• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

'Deathloop,' 'It Takes Two,' And 'Forza Horizon 5' Lead Nominees For GDCA 2022

IbizaPocholo

NeoGAFs Kent Brockman

It's a good year to be playing together—as rival assassins, speed-driven racers, or a couple whose marriage is on the rocks. They're all part of the fantastic list of 2022 Game Developers Choice Awards nominees.

Organizers of the 2022 Game Developers Conference are excited to reveal this year's finalists for the 22nd annual Game Developers Choice Awards—the leading peer-based video game event celebrating the industry’s top games and developers.

Arkane Studios' Deathloop leads the pack with six nominations, closely followed by Hazelight Studios' It Takes Two (five nominations) and Playground Games' Forza Horizon 5 (four nominations). All three of these titles were nominated for the prestigious Game of the Year award—alongside Capcom's Resident Evil Village and Daniel Mullins Games' Inscryption (which also received four nominations at this year's Independent Games Festival Awards).

Deathloop is a next-gen first-person shooter where two rival assassins are trapped in a mysterious timeloop on the island of Blackreef. It's been nominated for: Game of the Year, Best Audio, Best Design, Innovation Award, Best Narrative, and Best Visual Art.

It Takes Two is a genre-bending platform adventure game where players work together to solve puzzles and address their characters' relationship issues. It's been nominated for: Game of the Year, Best Design, Innovation Award, and Best Narrative. It's also been nominated for the Social Impact Award, a brand-new category that recognizes games that work to positively impact lives and further social good.

Forza Horizon 5 is the latest in a long-running series of heart-stopping racing games, this one being set in Mexico. It's been nominated for: Game of the Year, Best Audio, Best Technology, and Best Visual Art.

The Game Developers Choice Awards is part of GDC 2022, which will be held in-person in San Francisco and virtually from March 21-25.

Here is the full list of GDCA 2022 nominees, including honorable mentions:

Best Audio​

Returnal (Housemarque / Sony Interactive Entertainment)

Unpacking (Witch Beam / Humble)

Deathloop (Arkane Studios / Bethesda Softworks)

Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy (Eidos Montreal / 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 / Electronic Arts)

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 / Microsoft)

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 Montreal / Square Enix)

Deathloop (Arkane Studios / Bethesda Softworks)

It Takes Two (Hazelight Studios / Electronic Arts)

Psychonauts 2 (Double Fine / Microsoft)

Unpacking (Witch Beam / Humble)

Honorable Mentions: Kena: Bridge of Spirits (Ember Lab / Electronic Arts), 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 / Electronic Arts)

Deathloop (Arkane Studios / Bethesda Softworks)

Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart (Insomniac Games / Sony Interactive Entertainment)

Psychonauts 2 (Double Fine / Microsoft)

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 Montreal / Square Enix), Psychonauts 2 (Double Fine / Microsoft), Chicory: A Colorful Tale (The Chicory: A Colorful Tale Team / Finji), Death's Door (Acid Nerve / Devolver Digital)

Any video game that was released and made publicly available during the 2021 calendar year was eligible for GDCA nomination. Both nominees and winners are chosen by the Game Deveopers 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.

Winners will be announced at the GDCA ceremony on Wednesday, March 23 (with a simultaneous broadcast on GDC Twitch). GDCA follows right after the Independent Games Festival Awards, which celebrates independent games and their creators. Both the GDCA and IGF ceremonies are available to watch for all GDC 2022 pass-holders.
 

isoRhythm

Banned

Best Technology​

Halo Infinite (343 Industries / Xbox Game Studios)

What does best technology even mean lmao

Edit:
The Best Technology Award recognizes the overall excellence of technology in a game - including, but not limited to, graphics programming, artificial intelligence, networking, and physics
 
Last edited:

driqe

Member

Best Technology​

Halo Infinite (343 Industries / Xbox Game Studios)

What does best technology even mean lmao

Edit:
The Best Technology Award recognizes the overall excellence of technology in a game - including, but not limited to, graphics programming, artificial intelligence, networking, and physics
Halo Infinite won and not Forza? Yeah this isn't a serious award
 

Kuranghi

Member
Another woke awards.

"Best hair goes to Frenchy from Grease"

e6c7ffdd92f4f7b0f530cf442dd1b29b.jpg
 
The fact anyone is laughing about Halo Infinite being in the best technology category just goes to show how little people really understand about gaming. People think it's just raw graphical fidelity alone that defines the impressiveness of a game and nothing else. What 343 did with that open world, the draw distance, the density of the world, the level design layouts. Even the amazing way the various ships hovering in the sky across Zeta Halo weren't just window dressing, but were an actual genuine sandbox element. They moved, had patrol routes, and even beamed enemies enemies down to come after you in real-time if you happened to be underneath one. That's cool as shit.

You can even spot pretty large battles taking place between the AI way out into the distance at the exact same speed they would be running at were they right in your immediate vicinity. How scale was handled in this game with the size of the battles is an accomplishment imo. But others disagree, that's fine.
 

elliot5

Member
The fact anyone is laughing about Halo Infinite being in the best technology category just goes to show how little people really understand about gaming. People think it's just raw graphical fidelity alone that defines the impressiveness of a game and nothing else. What 343 did with that open world, the draw distance, the density of the world, the level design layouts. Even the amazing way the various ships hovering in the sky across Zeta Halo weren't just window dressing, but were an actual genuine sandbox element. They moved, had patrol routes, and even beamed enemies enemies down to come after you in real-time if you happened to be underneath one. That's cool as shit.

You can even spot pretty large battles taking place between the AI way out into the distance at the exact same speed they would be running at were they right in your immediate vicinity. How scale was handled in this game with the size of the battles is an accomplishment imo. But others disagree, that's fine.
The models and materials, battle chatter system, physics, AI skill and responsiveness (reactions to hits, etc), scale and seamlessness of the world, 60 and 120 fps… it’s all very impressive. It’s not the best looking game as a whole, but technically under the hood it’s very respectable and I’m sure a lot of game devs for GDC recognize it.
 

isoRhythm

Banned
The fact anyone is laughing about Halo Infinite being in the best technology category just goes to show how little people really understand about gaming. People think it's just raw graphical fidelity alone that defines the impressiveness of a game and nothing else. What 343 did with that open world, the draw distance, the density of the world, the level design layouts. Even the amazing way the various ships hovering in the sky across Zeta Halo weren't just window dressing, but were an actual genuine sandbox element. They moved, had patrol routes, and even beamed enemies enemies down to come after you in real-time if you happened to be underneath one. That's cool as shit.

You can even spot pretty large battles taking place between the AI way out into the distance at the exact same speed they would be running at were they right in your immediate vicinity. How scale was handled in this game with the size of the battles is an accomplishment imo. But others disagree, that's fine.
Yeah.. no. I've seen more impressive indie games in terms of tech even outside of graphics. And one of the main criteria for the award is graphics.
 
Last edited:
Top Bottom