Bytten Ernie Awards 2005

Most Potential

Awarded to Creatrix by Ultrafish

Potential is a strange beast within the games industry, especially in the indie scene. Developers are constantly coming up with good (and often brilliant) ideas but somewhere between that initial spark and game completion, the idea is lost or bogged down in the game mechanics.

This was true of Creatrix, a game of robot building, a game that crossed fast-paced arcade play with a heavy dose of strategy. Trouble was, the fast-paced arcade aspects needlessly complicated the main strategy element, making the game a chore to play rather than fun.

Had the game been designed with a clearer interface, one that allowed you to simply select the various robot pieces, then we would have had a real winner. Instead, you are left fighting with the poor controls and guesswork takes over as the primary means of putting your robots together.

Creatrix could have been great. Instead it became merely average with great potential.

Strangest Game Experience

Awarded to Holepit by Rene Dudfield

Of all the games I have ever encountered as a player, I remember Holepit as the strangest. If the title isn't distracting enough, the dark red and black background coupled with teratismic player characters and bright green glowing boxes certainly make this game one that is hard to forget.

A multi-player game, the aim is to race against other competitors to push boxes down a hole in the middle of the level. The control method sees your character chasing a normal mouse pointer as opposed to any direct control, and the digeridoo music is the first case of a live performance recording I've encountered in any indie game soundtrack.