Returning for a seventh year, Unity has announced nominations are now open for the 2014 Unity Awards.

Created to celebrate and recognise, in Unity's phrasing, "the most impressive games and other projects being made using Unity", the categories this year run the gamut from Best 3D Visual Experience to Best Student Project.

One change added, however, is how the voting process works.

A post on the Unity Blog clarifies that while Unity will still look through the hundreds of nominations to pick six finalists in each category, it's opening up voting to the Unity Community.

"Community votes will account for 50 per cent of the total vote with Unity employees accounting for the other 50 per cent. This will be the same for all categories except for the Community Choice, which the community will account for 100 per cent of the votes," said Unity's Dan Adams.

Up vote

The submission period for the Unity Awards is open until 30 June 2014, with general voting to begin in July 2014. Winners will be named on 21 August, at the Unity Unite conference in Seattle.

Categories this year include:

• Best 3D Visual Experience
• Best 2D Visual Experience
• Best Gameplay
• Best VizSim Project
• Best Non-game Project
• Best Student Project
• Technical Achievement
• Community Choice
• Golden Cube (best overall)

In order to be nominated, a project must have been released between1 July 2013 and 30 June 2014. Student project submissions must have been a part of the 2013-2014 school year.

Finally, games in early access that aren't considered "final" by 30 June 30 2014 will not be accepted to the 2014 Unity Awards.

To learn more, or to nominate a project, head over to the post over on the Unity Blog.