Digital video game distribution platform Steam is launching its own award-giving body with an interesting twist. Dubbed appropriately as Steam Awards, it relies on the platform's community to pick both nominees and winners. Unlike most award giving bodies which have a set number of categories, Steam Awards will accept category nominations from the community as well.

Steam is encouraging its community members to nominate video game titles based on the nine. Steam said that members would earn badges and experience points for voting and making nominations, which is probably the company's way of telling members that that their efforts, no matter how silly, are greatly appreciated.

Steam has established nine categories for the awards. However, instead of creating categories like "Game of the Year" or "Best RPG Award," Steam took its naming scheme to the next level by setting up subjective category names like "Test of Time" Award, "I'm Not Crying, There's Something In My Eye" Award, "Just Five More Minutes" Award, "Whoooaaaaaaa, Dude!" Award", "I Thought This Game Was Cool Before It Won An Award" Award, "Best Use Of A Farm Animal" Award, "We Didn't Think Of Everything" Award, "Villain Most In Need Of A Hug" Award, and "Game Within A Game" Award.

Steam did not provide any specific requirement for a game to be nominated in a certain category. The company has left the competition open to user's interpretation. Steam users can only cast one vote per category, and they are not allowed to vote for the same game on multiple categories, according to Ars Technica. Community members can nominate and vote for games on the Steam Awards from Nov. 23 to Nov. 29.

The new Steam Awards was launched alongside the annual Steam Autumn Sale. According to Engadget, this year's sale will include 12,841 video game titles, which are expected to have discounts ranging from 10 percent to 92 percent.