Frayed Knights: The Independent RPG of the Year!

Posted by Rampant Coyote on January 3, 2012

This time, it’s not just wishful thinking…

 

GameBanshee’s “Game of the Year” awards are up!

 

And Frayed Knights: The Skull of S’makh-Daon took the “Independent RPG of the Year” award for 2011! I don’t know how narrowly we managed to win against Dungeons of Dredmor, the runner-up, but with the amount of respect I have for that game, it’s quite an honor.

Frayed Knights was also the runner-up for the new category, “Best Character System” award, while Drakensang: The River of Time took the top slot. I’m still quite pleased with this. I went a little overboard on character development in Frayed Knights, and while I think it could use a little bit of clean-up (one of many little projects for Frayed Knights 2), I’m pretty proud of its depth. It’s great to be recognized for that. I’m glad that GameBanshee has added this category to (in their words) “recognize the games that haven’t overlooked a good progression system in order to cater exclusively to the cinematic-seeking crowd.”

Besides those mentioned above, other big winners included The Witcher 2, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Bastion and Might & Magic Heroes VI also find a place. I’ll let you read more to see how everything shook out.

GameBanshee, as many of you know, is a news site for PC RPGs, which a few years ago might have been quite the specialization. Gareth Fouche voiced the opinion on Twitter that this was the best year for PC RPGs in a long time. I don’t know that I’d fully echo those sentiments, but I’d say at least the last 18 months have reinforced the belief in my mind that while the genre may be struggling with a bit of an identity crisis, things are definitely brighter for PC RPG fans than they appeared five years ago. This is particularly true for those who are tuned to the indie RPG scene, with the quality and variety expanding by leaps and bounds. And it sure doesn’t suck to be a retro-gamer these days, either, with old classics getting a new lease on life through digital distribution and actually getting talked about again by new players. Once again, the pronouncements of the death of the genre have proven not only premature, but dead wrong.

Here’s to a great year for RPGs behind us, and many more in front of us! And here’s hoping that the “Best Indie RPG” award stays hotly contested with a steady stream of excellent titles!

Filed Under: Frayed Knights, Mainstream Games - Comments: 18 Comments to Read



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