Once all nominations have been received, Unity will narrow the entries down to six finalists in each category and then open up voting to the community for all categories. Community votes will account for 50% of the total vote with Unity employees accounting for the other 50%.
We are doing things a bit differently this year and are going 100% digital for the entire process. In lieu of a physical ceremony, winners will be announced online at the beginning of October and will be recognized on a Unity Awards website and at Unite Austin in view of more than 2000 conference attendees.
We’ve added a few new categories this year, so check the list to see where your project fits in! The categories this year include:
- Best 3D Visuals – Modern technology has given artists the freedom to mold new 3D worlds whether they're striving for realism or creating something wildly stylized. Submissions for this category will be judged based on artistic merit including thematic and stylistic cohesion, creativity, and/or technical skill. To qualify for the award, the majority of assets must be 3D.
- Best 2D Visuals – Beauty comes in all shapes and dimensions and there's a different kind of artistry in creating beautiful 2D worlds and characters. Submissions for this category will be judged based on artistic merit including thematic and stylistic cohesion, creativity, and/or technical skill. To qualify for this award, the majority of in-game/project assets must be 2D.
- Best Desktop/Console Game – Whether simple, complex, or somewhere in between, a great gaming experience blends concept, intuitive control, innovation, creativity, visual design, and fun together into one blissfully wonderful package. We're looking for games that excel in one or all of these areas.
- Best Mobile Game – As with Best Desktop/Console Game, we're looking for excellent games with special attention paid to those designed with the unique challenges of smaller devices and screens in mind.
- Best VR Game – As with the other Best Game categories, we're looking for excellent games while paying special attention to those games that are designed with the unique challenges of VR in mind and create a great sense of presence.
- Best Augmented or Mixed Reality Experience – Immersive computing is is going to usher great change into our society in many subtle and bold ways. This is an open category to recognize the most creative use case of AR or MR across all industries.
- Best VizSim Project – Unity projects come in all shapes and sizes; this year we're looking for projects that have some real world grounded applications like visualizations, simulations, and training programs.
- Best Cinematic Experience – We're looking for thoughtful, entertaining, and/or immersive new cinematic experiences where user agency takes a back seat to storytelling and observation.
- Best Non-game Project – Those that have created something that falls outside of games, cinematic experiences, or VizSim applications including art, creative tools, interactive books and comics, digital toys, interactive physical installations, and informational programs will want to submit for this award.
- Best Student Project – This award is for projects (games or otherwise) worked on by students currently being completed as part of the curriculum of an educational institution. Projects will be judged based on creativity, technical merit, and overall artistic cohesion among graphics, sound, and presentation.
- Asset Store Award for Best Tool – There are a load of brilliant developers extending Unity's capabilities in really creative and powerful ways. With this award, we're looking for excellent and helpful packages that add more options to developers' tool chests.
- Asset Store Award for Best Artistic Content – Along with the full featured tools extending Unity's capabilities, artists are busy creating assets that can be used and repurposed for a huge variety of projects. These can be anything from particle packs to full themed asset packs or even brilliant sound effects.
- Unity Impact Award – We're looking for excellent games or experiences (of any kind - standard display, AR, MR, VR, etc.) that focus on social impact areas like education and healthcare. Award evaluation will be based on the number of players reached and the measurement of the social impact created.
- Golden Cube (best overall) – This award is for the best overall project made with Unity in the last year. Everything from technical achievement and visual styling to sound production and level of fun must be taken into account to choose the grandaddy of all of our awards. Finalists in all other categories will automatically be up for vote to become the winner of the Golden Cube.