Whilst mountain-dew-drinking, cheese-nacho-eating goatee wearers sing praises to the latest Call of Fallout: Battlefront VI, and beanie-hat-wearing, overpriced-mocha-photo-taking hipsters endlessly debate what games actually are (hint: pong rip-offs), freeware games end up being ignored in this emerging flood of games media from both popularizers and journalists alike.

… well, aside from shock-horror and meme-filled products from edgy teens as to perpetuate the zeitgeist of today, and narrative-driven art pieces that get more emotional than David Cage and a computerized old man’s head. That’s great and all, but people do just make rad indie games for free. Really.

Treasures be out there in the seemingly non-stop stream of the games that get uploaded to Game Jolt every day- and we’ve found them for you.

Introducing The Jolties, a new annual awards event where you can find great free games on Game Jolt, and join us in finding the very best.

Wait what?

The Jolties is an annual competition where a compilation of this year’s hot games are judged by Game Jolt users (like you!) throughout this December, which we’re calling the Month of Play. And it’s already begun, lasting ‘til 1st of January 2017.

Oh and don’t worry, you won’t be seeing bad games. We’ve spent the last few months sifting through the site to compile a list of good, solid titles which definitely won’t be a waste of your time.

Let’s do this then! So er, what am I doing exactly?

1. Go to the Month of Play judging site for a listing of all the games.

2. Pick a game, anything that piques your fancy. Go to the game’s page and play it!

3. Have fun, or have even more fun, or have lots and lots of fun. Fun at least is guaranteed™. Then come back and cast your vote on the game on the Month of Play site- not rate the game’s original profile page on the main site, although it’s highly encouraged to rate it in both places!

4. … and repeat if you’d like, no minimum or maximum games need be rated, just play as much as you want.

That’s it?

Yep! And at the end of December we’ll tally up the ratings for each listed game and see which one won (by highest average score), and I’ll be there with a follow-up post announcing the results early January.

If you’d like some more information, please check out The Jolties post on the forums and feel free to ask any questions there or on this article.

This is an exciting new experiment for us and we hope y’all be interested in this little plan to promote freeware games. I think those who participate will be surprised about how many cool, interesting hobbyist creations are out there. In any case, thanks for your time, and happy holidays!