Cue the spotlight: We're thrilled to announce this year's hosts for the 2026 Independent Games Festival Awards and the Game Developers Choice Awards, taking place at the GDC Festival of Gaming in San Francisco.

Karrie Shao will be taking the stage for the 28th annual IGF Awards, happening on March 11. Karrie is the Nebula-nominated and BAFTA-longlisted Lead Writer and Lead Narrative Designer of Pacific Drive, the 2024 best-selling supernatural survival game described as "Stephen King's X-Files in a Station Wagon." The game sold over 1 million copies and has been honored by BAFTA, The Game Awards, Game Developers Choice Awards, and Independent Games Festival. Shao's writing has garnered praise as "funny and compelling" by GamesRadar and "exquisite" by ScreenRant. Pacific Drive is currently in development for television by James Wan at Atomic Monster.

The next night (March 12), Sam Maggs will take the mic as host for the 26th annual Game Developers Choice Awards. Sam Maggs is a New York Times Bestselling and Eisner-nominated author of books, comics, and video games. Her novels include Star Wars Jedi: Battle Scars and The Unstoppable Wasp: Built on Hope; she’s written for games like Call of Duty: Vanguard, Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, and Marvel’s Spider-Man; and her comics and graphic novels include Marvel Action: Captain Marvel, Critical Role: The Mighty Nein Origins, and Tell No Tales: Pirates of the Southern Seas. As her day job, she serves as the Senior Manager of Brand & Content Strategy at Critical Role. She is also on-air talent for networks like Dropout and the Nerdist. A Canadian in Los Angeles, she misses Coffee Crisp and bagged milk.

Join Sam and Karrie on the Main Stage at the GDC Festival of Gaming, or watch both ceremonies live on GDC Twitch. For those eager to see the awards for themselves, make sure to buy a pass! The 2026 GDC Festival of Gaming is happening March 9-13, 2026.