2017 Games of the Year

What a fantastic year it has been for games across all platforms! This year Facebook celebrated the 1-year anniversary of Instant Games on Messenger, which has more than 70 games available to play on your own or against friends. On Gameroom, our PC desktop client, we've added more than 200 games, and there has been no shortage of excellent titles on our web platform as games make the transition to HTML5. As we look back on the year, we want to take a moment to acknowledge and honor some of the best games on Facebook.

The nominees are some of the best games to come out on our platforms in the past year, and this time we invited a panel of industry experts to vote for their favorite games in each category. Without further ado, let's check out the winners!

BEST INSTANT GAME:

• 4 Pics 1 Word by LOTUM

• Dino Ballz by SundayToz

• Golden Boot by Nordeus

• WINNER: AdVenture Capitalist by Hyper Hippo Productions

Who knew making money could be so fun, and so easy? A capitalism simulator that practically plays itself, AdVenture Capitalist quickly lures you in with its simple yet addictive gameplay. It's rewarding to see your businesses expand and your revenues skyrocket, even when you're idle. Join some friends via group chat on Facebook Messenger, and you can't help but check in often to ensure that they don't end out on top.

BEST WEB GAME:

• Bubble Witch by King

• Dakota Farm Adventures by RJ Games

• WINNER: June's Journey by Wooga

From Wooga, the developers behind Pearl's Peril, June's Journey is a beautiful hidden-object game filled with mystery and romance set in the 1920s. The game immediately pulls you into its story and whisks you from one detailed location to the next. In between scanning for clues, you can renovate a gorgeous estate as you collect materials. Designed for those who love the genre, anyone can easily find themselves engrossed in June's Journey.

BEST FREE TO PLAY GAMEROOM GAME:

• Pirates of the Caribbean: Tides of War by JOYCITY

• War Robots by Pixonic

• Crusaders of Light by NetEase, Inc

• WINNER: Star Wars: Commander by Disney

Available on multiple platforms, Star Wars: Commander on Gameroom gives you more screen real estate as you build out your empire or expand your rebel alliance. For fans of the base building genre, the game combines the familiar gameplay with one of the world's most beloved franchises. It's is a must-play for anyone who's a fan of either, and with Facebook login your progress is synced across any device.

BEST GAMEROOM GAME:

• The Eyes of Ara by 100 Stones Interactive

• Beholder by Warm Lamp Games

• Rise of Balloons by Mirum Studio

• Heart's Medicine by GameHouse

• WINNER: 1979 Revolution: Black Friday byiNK Stories

1979 Revolution: Black Friday is based on true stories from the Iranian revolution between 1978-1981. As a photojournalist armed with nothing but a camera, your actions determines the fate of those around you. It's an intense and incredible experience that gives the player the power of choice, while showing you both sides of the conflict. The game not only stands out as our Best Gameroom Game, but it is also Facebook's Game of the Year. Congratulations iNK Stories!

Facebook Game of the Year: 1979 Revolution: Black Friday

Congratulations to all our winners and nominees in all the categories. A huge thank you to the developers for bringing the games to Facebook and to our community for playing. We wish everyone a happy holiday season and look forward to an amazing 2018!

Special thanks to all our judges below for taking the time to play through all the games and for voting on the winners.

Brendan Sinclair is the senior editor of GamesIndustry.biz. He has been writing about games since 1999, and his work has appeared in a variety of outlets including GameSpot, USgamer, and Kotaku. He lives in Toronto, which is a wonderful city except for its unfortunate shortage of pinball tables.

Dave Bradley is a journalist and editor with 20 years of experience. He's been a gamer all his life but his first professional review was published in 1997 in PC Format. Since then he's worked across various platforms and forms of entertainment, notably running SFX magazine for a decade. Now he's in charge of editorial at Steel Media, which operates the leading mobile gaming website Pocket Gamer and industry conference Pocket Gamer Connects.

Eli Hodapp is the wizard behind the curtain of TouchArcade, the #1 iOS games site on the Internet. He’s been drinking from the fire hose of mobile game releases since before the App Store even went online, and now spends his days playing as many mobile games as humanly possible while managing the similarly magical crew of TouchArcade writers.

Keza MacDonald has been writing about games for more than 12 years in magazines and books, on websites and TV. She is currently the Games Editor of The Guardian.

Louise Blain is the Senior Channel Editor at GamesRadar+. Also a regular writer for OPM, OXM, and GamesMaster magazine, Louise can mostly be found desperately trying to fill her Pokedex before another Pokemon Go update, or playing Assassin's Creed.

Sophia Tong is the editorial manager at Facebook on the Games team. She has been working in the games industry for more than 12 years as a writer, host, global editor in chief, and partner manager.

Stephanie Chan is a reporter for GamesBeat and writes its weekly IndieBeat column, which highlights in-progress games by independent developers and students from around the world.

Victor Lucas is the creator, executive producer and host of "The Electric Playground,” and is an Emmy-winning videogame television pioneer. He has produced several other series including, “Reviews on the Run,” “The Art of Play,” and “The Lab with Leo.” Victor has also produced documentaries for AAA games like “Metal Gear Solid 4,” “Fallout 3,” and “Batman: Arkham Asylum.