TGS2026 Indie Awards Name 8 Winners, SOWN Finalists, and Pokky's 5th Ambassador Term
The Excellence Awards are a new layer of recognition on top of the SELECTED INDIE 80 exhibition program, giving CESA a second, more selective stage to spotlight creativity and completeness before the show opens.
Key Facts
- The SELECTED INDIE 80 Excellence Awards named 8 winners: 1 Platinum (Finding Polka) and 7 Gold, announced August 10, 2026.
- SOWN2026 selected 8 finalists from 151 applications, with presentations on September 17 at Makuhari Messe.
- Pokky was appointed official indie game ambassador for TGS2026 for the 5th consecutive year.
- The SELECTED INDIE 80 website lists 79 works chosen from 1,513 applications.
- The award ceremony is scheduled for September 18 at the International Party + Indie Night.
Reporting from 2 sources: 4Gamer.net, Game Spark.
The Computer Entertainment Association announced on August 10 the winners of the newly established SELECTED INDIE 80 Excellence Awards and the finalists for SENSE OF WONDER NIGHT 2026 (SOWN2026), part of the indie game project at Tokyo Game Show 2026. Lidrox's Finding Polka took the Platinum Award. Seven titles received Gold Awards, including Valentin Wirth's Become, a micro-scale adventure ADV featuring a sperm protagonist, which also appears among the SOWN finalists. The Excellence Awards evaluate works from the SELECTED INDIE 80 lineup on creativity and completeness. The ceremony is set for September 18 at the International Party + Indie Night. SOWN2026, now in its 19th edition, selected eight finalists from 151 applications; presentations run from 15:50 on September 17 at Makuhari Messe and stream on the official TGS program. Video creator Pokky returns as official indie game ambassador for a fifth consecutive year, serving as a SOWN judge and announcing the Pokky Award during the event. The SELECTED INDIE 80 website, launched the same day, lists 79 works chosen from 1,513 applications.
The Excellence Awards split into one Platinum and seven Gold winners, with Finding Polka described as a puzzle adventure about searching for a dog resembling one the protagonist had as a child. The Gold list spans five countries and regions: Face UFO and Adap + ation from Japan, YARETA from Taiwan, Become from the Czech Republic, INTERSCAPE from South Korea, and Joint Responsibility from the UK, alongside Studio ZeF's There Is No Door That Won't Open Without a Black Key.
SOWN2026 finalists include Face UFO, ANRI, UNKNOT! -Annotto!-, Flip☆Panic!, Selfie Worm, Teach My Sister to Drive, Become, and LEGACY CODE. Selfie Worm is a desktop idle ADV where worms provide healing, and Teach My Sister to Drive is a driving lesson simulation using voice. Pokky, a commentator with 3.7 million YouTube subscribers, will release playthrough videos of the winning works on his channel. The SELECTED INDIE 80 card collection, guidebook, and illustration challenge are also part of the program.
- Finding Polka: Platinum Award, by Lidrox, Japan
- Face UFO: Gold Award, by Takuhiro Miyazawa, Japan
- Adap + ation: Gold Award, by Koryu Ishizaki, Japan
- There Is No Door That Won't Open Without a Black Key: Gold Award, by Studio ZeF, Japan
- YARETA: Gold Award, by Areta, Taiwan
- Become: Gold Award, by Valentin Wirth, Czech Republic
- INTERSCAPE: Gold Award, by INTERSCAPE, South Korea
- Joint Responsibility: Gold Award, by Hugecalf Studios, UK
- ANRI: SOWN2026 finalist, by Team Gehanashi, Japan
- UNKNOT! -Annotto!-: SOWN2026 finalist, by P.F.J, China
- Flip☆Panic!: SOWN2026 finalist, by Software Control, Japan
- Selfie Worm: SOWN2026 finalist, by Shojiki Banana, Taiwan
- Teach My Sister to Drive: SOWN2026 finalist, by Easy Fox, South Korea
- LEGACY CODE: SOWN2026 finalist, by Room 127, Japan
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 2 cited sources below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.