Since 2016, the international Creative Gaming Awards award games and playful media works, that allow players to interact with them in a creative way.
MOST CREATIVE GAME AWARD
The Most Creative Game award honors games and playful media works from around the world that give players the opportunity to interact creatively within the game.
The creative freedom can arise in the interaction with the game, out of the game or in the mind of the player. For example, works in this category may have multiple story paths, non-linear gameplay, role-play opportunities, unexpected interactions with other gamers, or be open to interpretation. The creativity of the players can also be stimulated by built-in editors or the possibility of enriching the game world with your own creations, designs and your own social rules.
The winners will receive prize money of 500€ and the PLAY AWARD trophy.
THE NOMINEES
THE JURY
After more than 70 submissions from 26 countries, the following jury decided on the winner of the Most Creative Game Award:
The Creative Gaming Award for "Most Creative Game" goes to Scriptorium: Master of Manuscript, developed by Yaza Games. The Creative Gaming Awards 2025 jury said in their laudatory speech:
"Some games challenge us.
Our dexterity or deductive skill.
Some tell stories.
Of lives past, lives never imagined or everyday horrors.
Some games do both.
And then there are games that turn us players into storytellers.
The work we honor today opens a door – or rather, a heavy, leather-bound book. Whoever opens it steps into a world of ink, parchment, and imagination. A world in which creativity is not merely a tool, but the very playground itself. Page by page, line by line.
Players become masters of a craft that seems long forgotten, yet comes alive the moment they begin to draw, to embellish, to illustrate.
Along the way, they encounter an illustrious clientele: from the patrons of the royal court to those whose wishes are… well, let’s say, unusual.
Whether they request an epic snail battle, a romantic pastoral idyll, or a charmingly plague-ridden everyday scene – the game does not judge, although we might. It invites us to bring all of it to life with a wink, with courage, and with style.
Thus develops a new form of creative play: a studio in digital space, where historical aesthetics, humor, and artistic freedom intertwine in fascinating ways. A game that reminds us that creation is always a kind of play and that even a medieval manuscript can hold room for wit, beauty, and absurdity.
For this extraordinary fusion of craftsmanship, interactive design, and playful humor, the jury of the PLAY Creative Gaming festival presents the Most Creative Game Award to a work that places the quill pen in the player’s hand and asks them to make the world more beautiful – or at least stranger."
AUDIENCE AWARD
During the festival, visitors were able to vote for their favorite work in the exhibition. That work was also honored with the PLAY trophy at the awards show.
This year, visitors voted Lea Schroth's Aurora Sensoria as the winner of the Audience Award. The installation invites visitors to experience the world from the perspective of a jellyfish. The focus is on the tension between external beauty and internal reaction: the fascinating glow that we perceive is also an expression of stress.
Through this sensory experience, Aurora Sensoria offers a resonant view of perception, emotions, and the impact of external influences on both jellyfish and ourselves.
