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Record crowds for Adelaide’s biggest video games showcase as SAGE 2026 reveals award winners

07 February 2026

SAGE 2026 South Australian Game Exhibition announced the winners of the third annual SAGE Awards at a red carpet gala event on Saturday night, topping off a record-breaking weekend at Adelaide’s biggest video games expo. A record 3,700+ video game developers, players and fans snapped up tickets to the two-day showcase event to play and experience the best in South Australian-made video games and meet the talented people behind them.

Presented by the South Australian Film Corporation (SAFC), SAGE is a super showcase of South Australia’s video game development sector, running for its fourth year in 2026 as a special pre-festival activation on the Adelaide Fringe program.

The SAGE Awards were announced at a gala red carpet event at Adelaide Studios on Saturday night as part of the SA Game Industry Awards (SAGIAs), presented by the SA Games Association (SAGA) in partnership with the SAFC.

The SAGE Award for Best in Exhibition, with a $2,000 prize from the SAFC, went to Little Bandit – the studio name of solo Adelaide developer Ditte Wad Andersen – for her game The Troll & the Witch’s House.

Featuring fully hand-drawn 2D art and animations and characters inspired by traditional folklore tales, The Troll & the Witch’s House is a fun point-and-click adventure game where you play as a troll trapped in a strange house filled with mysteries, solving puzzles through creative and logical thinking.

For the first time, the SAGE Jury announced a shortlist of three games considered for Best in Exhibition, with VR title Kaiju Battle Simulator by Two Lives Left and 2025 SAGE Elevate Award winner TOYA by The RnD Department named alongside The Troll & the Witch’s House.

The SAGE Elevate Award, with a prize of $1,000 in legal services from SAGE partner and games industry specialist Cam Rogers Legal was awarded to first-time exhibitors Omni Games Studio for The Last Library, an action-adventure game where players must face off with a dragon to uncover magical knowledge in the biggest library in the city.

The art-driven metroidvania Peppermint by Cowboy Fish and visual novel Night Shift: 1999 by Winter Schloss Studios were both shortlisted for the SAGE Elevate Award.

SAGE Jury Chair, SAFC Acting Game Development Executive Neil Rennison, said: “The quality across all entries was outstanding, and selecting just two winners from the exhibition this year was no easy task. These projects stood out for their creative ambition and technical excellence, and for the bright futures of the teams behind them. They showcase exactly why South Australia continues to grow as a centre of excellence for game development.”

In a new addition to the SAGE Awards this year, the SAFC presented the inaugural SAGE SA Games Industry Achievement Award to Team Cherry, the Adelaide indie studio behind global smash hits Hollow Knight and Hollow Knight: Silksong, in recognition of their exceptional and enduring contribution to South Australia’s games industry.

Rennison said: “For a relatively small indie studio from Adelaide, Team Cherry’s impact on the global games industry has been nothing short of massive. Their games Hollow Knight and Hollow Knight: Silk Song have been embraced by millions worldwide, and cemented them as one of the most respected independent studios in the world. The SAFC is pleased to celebrate them with this new SAGE Award in recognition of their exceptional contribution – not just to games, but to the reputation and ambition of South Australia’s creative industries as a whole, and for the inspiration their work continues to provide to developers locally and internationally.”

Team Cherry was also a winner of a SAGIA Award, taking out SAGIA Game of the Year for Hollow Knight: Silk Song, while SA’s Half Giant won the SAGIA for Most Impactful Studio. Individual SAGIA awards were won by SA games sector figures Heidi Borge (Rising Star), Claudia Watson (Commitment to Excellence), Rhys Bartholomew (Industry Treasure) and Alyssa Taylor (Pat Webb Community Impact Award). For more information about the SAGIAs go to sagames.org

SAGE was bigger and better than ever in 2026, with two action packed days showcasing South Australian games ingenuity and innovation from a record 41 local studios and developers, including 15 games or studios exhibiting at SAGE for the first time, enhanced by a massive program of panel discussions featuring industry heavyweights.

The SAGE fun will continue online after the event on the SAGE Steam event page, featuring a range of games from this year’s exhibitors for you to download and play. Plus, all SAGE Advice panel discussion sessions and talks will soon be available for repeat viewing via the SAGE website and the SAFC’s Youtube channel, thanks to filming by SAGE Media Partner Channel 44. Check out www.sagameexhibition.com

SAGE 2026 was proudly presented by the South Australian Film Corporation, supported by Platinum Sponsor Big Ant Studios, and Major Government Partner Screen Australia.

Downloads

• Download the full media release (641kb PDF)

Awards Photo Gallery

All awards photos by Ryan Jiannis.