Sense of Wonder Night 2024 (SOWN2024)

SOWN2024 was held with spectators for the first time in five years at Makuhari Messe International Conference Center from 17:15 on Friday, September 27th

Gateway to Success for Indie Game Developers SENSE OF WONDER NIGHT 2024 Winners Announced!
Grand Prix is "Esophaguys"
Esophaguys Teams (United States of America)

Grand prix : USD 3,000

Audience Award Grand Prix
Esophaguys [Esophaguys Team]

Other awards : USD 500

  • Audience Award Semi-Grand Prix
    Hyper Wobbler [Wobbly Labs]

  • Best Technological Game Award
    Hyper Wobbler [Wobbly Labs]

  • Best Arts Award
    Hyper Wobbler [Wobbly Labs]

  • Best Experimental Game Award
    Hyper Wobbler [Wobbly Labs]

  • Best Game Design Award
    No Case Should Remain Unsolved
    [Somi]

  • Best Presentation Award
    HoooPizza
    [DOI Nobuhiro]

Official Program
Sense of Wonder Night 2024open a new window

SOWN Finalists

  • Others
  • Adventure

Esophaguys

Exhibitors Name : 
Esophaguys Team  (United States of America)
Platform : 
PS5/4 , Nintendo Switch , Xbox , Steam , PC(App)

Esophaguys is a silly party platformer where you play as old folks with elongating necks. Stretch, bite, and swing together to find your lost kin, compete in minigames for long-necked glory, and embark solo on a journey of both past and future!

Judges' Comments

I would like to see how interesting it would be to play with the movement + neck extension operation.

Esophaguys is being created by a team of up-and-coming game developers who met at college. We seek to bring unique aesthetics and wonky gameplay together to create experiences filled with laughter.

  • Sports
  • Others

HoooPizza

Exhibitors Name : 
DOI Nobuhiro  (Japan)
Platform : 
PC(App)

“HoooPizza”: Spin Your Way to Pizza Greatness! Put down the ordinary game controller and pick up a hula hoop! In this interactive video game, you won’t be pressing buttons; instead, you’ll be spinning the hula hoop like a pizza-making maestro. Your mission? Craft the most colossal pizza the gaming world has ever seen.

Judges' Comments

I am curious about the unique form of operation, in which the hula hoop serves as the controller, and the comfort of playing!

I created this interactive game with the goal of providing an enjoyable experience for everyone, regardless of age, gender, or physical attributes. It would make me happy if you could have fun!

  • Action

Last Standing

Exhibitors Name : 
Nao Games  (Japan)
Platform : 
Steam

The objective of the game is to beat the enemies coming from the left and right by banging the keyboard. The more keys you press, the more powerful the attack becomes. This unprecedented control allows the player to experience the keyboard as if it were a physical game. The game also combines elements that allow the player to change and strengthen the player character and play over and over again.

Judges' Comments

I was attracted to the keyboard-banging game experience and the detailed animations! The durability of the device, including the keyboard bang-mouse gluggle, is also something I would like to try.

I will be playing games and handing out cards at the booth, so please come and visit us.

  • Puzzle
  • Adventure

No Case Should Remain Unsolved

Exhibitors Name : 
Somi  (Republic of Korea)
Platform : 
Steam

No Case Should Remain Unsolved is a detective game where players uncover and piece together memory fragments to solve a long-forgotten case. Follow former police detective Jeon Gyeong as she acquires clues and testimony relating to the case of a missing girl.

Judges' Comments

An adventure game in which the player solves a difficult case by relying on information from SNS. This is a much-talked-about game with an excellent storyline.

It's a narrative that can only be told through games, not through novels, movies, or other media. I hope my game proves that 'games can be comforting'.

  • Simulation
  • RPG

Let's Build a Dungeon

Exhibitors Name : 
Springloaded  (Singapore)
Platform : 
Xbox , Steam

Manage a game studio making the world’s greatest MMORPG. Hire designers, coders, and testers, create a fantasy world, then welcome hundreds of virtual players. If they get bored they will cancel their subscription and your investors will have your head. You can even play the game you create.

Judges' Comments

The game is aimed at creators who design RPGs by considering the layout of dungeons and entire towns.

The MMORPG Simulator! Design, build and play the RPG of your dreams! Run a game studio your way and see how things develop in this multi-layered management sim.

  • Adventure
  • Puzzle

CINEMA

Exhibitors Name : 
Trinity Team  (Italy)
Platform : 
PS5/4 , Xbox , Steam , PC(App)

CINEMA is a first-person adventure inspired by the aesthetic of old silent films and noir thrillers. Players dive into a richly atmospheric world where they control time, moving back and forth at will. By manipulating time, they explore different scenarios, uncover secrets, and create new timelines with unique outcomes and twists.

Judges' Comments

Experimental and artistic game.

CINEMA is a first-person adventure inspired by the aesthetic of old silent films and noir thriller movies, where players wield control over time going back an forward and create new timelines.

  • Action
  • Puzzle

Hyper Wobbler

Exhibitors Name : 
Wobbly Labs  (Germany)
Platform : 
Other(Unique Art Installation)

Hyper Wobbler is an interactive multiplayer art installation, where 3 participants use bespoke metal spring joysticks to control multi-dimensional beings on a dodecahedron with LEDs and two-way mirror faces. The task of the players is to make sense of this universe and navigate it to reach their goals.

Judges' Comments

It is a development of Line Wobbler with novelty and beauty that goes beyond just adding dimensions.

I love building strange and playful interactive installations that cannot be replicated in a purely digital format, but spark joy using weird analog controls, sensors, and lights.

  • Simulation

ANLIFE: Motion-Learning Life Evolution

Exhibitors Name : 
Attructure  (Japan)
Platform : 
Steam

在这个游戏中,你将探索虚拟生命的进化之旅。游戏世界模拟了真实的物理规律,并具备遗传和自然选择等生命进化的基本原理。作为创造者,你可以巧妙地引导这些自然法则,帮助虚拟生命体学习和进化。

Judges' Comments

Highly rated for its experimental nature.

我们的目标是在计算机上重现生物进化的机制,通过模拟来创造"生物"。我们希望您能够欣赏这些学习和进化出独特动作的生物,并从中获得乐趣。

What is "SENSE OF WONDER NIGHT (SOWN)"?

SENCE OF WONDER NIGHT 2024

"Sense of Wonder Night (SOWN)" is an event that aims to discover game ideas that will trigger a "Sense of Wonder" (a feeling of something changing in one's world the moment one sees or hears the concept). This year will be the 17th time for the event. The eight finalists who can present will be selected from the free exhibition project "Selected Indie 80" through a final screening process.

*Last year's "Sense of Wonder Night 2023" can be viewed on TGS Offcial YouTube channel.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSJ1ieBffIk&list=PLfuGgcBbCkUf8-GF5LTmXmMNU7wpEcRo2&index=2

Objectives of "SENSE OF WONDER NIGHT"

  • To introduce game with a game design and ideas that are experimental and creative, and that cannot be called conventional or traditional
  • To raise awareness of the great value of "Sense of Wonder" in games, which may transform the common sense of game, and lead to invigorate the game industry
  • To provide future opportunities for those who are developing experimental and creative games.
  • To create new domains in the game industry

Five criteria that match SOWN

1A game that realizes a totally new, never-seen-before gaming experience
A game that employs technologies that have not previously been used successfully, such as natural language processing, physics engines, image recognition or gesture control, to present a new kind of experience.
2A game that challenges the common sense of games
A game that pursues new ways of gaming expressions and changes the player's vision of the world after playing and experiencing it.
3A game with emergent features
A game that brings user's activities into the game world by embedding features such as AI interactions and social elements.
4A game that makes people want to play it immediately
A game that makes everyone thinks that they want to enjoy the new experience for themselves and feel that they want to treasure it.
5An amazing game
Any kind of new, eye-grabbing and impressive game!!

Acknowledgement

The "SENSE OF WONDER NIGHT" event has received a lot of inspiration from the "Experimental Gameplay Workshop" that was started at the Game Developers Conference in 2001. We would like to express our thanks to the many people who helped to make these workshops a success and to all our friends.

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