Every year, there are a number (which keeps increasing) of games that drop across numerous genres, publishers, developers, and platforms. At the end of the year, we like to take the time to review the releases, and vote as a team on the ones we believe deserve to be awarded for specific categories. If you're looking for a year-by-year breakdown of our awards - keep on reading.

Quicklinks: How We Do Awards | Award Descriptions | 2020's | 2010's

The TechRaptor Game Awards Process

We've been giving out awards since 2014, and over the years our process has only gotten better. If you're curious how we conduct our game awards, here's our step-by-step process.

• We take some of the best-rated games of the year, and compile an excel spreadsheet
• Editorial reviews the spreadsheet, and verifies no games were missed.
• Once reviewed, we create an internal form that allows the team to vote on multiple games per category.
• Those votes whittle down the total games to vote on, and a new form is sent out for the team to vote:
  • First, Second, and Third for non "of the year" awards
  • First, Second, Third, Fourth, and Fifth for "of the year" awards
  • Each selection is given a point value.
• Based on the points awarded each game, we calculate the winners for each category.
• 1-2 weeks later, we begin publishing our award winners.

The TechRaptor Game Awards - Categories

As of 2023, here are our Game Awards categories, and what each means:

• Game of the Year - The best game of the year, whose sum of its parts is greater than any other.
• Indie Game of the Year - For outstanding creative and technical design from outside a large studio.
• Board Game of the Year - For outstanding tabletop game design.
• Best Visual Design - For outstanding, cohesive aesthetic. (Not just graphics!)
• Best Writing - For outstanding storytelling, worldbuilding, and character creation.
• Best Multiplayer - For exceptional multiplayer gameplay and design.
• Best Soundtrack - For outstanding overall score.
• Best Expansion / DLC - The best piece of additional content to an existing game.
• Best Evolving Game - For outstanding continued development on an existing game.

TechRaptor Awards - 2020 - 2023

While the 2020's are still going, below are our awards year-by year for 2020-2023.

2023 Game Awards Winners

These awards will release the week of January 15, 2024.

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2021 Game Awards Winners

Here are our 2021 award winners:

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2020 Game Awards Winners

New century, same awards. Here are our 2020 award winners:

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TechRaptor Awards - 2014 - 2019

Our first 5 years of awards had some shift in categories as we figured out our process, formula, and how we announce winners. Heading into 2020, our categories became solidified and we maintained the process we'd built. Here's 2015-2019! If you're interested we also have The Best Games of the 2010's!

2019 Game Awards Winners

2019 continued the awards format of 2018 in our fifth year awards, with no new additions or removals of categories. Here are the 2019 award winners:

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2018 Game Awards Winners

In 2018 we added "Best Evolving Game" as an award category, to award games that have been around a while but continue to offer solid support and feature additions to their community. Here are our 2018 award winners:

Best Games of 2018

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2017 Game Awards Winners

In 2017, we reduced the scope of our awards and cut out PC / Console / Mobile / Handheld specific awards to keep things simpler. Here are our 2017 award winners:

Best Games of 2017

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2016 Game Awards Winners

During the second year of awards, we merged Mobile and Handheld together, and added "Best Expansion / DLC" to award additions to existing games. Here are our 2016 award winners:

Best Games of 2016

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2015 Game Awards Winners

2015 was our first year doing awards. Here are our 2015 award winners:

Best Games of 2015

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That's it for our awards, so far! If you're developer who won an award and want one of our emblems - please reach out to info[at]techraptor.net!