Held immediately after the Independent Games Festival Awards at the same show was the 18th Annual Game Developers Conference Awards, also known as GDCAs. It highlighted a wider variety games from the past year highlighting both bigger budget games as well as the fortunate independent games that made the cut.
You can find the Twitch stream for the ceremony here:
Watch 2018 IGF & Game Developers Choice Awards from GDC on www.twitch.tv
Without further ado, let’s check out the nominees and highlighted is the winners in each category.
BEST DEBUT GAME
Team Cherry (Hollow Knight)
Sidebar Games (Golf Story)
Studio MDHR (Cuphead)
Infinite Fall (Night in the Woods)
Buried Signal (Gorogoa)
It’s great to finally see the recognition in this category for Team Cherry and their debut game Hollow Knight which had a lot of charm throughout. With that said, the nominees here are all beautiful games both in creativity and design. Cuphead may not have done so well in the IGF Awards prior but they start the GDCA with an award for the best debut game. Rightfully so when Cuphead not only got recognition for its hand-drawn animated art but also created a challenging game for both single and coop campaign.
BEST MOBILE GAME
Reigns: Her Majesty (Nerial)
Hidden Folks (Adriaan de Jongh & Sylvain Tegroeg)
Monument Valley 2 (UsTwo Games)
Gorogoa (Buried Signal)
Bury Me, My Love (The Pixel Hunt)
Mobile games are not everyone’s cup of tea. Luckily, almost all these games are available for PC also with the exception of Monument Valley 2. Both Reigns: Her Majesty and Monument Valley 2 are follow-ups to previously successful mobile titles. Bury Me, My Love tells a more poignant story while Hidden Folks is a hand-drawn Where is Waldo game filled with all sound effects made with human voice. The winner goes to an innovative puzzle game, Gorogoa which solves a puzzle and the story by sliding pieces from one area to the next to reveal layers underneath. If you are an Android user, Gorogoa is not yet available in the Google Play Store yet. Check out our review of Reigns here.
BEST NARRATIVE
Night in the Woods (Infinite Fall)
Hellblade: Senua Sacrifice (Ninja Theory)
What Remains of Edith Finch (Giant Sparrow)
Horizon Zero Dawn (Guerrilla Games)
Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus (MachineGames)
There is no doubt that all of these titles tell a great story. Night of the Woods took the IGF Awards just prior for its narrative which somehow lowers its chances here while Hellblade addresses an authentic psychological experience, giving its story an incredibly original factor. While Horizon Zero Dawn and Wolfenstein 2 both are AAA titles that have crafted an open world and deep story. Despite the strong contenders, What Remains of Edith Finch by Giant Sparrow takes home this award. In our opinion, the win is completely deserved as What Remains of Edith Finch made it as one of our top 10 games of 2017 that we played.
Check our podcast review of What Remains of Edith Finch here.
See what games made it onto our Top 10 Games Played in 2017 here.
AMBASSADOR AWARD WINNER – Rami Ismail
BEST TECHNOLOGY
Destiny 2 (Bungie)
Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice (Ninja Theory)
Assassin’s Creed: Origins (Ubisoft Montreal)
Horizon Zero Dawn (Guerrilla Games)
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Nintendo EPD)
Nothing like a slew of AAA games, except for Hellblade, to be nominated for the Best Technology category. As the night goes on, you will be surprised that The Legend of Zelda didn’t nab this one also. However, for a game which tells a story with a deep-rooted technology theme, it is nice to see Horizon Zero Dawn take this award.
BEST AUDIO
Cuphead (Studio MDHR)
NieR: Automata (Platinum Games)
Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice (Ninja Theory)
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Nintendo EPD)
Horizon Zero Dawn (Guerrilla Games)
The nominees in this category definitely looked a lot like The Game Awards for Best Audio. With this award, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild picks up their first GDCA award.
BEST VISUAL ART
Persona 5 (P-Studio)
Cuphead (Studio MDHR)
Horizon Zero Dawn (Guerrilla Games)
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Nintendo EPD)
Night in the Woods (Infinite Fall)
It is always great to see an indie game beating out the AAA titles. Cuphead stood out with the launch of its first trailer impressing the public with its hand-drawn animation, an art style that brings up a lot of nostalgia and hasn’t been showcased nearly enough in the past years. With that said, one of its strongest elements is its Visual Art, making it deserving for this win.
BEST DESIGN
Super Mario Odyssey (Nintendo EPD)
Horizon Zero Dawn (Guerrilla Games)
Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG Corporation)
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Nintendo EPD)
NieR: Automata (Platinum Games)
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild takes their second win of the evening for Best Design. There is no doubt that all of the nominees have some great game designs with some innovative changes to either a franchise or a genre. In the lifespan of The Legend of Zelda franchise, this game takes a lot of new steps to create a new experience but retaining what works for the past Zelda components.
BEST AR/VR GAME
Superhot VR (Superhot)
Star Trek: Bridge Crew (Red Storm Entertainment)
Lone Echo (Ready at Dawn)
Resident Evil: Biohazard (Capcom)
Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR (Bethesda Studios)
While VR is still a technology to be seen what its future has in store for it in the long run, there are an increasing amount of games and a growing group of companies putting in their effort to develop VR games. While the VR technology works particularly well for an enhanced horror game experience and Resident Evil: Biohazard being a long-awaited AAA horror title and absolutely deserves credit. Superhot launched originally as a first person shooter experience but has fitted into the mould of VR games really well as it takes on the “times stops when you stop” which works even better for an immersed VR experience.
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD – Tim Schafer
AUDIENCE AWARD – NieR: Automata (Platinum Games)
NieR: Automata may not have gotten any awards in the big category but this follow-up to NieR definitely has a lot of great elements. It is great to see that the audience has embraced it for all the awesomeness it has to offer.
THE INNOVATION AWARD
Gorogoa (Buried Signal)
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Nintendo EPD)
What Remains of Edith Finch (Giant Sparrow)
Everything (David O’Reilly)
Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG Corporation)
Innovation is the cornerstone of the growth of the gaming industry to say the least. Its innovative ideas that improve on how games and genres are presented and gives us those memorable gaming moments. Every game in this category offers something a little different and yet, Gorogoa takes home the prize. Just as we talked about in their win for Best Mobile Game, the mechanics of this game approaches the puzzle genre in a completely different way matched up with some great artwork and story.
GAME OF THE YEAR
NieR: Automata (Platinum Games)
Super Mario Odyssey (Nintendo EPD)
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Nintendo EPD)
Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG Corporation)
Horizon Zero Dawn (Guerrilla Games)
The final award of the evening is the big one for Game of the Year. Its nominees are very similar to that of The Game Awards and without any surprise, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild takes home this one and also is the big winner of the GDCAs this year.