The web3 gaming space has evolved rapidly throughout the past year in every aspect; game development studios, number of players, and most importantly, the quality of games. This is why we are glad to announce the inaugural GAM3 Awards. This year's iteration of the event will take place on the 15th of December, with over 100 web3 games nominated across 16 different categories to recognize the best "gam3s" as voted by expert judges and the community alike.

Over 100 web3 games and content creators are in the running for 16 awards including “Game of the Year”. We've put together a jury including Justin Kan, Founder of Fractal; Urvit Goel, Head of Global Games at Polygon Studios; Itai Elizur Managing Partner at Market Across; Rachel Levin, Director of Venture & Strategy at ImmutableX and Matt Sorg, Head of Technology at Solana Foundation.

Our all-star jury with decades of gaming experience also includes former Square Enix CTO who directed games such as Sonic: Unleashed and Final Fantasy XIV Online (Yoshihisa Hashimoto) and former Senior Director of Partnerships at Electronic Arts (Edward Chang). The jury also boasts previous senior leaders at Electronic Arts, Riot Games, Zynga, Xbox Game Studios, Amazon Gaming, and Unity Technologies including:

• Sarutobi Sasuke, Head of Partnerships at YGG
• Dan Patterson, General Partner at Sfermion
• Brendan Wong, CEO at Avocado DAO
• Jesper Lindquist, Senior Manager Web3 Gaming at Animoca Brands
• Marco van den Heuvel, Co-Founder & CEO at Merit Circle
• David Hanson, Founder & CEO at Ultra
• John Izaguirre, BD Director at BNB Chain
• Abhimanyu Kumar, Co-Founder at Naavik
• Nathan N., Co-Founder at Ancient8

There will be 16 categories for the jury members as well as the community to vote on and decide who walks away with the prize for each of them. The jury’s vote will carry 90% weight, with 10% of the decision-making dependent on community voting. The only exceptions to this are Games’ Choice which will be decided by industry game studios voting for their own version of Game of the Year; in addition to People’s Choice and Best Content Creator, which will both be 100% community determined.

Games will be judged based on multiple criteria including core loop, graphics, accessibility, replayability factor, fun elements, and overall gameplay experience. To be eligible for any of the awards except "Most Anticipated Game", the game in question must have a live, playable version that showcases the aforementioned criteria.

The following is a list of all 16 categories featured in this year's edition of the GAM3 Awards, with more genre-specific awards to come in future editions:

• Game of the Year
• Most Anticipated Game
• Best Graphics
• Best Action Game
• Best Mobile Game
• Best Adventure Game
• Best Casual Game
• Best RPG
  
• Best Shooter Game
• Best Strategy Game
• Best Card Game
• Best Multiplayer Game
• Best Esports Game
• Best Content Creator
  
• People's Choice Award
• Games' Choice Award

In addition to prestige and recognition, winners of the first GAM3 Awards will enjoy a share of $300,000 worth of prizes from sponsors such as Immutable X, Blockchain Game Alliance, Machinations, Naavik, and Ultra. The event will showcase the best games within the web3 space and recognize the developers striving to create the highest quality gaming experiences.

On top of that, we are accompanied by a plethora of the top partners in the blockchain gaming space, with a special status for Fractal. The well-renowned NFT marketplace will accompany us throughout the GAM3 Awards journey as the event's content partner, and the below is a quote from Justin Kan, the former co-founder of Twitch, on the importance of the event and the future of web3 gaming overall.

We are excited to partner with Polkastarter Gaming on this event, it is truly a step in the right direction for the industry, and the first of its kind in web3 gaming.

Justin Kan, Founder of Fractal, the awards’ content partner.

Stay on the lookout on our socials as we will be introducing our jury members one by one alongside more information on the next steps, how to participate in the community voting, and where to watch the GAM3 Awards on December 15th.

Who do you think will walk away with the Game of the Year trophy? Who are you most excited to see get nominated? 

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