Balatro Goes All In, Winning Game of the Year and More at the 25th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards

The indie roguelike deckbuilding game Balatro has taken the pot at the 25th annual Game Developers Choice Awards (GDCA), receiving the highly coveted Game of the Year Award. The title also secured the win for the Best Debut, Innovation Award and Best Design, tallying up four total wins for the title at the ceremony. The GDCAs are the premier accolades for peer recognition in the digital games industry. Each year, the Choice Awards recognize and celebrate the creativity, artistry and technical genius of the finest developers and games created in the last year. The award ceremony takes place each year as part of the Game Developers Conference (GDC), which is taking place this week at San Francisco’s Moscone Convention Center.

LocalThunk and Playstack’s Balatro is a unique spin on the timeless card game Poker where players build unique decks with a variety of distinct cards to score points and defeat blinds within the roguelike gameplay. The game was originally released on PC and consoles on February 20, 2024, and was later brought to MacOS, iOS and Android on September 26.

Astro Bot, the 3D platforming adventure developed by PlayStation Studios Team ASOBI and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment, also received two accolades during the GDCA ceremony: Best Audio and Best Technology. The title is a love letter to the many iconic characters and worlds from PlayStation’s wide roster of franchises, and has been widely praised for its unique and energetic level design, incredible soundtrack, smart integration with the PlayStation 5’s hardware and charming aesthetics.

Other winners of the night included Black Myth: Wukong (Game Science), which won Best Visual Art, Metaphor: ReFantazio (Studio Zero / ATLUS) which received Best Narrative, Life is Strange: Double Exposure (Deck Nine Games / Square Enix) which was honored with the Social Impact Award and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (Square Enix) which received the Audience Award.

The Game Developers Choice Awards also took time to honor two influential figures in the industry. This year, the GDCA honored writer and director Sam Lake with the Lifetime Achievement Award. Lake is renowned for his deep, layered storytelling and ability to meld together different mediums to create unique interactive experiences. Most recently, he was the co-director and lead writer of Alan Wake 2, which won over 200 industry awards—including Best Game Direction and Best Narrative at The Game Awards, along with Best Visual Art at the 2024 Game Developers Choice Awards. Lucas Pope, well known as the creator of Papers, Please and Return of the Obra Dinn, was the well-deserving recipient of the Pioneer Award. Pope is an independent game developer experimenting with the interactions of mechanics, narrative, and art. Papers, Please was highly lauded across the board, winning the Seumas McNally Grand Prize at the Independent Games Festival (IGF) along with several trophies at the Game Developers Choice Awards in 2014, along with a BAFTA Games Award for Best Strategy and Simulation Game. Return of the Obra Dinn was also heavily praised by critics, again winning Pope the Seumas McNally Grand Prize at IGF Awards, along with several trophies from the Game Developers Choice Awards, Peabody Awards, D.I.C.E. Awards and BAFTA Games Awards.

The 25th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards winners are:

Best Debut
Balatro (LocalThunk / Playstack)

Best Visual Art
Black Myth: Wukong (Game Science)

Best Audio
Astro Bot (PlayStation Studios Team ASOBI / Sony Interactive Entertainment)

Best Narrative
Metaphor: ReFantazio (Studio Zero / ATLUS)

Social Impact Award
Life is Strange: Double Exposure (Deck Nine Games / Square Enix)

Innovation Award
Balatro (LocalThunk / Playstack)

Best Technology
Astro Bot (PlayStation Studios Team ASOBI / Sony Interactive Entertainment)

Best Design
Balatro (LocalThunk / Playstack)

Audience Award
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (Square Enix)

Game of the Year
Balatro (LocalThunk / Playstack)

Pioneer Award
Lucas Pope

Lifetime Achievement Award
Sam Lake

The GDCA awards are live-streamed annually on the official Game Developers Conference (GDC) Twitch channel and are archived both on Twitch and on the official GDC YouTube Channel.

For more information about the 25th annual Game Developers Choice Awards, visit: gamechoiceawards.com. For more details on the Game Developers Conference, please visit the GDC’s official website, or subscribe to regular updates via Facebook, Twitter, BlueSky or RSS. Official photos are available via the Official GDC Flickr account: www.flickr.com/photos/officialgdc/.

About GDC

The Game Developers Conference® (GDC) is the world’s largest professional game industry event with market-defining content for programmers, artists, producers, game designers, audio professionals, business decision makers, and others involved in the development of interactive games and immersive experiences. GDC brings together the global game development community year-round through events and digital media, including the GDC Networking Meet-ups, GDC Vault, GameDeveloper.com, Independent Games Festival and Summit, and the Game Developers Choice Awards.

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