Not only does Elden Ring return to The Lands Between with the momentous Game of the Year award, but the title also claimed the prize in the Best Design and Best Visual Arts categories. The GDCA ceremony took place as part of the 2023 Game Developers Conference (GDC), which is taking place this week at San Francisco’s Moscone Convention Center.

FromSoftware and Bandai Namco Entertainment’s smash hit Elden Ring is the latest game from the team who created the challenging yet rewarding Dark Souls series. The title is directed by Hidetaka Miyazaki, who pioneered the so-called “Soulsborne” genre itself and features writing and world-building from fantasy novelist and writer/producer George R. R. Martin (A Song of Ice and Fire, Game of Thrones, House of the Dragon).

Sony Santa Monica Studio’s God of War Ragnarök also claimed high honors at the show, winning the Audience Award, selected by gamers around the world who cast their vote for the best game released in the past year, as well as Best Audio and Best Technology. God of War Ragnarök continues the story of the demigod Kratos and his son Atreus as they face down powerful foes from Norse Mythology while the world approaches Ragnarök, the world-ending cataclysmic battle.

The other big winners of the night include Stray (BlueTwelve Studio and Annapurna Interactive), which won Best Debut, IMMORTALITY (Half Mermaid Productions) which won the Innovation Award, Pentiment (Obsidian Entertainment and Xbox Game Studios), winner for Best Narrative and Citizen Sleeper (Jump Over The Age/Fellow Traveller) which won the award for Social Impact.

The Game Developers Choice Awards also spotlights influential figures in the industry who push the medium forward each year. This year, the GDCA was honored to present the Lifetime Achievement Award to John Romero, who helped pioneer the first-person shooter genre, the widely popular multiplayer gamemode “Deathmatch” and much more through his work on games such as Wolfenstein 3D, Doom and Quake. This year’s Pioneer Award was posthumously awarded to Mabel Addis, widely regarded as the first female video game designer, who designed The Sumerian Game for the IBM 7090 in 1964. Mabel’s award was accepted on her behalf by Mabel’s grandson, Erik Johnson.

The 23rd Annual Game Developers Choice Awards winners are:

• Best Debut: Stray (BlueTwelve Studio/Annapurna Interactive)
• Best Visual Art: Elden Ring (FromSoftware Inc./Bandai Namco Entertainment)
• Best Audio: God of War Ragnarök (Santa Monica Studio/Sony Interactive Entertainment)
• Best Narrative: Pentiment (Obsidian Entertainment/Xbox Game Studios)
• Social Impact Award: Citizen Sleeper (Jump Over The Age/Fellow Traveller)
• Innovation Award: IMMORTALITY (Half Mermaid Productions)
• Best Technology: God of War Ragnarök (Santa Monica Studio/Sony Interactive Entertainment)
• Best Design: Elden Ring (FromSoftware Inc./Bandai Namco Entertainment)
• Audience Award: God of War Ragnarök (Santa Monica Studio/Sony Interactive Entertainment)
• Game of the Year: Elden Ring (FromSoftware Inc./Bandai Namco Entertainment)
• Pioneer Award: Mabel Addis
• Lifetime Achievement Award: John Romero

Cosmo D Studios’ Betrayal At Club Low won the Seumas McNally Grand Prize for Best Independent Game at the 25th annual Independent Games Festival (IGF) Awards tonight. The IGF Awards honors the most innovative and excellent independent games of the past year, and took place as part of the 2023 Game Developers Conference (GDC) at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco.

Betrayal At Club Low is an indie-tabletop-inspired RPG that takes place in the eponymous former coffin factory-turned-nightclub. Putting players in the shoes of an undercover agent trying to rescue his old colleague, players engage in tactile dice-driving gameplay that gives them multiple ways to approach each undercover mission, and tense decisions (and consequences) at every turn. In addition to the Grand Prize, Betrayal At Club Low also won the Nuovo Award, which honors titles that make the awards jurors think differently about games as a medium. Betrayal At Club Low is only the second game in IGF Awards history to receive both the Seumas McNally Grand Prize and the Nuovo Award in the same year, with the first game being Cart Life in 2013.

The full slate of 2023 IGF Award winners represent a variety of wildly divergent aesthetics and themes and includes Excellence in Narrative winner IMMORTALITY, a haunting new cinema-inspired mystery game from Half Mermaid Productions and the creator of Her Story. The Excellence in Design Winner, The Case of the Golden Idol by Color Gray Games is a detective game that allows players to think and investigate freely to build their own theories behind 12 strange and gruesome murders.

The Best Student Game, Slider by Daniel Carr is a charming pixel art puzzle game that has players rearranging map tiles to unlock treasures, and in the process, help reconnect humanity and find your cat. The Excellence in Audio winner, The Forest Quartet by Mads & Friends is a minimalistic puzzle adventure that has players incarnate the spirit of a recently passed lead singer as they travel through the minds of the spirit’s former bandmates to reignite their musical spark as they deal with grief. The Excellence in Visual Art prize was awarded to DeskWorks’ RPG Time: The Legend of Wright, a handmade notebook adventure that hopscotches between gameplay genres and features a unique, hand-drawn art style. Potionomics by Voracious Games won the community-driven Audience Award, which is chosen by fans through a public voting process.

The winners of the 25th annual IGF Awards are:

• Excellence in Visual Art ($2,000): RPG Time: The Legend of Wright (DeskWorks Inc.)
• Excellence in Audio ($2,000): The Forest Quartet (Mads & Friends)
• Excellence in Design ($2,000): The Case of the Golden Idol (Color Gray Games)
• Excellence in Narrative ($2,000): IMMORTALITY (Half Mermaid Productions)
• Nuovo Award ($2,000): Betrayal at Club Low (Cosmo D Studios)
• Best Student Game ($2,000): Slider (Daniel Carr)
• Audience Award ($2,000): Potionomics (Voracious Games)
• Seumas McNally Grand Prize ($10,000): Betrayal at Club Low (Cosmo D Studios)