8Bit/Digi
An Insight for Bay Area Gamers
The Independent Games Festival and Game Developers Choice Awards was an opportunity for the industry to honor the best works of 2017.
The Independent Games Festival and Game Developers Choice Awards was an opportunity for the industry to honor the best works of 2017 during the 2018 Game Developers Conference. This is a highlight of the event from the hosts to the biggest surprises of the night and the industry leaders who were honored.
Many of the speeches from last years Independent Games Festival and Game Developers Choice Awards were heavily political in response to the 2016 Election. This year however many of the remarks were jabs at the abusive inclusion of loot boxes and microtransactions along with direct jabs at Electronic Arts for fumbling the launch of Battlefront II.
This years award show featured four special episodes of Hey Ash Whatcha Playin’? that either parodied several indie titles or mocked bad decisions in gaming. The first one was a parody of the game Getting Over It, the second featured Ashley Burch bring the world of Baba Is You to life, the third mocked the failures of industry analysts, the final one looked into Mario questioning his existence. All four are available online now.
Rami Ismail was honored with the Ambassador Award for his work in making game development more accessible. Ismail has worked to establish incubators and local events at universities in an attempt to promote game development to a greater audience. He is also the co-founder of Vlambeer, the indie studio responsible for Nuclear Throne and Ridiculous Fishin.
Tim Schafer was honored with a Life Time Achievement Award for his long but influential career in the gaming industry. Schafer started his career with LucasArts, having worked on the Monkey Island series, He is best known for creating Grim Fandango, Psychonauts, Brütal Legend and Day of the Tentacle.
Everyone probably saw this coming but The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was awarded the title of Game of the Year at the during the Game Developers Choice Award. Breath of the Wild has already been praised as one of the best games in the series while having won numerous awards, Game of the Year including from a verity of major publishers.
Best Student Game – Baba Is You
Excellence in Visual Art – Chuchel
Excellence in Audio – Uurnog Uurnlimited
Nuovo Award –
Excellence in Design – Baba Is You
Excellence in Narrative – Night in the Woods
alt.ctrl.GDC Award – Puppet Pandemonium
Seumas McNally Prize – Night in the Woods
Best Debut – Cuphead
Best Audio – The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Innovative Award – Gorogoa
Best Technology – Horizon Zero Dawn
Best VR – SUPERHOT VR
Best Visual Arts – Cuphead
Best Narrative – What Remains of Edith Finch
Best Design – The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Best Mobile / Handheld Game –
Audience Award – NieR:Automata
Game of the Year – The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
This special report is part of 8Bit/Digi‘s coverage of the Game Developers Conference 2018. If you attended the event, please share your thoughts in the comment section below.
Disclaimer: GDC provided 8Bit/Digi with press passes for the week.
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Stan Rezaee is the founder and Editor of 8Bit/Digi. He is a journalist and gamer from the Bay Area who has been writing about the medium for over five years.
