SAN FRANCISCO – January 11, 2022 – The finalists for the 22nd Annual Game Developers Choice Awards, the leading peer-based video game event celebrating the industry’s top games and developers, have been revealed today. Winners in all categories will be honored at the Game Developers Choice Awards (GDCA) ceremony, taking place at the 2022 Game Developers Conference (GDC) on Wednesday, March 23 and held in conjunction with the Independent Games Festival Awards (IGF). The ceremony is available to watch for all GDC 2022 pass-holders. The 36th edition of GDC will be held in-person and virtually at San Francisco’s Moscone Convention Center from March 21 – 25.
The developer-picked nominations are led by Deathloop, which received a total of six nominations, closely followed by It Takes Two, which received five nominations and Forza Horizon 5, which earned four nominations. All three of these titles are nominated for the Game of the Year award.
Arkane Studios’ Deathloop, the next-gen first person shooter where two rival assassins are trapped in a mysterious timeloop on the island of Blackreef, was nominated for six awards: Best Audio, Best Design, Innovation Award, Best Narrative, Best Visual Art and Game of the Year. Hazelight Studios’ It Takes Two, a genre-bending platform adventure game where players can work together across a variety of gleefully disruptive gameplay challenges, was nominated for five awards: Best Design, Innovation Award, Best Narrative, Social Impact Award and Game of the Year. Playground Games’ Forza Horizon 5, the twelfth main installment of the Forza series set in the open world landscapes of Mexico, follows closely behind with four awards: Best Audio, Best Technology, Best Visual Art and Game of the Year.
Any video game that was released and made publicly available during the 2021 calendar year is eligible for free nomination for the 2022 Game Developers Choice Awards. Both nominees and winners are selected by the Game Developers Choice Awards-specific International Choice Awards Network (ICAN), which is an invitation-only organization, composed of leading game creators from all parts of the industry.
The complete list of nominees, including honorable mentions, for the 22nd annual Game Developers Choice Awards is as follows:
BEST AUDIO
Returnal (Housemarque / Sony Interactive Entertainment)
Unpacking (Witch Beam / Humble)
Deathloop (Arkane Studios / Bethesda Softworks)
Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy (Eidos-Montréal / Square Enix)
Forza Horizon 5 (Playground Games / Xbox Game Studios)
Honorable Mentions: Halo Infinite (343 Industries / Xbox Game Studios), It Takes Two (Hazelight Studios / Electronic Arts), Genesis Noir (Feral Cat Den / Fellow Traveller), Kid A Mnesia: Exhibition (Arbitrarily Good Productions, Namethemachine / Epic Games), Resident Evil Village (Capcom)
BEST DEBUT
Kena: Bridge of Spirits (Ember Lab)
Valheim (Iron Gate Studio / Coffee Stain Publishing)
Wildermyth (Worldwalker Games / WhisperGames)
The Artful Escape (Beethoven & Dinosaur / Annapurna Interactive)
Sable (Shedworks / Raw Fury)
Honorable Mentions: Genesis Noir (Feral Cat Den / Fellow Traveller), ElecHead (Tsuyomi / NamaTakahashi), Unsighted (Studio Pixel Punk, Humble)
BEST DESIGN
It Takes Two (Hazelight Studios / Electronic Arts)
Psychonauts 2 (Double Fine / Xbox Game Studios)
Halo Infinite (343 Industries / Xbox Game Studios)
Deathloop (Arkane Studios / Bethesda Softworks)
Inscryption (Daniel Mullins Games / Devolver Digital)
Honorable Mentions: Resident Evil Village (Capcom), Unpacking (Witch Beam / Humble), Death’s Door (Acid Nerve, Devolver Digital), Loop Hero (Four Quarters, Devolver Digital)
INNOVATION AWARD
It Takes Two (Hazelight Studios / Electronic Arts)
Wildermyth (Worldwalker Games / WhisperGames)
Unpacking (Witch Beam / Humble)
Inscryption (Daniel Mullins Games / Devolver Digital)
Deathloop (Arkane Studios / Bethesda Softworks)
Honorable Mentions: Returnal (Housemarque / Sony Interactive Entertainment), Chicory: A Colorful Tale (The Chicory: A Colorful Tale Team / Finji), Loop Hero (Four Quarters, Devolver Digital)
BEST NARRATIVE
Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy (Eidos-Montréal / Square Enix)
Deathloop (Arkane Studios / Bethesda Softworks)
It Takes Two (Hazelight Studios / Electronic Arts)
Psychonauts 2 (Double Fine / Xbox Game Studios)
Unpacking (Witch Beam / Humble)
Honorable Mentions: Kena: Bridge of Spirits (Ember Lab), Life is Strange: True Colors (Deck Nine / Square Enix), The Forgotten City (Modern Storyteller / Dear Villagers), Inscryption (Daniel Mullins Games / Devolver Digital), Wildermyth (Worldwalker Games / WhisperGames)
SOCIAL IMPACT AWARD
Before Your Eyes (GoodbyeWorld Games / Skybound Games)
It Takes Two (Hazelight Studios / Electronic Arts)
Life is Strange: True Colors (Deck Nine / Square Enix)
Boyfriend Dungeon (Kitfox Games)
Chicory: A Colorful Tale (The Chicory: A Colorful Tale Team / Finji)
Honorable Mentions: Forza Horizon 5 (Playground Games / Xbox Game Studios)
BEST TECHNOLOGY
Halo Infinite (343 Industries / Xbox Game Studios)
Forza Horizon 5 (Playground Games / Xbox Game Studios)
Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart (Insomniac Games / Sony Interactive Entertainment)
Returnal (Housemarque / Sony Interactive Entertainment)
Hitman 3 (IO Interactive)
Honorable Mentions: Battlefield 2042 (EA DICE / Electronic Arts), Resident Evil Village (Capcom)
BEST VISUAL ART
Forza Horizon 5 (Playground Games / Xbox Game Studios)
Kena: Bridge of Spirits (Ember Lab)
Deathloop (Arkane Studios / Bethesda Softworks)
Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart (Insomniac Games / Sony Interactive Entertainment)
Psychonauts 2 (Double Fine / Xbox Game Studios)
Honorable Mentions: The Artful Escape (Beethoven & Dinosaur / Annapurna Interactive), Resident Evil Village (Capcom), Genesis Noir (Feral Cat Den / Fellow Traveller), Returnal (Housemarque / Sony Interactive Entertainment), Sable (Shedworks / Raw Fury)
GAME OF THE YEAR
Inscryption (Daniel Mullins Games / Devolver Digital)
Forza Horizon 5 (Playground Games / Xbox Game Studios)
Resident Evil Village (Capcom)
Deathloop (Arkane Studios / Bethesda Softworks)
It Takes Two (Hazelight Studios / Electronic Arts)
Honorable Mentions: Halo Infinite (343 Industries / Xbox Game Studios), Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy (Eidos-Montréal / Square Enix), Psychonauts 2 (Double Fine / Xbox Game Studios), Chicory: A Colorful Tale (The Chicory: A Colorful Tale Team / Finji), Death’s Door (Acid Nerve / Devolver Digital)
For more information about the 22nd annual Game Developers Choice Awards, visit: http://www.gamechoiceawards.com. As in years past, the Game Developers Choice Awards will be livestreamed alongside the Independent Games Festival Awards on the official GDC Twitch channel.
For more details on the Game Developers Conference, please visit the GDC’s official website, or subscribe to regular updates via Facebook, Twitter, or RSS. Official photos are available via the Official GDC Flickr account: www.flickr.com/photos/officialgdc.
