25th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards

The title also secured the win for the Best Debut, Innovation Award and Best Design, tallying up four total wins for the title at the ceremony. The GDCAs are the premier accolades for peer recognition in the digital games industry. Each year, the Choice Awards recognize and celebrate the creativity, artistry and technical genius of the finest developers and games created in the last year. The award ceremony takes place each year as part of the Game Developers Conference (GDC), which is taking place this week at San Francisco’s Moscone Convention Center.

LocalThunk and Playstack’s Balatro is a unique spin on the timeless card game Poker where players build unique decks with a variety of distinct cards to score points and defeat blinds within the roguelike gameplay. The game was originally released on PC and consoles on February 20, 2024, and was later brought to MacOS, iOS and Android on September 26. 

Astro Bot, the 3D platforming adventure developed by PlayStation Studios Team ASOBI and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment also received two accolades during the GDCA ceremony: Best Audio and Best Technology. The title is a love letter to the many iconic characters and worlds from PlayStation’s wide roster of franchises and has been widely praised for its unique and energetic level design, incredible soundtrack, smart integration with the PlayStation 5’s hardware and charming aesthetics.

Other winners of the night included Black Myth: Wukong (Game Science), which won Best Visual Art, Metaphor: ReFantazio (Studio Zero / ATLUS) which received Best Narrative, Life is Strange: Double Exposure (Deck Nine Games / Square Enix) which was honored with the Social Impact Award and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (Square Enix) which received the Audience Award. 

The Game Developers Choice Awards also took time to honor two influential figures in the industry.

This year, the GDCA honored writer and director Sam Lake with the Lifetime Achievement Award. Lake is renowned for his deep, layered storytelling and ability to meld together different mediums to create unique interactive experiences. Most recently, he was the co-director and lead writer of Alan Wake 2, which won over 200 industry awards—including Best Game Direction and Best Narrative at The Game Awards, along with Best Visual Art at the 2024 Game Developers Choice Awards.

Lucas Pope, well known as the creator of Papers, Please and Return of the Obra Dinn, was the well-deserving recipient of the Pioneer Award. Pope is an independent game developer experimenting with the interactions of mechanics, narrative, and art. Papers, Please was highly lauded across the board, winning the Seumas McNally Grand Prize at the Independent Games Festival (IGF) along with several trophies at the Game Developers Choice Awards in 2014, along with a BAFTA Games Award for Best Strategy and Simulation Game. Return of the Obra Dinn was also heavily praised by critics, again winning Pope the Seumas McNally Grand Prize at IGF Awards, along with several trophies from the Game Developers Choice Awards, Peabody Awards, D.I.C.E. Awards and BAFTA Games Awards.

The 25th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards winners are:

• Best Debut - Balatro (LocalThunk / Playstack)
• Best Visual Art - Black Myth: Wukong (Game Science)
• Best Audio - Astro Bot (PlayStation Studios Team ASOBI / Sony Interactive Entertainment)
• Best Narrative - Metaphor: ReFantazio (Studio Zero / ATLUS)
• Social Impact Award - Life is Strange: Double Exposure (Deck Nine Games / Square Enix)
• Innovation Award - Balatro (LocalThunk / Playstack)
• Best Technology - Astro Bot (PlayStation Studios Team ASOBI / Sony Interactive Entertainment)
• Best Design - Balatro (LocalThunk / Playstack)
• Audience Award - Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (Square Enix)
• Game of the Year - Balatro (LocalThunk / Playstack)
• Pioneer Award - Lucas Pope
• Lifetime Achievement Award - Sam Lake

2025 Independent Games Festival Awards

Independent game Consume Me, developed by Jenny Jiao Hsia, AP Thomson, Jie En Lee, Violet W-P and Ken "coda" Snyder has won the Seumas McNally Grand Prize for Best Independent Game at tonight’s 27th annual Independent Games Festival (IGF) Awards. As part of the 2025 Game Developers Conference (GDC), the IGF Awards is the longest-running festival, summit and showcase honoring the most innovative and excellent independent games of the past year. 

Consume Me is a darkly humorous personal game about creator Jenny Jiao Hsia's relationship with food, drawing from her past experiences with dieting and disordered eating. In addition to winning the Seumas McNally Grand Prize, the title took home the Nuovo Award, which honors experiences that make the awards jurors think differently about games as a medium. Consume Me was also nominated in several categories, including Excellence in Design, Excellence in Narrative and Excellence in Visual Arts. 

The full slate of 2025 IGF Award winners, as well as the nominees in each category, represents a diverse range of talented independent game developers across the global industry. The other IGF Awards honorees include Excellence in Visual Art winner Hauntii by Moonloop Games, an action-adventure about a ghost's journey through the afterlife. The Excellence in Audio winner,  Despelote by Julián Cordero and Sebastián Valbuena is a slice-of-life adventure about childhood and the magical grip soccer held over the people of Quito, Ecuador, in 2001. The Best Student Game was awarded to Slot Waste by Vinny Roca, an experimental video game installation that articulates a lengthy, absurdist Rube Goldberg-like production process. The Excellence in Design winner, Tactical Breach Wizards by Suspicious Developments, is a turn-based tactics game where players must control a team of wizards who fight against a theocracy. The Excellence in Narrative prize was awarded to Caves of Qud by Freehold Games and Kitfox Games, a science fantasy roguelike epic steeped in retrofuturism, deep simulation and swathes of sentient plants.

The WereCleaner by The WereCleaner Team won the Audience Award, which is chosen by fans through a public voting process. Lastly, ChromaCorp (Art Center) 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 Expo floor from March 19-21.

The winners of the 27th annual IGF Awards are:

• Excellence in Visual Art ($2,000) - Hauntii (Moonloop Games / Firestoke) 
• Excellence in Audio ($2,000) - Despelote (Julián Cordero, Sebastian Valbuena / Panic) 
• Excellence in Design ($2,000) - Tactical Breach Wizards (Suspicious Developments)
• Excellence in Narrative ($2,000) - Caves of Qud (Freehold Games / Kitfox Games) 
• Nuovo Award ($2,000) - Consume Me (Jenny Jiao Hsia, AP Thomson, Jie En Lee, Violet W-P, Ken "coda" Snyder) 
• Best Student Game ($2,000) - Slot Waste (Vinny Roca)
• Audience Award ($2,000) - The WereCleaner (The WereCleaner Team / USC Games)
• alt.ctrl.GDC Award ($2,000) - ChromaCorp (Art Center)
• Seumas McNally Grand Prize ($10,000) - Consume Me (Jenny Jiao Hsia, AP Thomson, Jie En Lee, Violet W-P, Ken "coda" Snyder) 

The Independent Games Festival has served as a springboard for breakthrough independent titles. Previous IGF prize winners include Venba, Neon White, TUNIC, Return of the Obra Dinn, Her Story and many more critical and cultural hits.

The Game Developers Choice and Independent Games Festival awards are live-streamed annually on the official Game Developers Conference (GDC) Twitch channel and are archived both on Twitch and on the official GDC YouTube Channel.