By Sam Garcia / Staff writer, with CNA

The Taiwanese creative studio Team9 won the Game Designers Award at this year’s Japan Game Awards yesterday for Word Game (文字遊戲), a video game with characters and scenes made entirely from Chinese characters.

The Japan Game Awards were founded in 1996 by the Computer Entertainment Supplier’s Association to recognize outstanding video games.

The Game Designers Award was founded in 2010 to encourage innovative and creative games by Masahiro Sakurai, the producer of Kirby and Super Smash Bros, who has served as chair of the judging panel.

Photo from the Team9 Facebook page

This years’ awards ceremony was held in Tokyo yesterday evening, with a Taiwanese game securing the designers award.

Word Game “reminds players of old PC games playing with classic normal characters,” judges said on the Japan Game Awards official Web site.

The game “won by an overwhelming majority of votes even in the Game Designers Award, where the originality is the top priority,” they said.

The judges praised the team for adapting the game from traditional Chinese into a Japanese version, saying “it took advanced skills and clever solutions.”

Sakurai said that the Game Designers Award would not return to the Japan Game Awards next year as he plans to focus on game development and could not find an adequate successor to take up his mantle.

“This is the last year that we’re doing it, and the reason is because there’s nobody who’s going to replace me,” he said at the awards ceremony, adding that he searched for a replacement for a couple of years.

Team9 said on Facebook that it was honored that Word Game was selected as the final recipient of the Game Designers Award.

The award’s emphasis on originality and creativity reflects the team’s aspirations in designing the game, Team9 said, adding that being recognized in this way is incredibly rewarding.

Pokémon Pokopia won the Grand Award this year, with judges praising its popularity across age groups and its “carefree, slow-life experience.”

“It received overwhelming support from both Pokémon fans and the wider gaming community — with many calling it soothing and addictive,” they said.