The Imirt Irish Game Awards are taking place on April 24th at the Fís Games Summit and we cannot wait to honour the best Irish games of 2025. Each category is being judged by a specialised panel of experts, and that includes the three awards that voting is opening for today. Voting is now open for three categories that we felt had to be voted on by the community.
Below you’ll see the nominees for three awards; Best Upcoming Game, Emerging Talent and Community Hero. It’s important to recognise the people that make the Irish games community such a warm and welcoming place, and that are succeeding against all odds to make their mark on the industry.
Voting is now open to Imirt members, with members having received voting cards in their email. We encourage you all to get out and vote. It’s a short voting window, with voting ending at 23:59pm on Monday the 30th of March. If you do not receive a voting card, please contact eoghan@imirt.ie who can send you your ballot.
It should be noted that Imirt had no part in deciding the nominees for these categories. We’d like to thank the membership, who nominated multiple members of Imirts staff and board, who did not go forward for the award.
Most Anticipated Game
The Most Anticipated Game award is designed to recognise the amazing games currently in development from developers in the Irish Games Industry.
Breadieval
Create unique baked goods by combining ingredients you find at the market. Befriend the puppet villagers by baking their favourite recipes or by combining tasty flavours. Have fun, you don't have to follow a recipe here.
Breadieval is a cosy sandbox baking game set on a medieval island. Experiment by combining various ingredients to create unique baked products such as apple tarts, chocolate raspberry scones, spiced wholegrain bread, and more. You can choose to follow some of the in-game recipes, or you can make up your own.
ExoDomia
ExoDomia is a return to classic single-player shooter designs. No battle passes. No XP grinds. No microtransactions. Just fast, satisfying combat, hand-crafted levels, and an original campaign built purely for fun. Arm yourself with a diverse arsenal, face off against deadly enemies and bosses, and experience a shooter that puts gameplay first—exactly how it should be.
Fallosophy
Fallosophy is a tough, minimalist vertical pinball-platformer where ascent is earned through precise control of momentum, timing, and discipline. Using only two buttons, players climb a towering world inspired by the history of philosophy, from the cave of ignorance to the spires of modernity. There are no upgrades, no safety nets, and no shortcuts: every mistake can send you falling, and every metre gained must be won back through mastery of the flippers and gravity itself.
Next Day!
Next Day! Is a co-op party board game where you and your friends must work together to deliver packages while simultaneously competing for the Deliverer of Incredible Kindness award (D.I.K.)!
https://www.nextdaygame.com/about
The Corner Cafe
The Corner Cafe is a cozy(ish) retro futuristic cafe simulator set in a mythical Galway City and County in 2160. Players take control of Dan, the new owner of the cafe, with the goal of restoring community to the city.
Players will make coffee and chicken fillet rolls (and more uniquely Irish foods), customise their cafes, explore the city and get to know its eccentric inhabitants (from Fomorians to Camogie players).
TÖLT
TÖLT is a colourful first-person horror adventure with a wildly evolving black comedy narrative where you play as a horse, stylized as a haunted 90's PC game that never saw the light of day.
Questing
A satirical love letter to 16-bit adventure games, with a unique Pong-meets-bullet-hell combat system!
Community Hero
The Community Hero award recognises an individual who has continuously given to the Irish games communnity and who has been a beacon of support for those of us who work in it. These individuals have put an exceptional amount of time and effort into helping people, going above and beyond for those who work in the Irish games community.
Alanna Kelly
Alanna is a Galway City based game developer, freelancer and the founder of Galway Game Jam. Over the last two decades she has worked in a diverse range of industries including Game Development, Enterprise Software, Hardware Prototyping, Research and 3D Printing.
In 2013 she established Galway Game Jam as a regular event to encourage community building amongst game developers in Galway. She currently runs Beaglier Systems, a small contracting business.
*photo supplied by DGM Photographic*
Bunny Hanlon
Bunny Hanlon loves story-telling in all its forms and in games specifically with every single fibre of her being. She founded Aos Sí Productions as a way to support fellow indie devs that need someone who knows where, how, and whom to gush about their games to, as well as an outlet for her own games and creativity.
Dan Bergin-Holly
Dr. Dan Bergin-Holly is the founder of Biscuit Factory Games. An established Producer and Product Manager, Dan has been working in games across both industry and academia for 15 years with a career spanning from mobile to AAA and beyond.
Having recently moved back home to Ireland from the UK 4 years ago - Dan has been delighted to be able to bring everything he’s learned from his career abroad to the benefit of the local industry.
Be that sharing resources on community channels, making introductions, mentoring new teams via Imirt and Ardan’s development programmes, or just generally chatting to anyone and everyone about the business of making games.
Dave McCabe
Dave is probably best known for writing stuff like The Darkside Detective, The Séance of Blake Manor, Tavern Keeper, and The Necromancer's Tale but he's also probably best known for organising Run For The Border, which is probably Ireland's best event focused on running to the border to network BUT if you are old enough he's also probably best known for lecturing about games BUT if you're even older he's probably best known for hosting the GameCraft games jams. Or maybe he's probably best known for you as a beard with legs.
Denman Rooke
Denman Rooke is an art director, concept artist, illustrator and game designer. He is the founder and co-director at studio RÚCACH working on original IP games as well as contracting for projects like Magic: the Gathering, Dungeons & Dragons, Cosmere RPG, League of Legends, and with brands including Star Trek, The Lord of the Rings, and Marvel.
Rooke is a founding member of Racán Collective, a game dev co-working collective in Galway.
He is also a committee member with Game Workers Unite Ireland, the Irish game industry union which aims to strengthen game workers’ rights and build a sustainable industry.
Tara Jaye Burke
Tara Jaye Burke is a Galway raised and residing Multidisciplinary Creative who is immersed in the local and national game development community through hobbyist, educational, and professional pursuits.
With 7 years of experience as a 3D Artist and Game Designer, Burke currently works as a 3D Generalist Artist for StoryToys and an Assistant Lecturer in Game Design and 3D Animation for ATU.
Burke has worked on games for brands like LEGO, Marvel, Hasbro, and Disney. She has facilitated workshops, given talks, and served as an administrator for industry support through collaborations with organizations such as Imirt, Eirmersive, Ardán and Wexford County Council.
In addition to her professional work, she actively volunteers with Galway Game Jam to promote community and creativity within the Galway game development scene.
Úna-Minh Kavanagh
Úna-Minh Kavanagh is a proud Kerrywoman, games producer and solo games dev with a background in production and Irish language advocacy.
She has project managed seven Irish language localisations, including Among Us and is a fierce supporter of promoting high-quality translations.
The Irish games community has inspired Úna-Minh so much to create, iterate and be fearless about sharing her work. She adores seeing folks’ success and contributing to it, be it by playtesting, offering feedback or simply just shouting about developers from the rooftops!
Úna-Minh believes in social justice, community reciprocation, empowering folks and is staunchly anti-crunch.
Emerging Talent
The Emerging Talent award recognises an individual who is a rising star in the Irish games industry, in any development discipline. The nominees in this category were submitted for the award because of the incredible things they have achieved, and the potential they have to find success in the future.
Adam Englishby
Adam is a technical game designer and technical artist whose decade-long journey from hobbyist to industry freelancer has defined him as a versatile powerhouse in the Irish scene.
A flexible collaborator, he has worked with ENIGMA|STUDIO, Table Topple, and Spooky Doorway. As Saorspell co-founder and a Racán Collective member, Adam is a fixture in the Galway games community. His technical precision and drive for connective art earned recognition through the Wild Galway Games Initiative and consecutive IndieDev Prototype Funds (2024/2025).
Recently securing a key role on an Irish Games Fund 2025 project, Adam is channeling his skillset of design, art, code, and music into a 2027 solo title.
Conor McKenna
I’m a solo independent game developer working in games for many years, recently going full time. I have worked on a large number of game jams and projects, and recently released my latest platform, an Irish language word game called “Cúpla Focal”, on Google Play.
As I’m continuing to develop, experiment and grow, I’m eager to share more with, and become more involved in the Irish Game dev community.
Dylan Coakley
I'm Dylan, a passionate Software Engineer based in Cork, Ireland. I spent five years working part time on RelicWar my very first game while working a full time Software Development job and I released it to Steam in September 2025.
During those five years I attended Develop:Brighton, Run To The Border and Nexus Dublin. I also did a presentation on my game and the experience creating it to a group of local Software Developers.
I enjoy getting more involved with the Irish Game Development Community and the fresh energy events bring to my new interest. I have gained a lot of knowledge and experience from releasing my first game and I am excited to continue learning and creating in the world of game development.
Emmet Byrne
Emmet is an award-winning writer and game designer with a passion for creating tabletop roleplaying games and bringing the folklore of Ireland to gamers around the world. His Irish-inspired campaign setting, Beyond the Woods, raised over €350k across two Kickstarter campaigns in 2025 and 2026.
As well as Beyond the Woods, Emmet has worked on some of the most beloved IPs in the world, including Doctor Who, The Lord of the Rings, Warhammer, and Brandon Sanderson’s Cosmere. He is passionate about the Irish TTRPG scene and freely offers advice and guidance to any designers looking to pursue their TTRPG dreams.
Hazel Blackwood
Hi, I’m Hazel! I graduated from ATU (then LYIT) way back in 2014. With the lack of game studios hiring in Ireland at the time, and with a strong need for money, I ended up working in I.T in the healthcare sector. Good ol’ I.T. Nothing beats that.
Over the past ten years I’ve worked tirelessly to deliver better care for thousands of patients, I’ve delivered projects worth tens of thousands of euros across multiple hospitals, and I’ve won multiple colleagues of the year awards in the process, and while all of these achievements were rewarding in their own way, none of them compared to the joy I felt when I got a call to tell me I’d been selected for Imirt’s Talent Incubator program.
Thanks to Imirt, I have officially founded my studio - Highlander Labs - and I’ve finally started development of the passion project that’s sat in the back of my mind for over ten years - One Ear Up - a game where you create your dog and travel through a magical, fantasy world to save it from an angry god.
Jacob McConnell
I'm Jacob, an indie game developer with a special interest in 3D Art. I graduated from TUD with a first-class honours in Game Design, voted in as class rep for three years and the received the Student of the Year Award. I’m the lead artist and co-founder of indie studio DESKRAGE which has showcased at Comic Con, Gamerfest and Akumakon over 4 years.
I completed Imirt’s Incubator program, which helped me take DESKRAGE from a hobby to a business. I’m currently attending Imirt’s Elevate program, learning valuable insights on leadership and how to take my work to the next level.
Jamie Clarke
Hi there! I'm honoured to have been nominated for the Emerging Talent Award!
After graduating university, I was faced with the harsh reality of the games industry. Finding a stable job seemed unlikely, even with a degree. Starting Clarke Games wasn't an easy decision, but I believe it's the right one. I found clients that needed small games to be made, and kept working on Next Day!, my passion project for the past 2 years.
Now with more clients on the horizon, and Next Day! approaching its release, I hope to soon hire local talents and support the Irish games industry!
Joakim Svensson
My name is Joakim Svensson, I have a Computer Engineering degree. I've started specialising in Mass Entity (ECS) in Unreal Engine.
I've created a plugin called Scalable Modular Behaviour that uses Mass Entity in the background and enables highly performant NPC logic including combat and Smart Object interaction. It supports thousands of entities running StateTrees by using background processors and allows animation synced blueprint actor transitions.
I've started working with an indie studio to implement a custom solution on top of the plugin. I'm also working on creating titles that are fun to play and showcase the plugin features.
Laura Ryder
Laura Ryder is a composer and sound designer from Mayo. She started working in games in 2021, when she scored Give Me Strength by James Poole - which won runner up for Best Game Audio in the 2021 Imirt Awards.
Since then she has enjoyed working with various lovely developers and studios such as Dreamfeel, Space Lion Studios, Enigma Studio, Day Off Interactive, and Round Robin Interactive.
Laura enjoys designing and implementing music systems, bullying devs into using audio middleware, and making game music about birds. And talking about birds. And birds.
Mark Robinson
*Mark is co-founder and lead designer of award-winning Space Lion Studios. Originally from England but moving to Ireland in 2016, he started his journey in the industry working in player support before branching out into community management, brand marketing, team leadership and project management, before establishing his own studio in 2023 and adding to his skillset in art, level design, event management and bizdev.
His studio launched Axyz, a puzzle-platformer with a vaporwave aesthetic, which went on to win Most Anticipated at the Irish Game Awards 2025, and they were also a recipient of the IndieDev Prototype Fund for their ongoing project, Balloons of Paradise.
I have no idea what I'm doing.
Niamh Germaine
I’m Niamh, a game designer at Larian Studios. I completed a BA in Game Design in 2022, and it’s been a wild ride ever since!
I’ve worked at Larian as a boardgame playtester, technical editor, and playtesting coordinator for Baldur’s Gate 3 - while assistant-teaching Game Design at TU Dublin and running boardgame demos for Larian at various American gaming conventions. I joined Black Shamrock for a year as a junior game designer, then rejoined Larian in my current role.
I plan to keep the momentum going until I’m inevitably buried in my own hoard of boardgames and polyhedral dice.
Richard Naughton
Richard Naughton is an emerging business leader, becoming a successful story of how Indie Dev, New Frontiers and other programs pave the way for the growth of the Irish games industry.
A strong leader through good planning, connecting with his team and being resourceful with his extensive network of professionals. Richard is innovating on business strategy with the ultimate goal of becoming a sustainable employer.
Confident as a technical creative, Richard can execute any part of a game project to a high standard. He’s an experienced public speaker and a prominent figure in the Galway games community as one of the organisers for Galway Game Jam.
Tom Daly
Tom has been in the games industry for about 3 years and released their first two solo games in 2025, with a focus on continuing to create multiple small games every year.
Tom is from Wicklow but based in Belfast and has loved being part of both the North and South game dev communities, including taking part in the first-of-its-kind cross-border scheme IndieDev 2024 and NI Screen’s MiniGame programme - both as part of Dott Studios - and gaining invaluable experience and knowledge to take into future projects.
Úna-Minh Kavanagh
Úna-Minh Kavanagh is a proud Kerrywoman, producer and solo games dev whose shipped two commercial titles, Saltsea Chronicles (2023) and Eyes of Hellfire(2025), project managed seven Irish language localisations, including Among Us, and has made small, strange, story-driven games like the well-received Chicken Fillet Rolls!
While her main discipline is production and Irish language localisation, Úna-Minh’s also a games writer and most recently wrote about games production for the book CTRL: Essays on Video Games (2026).
She’s a massive fan of iterative feedback, game jams and adores the mix of playfulness and exceptional creativity that comes with making games.