Awards Overview
Awards at the Festival
Two nights. One spotlight. Moments the industry remembers.
The GDC Festival of Gaming hosts back-to-back awards that define creative excellence: the Independent Games Festival (IGF) Awards on Wednesday night and the Game Developers Choice Awards (GDCA) on Thursday night.
Both ceremonies are included with your pass and happen live onsite – spotlighting breakthroughs, elevating creators, and capturing the moments we’ll talk about all year.
Independent Games Festival (IGF) Awards
The global stage for independent excellence.
The IGF celebrates boundary-pushing indie teams and student creators with major recognition and cash prizes across categories including the Seumas McNally Grand Prize, Excellence in Audio, Design, and Visual Art, among others. Expect bold design, new voices, and the kind of creative risk that pushes the medium forward.
- Discover tomorrow’s classics before they break out.
- Meet the teams behind the year’s most inventive ideas.
- Play the finalists all week in the IGF Pavilion on the Festival Hall floor.
Game Developers Choice Awards (GDCA)
The definitive benchmark for game-making.
The GDCA is the profession’s most trusted honor – peer-nominated, peer-recognized – and the stage where the year’s standards are set across craft, creativity, and innovation. From Game of the Year to Design, Narrative, Visual Art, Audio, and Innovation, this is where the work that moved the medium earns its moment.
- Celebrate the craft with the creators who set the bar.
- Spot the trends, tools, and teams shaping next year’s roadmaps.
- Share the moment with thousands of peers from every corner of the ecosystem.
