voted on the games in each category in order to determine the winners.

To help us determine the winners for each category, we’ve brought together a jury of 33 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

Thank you so much for joining us for these awards! We’re so grateful to have the opportunity to share these games with you. We hope you found some amazing games to play.

Fingers crossed we’ll see you for the next one!