The GameCity Prize 2012 has been won by Thatgamecompany's PSN-exclusive title `Journey', which was selected for the cultural award from six short-listed games including Mass Effect 3, Catherine, Fez, Johann Sebastian Joust, Super Mario 3D Land, and Proteus.

The award, announced at Europe's biggest annual videogame culture festival, was won by Journey, which was recognized as a cultural art-form title. The highlight of the game is that it involves no fights and no danger; and the gamers' key objective is to explore a desert expanse on their way to a mountain, while discovering their inner self and purpose.

The GameCity Prize 2012 was the second GameCity Prize, with the award having been instituted in 2011 at the culture-themed event in Nottingham. The winner of the first GameCity Prize - the GameCity Prize 2011 - was independent phenomenon Minecraft.

The judges who comprised the panel for this year's GameCity Prize included BBC Radio DJ Jo Whiley; BBC broadcaster Samira Ahmed; author and comedian Charlie Higson; Financial Times columnist Lucy Kellaway; British designer Wayne Hemingway; actress Louise Brealey; and comic artist and writer David Gibbons.

Describing Journey as a short yet focused and detailed piece of work, filmmaker Lord Puttnam - who was the chairperson for the GameCity Prize 2012 jury panel - said: "Of all the short-listed titles, Journey presents the player with an especially coherent vision, simultaneously fantastic and familiar."