The annual Proto Awards, set up to highlight and honour the best and brightest the VR industry has to offer, is over for another year, with Google’s Tilt Brush walking away as the overall winner. But who else made the grade? Here’s a breakdown of all the nominees and winners across all categories.

Now in its 3rd year, the annual Proto Awards have shadowed Oculus’ developer conference Connect since the first event, with an aim to celebrate the best that this new immersive industry has to offer. Held at AVALON in Hollywood, CA, the event featured nominees vying for recognition across 17 categories, and one special award. Here they all are.

Best Social Experience:

AltspaceVR – AltspaceVR (Winner)
Lecture VR – Immersive VR Education Ltd.
Rec Room – Against Gravity
Pool Nation VR – Perilous Orbit & Cherry Pop Games
New Retro Arcade: Neon – Digital Cybercherries Limited
Speech Center VR – Cerevrum Inc

SEE ALSO
AltspaceVR Debuts Key Tech to Massively Scale Virtual Events

Best Mobile Experience:

Tactera – E McNeill (Winner)
The Night Cafe: A VR Tribute to Vincent Van Gogh – Borrowed Light Studios
Ctrl – Breaking Fourth
Zen Zone – Aaron Lemke
Pearl – Google Spotlight Studios
Music From Every Angle – m ss ng p eces

SEE ALSO
'Tactera' Review

Most Transportive Experience:

theBlu: Season 1 – Wevr (Winner)
Apollo 11 VR – Immersive VR Education Ltd.
The Climb – Crytek
ADR1FT – Three One Zero
Old Friend – Tyler Hurd
Irrational Exuberance: Prologue – Ben Vance, Wevr

SEE ALSO
My Hands-on With WEVR’s 'theBlu: Encounter' – Face to Face with a Giant of the Sea

Best Game:

Space Pirate Trainer – I-Illusions (Winner)
Raw Data – Survios
The Gallery – Episode 1: Call of the Starseed – Cloudhead Games
Job Simulator – Owlchemy Labs
The Climb – Crytek
Bullet Train – Epic Games

SEE ALSO
'Raw Data' Early Access Review, Now with Oculus Touch Support

Best Interaction Design:

Fantastic Contraption – Northway Games & Radial Games (Winner)
Job Simulator – Owlchemy Labs
Waltz of the Wizard – Aldin Dynamics
SoundStage – Logan Olson
Tilt Brush – Google
Rec Room – Against Gravity

SEE ALSO
Open-world Building and Minimalist Game Design with Fantastic Contraption

Most Innovative:

Tilt Brush – Google (Winner)
Pixel Ripped 1989 – Pixel Ripped Inc
Blocks – Leap Motion
VR Noir: A Day Before the Night – StartVR
The Lab – Valve
FIREBIRD: La Peri (Book 1) – Innerspace VR

SEE ALSO
'Firebird: La Peri' Adds LoTR Actor in a Re-launch of One of VR's Finest Experiences

Best Original Score:

Pearl – Google Spotlight Stories (Winner)
Zen Zone – Aaron Lemke
Pixel Ripped 1989 – Pixel Ripped Inc
Apollo 11 VR – Immersive VR Education Ltd.
Windlands – Psytec Games Ltd
The Rose And I – Penrose Studios

Best Live Action Experience:

The Argo File – Argos VR (Winner)
Music From Every Angle – m ss ng p eces
Hard World for Small Things – Wevr
Zoolander Infinity – David Rosenbaum, Jaunt
Waves – Wevr
The Presence – Pseudoscience Pictures

SEE ALSO
Jaunt's New 'Zoolander 2' 360 Video is a Farcical Romp

Best Sound Design:

Space Pirate Trainer – I-Illusions (Winner)
Zen Zone – Aaron Lemke
Trials on Tatooine: A Cinematic Star Wars Experiment – ILMxLAB
Chronos – Gunfire Games
Reeps One: Does Not Exist – Aurelia Soundworks
Land’s End – ustwo games

SEE ALSO
Hands-on: Star Wars 'Trials on Tatooine' Let Me Wield the Iconic Lightsaber

Best Educational Experience:

Apollo 11 VR – Immersive VR Education Ltd. (Winner)
Lecture VR – Immersive VR Education Ltd.
Grav|Lab – Gravitational Testing Facility & Observations – Mark Schramm
House of Languages VR – Fox3D
C O S M Worlds Within Worlds – Dynamoid
The Field Trip to Mars – Framestore VR Studio & McCann

SEE ALSO
'Grav|Lab' Lets you Build Incredible Machines with Oculus Touch and HTC Vive

Best Student Experience:

Fruit Golf – Coal Car StudioWe Are Alfred – Embodied Labs (Winner)
Shining360 – Claire Hentschker
Lions & Deer – Lean House Media
Chapel – Dean Moro and Lauren Krikorian
My real virtual body: Body Swapping in virtual reality – Alice Chirico

Best Music Experience:

Soundscape – SNAKE Productions (Winner)
Old Friend – Tyler Hurd
Music From Every Angle – m ss ng p eces
Grace – MacInnes Scott
SoundStage – Logan Olson
Apex – Arjan van Meerten

Best Art Direction:

FIREBIRD: La Peri (Book 1) – Innerspace VRKismet – Psyop (Winner)
Chronos – Gunfire Games
Apex – Arjan van Meerten
Cosmic Trip – Funktronic Labs
theBlu: Season 1 – Wevr

SEE ALSO
Ben Gabbard on the VR Design & Gameplay of ‘Chronos’

Best Narrative Experience:

The Gallery – Episode 1: Call of the Starseed – Cloudhead Games (Winner)
Waves – Wevr
Knives – Adam Cosco
Pearl – Google Spotlight Stories
The Martian VR Experience – Twentieth Century Fox, Fox Innovation Lab, RSA Films, The Virtual Reality Company
Kiya – Emblematic Group

SEE ALSO
Hands On: The Martian VR Experience is a Triumph in Motion

Best Independent Experience:

Space Pirate Trainer – I-Illusions (Winner)
Tactera – E McNeill
SoundStage – Logan Olson
Serious Sam VR: The Last Hope – Croteam
Shape Space VR – Zen Parade – Kevin Mack
Windlands – Psytec Games Ltd

Best User Interface:

Modbox – Alientrap (Winner)
Dota VR Hub – Valve
Envelop VR – Bob Berry
Orian Trail VR – Schell Games
Transport – Wevr
Speech Center VR – Cerevrum Inc

SEE ALSO
Inside the 'DOTA 2 VR Hub'

Best Overall:

Tilt Brush – Google (Winner)
Raw Data – Survios
Space Pirate Trainer – I-Illusions
Bullet Train – Epic Games
Modbox – Alientrap
The Lab – Valve

SEE ALSO
Hands-on: Epic's New Action-packed 'Robo Recall' FPS is Beautiful, Brutal Arcade Fun

The Founders’ Award:

Dr. Thomas A. Furness III

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Paul James
Based in the UK, Paul has been immersed in interactive entertainment for the best part of 27 years and has followed advances in gaming with a passionate fervour. His obsession with graphical fidelity over the years has had him branded a ‘graphics whore’ (which he views as the highest compliment) more than once and he holds a particular candle for the dream of the ultimate immersive gaming experience. Having followed and been disappointed by the original VR explosion of the 90s, he then founded RiftVR.com to follow the new and exciting prospect of the rebirth of VR in products like the Oculus Rift. Paul joined forces with Ben to help build the new Road to VR in preparation for what he sees as VR’s coming of age over the next few years.
  • Alvin Wang Graylin

    Contrary to what some vendors say…clearly we see the best titles and MOST Winners are Vive Titles! ;)

    • Me

      The Vive won the first round, that’s clear. Still, I wonder what the second round, with the Touch out and so many high profiles on the board with Oculus (Disney !) will look like.

      I have to say I’m still worried.

      • Get Schwifty!

        Worried about what, if Oculus should succeed in the market you lose your toy? You guys need to chill, there is no reason to be worried and stop taking everything as a competition of platforms. There’s only two reasons to do that, either you are worried you made the wrong choice (which ultimately is a personal judgement) or you wont have access to some media IF Oculus were really that serious about locking down Oculus Home (which they aren’t). No question Valve moved out of the gate earlier, as they settled for a stand-in design for their controllers, while Oculus is playing the long game. Given those points, neither platform is endangered at the moment, and the future looks bright for VR on the whole, and any software which is an “exclusive” will only be that way for a relatively short period, less than six months. Parity between the platforms is pretty much a given; just accept it, and no one is wed to a platform, you can change anytime you can pony up that $799.00 USD also.

        I swear, when I count the posts of platform comparison, it’s like 10 to 1 Vive owners making comparisons and pushing division. I guess its natural, humans are really still just monkeys throwing feces at each other while trying to get a higher branch in the trees, but sometimes it just gets tiring to observe. It’s like phone wars, my God how much time is wasted on justifying what amounts to a personal purchasing decision over things which do 90+% of the same thing. Likewise the same problem exists in the VR world it seems….

        • Me

          Geez, why the hate ?

          I’m just saying that, as a Vive user, I am worried that while most of the current VR oomph is being captured by FB money, the steam platform will slowly shift to a sole indie experience instead of a more consumer-friendly product.

          You say short period exclusives, but if we have 6 more month of crappy demos, the concept of a Vive as a device people would buy in their local store is as good as dead and probably HTC with it.

          This isn’t what I’ve signed for, and I expected much more from Valve. Everyone says Steam Dev days are close, but I don’t expect anything.

          Plus I don’t know for you, but I find myself lucky enough to be able to buy one HMD, and getting a second one is out of question.

  • dogtato

    Congrats to the Space Pirate Trainer team. By far my most-played title.

    I was really looking forward to Tactera on Gear VR, but then I got a Vive and after various things I can’t play gear vr anymore.