Game Developers Choice Awards Announce 2026 Nominees and Honorable Mentions

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By Gaming News
17 January 2026 no comments

The Game Developers Choice Awards reveal 2026 nominees and Honorable Mentions, with Clair Obscur Expedition 33 leading the field.

Game Dev Awards 2026 Nominees  

The Game Developers Choice Awards have released the list of nominees and Honorable Mentions for the 2026 ceremony. Leading this year is Sandfall Interactive’s Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 which has already swept awards and nominations across the board. And yes, it’s back for another Game of the Year award.

 

The Nominees For Game Developers Choice Awards 2026

The 26th annual Game Developers Choice Awards will be held on March 12th as part of the GDC Festival of Gaming in San Francisco. While the ceremony is open to GDC passholders, it will also be livestreamed on the GDC Twitch channel for viewers around the world.

Nominees and winners are all from last year’s launched titles which are selected by the International Choice Awards Network (ICAN), an invitation-only panel made up of distinguished developers across the industry.

But apart from the peer-voted categories, the GDCA also features an Audience Award which gives fans the opportunity to support the game they believe made the biggest impact. Public voting opens on January 26th.

Unlike many industry award shows that recognize only a small group of finalists, the GDCA also announces Honorable Mentions, highlighting games that did not reach finalist status but were still recognized for their exceptional work.

 
  • Game of the Year
    • 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)

*Honorable Mentions: Absolum (Guard Crush Games, Dotemu, Supamonks / Dotemu), BALL X PIT (Kenny Sun & Friends / Devolver Digital), Hades II (Supergiant Games)

 
  • Social Impact
    • And Roger (TearyHand Studio / Kodansha)
    • Consume Me (Jenny Jiao Hsia)
    • Despelote (Julián Cordero, Sebastián Valbuena / Panic)
    • Dispatch (AdHoc Studio)

*Honorable Mentions: Herdling (Okomotive / Panic), Lost Records: Bloom & Rage (DON’T NOD Montréal, DON’T NOD ), PEAK (Team PEAK / Aggro Crab, Landfall), To a T (uvula LLC / Annapurna Interactive)

 
  • Best Visual Art
    • 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)

*Honorable Mentions: Hollow Knight: Silksong (Team Cherry), South of Midnight (Compulsion Games / Xbox Game Studios), Sword of the Sea (Giant Squid), The Midnight Walk (MoonHood / Fast Travel Games)

 
  • Best Technology
    • 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)

*Honorable Mentions: ARC Raiders (Embark Studios), Battlefield 6 (Battlefield Studios / Electronic Arts), Hollow Knight: Silksong (Team Cherry), Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 (Warhorse Studios / Deep Silver), PEAK (Team PEAK / Aggro Crab, Landfall)

 
  • Best Narrative
    • 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)

*Honorable Mentions: Lost Records: Bloom & Rage (DON’T NOD Montréal, DON’T NOD), South of Midnight (Compulsion Games / Xbox Game Studios), The Outer Worlds 2 (Obsidian Entertainment / Xbox Game Studios), The Séance of Blake Manor (Spooky Doorway / Raw Fury)

 
  • Innovation Award
    • 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)

*Honorable Mentions: CloverPit (Panik Arcade / Future Friends Games), Consume Me (Jenny Jiao Hsia), REPO (Semiwork Studios), Sunderfolk (Secret Door / Dreamhaven), To a T (uvula LLC / Annapurna Interactive)

 
  • Best 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)

*Honorable Mentions: Death Stranding 2: On the Beach (Kojima Productions / Sony Interactive Entertainment), Ghost of Yōtei (Sucker Punch Productions / Sony Interactive Entertainment), Kingdom Come: Deliverance II (Warhorse Studios / Deep Silver), The Alters (11 Bit Studios)

 
  • Best Debut
    • BALL X PIT (Kenny Sun & Friends / Devolver Digital)
    • Blue Prince (Dogubomb / Raw Fury)
    • Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Sandfall Interactive / Kepler Interactive)
    • Dispatch (Adhoc Studio)

*Honorable Mentions: ARC Raiders (Embark Studios), Consume Me (Jenny Jiao Hsia), Hollow Knight: Silksong (Team Cherry), The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy (Too Kyo Games, Media. Vision Inc. / Aniplex), The Roottrees are Dead (Evil Trout Inc.)

 
  • Best Audio
    • 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)

*Honorable Mentions: ARC Raiders (Embark Studios), Donkey Kong Bananza (Nintendo EPD / Nintendo), Doom: The Dark Ages (id Software / Bethesda Softworks), Lumines Arise (Enhance / Monstars Inc.), To a T (uvula LLC / Annapurna Interactive)

 

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Sending some gaming news your way from a surfing paradise island. Loves creating content, and researching informative facts and useless trivia. A novice in the gaming industry but a veteran in communications and publication.

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