Elden Ring and Stray lead the nominations at the 23rd Annual Game Developers Choice Awards
FromSoftware’s Elden Ring and BlueTwelve Studio’s Stray have received six nominations each at the 2023 GDC Awards.
Both games are up for the prestigious Game of the Year award, along with God of War Ragnarök, Immortality, Pentiment, and Tunic.
Elden Ring is also nominated in the Audio, Design, Innovation, Technology, and Visual Art categories. Stray is up for Audio, Debut, Design, Innovation, and Visual Art.
Other games to receive recognition include Immortality, Return to Monkey Island, and Neon White.
And in a strong year for independent games, it’s also no surprise to see considerable overlap with this year’s IGF awards finalists.
In addition to the categories listed below, players can vote for their favourite game of 2022 in the GDC Audience Award.
Here’s the complete list of GDC award nominees.
GDC Awards Nominees
Best Audio
- Elden Ring (FromSoftware Inc./Bandai Namco Entertainment)
- God of War Ragnarök (Santa Monica Studio/Sony Interactive Entertainment)
- Horizon Forbidden West (Guerrilla Games/Sony Interactive Entertainment)
- Metal: Hellsinger (The Outsiders/Funcom)
- Stray (BlueTwelve Studio/Annapurna Interactive)
Best Debut
- Neon White (Angel Matrix/Annapurna Interactive)
- Norco (Geography of Robots/Raw Fury)
- Stray (BlueTwelve Studio/Annapurna Interactive)
- Tunic (Tunic Team/Finji)
- Vampire Survivors (Poncle)
Best Design
- Elden Ring (FromSoftware Inc./Bandai Namco Entertainment)
- Marvel Snap (Second Dinner Studios, Inc./Nuverse)
- Neon White (Angel Matrix/Annapurna Interactive)
- Stray (BlueTwelve Studio/Annapurna Interactive)
- Tunic (Tunic Team/Finji)
Innovation Award
- Elden Ring (FromSoftware Inc./Bandai Namco Entertainment)
- Immortality (Sam Barlow/Half Mermaid)
- Neon White (Angel Matrix/Annapurna Interactive)
- Pentiment (Obsidian Entertainment/Xbox Game Studios)
- Stray (BlueTwelve Studio/Annapurna Interactive)
Best Narrative
- God of War Ragnarök (Santa Monica Studio/Sony Interactive Entertainment)
- I Was a Teenage Exocolonist (Northway Games/Finji)
- Immortality (Sam Barlow/Half Mermaid)
- Pentiment (Obsidian Entertainment/Xbox Game Studios)
- Return to Monkey Island (Terrible Toybox/Devolver Digital)
Social Impact Award
- As Dusk Falls (INTERIOR/NIGHT/Xbox Game Studios)
- Citizen Sleeper (Jump Over The Age/Fellow Traveller)
- Endling – Extinction Is Forever (Herobeat Studios/HandyGames)
- I Was A Teenage Exocolonist (Northway Games/Finji)
- OlliOlli World (Roll7/Private Division)
- We Are OFK (Team OFK)
Best Technology
- A Plague Tale: Requiem (Asobo Studio/Focus Entertainment)
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II (Infinity Ward, Raven Software, Beenox, Treyarch, High Moon Studios, Sledgehammer Games, Activision Shanghai, Demonware, Toys for Bob/Activision)
- Elden Ring (FromSoftware Inc./Bandai Namco Entertainment)
- God of War Ragnarök (Santa Monica Studio/Sony Interactive Entertainment)
- Horizon Forbidden West (Guerrilla Games/Sony Interactive Entertainment)
Best Visual Art
- Elden Ring (FromSoftware Inc./Bandai Namco Entertainment)
- God of War Ragnarök (Santa Monica Studio/Sony Interactive Entertainment)
- Horizon Forbidden West (Guerrilla Games/Sony Interactive Entertainment)
- Pentiment (Obsidian Entertainment/Xbox Game Studios)
- Stray (BlueTwelve Studio/Annapurna Interactive)
Game of the Year
- Elden Ring (FromSoftware Inc./Bandai Namco Entertainment)
- God of War Ragnarök (Santa Monica Studio/Sony Interactive Entertainment)
- Immortality (Sam Barlow/Half Mermaid)
- Pentiment (Obsidian Entertainment/Xbox Game Studios)
- Stray (BlueTwelve Studio/Annapurna Interactive)
- Tunic (Tunic Team/Finji)
The winners will be revealed during the Game Developers Conference on March 22, 2023. The ceremony is available to watch in person for GDC 2023 attendees and will be live-streamed on the GDC Twitch channel.
