The Game Developers Choice Awards take place every year at the Game Developers Conference, and the 2026 iteration of the event at GDC 2026 was, in many ways, no different from the other major video game award shows we've seen so far, starting with the Golden Joystick Awards back in November 2025, because once again, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has walked away with the big award of the night.
Alongside adding another Game of the Year win to its growing trophy cabinet, developer Sandfall Interactive also adds wins for Best Debut, Best Visual Art, Best Audio, and Best Narrative. Clair Obscur was the big winner of the night, but it wasn't the only game to walk home with multiple wins.
That marker goes to Blue Prince, which took home wins for Best Design and the Innovation Award, while Death Stranding 2: On the Beach won Best Technology and Consume Me won the Social Impact Award. Clair Obscur's latest GOTY win cements its place as the game with the most GOTY wins so far, a title it took from Elden Ring after Wccftech made it our GOTY pick for 2025.
Though the GDC Awards aren't as big a fair when it comes to the number of categories it has compared to the aforementioned Golden Joystick Awards, The Game Awards, or The DICE Awards, they stand alongside the DICE Awards as two of the most significant award shows to follow. That's because the nominees and winners are ultimately selected by other video game industry professionals, not players.
Of course, that's not to say player-voted awards don't carry any weight. But if you feel like The Game Awards, which partially relies on player voting and a selected council of media, and the Golden Joysticks, which is entirely player-voted, miss the mark each year, then the GDC Awards and the DICE Awards are the ones you'll want to pay attention to.
They're also significant for their non-game-related inclusions, the Ambassador Award and Lifetime Achievement Award. This year, GDC recognized Rebecca Heineman, founder of Interplay Productions and Contraband Entertainment and a game developer who worked in video games for 45 years, working on Myth 3, Baldur's Gate 2, DOOM (3DO), The Bard's Tale 3, Wolfenstein 3D, Dragon Wars and more in her long career, posthumously with the Ambassador Award.
The Lifetime Achievement Award was given to Don Daglow, one of the original members of the five people who started Intellivision at Mattel. He's worked on more than 100 games and founded Stormfront Studios back in 1988 when it was initially called Beyond Software.
"Don Daglow and Rebecca Heineman helped define what games could become, and their innovations continue to influence how developers create today," said GDC president Nina Brown, per GamesIndustry.Biz. "As GDC Festival of Gaming transforms alongside a rapidly changing industry, their legacy reminds us that creativity, conviction, and bold experimentation are what move this medium forward."
You can find the full list of winners from this year's GDC Awards, the nominees, and the honorable mentions below.
GDC Awards 2026 Winners and Honourable Mentions
Best Audio
- Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Sandfall Interactive / Kepler Interactive) - Winner
- 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)
Honourable 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)
Best Debut
- BALL X PIT (Kenny Sun & Friends / Devolver Digital)
- Blue Prince (Dogubomb / Raw Fury)
- Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Sandfall Interactive / Kepler Interactive) - Winner
- Dispatch (Adhoc Studio)
Honourable 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 Design
- BALL X PIT (Kenny Sun & Friends / Devolver Digital)
- Blue Prince (Dogubomb / Raw Fury) - Winner
- Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Sandfall Interactive / Kepler Interactive)
- Donkey Kong Bananza (Nintendo EPD / Nintendo)
- Split Fiction (Hazelight Studios / Electronic Arts)
Honourable 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)
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) - Winner
- Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Sandfall Interactive / Kepler Interactive)
- Donkey Kong Bananza (Nintendo EPD / Nintendo)
Honourable 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 Narrative
- Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Sandfall Interactive / Kepler Interactive) - Winner
- Despelote (Julián Cordero, Sebastián Valbuena / Panic)
- Dispatch (AdHoc Studio)
- Ghost of Yōtei (Sucker Punch Productions / Sony Interactive Entertainment)
- Split Fiction (Hazelight Studios / Electronic Arts)
Honourable 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)
Best Technology
- Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Sandfall Interactive / Kepler Interactive)
- Death Stranding 2: On the Beach (Kojima Productions / Sony Interactive Entertainment) - Winner
- Donkey Kong Bananza (Nintendo EPD / Nintendo)
- Ghost of Yōtei (Sucker Punch Productions / Sony Interactive Entertainment)
- Split Fiction (Hazelight Studios / Electronic Arts)
Honourable 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 Visual Art
- Absolum (Guard Crush Games, Dotemu, Supamonks / Dotemu)
- Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Sandfall Interactive / Kepler Interactive) - Winner
- 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)
Honourable 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)
Social Impact
- And Roger (TearyHand Studio / Kodansha)
- Consume Me (Jenny Jiao Hsia) - Winner
- Despelote (Julián Cordero, Sebastián Valbuena / Panic)
- Dispatch (AdHoc Studio)
Honourable 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)
Game of the Year
- Blue Prince (Dogubomb / Raw Fury)
- Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Sandfall Interactive / Kepler Interactive) - Winner
- 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)
Honourable Mentions: Absolum (Guard Crush Games, Dotemu, Supamonks / Dotemu), BALL X PIT (Kenny Sun & Friends / Devolver Digital), Hades II (Supergiant Games)
Ambassador Award: Rebecca Heineman
Lifetime Achievement Award: Don Daglow
About the author: David has been writing about videogames, technology, and culture since 2020, with a focus on reporting daily news across multiple publications, including GameDaily.Biz, GameSkinny, and PlayStation Universe before joining Wccftech in 2025. David started contributing as Canada/US reporter for Wccftech's gaming section in 2025. Besides being up-to-date on the industry's movements, he loves interviewing developers, reviewing games, and writing intricate essays about the symbolism and layered meanings to be found in rich narratives as he's done for publications like GamesIndustry.Biz, LostInCult, and others. Outside of games he loves movies, music, theatre, his hometown, and his family, though not necessarily in that order.
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