In addition to Game of the Year, Baldur’s Gate 3 also claimed three other distinguished awards at tonight’s ceremony: Best Narrative, Best Design and the Audience Award. The GDCA ceremony was presented as part of the 2024 Game Developers Conference (GDC), which is taking place this week at San Francisco’s Moscone Convention Center.

Larian Studios’ Baldur’s Gate 3 is a role-playing game based upon the tabletop fantasy RPG system of Dungeons & Dragons and was created by the team who developed the beloved Divinity series. The game was partially released in Early Access in October 2020 but has received a breadth of new content and features leading up to its full release in late 2023. The game is directed by Larian Studios’ founder and CEO Swen Vincke, who has had a hand in all of the studio’s creations since its founding in 1996.

Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom also claimed high honors at the show, winning both the Innovation and Best Technology Awards. The title is a continuation of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, which won Game of the Year, Best Audio and Best Design Awards during the 2018 GDCA ceremony. Visai Games’ Venba also received two awards, with the unique narrative cooking game having all the ingredients needed to be served with the Best Debut and Social Impact Awards. 

Other winners of the night include Alan Wake 2, created by Remedy Entertainment, which received the Best Visual Art Award in recognition of its chilling atmosphere and visually impressive graphics. Hi-Fi Rush by Tango Gameworks took home the Best Audio Award thanks to its impressive soundtrack composed of both licensed and original compositions alongside its unique overall audio direction. 

The Game Developers Choice Awards also took the time to celebrate two important and influential figures in the industry. This year, the GDCA was honored to present the Lifetime Achievement Award to Yoko Shimomura, the respected Japanese composer and pianist who has delighted players across the world thanks to her work creating music for iconic games including Kingdom Hearts, Super Mario RPG, Street Fighter II and Final Fantasy XV. The GDCA also welcomes the return of the Ambassador Award, which is given to individuals who have helped video games advance to a better place. The honor was presented to Fawzi Mesmar, an award-winning creative director, game designer, author, public speaker and mentor whose career has spanned over two decades in the games industry and has had a hand in developing well-known franchises such as the Battlefield, Candy Crush, Mario Rabbids, Star Wars and Persona series.

The 24th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards winners are:

• Best Debut: Venba (Visai Games)
• Best Visual Art: Alan Wake 2 (Remedy Entertainment / Epic Games)
• Best Audio: Hi-Fi Rush (Tango Gameworks / Bethesda Softworks)
• Best Narrative: Baldur's Gate 3 (Larian Studios)
• Social Impact Award: Venba (Visai Games)
• Innovation Award: The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Nintendo)
• Best Technology: The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Nintendo) 
• Best Design: Baldur's Gate 3 (Larian Studios)
• Audience Award: Baldur's Gate 3 (Larian Studios)
• Game of the Year: Baldur's Gate 3 (Larian Studios)
• Ambassador Award: Fawzi Mesmar
• Lifetime Achievement Award: Yoko Shimomura

Visai Games’ Venba won the Seumas McNally Grand Prize for Best Independent Game at the 26th annual Independent Games Festival (IGF) Awards tonight. The IGF Awards is the longest-running festival, summit and showcase honoring the most innovative and excellent independent games of the past year. It took place as part of the 2024 Game Developers Conference (GDC) at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco from March 18 – 22. 

Developed by Visai Games, Venba is a narrative cooking game in which players experience life as an Indian mom who has immigrated to Canada with her family in the 1980s. Players cook various dishes and restore lost recipes, hold branching conversations and explore in this story about family, love, loss and more. In addition to the Grand Prize, Venba was also nominated in the Excellence in Audio, Narrative and Visual Art categories.

The Nuovo Award, which honors titles that make the awards jurors think differently about games as a medium, was awarded to Anthology of the Killer, developed by Thecatamites, Tommy Tone and A. Degen. Anthology of the Killer is a collection of funny, freeware cartoon horror games individually released on Game Jolt. With eight games so far and one more to come, they will all be released in one bundle for convenience once the final game is released. 

The full slate of 2024 IGF Award winners represent a variety of aesthetics, stories and themes and includes Excellence in Narrative winner Mediterranea Inferno by EYEGUYS, a treacherous visual novel about friendship, desire and grief. The Excellence in Design Winner, Cryptmaster by Paul Hart and Lee Williams is a dungeon-crawling narrative adventure with a nostalgic visual style centered around a party of recently awakened dead heroes.

The Best Student Game, Once Upon a Jester by Bonte Avond follows best friends Sok and Jester as they devise a mischievous scheme to steal the Royal Diamond. To complete their master plan, they must start an improv theater show and outperform every other act - including that of their rivals, Hofnar & Bok. The Excellence in Audio winner, Rhythm Doctor by 7th Beat Games is a rhythm game where players heal patients by defibrillating in time to their heartbeats. Players learn each patient's unique heartbeat and defeat boss viruses trying to sabotage their rhythm. The Excellence in Visual Art prize was awarded to Phonopolis, a new hand-crafted story-driven adventure game from Amanita Design, the Czech indie collective behind Machinarium, Creaks and more. RAM: Random Access Mayhem by Xylem Studios won the community-driven Audience Award, which is chosen by fans through a public voting process. Lastly, Chú Mó by The Chú Mó Team @ ArtCenter won the alt.ctrl.gdc Award, which honors the most engaging, intriguing, and well-executed game using unconventional, accessible or alternative physical controls. Like the IGF Awards nominees, the alt.ctrl.gdc titles are showcased in playable form on the GDC floor from March 20-22, and this year marks the return of this award, which was last given in 2019. 

The winners of the 26th annual IGF Awards are:

• Excellence in Visual Art ($2,000): Phonopolis (Amanita Design)
• Excellence in Audio ($2,000): Rhythm Doctor (7th Beat Games)
• Excellence in Design ($2,000): Cryptmaster (Paul Hart & Lee Williams)
• Excellence in Narrative ($2,000): Mediterranea Inferno (EYEGUYS)
• Nuovo Award ($2,000): Anthology of the Killer (Thecatamites, Tommy Tone, A. Degen)
• Best Student Game ($2,000): Once Upon a Jester (Bonte Avond)
• Audience Award ($2,000): RAM: Random Access Mayhem (Xylem Studios)
• alt.ctrl.gdc Award ($2,000): Chú Mó (The Chú Mó Team @ ArtCenter)
• Seumas McNally Grand Prize ($10,000) : Venba (Visai Games)