Game Developers Choice Awards releases finalists

Rounding out a long season of awards, the Game Developers Choice Awards announced its finalists for the best games of 2023.

The lead nominees for awards at the 24th annual event include The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Baldur’s Gate 3 and Cocoon. The nominations are peer-based awards decided by game developers.

The ceremony will take place on March 20 during the week of the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. It will be held in conjunction with the Independent Games Festival Awards (IGF Awards).

The ceremony will be available to attend for all GDC 2024 passholders and will be streamed for free on the official GDC Twitch channel. The GDC, now in its 38th edition, will be held at San Francisco’s Moscone Convention Center from March 18 to March 22.

This year, the GDCA nominations are led by The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Nintendo) and Baldur’s Gate 3 (Larian Studios), which each received a total of seven nominations including Game of the Year, followed by Cocoon (Geometric Interactive / Annapurna Interactive), which received five total nominations including Game of the Year.

The other titles in the Game of the Year category include Dave the Diver (Mintrocket), Dredge (Black Salt Games / Team17) and Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 (Insomniac Games / Sony Interactive Entertainment).

Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is a direct sequel to the 2017 GDCA Game of the Year winner, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and builds upon the open-world exploratory structure of its predecessor, introducing new crafting abilities that expand creative possibilities for players.

Larian Studios’ Baldur’s Gate 3 is set within the rich storytelling world of Dungeons and Dragons and gives players the freedom to explore and embark on their own elaborate tales of danger, survival, romance and adventure, in a larger-than-life story of devils, deities, and sinister otherworldly forces.

Cocoon by developer Geometric Interactive and Annapurna Interactive is a mesmerizing, worlds-spanning puzzle adventure from the mind of Jeppe Carlsen, previously the lead gameplay designer of past GDCA winners Limbo and Inside.

Any video game that was released and made publicly available during the 2023 calendar year is eligible for free nomination for the 2024 Game Developers Choice Awards. Both nominees and winners are selected by the Game Developers Choice Awards-specific International Choice Awards Network (ICAN), which is an invitation-only organization, composed of leading game creators from all parts of the industry.

The complete list of nominees, including honorable mentions, for the 24th annual Game Developers Choice Awards is as follows:

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)

Honorable Mentions: Cocoon (Geometric Interactive / Annapurna Interactive), Diablo IV (Blizzard
Entertainment), Final Fantasy XVI (Square Enix), Hogwarts Legacy (Avalanche Software / Portkey
Games), Humanity (tha ltd. and Enhance / Enhance)

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)

Honorable Mentions: BattleBit Remastered (SgtOkiDoki, Vilaskis, and TheLiquidHorse / SgtOkiDoki),
Party Animals (Recreate Games / Source Technology), Pizza Tower (Tour De Pizza), Planet of Lana
(Wishfully Studios / Thunderful), Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical (Summerfall Studios / Humble
Games)

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)

Honorable Mentions: Dave the Diver (Mintrocket), Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 (Insomniac Games / Sony Interactive Entertainment), Sea of Stars (Sabotage Studio), Street Fighter 6 (Capcom), Super Mario Bros. Wonder (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)

Honorable Mentions: Dave the Diver (Mintrocket), Dredge (Black Salt Games / Team17), Marvel’s
Spider-Man 2 (Insomniac Games / Sony Interactive Entertainment), Starfield (Bethesda Game Studios /
Bethesda Softworks), Viewfinder (Sad Owl Studios / Thunderful Publishing)

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)

Honorable Mentions: Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty (CD Projekt), Dredge (Black Salt Games /
Team17), Goodbye Volcano High (KO_OP), Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores (Guerrilla Games /
Sony Interactive Entertainment), Starfield (Bethesda Game Studios / Bethesda Softworks)

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)

Honorable Mentions: Goodbye Volcano High (KO_OP), Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores
(Guerrilla Games / Sony Interactive Entertainment), Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 (Insomniac Games / Sony
Interactive Entertainment), Tchia (Awaceb / Kepler Interactive), Thirsty Suitors (Outerloop Games /
Annapurna Interactive)

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)

Honorable Mentions: Cocoon (Geometric Interactive / Annapurna Interactive), Cyberpunk 2077:
Phantom Liberty (CD Projekt), Diablo IV (Blizzard Entertainment), Final Fantasy XVI (Square Enix),
Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores (Guerrilla Games / Sony Interactive Entertainment)

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)

Honorable Mentions: Diablo IV (Blizzard Entertainment), Dredge (Black Salt Games / Team17),
Lies of P (Neowiz Games and Round8 Studio / Neowiz Games), Sea of Stars (Sabotage Studio), Super
Mario Bros. Wonder (Nintendo)

Games 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)

Honorable Mentions: Alan Wake II (Remedy Entertainment / Epic Games), Diablo IV (Blizzard
Entertainment), Final Fantasy XVI (Square Enix), Sea of Stars (Sabotage Studio), Starfield (Bethesda
Game Studios / Bethesda Softworks), Super Mario Bros. Wonder (Nintendo)

Originally appeared on: TheSpuzz