The card game Balatro has won big at the 2025 Game Developers Choice Awards (GDC Awards), taking home four major awards including Game of the Year. The roguelike poker game, developed by solo developer LocalThunk and published by Playstack, also won Best Debut, Best Design, and the Innovation Award.
The awards ceremony took place on Wednesday at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, where game creators from around the world gathered to celebrate the best games of 2024. Unlike The Game Awards in December, which features many game trailers and announcements, the GDC Awards are voted on by game developers themselves, making them more similar to the Academy Awards for the gaming industry.
Astro Bot, developed by Team ASOBI and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment, also performed well at the ceremony, winning two awards: Best Audio and Best Technology. Other notable winners included Black Myth: Wukong for Best Visual Art, Metaphor: ReFantazio for Best Narrative, and Life is Strange: Double Exposure for the Social Impact Award.
Independent Games Festival (IGF) Awards were held alongside the GDC Awards. Consume Me, developed by Jenny Jiao Hsia, AP Thompson, Jie En Lee, Violet W-P, and Ken ‘coda’ Synder, dominated the IGF Awards by winning three categories: the prestigious Seumas McNally Grand Prize, the Nuovo Award for innovation, and the Wings Award.
Other IGF winners included Caves of Qud for Excellence in Narrative, Hauntii for Excellence in Visual Arts, Tactical Breach Wizards for Excellence in Design, and Despelote for Excellence in Audio.
The ceremony also honored industry veterans with special recognitions. Remedy Entertainment’s creative director Sam Lake received the Lifetime Achievement Award, presented by Alan Wake and Control actor Matthew Porretta. Meanwhile, Lucas Pope, creator of Papers, Please and Return of the Obra Dinn, was given the Pioneer Award for his contributions to game development.
Here are the full list of winners for both ceremonies:
GDCA 2025 winners:
- Game of the Year: Balatro (Local Thunk, Playstack)
- Best Debut: Balatro
- Best Visual Art: Black Myth: Wukong (Game Science)
- Best Audio: Astro Bot (Team Asobi, Sony Interactive Entertainment)
- Best Narrative: Metaphor: ReFantazio (Studio Zero, Atlus, Sega)
- Best Technology: Astro Bot
- Best Design: Balatro
- Social Impact Award: Life is Strange: Double Exposure (Deck Nine Games, Square Enix)
- Innovation Award: Balatro
- Pioneer Award: Lucas Pope
- Lifetime Achievement Award: Sam Lake
IGF 2025 winners:
- Seumas McNally Grand Prize: Consume Me (Jenny Jiao Hsia, AP Thompson, Jie En Lee, Violet W-P, Ken ‘coda’ Synder)
- Excellence in Visual Art: Hauntii (Moonloop Games, Firestoke)
- Excellence in Audio: Despelote (Julián Cordero, Sebastian Valbuena, Panic)
- Excellence in Design: Tactical Breach Wizards (Suspicious Developments)
- Excellence in Narrative: Caves of Qud (Freehold Games, Kitfox Games)
- Nuovo Award: Consume Me
- Wings Award: Consume Me
- Best Student Game: Slot Waste (Vinny Roca)
With the GDC Awards now concluded, the gaming industry turns its attention to the promising titles of 2025, with many experts already speculating about which games might dominate next year’s award ceremonies.
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