'Aware Game Awards'

We are continuing a games programme entitled the ‘Aware Game Awards’ (AGA). This programme is dedicated to celebrating those games that strive to raise awareness about a range of topics, from personal experiences to global or social issues – games that focus on immersion and empathy, helping us to better understand each other and the world around us. We aim to show our audiences a completely different and unexpected side of gaming, while also inspiring and involving local creative communities.

Jury:
Pablo F. Quarta

Pablo F. Quarta

Argentina

Pablo F. Quarta is a narrative designer and game producer who specializes in the development of videogames with strong social, political, and cultural perspectives that draw from Latin American identity. They are part of the development team of the award-winning surrealist documentary game Atuel, and were one of the co-founders of Matajuegos, Argentina’s very first indie game workers’ co-op. Pablo has given talks on their work at international events such as GDC, IndieCade, and DIGRA. They are also an adjunct professor at Torcuato Di Tella University in Buenos Aires where they teach game and narrative design.

Mažvydas Jastramskis

Mažvydas Jastramskis

Lithuania

Mažvydas Jastramskis holds a PhD in Political Science and has been pursuing empirical research into video games as a personal interest since childhood. Although he has not yet published his findings, he has accumulated a substantial body of data, focusing primarily on adventure and RPG games.

Marie Janin

Marie Janin

Netherlands

Marie Janin is one of the directors and co-initiator of Sickhouse, a playful art space in Enschede, home of The Overkil festival. She focuses on playful arts and digital culture to explore the technological transformations of our society. Marie creates critical and engaging programs to support a reflection on our relation to technology with empathy and humor. In her work she is looking for diverse ways to meet, exchange and challenge game makers and players in the roles they take in the world.

Marko Tadic

Marko Tadic

Croatia

Marko Tadić (b. 1979, Sisak) studied philosophy and sociology at the Faculty of Croatian Studies in Zagreb, and painting at the Accademia delle Belle Arti in Florence, Italy, graduating in 2006. He is a visual artist working in the fields of drawing, collage, animation, and installation. His ideas are rooted in post-war utopian architecture and modernist urbanism, while the materials for his scenographic compositions come from old photographs found at flea market and drawings of unbuilt cities.

Ruth Lemmen

Ruth Lemmen

Germany

Ruth Lemmen has spent years building bridges between indie studios, institutions, funding bodies, and talent. From shaping international programs and juries to supporting small teams through complex decisions, she brings clarity where things often feel overwhelming. She works as a systemic coach, mediator and consultant for teams, companies and individuals and as a project and program manager, the later mostly with the indie game development scene.

Participants:
Andrea Lucco Borlera

Andrea Lucco Borlera

Italy

Andrea Lucco Borlera is a writer and video game developer, and a multimedia studies teacher at an arts high school. He holds a degree in Cinema and Visual Arts and a Master of Arts in Game Design. In 2025, he released his first video game, HORSES, developed in collaboration with Santa Ragione.

Claudia Molinari

Claudia Molinari

Italy

Claudia Molinari is the founder, creative director and producer of the Italian studio We Are Muesli (WAM), with more than 12 years of experience creating internationally recognized arthouse game projects, including video games, escape rooms, and hybrid experiences. Apart from the recently released slice-of-life anthology "In Their Shoes" (2026), the WAM games she is fondest of are the studio's debut, art-fi visual novel "CAVE! CAVE! DEUS VIDET." (2013), and the Calvino-inspired live escape room "Ludmilla" (2023).

Milie Rime

Milie Rime

Belgium

Milie Rime is an independent creator based in Belgium, working across comics, video games, and music.

Katharina Faller

Katharina Faller

Germany

Katharina Faller is a Multimedia Designer from Germany. She studied Multimedia and VR Design at Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design in Halle (Saale) and graduated in 2026 with her bachelor's project, Let me See the Sea. Her work focuses on exploring small everyday feelings, enhancing interpersonal moments, and telling stories through interaction and immersion.

Selime Sivgin

Selime Sivgin

Switzerland

Selime Sivgin, also known as Wanheda, is a Zurich based game designer creating experimental and art games that make hidden systems, power structures, and social dynamics visible through play.

Pietro Righi Riva

Pietro Righi Riva

Italy

Pietro Righi Riva is co-founder and studio director at Santa Ragione, where he directed several award-winning independent games including ‘MirrorMoon EP’, ‘FOTONICA’, ‘Wheels of Aurelia’, and ‘Saturnalia’. As a producer, he also helped bring other notable Santa Ragione titles to life, among them ‘Mediterranea Inferno’ and ‘HORSES’.

Matteo Pozzi

Matteo Pozzi

Italy

Matteo Pozzi is the founder, game and narrative designer of the Italian studio We Are Muesli (WAM), with more than 12 years of experience creating internationally recognized arthouse game projects, including video games, escape rooms, and hybrid experiences. Apart from the recently released slice-of-life anthology "In Their Shoes" (2026), the WAM games he is fondest of are the Resistance-themed short story collection "Venti Mesi" (2015), and the abstract local co-op "Siheyuan" (2023).

Marek Trzaskalik

Marek Trzaskalik

Czechia

An indie game developer based in Czechia, he completed a Master's degree in Programming and is currently studying Game Design at the Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (FAMU). Alongside his studies, he works in the games industry as a Level Designer and Game Designer. His creative practice focuses on atmospheric, immersive experiences and environmental storytelling.

Povilas Vincentas Jankūnas

Povilas Vincentas Jankūnas

Lithuania

Architect, exhibition designer, comics artist and game designer. For the last 10 years he has worked on alternative games such as Utility for the Soul and R00000. Currently works on a virtual exhibition/game "Vilnius Museum of Antiquities: A temple of the Past" which aims to bring the first public museum in Lithuania back to life.

Nathanaël Markova

Nathanaël Markova

Switzerland

Nathanaël is an indie developer and artist from Zurich, with a background in art history. He is interested in serious and applied games, and is dedicated to creating experiences that tackle complex and meaningful topics, particularly topics related to queerness, in creative ways. He is currently completing his Bachelor's degree in Game Design at ZHdK (Zurich University of the Arts).

María Victoria Rodríguez

María Victoria Rodríguez

Argentina

María is an Argentinian visual artist based in Berlin, whose practice is shaped by a lifelong engagement with art and storytelling. With a degree in Fine Arts (Painting) and a background in traditional 2D animation, she works across illustration, comics, animation, and self-publishing. She has led workshops, exhibited internationally, participated in residencies, and given talks at festivals and institutions. Community and collaboration are central to both her artistic practice and personal life

Michael Frei

Michael Frei

Switzerland

Michael Frei is a Swiss animation filmmaker and game designer. His award winning works Plug & Play (2015), Kids (2019), and Time Flies (2025) have been shown, among others, at the Berlinale, Ars Electronica, Pictoplasma and the Independent Games Festival. As co-founder of the production company Playables, he creates interdisciplinary works at the intersection of film, games, and installation.

Partners:
All Will Rise
All Will Rise

2026 · Netherlands

All Will Rise is a game about taking billionaires to court for destroying the planet.

Company:
Speculative Agency
Family Reunion
Family Reunion

Argentina

Family Reunion is a dinner table simulation game in which you take on the role of a child sitting at the family dinner table, wanting to be anywhere else. Time goes super slow and you must rely on your imagination, conversation and exploration skills to make time pass faster while avoiding family fights, harsh comments and crushing boredom.

Director:
Leandro Waibe
Company:
Waibinin
Wednesdays
Wednesdays

2025 · France

Twenty years later, while playing Orco Park, a video game from his childhood, memories come rushing back, along with a flood of questions: How could this have happened? Who knew? How has it shaped him? What does “normal” even mean?

Director:
Pierre Corbinais
Company:
The Pixel Hunt
Let Me See The Sea
Let Me See The Sea

Germany

Let me See the Sea is a point-and-click adventure about the longing for the sea and the experiences it inspires. Guided by a woman recalling her last trip, an ordinary morning unfolds into a memory-filled journey where you explore what lies behind this feeling.

Director:
Katharina Faller
Interfacing Wombs
Interfacing Wombs

2026 · Switzerland

Interfacing Wombs is a short shift-based simulation set in a clinical gestation facility where biological mothers have become obsolete. As an operator, you inseminate units, monitor vital signs, and guide pregnancies to extraction while meeting production quotas. Beneath the promise of neutral care, the system gradually reveals who is being selected—and who is being erased.

Director:
Selime Sivgin
Company:
itisWanheda
Pocket Boss
Pocket Boss

2025 · Switzerland

Pocket Boss is a delightfully odd fusion of work and play. You're a remote employee working with business data to make your boss happy. And the boss needs so much done! Increase productivity, boost customer satisfaction, make losses disappear, erase competitors – all with just a swipe of your finger.

Director:
Mario von Rickenbach
Screenwriter:
Maja Gehrig
Producer:
Mario von Rickenbach
Company:
Langfilm & Playables
HORSES
HORSES

2025 · Italy

HORSES is a three-hour, first-person, silent narrative horror game that unfolds over the course of fourteen days on a timeless, rural Italian farm. Players control Anselmo, a young man working under the authority of an enigmatic farmer who enforces a few simple rules that gradually reveal themselves to be rituals of domination.

Director:
Andrea Lucco Borlera and Santa Ragione
Jellyfish
Jellyfish

Czechia

Jellyfish is an atmospheric, narrative-driven adventure. Flow as a jellyfish and enjoy the vibrant, ever-changing ocean and its bioluminescent glow—while you can. On a journey across the open sea to find your lost partner, you must face a shifting reality and uncover the truth hidden behind the surface. Because the illusion of beauty is fleeting, and the magnificent ocean is not what it seems.

Director:
Marek Trzaskalik
In Their Shoes
In Their Shoes

2026 · Italy

From the first day of spring to the last day of winter, step into the shoes of seven characters and experience their most intimate moments in a collection of 49+1 choice-driven slice-of-life interactive stories set in the city of Milan.

Director:
Claudia Molinari & Matteo Pozzi
Company:
We are Muesli
Vilnius Museum of Antiquities: A Temple of the Past
Vilnius Museum of Antiquities: A Temple of the Past

Lithuania

A virtual exhibition that takes you to Lithuania's first public museum – the Vilnius Museum of Antiquities. Open the door to the mid-19th century, discover more than 100 historical exhibits from Lithuania and around the world, meet the museum's founder, Count Eustachijus Tiškevičius, and learn about the fate of this extraordinary collection.

Company:
Weekend Warriors
Relooted
Relooted

2026 · South Africa

Reclaim real looted African artifacts from Western museums & private collections in this Africanfuturist heist game. Recruit crew members, plan escape routes, acquire the precious cargo, and bounce out of the joint as fast as you can.

Director:
Ben Myres
Company:
Nyamakop
Pretender's Day
Pretender's Day

2026 · Switzerland

Pretender's Diary is a resource management game where the resource you manage is approval. Pick the right clothing, the right hair, the right accessories - and navigate the confusing world of others' opinions.

Director:
Nathanaël Markova