By Sagar V. Mankar 
The survival role-playing game Enshrouded by Keen Games has emerged as the big winner at the 2024 German Developer Awards, taking home several prestigious honors. The award ceremony, held on December 4 in Cologne, saw the Frankfurt-based studio claim the coveted title of “Best Game,” alongside “Studio of the Year,” “Best Game Design,” and “Best Technical Achievement.”
The German Developer Awards, a prominent event in the gaming world, recognize the best games and studios from German-speaking countries, including Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. A panel of 160 industry experts decided on the winners across various categories, celebrating both established studios and innovative newcomers.
Enshrouded: A Surprising Success
Enshrouded is a survival crafting game that has garnered attention for its blend of RPG elements and medieval fantasy. Released on Early Access on January 24, 2024, it quickly attracted over a million players in just four days—a remarkable feat, especially considering it was released just a week after Palworld.
Set in a world of swords, sorcery, and creature collection mechanics, Enshrouded stands apart from other survival games with its deep skill trees for character customization and its grittier visuals compared to the more vibrant Palworld. Like many games in the genre, it features base building, item crafting, and combat, but it also allows players to team up with friends on co-op servers to explore and survive together.
The game has resonated with players, maintaining a “Very Positive” rating on Steam, with 85.5% of 56,000 reviews positive. According to SteamDB, Enshrouded peaked at over 70,000 concurrent players at launch, with a total of 160,405 CCUs by the end of its first weekend. This makes it the second-best launch of 2024 on the platform in January, behind only Palworld (2.1k million CCU). As of this writing, over 18,000 players are still actively playing the game.
With its success, Enshrouded has proven itself to be a major contender in the survival genre and is set for a full release in 2025 on Windows, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S.
Other Winners at the German Developer Award
The German Developer Award also celebrated achievements by other outstanding games and studios:
- Closer the Distance by Osmotic Games: Best Audio Design, Best Story, Innovation Award
- Dungeons of Hinterberg: Best Indie Game
- CubeQuest – A QB Game: Best Casual Game
- Vampire Therapist: Best Game Beyond Entertainment
- Harold Halibut: Best Graphics
Last year Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew won the Best Game awards while The Wandering Village was recognized the year before.
Source: Heise Online