BitSummit announces its 2026 awards, including VGC’s Media Highlight award

The annual BitSummit awards have just taken place in Kyoto, Japan as part of BitSummit Punch, the 14th event in its history.

Each year, during the three-day indie game festival, an awards ceremony takes place to acknowledge some of the more interesting exhibits.

Futuristic turn-based RPG Artis Impact won the Vermillion Gate award, which is given each year to the most impressive title of the show.

As BitSummit’s Western partner, VGC also had its own Media Highlight Award, which we gave to the game that we most enjoyed on the show floor.

VGC’s Chris Scullion awarded the prize to Sloppy Forgeries, a comical competitive painting game. A full write-up explaining our pick will follow later this weekend.

The full list of winners is as follows:

BitSummit Punch 2026 Awards

• Vermillion Gate Award – Artis Impact (Mas)
• International Award – Dungeon Clawler (Stray Fawn)
• Innovative Outlaw Award – YaoyoroZOO (AISH)
• Excellence in Game Design Award – Nightmare Operator (DDDistortion)
• Visual Excellence Award – Finding Polka (lidlocks)
• Excellence in Sound Design Award – Cento (Hoshimadara Lab)
• Sponsor Award – PlayStation – Vikings on Trampolines (D-Pad Studio)
• Sponsor Award – ID@Xbox – 60病 The 60-Second Syndrome (Matrix, Hinata)
• Media Highlight Award – VGC – Sloppy Forgeries (Playful Systems)
• Media Highlight Award – Famitsu – Mount Lomyst (Hiko Game)
• Media Highlight Award – Dengeki Online – Weatherium (ぽけそう)
• Media Highlight Award – Gadget Tsushin – Towel Survivor (Mountain Donuts)
• Media Highlight Award – Game*Spark – FEAR FA 98 (Jacob Jazz)
• Media Highlight Award – IGN Japan – Tanuki: Pon’s Summer (Denkiworks)
• Media Highlight Award – 4Gamer.net – Handlime (Bonjory)
• Media Highlight Award – GameMakersJP – Mount Lomyst (Hiko Game)