The winners of the SXSW Sydney Games and Screen Awards 2025 have officially been announced, in a ceremony that rounded out a strong week of game talks, showcases, celebrations, and more. As in past editions, the awards included judge-voted winners, as well as a people’s choice award, based on a popular vote.
As noted by the SXSW Sydney team, each game nominated and awarded was ‘bold, brilliant, and boundary-pushing … showcasing the creativity and innovation shaping the future of play.’ The mix of games showcased included games developed by small, local teams within Australia, as well as larger international teams. At the SXSW Sydney Games Awards 2025, all were celebrated on an equal stage.
SXSW Sydney Games Awards 2025: Full list of winners
Mixtape from Beethoven & Dinosaur took out the Game of the Year award this year, for reasons that’ll be fairly clear to those who had the chance to dive in. This game is a brilliant, nostalgic coming of age story that uses music as a means to share emotion and memory, in ways that catch you entirely off-guard.
The International Winner for the year was Goodnight Universe, from Nice Dream. This game is all about a baby (played by Lewis Pullman of Thunderbolts* and Top Gun: Maverick) who discovers he has psychic powers, which eventually lead him into all sorts of danger.
The Discovery Award Winner was Letters to Aralla by Little Pink Clouds, a delightful adventure starring little vegetable people who live on an island inspired by the Australian coast. In this game, your job is to deliver mail to each of these people, while also discovering your own sense of purpose and place.
From the ScreenHub review: ‘While cute and cosy in nature, it’s not only about living and breathing in a town inspired by Australia – it’s about how you can change your world for the better, one good deed at a time. It doesn’t matter if your impact is big or small. You will change the world by nature of being in it, and it’s your job to leave it better than you found it.’
The WINGS Award, which celebrates games developed by diverse teams, went to ABYSS X ZERO from Studio Pixel Punk. This is a 3D Metroidvania-like where players roam stylish dungeons as two characters, fated to meet each other on a harsh battlefield.
Finally, the Best Tabletop Game Award went to Potion Society from The Murmuring Mystic, a card-based game where you must craft the best potion possible according to a set recipe, using your turns wisely to build up your stack of ingredients, cook ingredients, and fill your potion bottles.
Our congratulations go to all these worthy winners, who certainly deserved their accolades at the SXSW Sydney Games and Screen Awards.
Also on ScreenHub: ACMI Game Worlds: Why Neopets deserves its place in a museum
ACMI’s excellent Game Worlds exhibition aims to represent the history of video games through a curated selection of titles from the past, charting over 50 years of gameplay. While many of the titles selected are high-profile, recognisable games with obvious legacies – The Sims, World of Warcraft, The Elder Scrolls, Minecraft – the exhibit also includes games that are less celebrated, but equally as impactful. Neopets is one of those games.
Game Worlds presents an array of artefacts from across Neopets history, including physical handheld toys, the Neopets magazine, early concept artwork, maps, playable versions of mini-games Kass Basher and Turmac Roll, video footage, and more. It all speaks to the evolution of the game, and how it’s changed over the decades since it launched.
