Last night, the 22nd Game Developers Choice Awards and Independent Games Festival ceremonies were held in San Francisco after being away for the last few years. Two standout titles led the ceremonies — Inscryption and Unpacking.
The former title won big and won four awards, including Game of the Year at the GDC Awards and the Grand Prize at the IGF Awards.
Lifetime Achievement Award
The Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes the career and achievements of a developer who has made an indelible impact on the craft of game development and games as a whole.
Yuji Horii took home the Lifetime Achievement Award at GDC 2022 for his work on the Dragon Quest series.
Audience Award
The Audience Award winner is selected from the list of finalist games from every Main Category. The Audience Award winner is selected through a public vote.
This award went to Valheim from Iron Gate Studio’s
Game of the Year
Inscryption (Daniel Mullins Games / Devolver Digital) WINNER
Forza Horizon 5 (Playground Games / Xbox Game Studios)
Resident Evil Village (Capcom)
Deathloop (Arkane Studios / Bethesda Softworks)
It Takes Two (Hazelight Studios / Electronic Arts)
Honourable Mentions: Halo Infinite (343 Industries / Xbox Game Studios), Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy (Eidos Montreal / Square Enix), Psychonauts 2 (Double Fine / Xbox Game Studios), Chicory: A Colorful Tale (The Chicory: A Colorful Tale Team / Finji), Death’s Door (Acid Nerve / Devolver Digital)
Best Audio
Returnal (Housemarque / Sony Interactive Entertainment)
Unpacking (Witch Beam / Humble) WINNER
Deathloop (Arkane Studios / Bethesda Softworks)
Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy (Eidos Montreal / Square Enix)
Forza Horizon 5 (Playground Games / Xbox Game Studios)
Honourable Mentions: Halo Infinite (343 Industries / Xbox Game Studios), It Takes Two (Hazelight Studios / Electronic Arts), Genesis Noir (Feral Cat Den / Fellow Traveller), Kid A Mnesia: Exhibition (Arbitrarily Good Productions, Namethemachine / Epic Games), Resident Evil Village (Capcom)
Best Debut
Kena: Bridge of Spirits (Ember Lab)
Valheim (Iron Gate Studio / Coffee Stain Publishing) WINNER
Wildermyth (Worldwalker Games / WhisperGames)
The Artful Escape (Beethoven & Dinosaur / Annapurna Interactive)
Sable (Shedworks / Raw Fury)
Honourable Mentions: Genesis Noir (Feral Cat Den / Fellow Traveller), ElecHead (Tsuyomi / NamaTakahashi), Unsighted (Studio Pixel Punk / Humble)
Best Design
It Takes Two (Hazelight Studios / Electronic Arts) WINNER
Psychonauts 2 (Double Fine / Xbox Game Studios)
Halo Infinite (343 Industries / Xbox Game Studios)
Deathloop (Arkane Studios / Bethesda Softworks)
Inscryption (Daniel Mullins Games / Devolver Digital)
Honourable Mentions: Resident Evil Village (Capcom), Unpacking (Witch Beam / Humble), Death’s Door (Acid Nerve, Devolver Digital), Loop Hero (Four Quarters, Devolver Digital)
Innovation Award
It Takes Two (Hazelight Studios / Electronic Arts)
Wildermyth (Worldwalker Games / WhisperGames)
Unpacking (Witch Beam / Humble) WINNER
Inscryption (Daniel Mullins Games / Devolver Digital)
Deathloop (Arkane Studios / Bethesda Softworks)
Honourable Mentions: Returnal (Housemarque / Sony Interactive Entertainment), Chicory: A Colorful Tale (The Chicory: A Colorful Tale Team / Finji), Loop Hero (Four Quarters, Devolver Digital)
Best Narrative
Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy (Eidos Montreal / Square Enix)
Deathloop (Arkane Studios / Bethesda Softworks)
It Takes Two (Hazelight Studios / Electronic Arts)
Psychonauts 2 (Double Fine / Xbox Game Studios) WINNER
Unpacking (Witch Beam / Humble)
Honourable Mentions: Kena: Bridge of Spirits (Ember Lab), Life is Strange: True Colors (Deck Nine / Square Enix), The Forgotten City (Modern Storyteller / Dear Villagers), Inscryption (Daniel Mullins Games / Devolver Digital), Wildermyth (Worldwalker Games / WhisperGames)
Before Your Eyes (GoodbyeWorld Games / Skybound Games)
It Takes Two (Hazelight Studios / Electronic Arts)
Life is Strange: True Colors (Deck Nine / Square Enix)
Boyfriend Dungeon (Kitfox Games) WINNER
Chicory: A Colorful Tale (The Chicory: A Colorful Tale Team / Finji)
Honourable Mentions: Forza Horizon 5 (Playground Games / Xbox Game Studios)
Best Technology
Halo Infinite (343 Industries / Xbox Game Studios)
Forza Horizon 5 (Playground Games / Xbox Game Studios)
Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart (Insomniac Games / Sony Interactive Entertainment) WINNER
Returnal (Housemarque / Sony Interactive Entertainment)
Hitman 3 (IO Interactive)
Honourable Mentions: Battlefield 2042 (EA DICE / Electronic Arts), Resident Evil Village (Capcom)
Best Visual Art
Forza Horizon 5 (Playground Games / Xbox Game Studios)
Kena: Bridge of Spirits (Ember Lab)
Deathloop (Arkane Studios / Bethesda Softworks)
Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart (Insomniac Games / Sony Interactive Entertainment) WINNER
Psychonauts 2 (Double Fine / Xbox Game Studios)
Honourable Mentions: The Artful Escape (Beethoven & Dinosaur / Annapurna Interactive), Resident Evil Village (Capcom), Genesis Noir (Feral Cat Den / Fellow Traveller), Returnal (Housemarque / Sony Interactive Entertainment), Sable (Shedworks / Raw Fury)
Seumas McNally Grand Prize
Inscryption (Daniel Mullins Games) WINNER
Unpacking (Witch Beam)
Loop Hero (Four Quarters)
The Eternal Cylinder (ACE Team)
Cruelty Squad (Consumer Softproducts)
Unsighted (Studio Pixel Punk)
Honourable Mentions: Toem (Something We Made), Norco (Geography of Robots), Overboard! (inkle), Saturnalia (Santa Ragione), Dodgeball Academia (Pocket Trap), Webbed (Sbug Games), Fuzz Dungeon (Jeremy Couillard)
Excellence in Audio
Toem (Something We Made)
Unpacking (Witch Beam)
Jett: The Far Shore (Superbrothers A/V + Pine Scented)
Mini Motorways (Dinosaur Polo Club)
Sable (Shedworks)
Inscryption (Daniel Mullins Games) WINNER
Honourable Mentions: Severed Steel (Greylock Studios), A Musical Story (Glee-Cheese Studios), Death’s Door (Acid Nerve), The Vale: Shadow of the Crown (Falling Squirrel), Kena: Bridge of Spirits (Ember Lab), Overboard! (inkle), The Wild at Heart (Moonlight Kids)
Best Student Game
Cai Cai Balão (Look Up Games)
Abriss – build to destroy (Randwerk Games eG)
Letter Lattice (Ethan Zarov)
SmallLife (Yueqi Wu)
Nainai’s Recipe (Fan Fang, Mai Hou)
Live Adventure (Live Adventure Team) WINNER
Honourable Mentions: Astreia’s Gift (Femy Nassirou & Hervé Blanchot), There You Are (Funky Dango), The Bleeding Tree (No Input Interactive), dumpling.love (the parks staff), Lysfangha (Baptiste Marsac & Daphne Pauchet-Deloffre), Jivana (Team Jivana), Hook Up (Team Hook Up), Come with Me (Xin Ye)
Excellence in Design
Inscryption (Daniel Mullins Games) WINNER
Unpacking (Witch Beam)
Overboard! (inkle)
Strange Horticulture (Bad Viking)
Webbed (Sbug Games)
Midnight Protocol (LuGus Studios)
Honourable Mentions: Loop Hero (Four Quarters), Unsighted (Studio Pixel Punk), Mini Motorways (Dinosaur Polo Club), Card Shark (Nerial), KeyWe (Stonewheat & Sons), Sunshine Heavy Industries (Daisyowl Games)
Excellence in Narrative
Last Call (Nina Freeman and Jake Jefferies)
Neurocracy (Playthroughline)
Closed Hands (Passenger)
Overboard! (inkle)
Inscryption (Daniel Mullins Games)WINNER
Unpacking (Witch Beam
Honourable Mentions: Card Shark (Nerial), Norco (Geography of Robots), The Big Con (Mighty Yell), Tux and Fanny (Ghost Time Games), Opus: Echo of Starsong (Sigono), Sable (Shedworks), Blackhaven (Historiated Games)
Excellence in Visual Art
The Eternal Cylinder (ACE Team)
Behind the Frame: The Finest Scenery (Silver Lining Studio)
Papetura (Petums) WINNER
Fuzz Dungeon (Jeremy Couillard)
The Wild at Heart (Moonlight Kids)
Jett: The Far Shore (Superbrothers A/V + Pine Scented)
Honourable Mentions: Inscryption (Daniel Mullins Games), A Musical Story (Glee-Cheese Studios), Kena: Bridge of Spirits (Ember Lab), Saturnalia (Santa Ragione), Stonefly (Flight School Studio), Cris Tales (Dreams Uncorporated, Syck)
Nuovo Award
Memory Card (Lily Zone) WINNER
Okthryssia and Saturnia’s Bureaucratic Adventures (Outlands)
Space Hole 2020 (Sam Atlas)
Tux and Fanny (Ghost Time Games)
Cruelty Squad (Consumer Softproducts)
Sparkles & Gems (Resnijars)
Fuzz Dungeon (Jeremy Couillard)
Cuccchi (Fantastico Studio & Julian Palacios)
Honourable Mentions: Last Call (Nina Freeman and Jake Jefferies), The Shape of Time (落日间 xpaidia studio), The Under Presents (Tender Claws), ~Song of Homunculus~ (Diamond Ace (Lily Zone + Zoë Sparks)), Card Shark (Nerial), The Vale: Shadow of the Crown (Falling Squirrel)
