Best Ukrainian indie games: Indie Cup Ukraine’23 announces its winners

The festival of independent Ukrainian games Indie Cup Ukraine’23 has announced the winners of the competition, selecting the best indie games of 2023 in four main and one special categories.

Hollow Home from the Twigames team, a game about a Ukrainian teenager trying to survive in a city surrounded by Russian troops, has won in two nominations at the festival.

The winners of the main Indie Cup Ukraine’23 competition, selected by the festival jury:

• Most Anticipated Game Award for the best game of the festival went to Oberty (Dmytro Denys).

• Most Promising Game Award for Best Early Development Game went to Hollow Home (Twigames).

• Rising Star Award for Best Unpublished Small Team Debut went to Blessed Burden (Podoba Interactive).

• Critics’ Choice Award, selected by members of the press and influencers, also went to Hollow Home (Twigames).

The winner of the Indie Cup Ukraine’23 special competition:

People’s Choice Award, a charity nomination for the game’s most active community. The winning game that managed to collect the most funds for the charity fundraising of the festival is Through the Nightmares (Sandmanteam).

A total of 72 games participated in Indie Cup Ukraine’23, from which the competition jury selected 26 nominees. Jury members include experts from CD Projekt RED, Creative Assembly, Remedy Entertainment, Red Beat, etc., as well as game journalists, vloggers, and winning developers from past Indie Cup seasons.

Indie Cup Ukraine’23 is a completely charitable festival, within the framework of which a number of fundraisers for the Armed Forces and volunteers took place. The organizers managed to collect around €10,600 (UAH 437,899), of which a portion of UAH 38,353 was donated in the People’s Choice category).