NYX Awards and how the demo was received
The game took eight Gold and two Silver NYX Game Awards in 2026. The demo's Steam reception was Mixed: players praised the atmosphere and soundtrack and questioned the save and settings limits.
Among the Trolls arrives with an award shelf and a contested demo. In April 2026 the game took ten NYX Game Awards; three months earlier its public demo landed on Steam with a Mixed rating. Both are part of the picture, and the split is instructive.
The ten NYX Game Awards
The NYX Game Awards recognise games across categories from AAA to indie. Among the Trolls won eight Gold and two Silver awards in 2026:
| Award | Category | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Best Storytelling | PC Game 2026 | Gold |
| Best Game Design | PC Game 2026 | Gold |
| Best Art Direction | PC Game 2026 | Gold |
| Best Visual Art | PC Game 2026 | Gold |
| First Person View | PC Game 2026 | Gold |
| Adventure | 2026 | Gold |
| Indie | 2026 | Gold |
| Survival | 2026 | Gold |
| Best Music | PC Game 2026 | Silver |
| Best Audio Design | PC Game 2026 | Silver |
The two Silvers are notable because the game's sound design is one of its strongest documented features — layered death-metal vocals and manipulated wood recordings for creature voices, biome-specific bird calls, and a score built from repitched acoustic instruments.
How the demo was received
The free demo released on 12 February 2026 has settled at a Mixed Steam rating: 58 positive reviews against 41 negative, out of 99 reviews. Reading the negative reviews, the complaints cluster predictably:
- No save function. Several players said the lack of saving limited how long they would play.
- No key rebinding and limited graphics options. The demo build restricted settings; the team addressed the graphics side in the demo's own FAQ.
- Pacing. A long intro, a walk, and a long Crow conversation before the game opened up.
- Expectations. Players who expected a hardcore survival game compared it unfavourably to other forest survival titles.
The positive reviews praise the same things repeatedly: the atmosphere, the Finnish mythology angle, the visual identity, and the soundtrack. Two comparisons come up more than any others — Green Hell and Valheim — and one reviewer described it as a deliberately slow experience that lends weight to the story's framework.
What the developers did with the feedback
They answered it in public and in patches. The demo's four hotfixes fixed crashes, hostile behaviour, quest text, cutscene skipping, quickslot and journal issues, and a progress blocker. Then, in April, they published the announcement that answered the biggest structural criticism: instead of shipping an Early Access slice, they would ship the whole story as a 1.0 release.
Reading the reaction sensibly
- Weigh the positive reviews for atmosphere, story and sound; they are consistent and specific.
- Weigh the negative reviews for pacing and settings; both were partly demo-specific.
- Check whether the complaints you care about are demo-only limits, which the release build resolves.
- Ignore the comparison to hardcore survival games if that is not what you want from this one.
- The award results and the review score are measuring different things: craft versus fit.
Sources
- "Among The Trolls Wins 10 NYX Game Awards": Steam news archive
- "A New Path for Among the Trolls" (response to demo and playtest feedback): Steam news archive
- Demo store page and reviews: Among the Trolls Demo on Steam
Game imagery on this page is official promotional material, used for reference.
