Noticias
Game Developers Choice Awards 2026 winners: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Death Stranding 2, and more
D
Dave Tach
The GDCA nomination process is different from many other award shows because game developers get the vote on any game released and publicly available in 2025. The Audience Award is the lone exception because its nominees are “selected from the full list of finalist games from every main category through a vote open to all GDC attendees and members of the public,” according to organizers.
In addition to the developer-led talks, GDC’s 40th iteration in 2026 had some big additions like expanded networking opportunities and the inaugural Festival of Gaming.
Below, we’ve listed all GDC Award winners (in bold), nominees, honorable mentions, and the GDCA’s description for each category. And we wrap up our awards coverage with the winners from the Independent Games Festival Awards.
Best Audio
"Finalists will be recognized for the overall excellence of audio in a game – including, but not limited to, sound effects, musical composition, sound design, and orchestration."
- 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)
Best Debut
"The Best Debut Award recognizes finalists from any development studio that released its first publicly available title that year."
- BALL X PIT (Kenny Sun & Friends / Devolver Digital)
- Blue Prince (Dogubomb / Raw Fury)
- Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Sandfall Interactive / Kepler Interactive)
- Dispatch (AdHoc Studio)
Best Design
"Finalists will be recognized for the overall excellence of design in a game—including, but not limited to, gameplay mechanics, playability, play balance, and level 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)
Best Narrative
"Finalists will be recognized for the overall excellence of storytelling in a game—including, but not limited to, scenario, plot construction, story, and dialogue."
- 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)
Best Technology
“Finalists will be recognized for the overall excellence of technical execution in a game—including, but not limited to, graphics programming, artificial intelligence, networking, and physics.”
- 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)
Best Visual Art
“Finalists will be recognized for the overall excellence of visual art in a game—including, but not limited to, art direction, animation, modeling, character design and texture creation.”
- 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)
Innovation Award
“Finalists will be recognized for a game that advances the state of game development as a medium and pushes the boundaries of games as an expressive art.”
- 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)
Social Impact
“Finalists will be recognized for a game that advances equality, justice, intersectionality, and/or sustainability, and works to positively impact the lives of its players in a meaningful way.”
- And Roger (TearyHand Studio / Kodansha)
- Consume Me (Jenny Jiao Hsia, AP Thomson)
- Despelote (Julián Cordero, Sebastián Valbuena / Panic)
- Dispatch (AdHoc Studio)
Game of the Year
“This category is open to all games released during the previous calendar year and are nominated by the ICAN, taking into account the overall quality, impressiveness, and enjoyment of the game.”
- 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)
Audience Award
- And Roger (TearyHand Studio / Kodansha)
Lifetime Achievement Award
“[This award] recognizes the career and achievements of an individual who has made an indelible impact on the craft of game development and video games as a whole.”
“Lifetime Achievement Award honoree Don Daglow is an Emmy® Award winning game designer with a 55-year career covering over 100 games. His passion was born as a playwriting major at Pomona College, programming text games on mainframe computers. Daglow has worked on every generation of video game consoles, starting as one of the five original Intellivision game programmers (and Atari rivals) at Mattel in 1980. Don Daglow’s pioneering titles include the first interactive baseball game (BASBAL, 1971); the first chatbot to surpass Eliza (Ecala, 1972); the first RPG on a non-classroom computer (Dungeon, 1976); the first console god game, city-builder and RTS (Utopia, 1981); the first video game to use multiple camera angles (World Series Major League Baseball, 1983); the first MMORPG to use graphics instead of text (Neverwinter Nights, 1991-1997, AOL, Emmy Award). He also served as Executive Producer on hit franchises including Carmen Sandiego, EA Sports, Lord of the Rings, Prince of Persia, SimCity (distribution) & Star Wars.”
Ambassador Award
“Honors an individual who [has] helped the game industry advance to a better place, either through facilitating a better game community from within, or by reaching outside the industry to be an advocate for video games with the aim of furthering game making as a medium.”
“Rebecca Ann Heineman (1963–2025)—the posthumous recipient of this year’s Ambassador Award, was a trailblazing figure in the games industry, celebrated as one of the first professional video game players and a pioneering developer. In 1980, she made history by winning the first National Space Invaders Championship, becoming the inaugural U.S. video game tournament champion. This victory launched a 45-year career during which she contributed to more than 250 games, including classics such as The Bard's Tale III, Dragon Wars, Wolfenstein 3D, and Doom (3DO).”
Independent Games Festival Awards
The Independent Games Festival Awards took place on Wednesday, March 11, 2026 at the GDC Festival of Gaming. We’ve listed the winners in each category below.
- alt.ctrl.GDC Award: ProyectoEXO (Todo Normal)
- Audience Award: Wednesdays (Pierre Corbinais, The Pixel Hunt, exaheva, Christophe Galati, ARTE France)
- Best Student Game: Poco (Whalefall, Micah Boursier)
- Excellence in Design: Titanium Court (AP Thomson, Fellow Traveller)
- Excellence in Narrative: Perfect Tides: Station to Station (Three Bees)
- Excellence in Visual Art: Eclipsium (Housefire, CRITICAL REFLEX)
- Excellence in Audio: Baby Steps (Gabe Cuzzillo, Maxi Boch, Bennett Foddy, Devolver Digital)
- Nuovo Award: HORSES (Andrea Lucco Borlera, Santa Ragione)
- Seumas McNally Grand Prize: Titanium Court (AP Thomson, Fellow Traveller)
- WINGS Award: 13Z: The Zodiac Trials (Mixed Realms Pte Ltd)