Balatro, an independent roguelike deckbuilding game, won the much-coveted Game of the Year Award at the 25th annual Game Developers Choice Awards (GDCA). In addition, the title won the Best Debut, Innovation Award, and Best Design awards, giving it four victories at the ceremony. In the digital games business, the GDCAs are the most prestigious awards for peer appreciation. The Choice Awards honour and promote the technical prowess, artistic vision, and inventiveness of the best game creators and titles produced in the previous year. Every year, the award presentation is held in conjunction with the Game Developers Conference (GDC), which is being held this week at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco.
Players construct custom decks with a range of unique cards in LocalThunk and Playstack’s Balatro, a novel take on the classic card game poker, in order to score points and defeat blinds in the roguelike gameplay. On February 20, 2024, the game was first made available on PCs and consoles. On September 26, it was made available on MacOS, iOS, and Android.
At the GDCA ceremony, Sony Interactive Entertainment’s 3D platforming adventure, Astro Bot, which PlayStation Studios Team ASOBI created, was also recognised with two awards: Best Audio and Best Technology. The game has received a lot of attention for its dynamic and distinctive level design, fantastic soundtrack, clever integration with the PlayStation 5’s technology, and endearing visuals. It is a love letter to the several legendary characters and worlds from PlayStation’s extensive library of franchises.
Black Myth: Wukong (Game Science) took home the Best Visual Art award, Metaphor: ReFantazio (Studio Zero / ATLUS) took home the Best Narrative award, Deck Nine Games / Square Enix won the Social Impact Award for Life is Strange: Double Exposure, and Square Enix won the Audience Award for Final Fantasy VII Rebirth.
Two significant industry leaders were also honoured by the Game Developers Choice Awards. Writer and director Sam Lake received the GDCA’s Lifetime Achievement Award this year. Lake is well known for his intricate, multi-layered narratives and his skill at combining many media to produce one-of-a-kind interactive experiences. He most recently co-directed and co-wrote Alan Wake 2, which took up more than 200 industry honours, including Best Visual Art at the 2024 Game Developers Choice Awards and Best Game Direction and Best Narrative at The Game Awards. The Pioneer Award went to Lucas Pope, who is well-known for writing Papers, Please, and Return of the Obra Dinn. Pope is a self-employed game developer who experiments with the ways that story, art, and mechanics intersect. With multiple trophies at the 2014 Game Developers Choice Awards, a BAFTA Games Award for Best Strategy and Simulation Game, and the Seumas McNally Grand Prize at the Independent Games Festival (IGF), Papers, Please received a lot of praise overall. In addition to receiving high accolades from critics, Return of the Obra Dinn took home multiple The winners of the 25th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards are:
Balatro’s best debut (LocalThunk/Playstack)
Black Myth’s Best Visual Art: Wukong (Game Science)
Top Audio Astro Bot (Sony Interactive Entertainment/PlayStation Studios Team ASOBI)
ReFantazio is the best narrative metaphor (Studio Zero / ATLUS).
Social Impact Award Deck Nine Games/Square Enix’s Life is Strange: Double Exposure
Balatro (LocalThunk/Playstack) Innovation Award
Top Technology Astro Bot (Sony Interactive Entertainment/PlayStation Studios Team ASOBI)
Balatro’s Best Design (LocalThunk/Playstack)
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (Square Enix) Audience Award
Balatro (LocalThunk / Playstack) is the game of the year.
Pioneer Award
Pope, Lucas
Sam Lake’s Lifetime Achievement Award
Every year, the official Game Developers Conference (GDC) Twitch channel broadcasts the GDCA awards live, which are also preserved on the official GDC YouTube channel.
Go to gamechoiceawards.com to learn more about the 25th annual Game Developers Choice Awards. Visit the official Game Developers Conference website for additional information, or sign up for regular updates via Facebook, Twitter, BlueSky, or RSS. The official GDC Flickr account can be accessed at www.flickr.com/photos/officialgdc/.
Concerning GDC
Programmers, artists, producers, game designers, audio experts, business decision-makers, and others working on interactive games and immersive experiences will find market-defining content at the most significant professional game industry event in the world, the Game Developers Conference® (GDC). With events and online resources, including the GDC Networking Meet-ups, GDC Vault, GameDeveloper.com, Independent Games Festival and Summit, and the Game Developers Choice Awards, GDC unites the world’s game development community all year long.
Pope also won the Seumas McNally Grand Prize at the IGF Awards and trophies from the Game Developers Choice Awards, Peabody Awards, D.I.C.E. Awards, and BAFTA Games Awards.
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