PPG Game Of The Year 2024 - 55 - The Kids Are Alright

This category is all about highlighting projects that students of game design courses have put together and released out into the world for free for random people to play. There is clearly a large pool of outstanding talent coming up in the industry, and I wish them all the best!

Electrobasis
First Person Talk-Em-Up
A first person dialogue driven game with a bit of platforming and puzzling thrown in. A strange world full of strange people(?) awaiting it's "savior".

Alice Through the Fey Realm
Isometric Adventure
A lovely little adventure based loosely on a blend of different fairytales, with a fantastical cast of characters to interact with as you go.

Your Turn to Disembark
Top Down Narrative Adventure
A neat little narrative adventure game that is the first chapter of a larger narrative, set on a "weird" train with a handful of intriguing characters to get to know and secrets to uncover.

Kilonova
Vibrant Beat-em-up
A short little run through a celestial space where you take down enemies as you platform through an outer space location.

ATAN
3rd Person Climbing
Scale a large colossus with several tools such as a bow and an anchor at your disposal in a free form climbing experience. One of those ones you hope the students go on to expand the idea into something even more awesome.

Abyssal
3D Turn Based Strategy
Summon minions to do your bidding and fight off hordes of eldritch nightmares from a turn and grid based over the top perspective. Great play through in a single afternoon type tactics game.

Floodcore
Short Puzzle Adventure
A gorgeous nice and small isometric puzzler to spend 20 minutes going through.

Sorelle
Whimsical 3D Platformer
A neat little student game with a lovely aesthetic. As comes with the territory of student games it's a bit buggy, but it's easy to have a bit of a play for a free experience.

Basil and the Isles of Spice
3D Open World Platformer
A classic Mario-esque platformer level that makes for a great proof of concept student project. Nice chill times vibe.

Pizzapocalypse
Cartoony 3D Platformer
A bite sized 3D platformer where you must "master your pizza moveset to traverse a corporation-ridden town".

Dusty
Third Person Puzzles
Some fun puzzle mechanics mix with magical technology to provide a neat little story across a good couple of hours of adventuring.

And The Best Student Game Of 2024 Is…

The WereCleaner
Isometric Stealth Comedy "Cleaner"
A breakout hit that sees you stealthing around and cleaning an interconnected office space, often escalating into, let's say, more mess to clean up. Incredibly fun to mess around with, has some challenges for those that like to 100%, and doesn't outstay its welcome. Clearly some talented students coming out of USC Games!