Elden Ring And Stray Lead GDC Awards Nominees

2022 favorites Elden Ring and Stray lead the Game Developers Choice Awards nominations, with six nominations each. God of War Ragnarok and Pentiment are also frontrunners, with five and four nominations respectively.

Stray and Elden Ring are competing for many of the same awards, including Best Audio, Best Design, Best Visual Art, and the Innovation Award. Separately, Stray is nominated for Best Debut and Elden Ring is up for Best Technology. Live-action narrative game Immortality and Zelda-like puzzler Tunic are also nominated for Game of the Year.

The GDC Awards will be held during the Game Developers Conference, which is from March 20-24. Before then, you can cast a vote for the Audience Award. That ballot includes every nominee or honorable mention in the GDC Awards, so there's a good chance your personal GOTY pick is on it.

In other award-season news, God of War Ragnarok, Elden Ring, and Stray also received several nominations for the 2023 DICE awards. Immortality and Tunic are both up for the Grand Prize at the Independent Games Festival Awards. Elden Ring picked up the top prize at GameSpot's own Game of the Year Awards.

Below is the full list of GDC Awards nominees, including honorable mentions.

GDC 2023 Awards Nominees

Best Debut

• Neon White
• Norco
• Stray
• Tunic
• Vampire Survivors

Honorable Mentions: Chained Echoes, Cult of the Lamb, Marvel Snap, The Case of the Golden Idol, Trombone Champ

Best Audio

• Elden Ring
• God of War Ragnarök
• Horizon Forbidden West
• Metal: Hellsinger
• Stray

Honorable Mentions: A Plague Tale: Requiem, Neon White, Persona 5 Royal, Splatoon 3, Tunic

Best Design

• Elden Ring
• Marvel Snap
• Neon White
• Stray
• Tunic

Honorable Mentions: Cult of the Lamb, Dwarf Fortress, God of War Ragnarök, Immortality, Vampire Survivors

Best Narrative

• God of War Ragnarök
• I Was a Teenage Exocolonist
• IMMORTALITY
• Pentiment
• Return to Monkey Island

Honorable Mentions: A Plague Tale: Requiem, Citizen Sleeper, Horizon Forbidden West, Norco, Roadwarden

Best Technology

• A Plague Tale: Requiem
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II
• Elden Ring
• God of War Ragnarök
• Horizon Forbidden West

Honorable Mentions: Dwarf Fortress, Hardspace: Shipbreaker, Immortality, Stray, Teardown

Best Visual Art

• Elden Ring
• God of War Ragnarök
• Horizon Forbidden West
• Pentiment
• Stray

Honorable Mentions: A Plague Tale: Requiem, Cult of the Lamb, Neon White, OlliOlli World, Tunic

Innovation Award

• Elden Ring
• Immortality
• Neon White
• Pentiment
• Stray

Honorable Mentions: Cult of the Lamb, Dwarf Fortress, God of War Ragnarök, Horizon Forbidden West, Trombone Champ

Social Impact Award

• As Dusk Falls
• Citizen Sleeper
• Endling - Extinction Is Forever
• I Was A Teenage Exocolonist
• OlliOlli World
• We Are OFK

Honorable Mentions: Before Your Eyes, God of War Ragnarök, Hindsight, Norco, Terra Nil

Game of the Year

• Elden Ring
• God of War Ragnarök
• Immortality
• Pentiment
• Stray
• Tunic

Honorable Mentions:Citizen Sleeper, Cult of the Lamb, Horizon Forbidden West, Marvel Snap, Neon White, Vampire Survivors