The tenth annual Game Off just wrapped up with a jaw-dropping 562 entries—all created in less than a month. 7,284 ratings and thousands of hours of playtime later, we are pleased to announce the winners! The theme for the 2022 competition was “cliché” and the submissions were anything but.
We had everything from fresh takes on old classics to fast and furious first-person shooters with all sorts of unique styles and mechanics, and perplexing puzzle games to novel platformers putting your prowess and patience to the test.
Hundreds of games written in C, C#, C++, Go, Java(Script), Kotlin, Lua, and more are available to fork, play in your browser, and/or download for your favorite operating system. Something for everyone, basically.
Here are the winners along with some of the other top games as rated and reviewed by the participants themselves. Enjoy!
1st place overall – Neon Square Resurgence 🏆
Neon Square Resurgence puts you in control—not always complete control—of a neon square as you dash around some incredibly challenging levels.
Warning! It’s even more difficult than that super hard, Super Mario Bros. level!
1st place gameplay – A Taste Of Their Own Medicine 🥇
A Taste of Their Own Medicine is a super hot first person shooter, where you’re unarmed. Kind of.
1st place graphics – Glutton for Punishment 🥇
Take control of a grim reaper and destroy bats and other beasties in this beautiful pixel art game.
1st place audio – Shot In The Dark 🥇
This entry places you alone in the dark exploring a mysterious mansion with a very limited light source. Go on. Give it a shot.
1st place innovation 🥇 – Knight In Shining Armour
Taking some time to reflect on this after playing, and mirroring what some of the reviewers said, I can confirm Knight in Shining Armor fits the theme incredibly well and provides a polished puzzle game.
1st place theme interpretation – Everything! (but the kitchen sink) 🥇
Who doesn’t love mini-games?!? This entry has a smorgasbord of them – all inspired by popular idioms.
Elephant in the Room
Loved it. You did a great job in bringing progressively new game play elements to the game. Also great interpretation of the theme 🙂
Fair Squares
I spent more time on this game than I am willing to admit. It is so addictive! This is as close to perfect as is possible in a game jam! Kudos. The level of polish is truly inspiring!
You’re The Boss
I absolutely love this game! Everything is incredibly well made. It’s very rare to see games in jams with writing this good! A few of the nightmare challenges were brutal.
Super Monkey’s Paw
I love the early DOS vibe the visuals give. Katamari was a really interesting gameplay choice that I think works really well and makes for a fun experience.
Decipherism
Very well thought out game! The graphics look amazing, both the retro green-on-black CRT monitor vibes and the handwritten notes (with the hand drawn memes in there as a bonus).
Golden Warden
Really fun and simple game! I quit like the art style and the color pallet. The mechanics are easy to learn but still interesting and expansive. Cool stuff, Nice Job!
In the Cards
Wow, this is so polished for a game jam! Everything from the gameplay to the sound effects to the juice. I love the endless possibilities of synergies when combining the powers, I had some pretty crazy combos and managed to get 150k on one of my playthroughs
I Hate Mondays
Very nice game. Nice story loop. All the mini-games were very polished, fun and the humor made it a pleasant experience.
Silver bullet
My God. This game is AMAZING. From the sound to the mechanics, everything about it is perfect. There is also training, everything becomes clear and you don’t have to guess or rack your brains. You really did a really good job!
Moving the Golfpost
Great concept! This combination of different mechanics (8 ball pool style golf, and user based random map generation) was really refreshing. Genius Idea. Great work!
Graveyard Shift
Yesss this is a great deck builder puzzle game! Really polished, the mechanics work well, the art and music are nice. I couldn’t stop playing, really nice job!
Agent no. 6
Very solid entry, I was sure that someone else would think about making an FPS game, but I didn’t expect a GoldenEye 64 inspired one!
Stomper
Mashup of Manic Miner and Celeste? I really liked the level design and how mechanics mix together, especially in the last level, wow.
Uphill Battle
Really solid game, very polished. Visuals are beautiful and consistent. It’s really fun to find some synergies between the cards. Satisfying gameplay!
The Adventures of the Heroic Fox
I absolutely loved this game! All of it is great, and the battle mechanics are very creative and interesting. 5/5!
Bet the Farm
What an incredible level of design and beauty for a game jam. I played through twice.
Roses Are Red
The soundtrack is really amazing great job. The gameplay is relaxing and calm, defiantly feels like the music was the main point of this.
Cat got your tongue?
I never play rhythm games but I absolutely LOVED this one. Super polished game, gorgeous art work, and really fun and forgiving controls.
Blasteroids
Fantastic fling-em-up game! Nice twist on the original. Very professional.
View all the submissions on itch.io, where you can filter by operating system and scroll until you find something that catches you attention.
Thank you everyone who took part in the Game Off and spent time playing, rating, and reviewing all the submissions. You made this the biggest and best Game Off yet!
See you again in November for the next Game Off!
