I don't work in the gaming industry, but my solo project "The Macabre Journey" just made the Game of the Year Finals at the Pocket Gamer Mobile Games Awards. I'm speechless.
Hey everyone,
I’m still trying to process this. By day, I’m a software developer working on completely different things (not games). But in my free time, I poured my heart into creating "The Macabre Journey", a solo-developed gothic 3D adventure. It’s a small premium game, and I launched it as a pure passion project.
Today, I found out it actually made the official finalist list for "Game of the Year" at the Mobile Games Awards 2026.
I am literally competing side-by-side with multi-million dollar studios and massive corporate IPs.
Here is the catch: the voting phase is open right now, but it's restricted to "industry peers and professionals" (they require a professional/company email to validate the vote and prevent spam). Since I don't work in the gaming industry, I don't have a network of game devs or a PR team to back me up.
If there are any fellow developers, engineers, or industry pros here who appreciate a solo dev project fighting against the giants, I would be incredibly grateful for your vote.
You can cast your vote here for Game of the Year:
https://www.pocketgamer.biz/mga2026/vote/game-of-the-year/
Even if you don't vote, thank you for reading. Just seeing my tiny game's name on that list next to the giants is already a win I’ll never forget.