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Year of the Cicadas, a VR game developed by PreviewLabs with Dr. Kimberly Hieftje and XR Peds, has won the Best Indie Creator(s) award at the Auggie Awards.
The Auggie Awards are widely considered to be the most recognized industry accolades for XR innovation.
Year of the Cicadas is a VR game that tells the story of Kimberly Hieftje, PhD, who lost her son Cody when he was only six years old. Through the timeline of the emergence of the Brood X Cicadas, which takes place only once every 17 years, Kim tells the story of her grief. The game takes you through a series of scenes that are significant in this journey, like the first Christmas after Cody’s passing.
Kim, who is the life partner of our founder Bernard and co-founder of the XR Peds lab at Yale School of Medicine, worked with PreviewLabs to develop the game.
The Auggie Awards are a long-standing celebration of the XR industry, taking place during the AWE USA conference. At the 16th edition of this conference, Year of the Cicadas claimed the first prize in the Best Indie Creator category.
AWE, short for the Augmented World Expo, is an annual international conference focused on augmented reality, virtual reality, and spatial computing. The Auggie Awards are its center piece, widely considered to be the most recognized industry accolades for XR innovation.
The awards process begins with a community-driven public voting phase to narrow down industry nominations, after which an expert panel of judges determines the ultimate winners. These winners are traditionally announced and honored live on stage during a dedicated awards ceremony at the AWE USA event.
The program features a diverse array of categories designed to highlight different facets of the medium, including Best Game or Toy, Best Healthcare and Wellness Solution, Best Indie Creator, and Best Art or Film.
You can find more about the Auggie Awards and its 2026 winners on the AWE website.