This time, Sandfall Interactive’s 2025 masterpiece won the top prize at the Game Developers Choice Awards.
The Game Developers Choice Awards ceremony is held every year as part of the Game Developers Conference, and this year’s 2026 event was similar to other major award shows: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 once again took home the night’s top prize. The game won awards for Best Debut, Best Visual Art, Best Audio, and Best Narrative. Blue Prince won several awards, including Best Design and the Innovation Award. Death Stranding 2: On the Beach won Best Technology, and Consume Me won the Social Impact Award.
The awards are also significant for their non-game-related categories: the Ambassador Award and the Lifetime Achievement Award. This year, the GDC honored Rebecca Heineman, founder of Interplay Productions and Contraband Entertainment, with a posthumous Ambassador Award. She worked in the gaming industry for 45 years and worked on games such as Myth 3, Baldur’s Gate 2, DOOM (3DO), The Bard’s Tale 3, Wolfenstein 3D, and Dragon Wars over the course of her long career. Don Daglow, one of the original members of the five-person team that founded Intellivision at Mattel, won the Lifetime Achievement Award. He has worked on more than 100 games and founded Stormfront Studios in 1988, initially known as Beyond Software.
Below is the list of nominees and winners (winners are highlighted in bold):
Best Audio:
• Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Sandfall Interactive / Kepler Interactive)
• Death Stranding 2: On the Beach (Kojima Productions / Sony Interactive Entertainment)
• Ghost of Yōtei (Sucker Punch Productions / Sony Interactive Entertainment)
• Rift of the NecroDancer (Brace Yourself Games, Tic Toc Games / Klei Publishing)
• South of Midnight (Compulsion Games / Xbox Game Studios)
Honourable Mentions: Arc Raiders (Embark Studios), Donkey Kong Bananza (Nintendo EPD / Nintendo), DOOM: The Dark Ages (id Software / Bethesda Softworks), Lumines Arise (Enhance / Monstars Inc.), To a T (Uvula LLC / Annapurna Interactive)
Best Debut:
• Ball X Pit (Kenny Sun & Friends / Devolver Digital)
• Blue Prince (Dogubomb / Raw Fury)
• Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Sandfall Interactive / Kepler Interactive)
• Dispatch (Adhoc Studio)
Honourable Mentions: Arc Raiders (Embark Studios), Consume Me (Jenny Jiao Hsia), Hollow Knight: Silksong (Team Cherry), The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy (Too Kyo Games, Media. Vision Inc. / Aniplex), The Roottrees are Dead (Evil Trout Inc.)
Best Design:
• Ball X Pit (Kenny Sun & Friends / Devolver Digital)
• Blue Prince (Dogubomb / Raw Fury)
• Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Sandfall Interactive / Kepler Interactive)
• Donkey Kong Bananza (Nintendo EPD / Nintendo)
• Split Fiction (Hazelight Studios / Electronic Arts)
Honourable Mentions: Death Stranding 2: On the Beach (Kojima Productions / Sony Interactive Entertainment), Ghost of Yōtei (Sucker Punch Productions / Sony Interactive Entertainment), Kingdom Come: Deliverance II (Warhorse Studios / Deep Silver), The Alters (11 Bit Studios)
Innovation Award:
• Ball X Pit (Kenny Sun & Friends / Devolver Digital)
• Baby Steps (Gabe Cuzzillo, Maxi Boch, Bennett Foddy / Devolver Digital)
• Blue Prince (Dogubomb / Raw Fury)
• Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Sandfall Interactive / Kepler Interactive)
• Donkey Kong Bananza (Nintendo EPD / Nintendo)
Honourable Mentions: CloverPit (Panik Arcade / Future Friends Games), Consume Me (Jenny Jiao Hsia), REPO (Semiwork Studios), Sunderfolk (Secret Door / Dreamhaven), To a T (uvula LLC / Annapurna Interactive)
Best Narrative:
• Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Sandfall Interactive / Kepler Interactive)
• Despelote (Julián Cordero, Sebastián Valbuena / Panic)
• Dispatch (AdHoc Studio)
• Ghost of Yōtei (Sucker Punch Productions / Sony Interactive Entertainment)
• Split Fiction (Hazelight Studios / Electronic Arts)
Honourable Mentions: Lost Records: Bloom & Rage (Don’t Nod Montréal / Don’t Nod), South of Midnight (Compulsion Games / Xbox Game Studios), The Outer Worlds 2 (Obsidian Entertainment / Xbox Game Studios), The Séance of Blake Manor (Spooky Doorway / Raw Fury)
Best Technology:
• Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Sandfall Interactive / Kepler Interactive)
• Death Stranding 2: On the Beach (Kojima Productions / Sony Interactive Entertainment)
• Donkey Kong Bananza (Nintendo EPD / Nintendo)
• Ghost of Yōtei (Sucker Punch Productions / Sony Interactive Entertainment)
• Split Fiction (Hazelight Studios / Electronic Arts)
Honourable Mentions: Arc Raiders (Embark Studios), Battlefield 6 (Battlefield Studios / Electronic Arts), Hollow Knight: Silksong (Team Cherry), Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 (Warhorse Studios / Deep Silver), Peak (Team Peak / Aggro Crab, Landfall)
Best Visual Art:
• Absolum (Guard Crush Games, Dotemu, Supamonks / Dotemu)
• Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Sandfall Interactive / Kepler Interactive)
• Death Stranding 2: On the Beach (Kojima Productions / Sony Interactive Entertainment)
• Ghost of Yōtei (Sucker Punch Productions / Sony Interactive Entertainment)
• Hades II (Supergiant Games)
• Keeper (Double Fine Productions / Xbox Game Studios)
Honourable Mentions: Hollow Knight: Silksong (Team Cherry), South of Midnight (Compulsion Games / Xbox Game Studios), Sword of the Sea (Giant Squid), The Midnight Walk (MoonHood / Fast Travel Games)
Social Impact:
• And Roger (TearyHand Studio / Kodansha)
• Consume Me (Jenny Jiao Hsia)
• Despelote (Julián Cordero, Sebastián Valbuena / Panic)
• Dispatch (AdHoc Studio)
Honourable Mentions: Herdling (Okomotive / Panic), Lost Records: Bloom & Rage (Don’t Nod Montréal / Don’t Nod), Peak (Team Peak / Aggro Crab, Landfall), To a T (Uvula LLC / Annapurna Interactive)
Game of the Year:
• Blue Prince (Dogubomb / Raw Fury)
• Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Sandfall Interactive / Kepler Interactive)
• Donkey Kong Bananza (Nintendo EPD / Nintendo)
• Ghost of Yōtei (Sucker Punch Productions / Sony Interactive Entertainment)
• Hollow Knight: Silksong (Team Cherry)
• Split Fiction (Hazelight Studios / Electronic Arts)
Honourable Mentions: Absolum (Guard Crush Games, Dotemu, Supamonks / Dotemu), Ball X Pit (Kenny Sun & Friends / Devolver Digital), Hades II (Supergiant Games)
Source: WCCFTech, Gamesindustry
