The Steam Awards are always fun events to take place in, an opportunity to share with the world that specific gem that you found the community simply didn’t have an opportunity to appreciate as much as you did. Or perhaps to pile more love on a big triple-A studio game; it’s your award vote, I can’t tell you what to do.
Finally, this year’s Steam Awards come with an important caveat: games must have been released in 2019 for it to be eligible for any category except The Labor Of Love Award, which will be explained in a moment.
Nominating games for categories gives users experience and badges, making this year’s awards a far more pleasant experience than the past. There are four tasks that users must complete to maximize their badge level, and none of the tasks are that time-intensive. Frankly, it behooves us all to reward the developers worth rewarding, and to spend an appropriate amount of time discerning where we should place our votes.
With eight different categories, there are more than enough for all of your favorite 2019 games.
Of course, there is The Game of the Year Award. This category is pretty self-explanatory; the best game released in 2019 gets nominated here. It doesn’t matter why you think it’s the best game, there’s really no criteria beyond what you believe, so go wild.
The VR Game of the Year is a new category and one that would behoove Valve in opening due to their upcoming VR title. Much like Game of the Year, but for VR.
The Labor of Love Award is for games that continue to receive love, support, and content from their developers well past the initial release. Games that you feel continue to receive amazing content should be nominated in this segment. This is notably the only category that will accept a nomination of a game released before 2019.
The Better With Friends Award goes to whichever game is simply more fun with friends; when cooperative is operative, the title nominated here shines the brightest.
The Most Innovative Gameplay Award is for any game that brings something new to an increasingly stale table; it doesn’t matter how you found it innovative, or how it innovates; just that it does.
The Outstanding Story-Rich Game Award seems like a game reserved for past Tell-Tale titles along with JRPGS with absurd amounts of exposition. Yet there’s a fine line that some games can successfully walk, offering a gripping story without sacrificing the edge of our seat.
The Best Game You Suck At Award is reserved for Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. Anything else nominated for this category is wrong.
The Outstanding Visual Style Award is for those games with the graphical finesse, that aesthetic oomph that makes the title stand out to you every time you play it.
These categories are pretty all-encompassing, and with a neat flair you can unlock for participating, along with an opportunity to say thank you to the developers that have gone the extra mile, there’s no reason not to participate seriously. The winners of the awards will be announced on December 31st, during the Steam Winter Sale.
The Steam Autumn Sale has also just begun, giving you an even bigger reason to go hop over to the storefront and look around.
