Now that we’re clear of the frantic week we call Unite 2009 let’s talk about the also incredible Unity Awards! Once again we had a huge increase in not only the total number of submissions (129!) but also in the overall content and quality of those submissions. It was a tough job to pare down the submissions into a list of top contenders in each category, and then even tougher for our team of judges to whittle those down to a list of their top-5 favorites in each category. The end result was that 13 games in particular seemed to stand out the most as those titles occupied the top-5 positions across all four categories. Without further adieu let’s go through each of the categories and see a list of the finalists and winners…

Best Overall

The best overall category is the one in which we recognize the true best-of-breed content for the year and it was a tough task to say the least. There were many titles that came close to being finalists, but ultimately only a few made that final run at the title.

Winner: Max & the Magic Marker, developed by Press Play



Runner Up: Lego Star Wars: Quest for R2-D2, developed by Three Melons



Finalist: Paper Moon, developed by Infinite Ammo

Finalist: Monospace, developed by Nonverbal

Finalist: EnerCities, developed by Paladin Studios

Best iPhone Game

Given the popularity of iPhone/iPod touch games in general, and of course the way in which Unity iPhone has become the dominant middle-ware tool of choice, we felt it truly necessary to recognize the best iPhone games on their own.

Winner: Monospace, developed by Nonverbal



Runner Up: Samurai: Way of the Warrior, developed by Mad Finger Games



Finalist: Snake Galaxy (now being published as Paris Galaxy), developed by DigDog

Finalist: Battle Bears, developed by SkyVu Pictures & Blackish

Finalist: Touch KO, developed by Adam and Matt Mechtley

Best Visual Design

One of the exciting things about a tool like Unity is that it lets you experiment in ways you might not be able to with other tools. The rapid iterative abilities and easy work flow make experimentation easy, and that leads to some incredibly beautiful and unique visuals.

Winner: Doppelscope, developed by Tobias Baumann



Runner Up: Blush, developed by Flashbang Studios



Finalist: Choma, developed by Knife Media

Finalist: Max & the Magic Marker, developed by Press Play

Finalist: Paper Moon, developed by Infinite Ammo

Best Technical Achievement

To go along with rewarding the best visual effort we wanted to recognize those titles that displayed solid technical achievement as there are so many folks out there pushing the technical boundaries with Unity. This category was extra tough as we all have our pet areas of interest with our technology, audio, shading/graphics, game play mechanic and more.

Winner: Blush, developed by Flashbang Studios



Runner Up: Max & the Magic Marker, developed by Press Play



Finalist: Time Donkey, developed by Flashbang Studios

Finalist: Touch KO, developed by Adam and Matt Mechtley

Finalist: Super Volei Brasil 2, developed by Aquiris

Closing Thoughts

As I noted up top there were 129 separate entries at the beta stage and that’s an awesome turn out! I know that not all of you were able to get a final build submitted and certainly not all of you made it into the final judging stage (involved roughly 30 entries), and even fewer of you made it into the top-5 finalist categories. But through it all the hard work and effort the Unity community puts forth to make killer content is a critical component in driving our technology forward. Content is king y’all, and without you I don’t know where our tech would be. So thanks to everyone that participated in this year’s Unity Awards and a huge round of applause and hefty kudos to the finalists, and especially the winners. Rock on!