Machinamazing: Saxxy Awards Winners Declared

Whoa. Hey there. Sorry, I'm just coming round following the Saxxy Awards on Wednesday. I don't even remember Thursday. There I was, seated between Morrissey and Prince, then I have a vague memory of Mozzer whipping out a hip flask that smelt like paint stripper and... nothing. It's a blank. I don't even know who won. I awoke in a cemetery this morning.

The Saxxies, of course, are the annual fan-voted awards for short films made in Valve's Source Filmmaker. They're short flicks about TF2, Portal 2, and Dota 2, but with the care Valve puts into developing characters and recording odd edge-case lines of dialogue, folks can be jolly creative.

I like that entries run the full range from short silly things people made in a day, roughly the equivalent of stop-motion made with action figures, to carefully-crafted dramatic tales of friendship and sorrow. Some are about the base games, some focus on the characters Valve has created, some try to create their own, and some are about the medium itself.

I particularly enjoyed Comedy nominee Tidehunter's Tactics, a tale of sailors, sea monsters and hubris, DEFECT_ from the Drama awards, a little story about self-aware AI thrust into battle, and the cartoon Action of Rivalry Rush. What caught your eye, gang?

Valve themselves released a new big TF2 comic yesterday too, you know.

But here, ladies and gentlemen, here is your 2014 Saxxy Awards Overall Winner: