Baldur’s Gate 3 and Venba triumph at the 2024 Game Developers Choice and Independent Games Festival Awards.
If Geoff Keighley’s tedious exploits at The Game Awards leave you cold, this year’s Game Developers Choice and Independent Games Festival awards were a refreshing counterpoint and a genuine celebration of game development talent.
Although GDC remains frustratingly inaccessible for many, this annual get-together allows a sizeable chunk of the development community to communicate and celebrate in a meaningful and supportive way. At the midway point of each conference, the best games of the previous year are recognised by an audience of industry peers at the GDC and IGF awards. This year, in addition to the celebrations, there was a vociferous acknowledgement of the hardships and suffering that thousands of developers have endured due to layoffs in the past 18 months.
Multiple award winners took their moment on stage to highlight the turmoil experienced across the industry and make the case for change. And no one put it better than Shawn Pierre, chairperson of the Independent Games Festival, with his opening address.
“I really, really admire all of you, and I know many of you feel the same admiration for each other. And that’s why it’s been so difficult, extremely difficult, to see our peers not treated with the respect that they deserve. We’ve already seen thousands of people losing work this year because they’re not being valued the way they should be.
People are working overtime and on weekends, only to be left behind after a game is completed. It’s unhealthy, it’s certainly not sustainable, and the end result of this is a weaker games industry for all of us.
And to be clear, this lack of respect exists all throughout the game industry in many different forms, from the billion-dollar companies to the smaller independent studios, from inside and outside the games industry. Between the countless announcements of layoffs, we are also reading too many stories of how people are being systematically pushed out of the games industry, rather than being empowered or recognised for their contributions. They’re being made to feel like they don’t belong, that the work that they’re doing is not significant. This is beyond unacceptable, and change is well overdue.
Your co-workers, your colleagues, the people here in this room, they are all people who deserve to be thought of first, not last. So, regardless of if a nominee wins tonight, let’s celebrate them. Even if you are not nominated for an award tonight, you deserve to be celebrated.”
With that said, here’s a rundown of this year’s winners – and nominees – for the 2024 Game Developers Choice and Independent Games Festival awards.
2024 Game Developers Choice Awards Winners
Best Audio
- Baldur’s Gate 3 (Larian Studios)
- Hi-Fi Rush (Tango Gameworks / Bethesda Softworks)
- Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 (Insomniac Games / Sony Interactive Entertainment)
- The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Nintendo)
- Venba (Visai Games)
Best Debut
- Cocoon (Geometric Interactive / Annapurna Interactive)
- Dave the Diver (Mintrocket)
- Dredge (Black Salt Games / Team17)
- Venba (Visai Games)
- Viewfinder (Sad Owl Studios / Thunderful Publishing)
Best Design
- Baldur’s Gate 3 (Larian Studios)
- Cocoon (Geometric Interactive / Annapurna Interactive)
- Dredge (Black Salt Games / Team17)
- Hi-Fi Rush (Tango Gameworks / Bethesda Softworks)
- The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Nintendo)
Innovation Award
- Baldur’s Gate 3 (Larian Studios)
- Cocoon (Geometric Interactive / Annapurna Interactive)
- Hi-Fi Rush (Tango Gameworks / Bethesda Softworks)
- The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Nintendo)
- The Making of Karateka (Digital Eclipse)
Best Narrative
- Alan Wake II (Remedy Entertainment / Epic Games)
- Baldur’s Gate 3 (Larian Studios)
- Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 (Insomniac Games / Sony Interactive Entertainment)
- The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Nintendo)
- Venba (Visai Games)
Social Impact Award
- A Space for the Unbound (Mojiken Studio / Toge Productions)
- Assassin’s Creed Mirage (Ubisoft Bordeaux / Ubisoft)
- Baldur’s Gate 3 (Larian Studios)
- Terra Nil (Free Lives / Devolver Digital)
- Venba (Visai Games)
Best Technology
- Alan Wake II (Remedy Entertainment / Epic Games)
- Baldur’s Gate 3 (Larian Studios)
- Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 (Insomniac Games / Sony Interactive Entertainment)
- Starfield (Bethesda Game Studios / Bethesda Softworks)
- The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Nintendo)
Best Visual Art
- Alan Wake II (Remedy Entertainment / Epic Games)
- Cocoon (Geometric Interactive / Annapurna Interactive)
- Final Fantasy XVI (Square Enix)
- Hi-Fi Rush (Tango Gameworks / Bethesda Softworks)
- The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Nintendo)
Game of the Year
- Baldur’s Gate 3 (Larian Studios)
- Cocoon (Geometric Interactive / Annapurna Interactive)
- Dave the Diver (Mintrocket)
- Dredge (Black Salt Games / Team17)
- Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 (Insomniac Games / Sony Interactive Entertainment)
- The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Nintendo)
Composer Yoko Shimomura was awarded this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award and Fawzi Mesmar was the recipient of the Ambassador Award.
2024 Independent Games Festival nominees and winners
Best Student Game
- goodbye.monster (Monster Team)
- Once Upon a Jester (Bonte Avond / Crunching Koalas)
- Pile Up! (Remoob / Catoptric Games, IndieArk)
- Planetka (TeTerka)
- RAM: Random Access Mayhem (Xylem Studios)
- Try Again (the Rejects)
Excellence in Audio
- A Highland Song (Inkle)
- Cocoon (Geometric Interactive / Annapurna Interactive)
- Nour: Play With Your Food (Terrifying Jellyfish / PANIC)
- Rhythm Doctor (7th Beat Games / 7th Beat Games, indienova)
- Tchia (Awaceb / Kepler Interactive)
- Venba (Visai Games)
Excellence in Design
- Chants of Sennaar (Rundisc / Focus Entertainment)
- Cobalt Core (Rocket Rat Games / Brace Yourself Games)
- Cocoon (Geometric Interactive / Annapurna Interactive)
- Cryptmaster (Paul Hart, Lee Williams, Akupara Games / Akupara Games)
- Final Profit: A Shop RPG (Brent Arnold)
- Isles of Sea and Sky (Cicada Games, Jason Newman, Craig Collver / Cicada Games, Jason Newman, Gamera Game)
Excellence in Narrative
- 1000xRESIST (Sunset Visitor / Fellow Traveller)
- A Highland Song (Inkle)
- Mediterranea Inferno (Lorenzo Redaelli, Eyeguys / Santa Ragione)
- The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood (Deconstructeam / Devolver Digital)
- The Wreck (The Pixel Hunt)
- Venba (Visai Games)
Excellence in Visual Arts
- Anthology of the Killer (Thecatamites, Tommy Tone, A. Degen / Thecatamites)
- Clash: Artifacts of Chaos (ACE Team / Nacon)
- Darkest Dungeon II (Red Hook Studios)
- Little Goody Two Shoes (AstralShiftPro LDA, AstralShift / Square Enix)
- Phonopolis (Amanita Design)
- Venba (Visai Games)
Nuovo Award
- 1000xRESIST (Sunset Visitor / Fellow Traveller)
- Anthology of the Killer (Thecatamites, Tommy Tone, A. Degen / Thecatamites)
- Cryptmaster (Paul Hart, Lee Williams, Akupara Games / Akupara Games)
- Kevin (1997-2077) (Kevin Du)
- Mediterranea Inferno (Lorenzo Redaelli, Eyeguys / Santa Ragione)
- Nidus (Caleb Wood)
- The Forest Cathedral (Wakefield Interactive LLC, Brian Wilson / Whitehorn Games)
Seumas McNally Grand Prize
- 1000xRESIST (Sunset Visitor / Fellow Traveller)
- A Highland Song (Inkle / Inkle)
- Anthology of the Killer (Thecatamites, Tommy Tone, A. Degen / Thecatamites)
- COCOON (Geometric Interactive / Annapurna Interactive)
- Mediterranea Inferno (Lorenzo Redaelli, Eyeguys / Santa Ragione)
- Venba (Visai Games)
This year’s audience Award went to RAM: Random Access Mayhem from Xylem Studios and the Alt. Ctrl.GDC award was presented to Chú Mó by The Chú Mó Team @ ArtCenter.
If you want to discover some of the development secrets behind this year’s winning games, keep an eye out for our upcoming GDC reports on Thumbsticks.
