2024 Game Developers Choice Awards Ceremony

[Music] [Music] [Music] please welcome to the stage your host Alana [Music] Pierce

hello everyone welcome to this year's game developers Choice Awards if you don't know me hi I'm Alana and I am unbelievably honored to be your host this evening but I have to admit sort of a bummer of a year to have been asked to celebrate the games industry for no particular reason mostly the record layoffs though so it's been great uh it's honestly a really tough year to have had to have write this speech I mean people in in this room have lost their jobs people who attend GDC every year have had to cancel this year because being here at all is sort of an extravagant luxury that's difficult to commit to when you don't know when your next paycheck is coming we've lost people with years of experience who worked hard to make some of the games that have been nominated tonight but more importantly we've watched our friends get laid off we've seen how it impacts their families their children their oh um sorry I mean I love the company all all companies uh the stock market is actually the best thing to

happen to video games Okay that was close uh but really it's impossible to have the Awards this year without acknowledging the immense talent that we've lost and the people who dedicated their lives to this industry that it effectively spat out because stock market hour must only go up okay that one was fine in saying that the honest framing here is that we're here tonight to celebrate those people to celebrate all of the teams who work hard to bring people all over the world genuinely some of the most memorable enjoyable experiences of their lives thank you my life is better because of all of you now this is now never how you want to start a sentence thank you um but I heard on Reddit that despite all of this game devs are actually all very lazy and money hungry they don't even really play video games they hate games in fact if you're a programmer in this room and you chose to work in the video game industry for any reason other than because you love them how's that plan working out for you I don't know about you guys but I personally chose to work in the games industry for the notorious

job security or the work life balance I'm joking it was for the unanimous and endless Twitter praise they love me over there sometimes I wonder if we deserve it though because video games are like clearly Abominations like God didn't want them to exist at any moment during development a hundred things are broken all at once and the only logical conclusion is that they aren't supposed to exist they are demons we Claw from the code as an affront to Nature and somehow they eventually come out like completely against their own will they're trying so hard not to get made to do anything they possibly can to prevent creation and we go yeah the next five years of my life I'm see about that you [ __ ] punk and then here they are you cannot convince me that Boulders Gate 3 or any of tonight's nominees are anything other than a defiant Miracle against God which leads me to our first award of the evening best technology

in spite of everything games do to defy their own development these nominees have excelled in making systems procedures and Tech that blew us out of the water in 2023 it's a job that anyone who doesn't do it can't possibly understand and is simultaneously one of the most important parts of the whole development process here are the nominees for best technology best technology the nominees for best technology are Alan Wake 2 developed by remedy entertainment published by epic games aunti Carin tat Alto and Sami hakar balers Gate 3 developed and published by laran [Music] Studios

[Music] Marvel Spider-Man 2 developed by Insomniac Games published by Sony interactive entertainment I have another name for you Craven Starfield developed by Bethesda game studios published by Bethesda softworks [Music] The Legend of Zelda tears of the Kingdom developed and published by [Music] Nintendo and the winner is the Legend of Zelda tears of the

[Applause] king [Music] theom

The Legend Of Z Zelda tear of the Kingdom has a lot of mechanics packed into it like being able to freely attach objects to each other or being able to pass through the ceiling anywhere and there's a lot of mechanics that you know these are ones that if you're as a developer even if it did cross your mind you might be a little hesitant to implement because it's just a lot of work but in the end the temptation to actually do this and the thought that this might bring surprise and Delight to players w over beyond the concerns of the challenge that would that we would

be facing and I'm extremely happy to have receed this award in response to the decision we've made to take on that challenge so on behalf of the development team thank you very much for this [Applause] honor please welcome to the stage Harry [Music] Krueger games are an interactive medium that means means that there is rarely if

ever a substitute for good gameplay and at the heart of gameplay there is always design design is often the exercise of setting constraints it's the art of funneling the players's attention towards goals and decisions that feel meaningful engaging and satisfying good design has the ability to get inside the player's head to make them see new and exciting possibilities and to create a deep and rewarding experience that leaves players itching for that coveted one more goal great design is always something that should be celebrated and on that note here are the nominees that have demonstrated exceptional design during the last year best design the nominees for best design are balers Gate 3 developed and published by laran Studios

[Music] cocoon developed by geometric interactive published by anap Perna interactive ye Carson Marsen fold Asar Gman [Music] thr dredge developed by black salt gains published by Team 17 Alex Richie Joel Mason Nadia Thorne and Michael [Music] Bastion Hi-Fi Rush developed by Tango Gameworks published by Bethesda softworks John Johannes masaki Yuji Nakamura the legend of zel tears of the Kingdom developed and

published by [Music] [Music] Nintendo and the winner is balo's Gates Reef [Music] hello everyone my name is Nick uh first of all I would like to say that it is a uh great privilege and honor to represent laran work today here and to be recognized by our peers but it is feeling very lonely up here alone so I

would like you to jog your imagination a little bit and I would like you to imagine 450 people standing behind me they would be standing from one side to another about five rows deep so that is our [Applause] studio uh design might be somewhere in my title but at Lan Studios everybody contributes to this design um from from Canada to Malaysia people from all kinds of backgrounds uh contribute ideas and inspiration uh to what is bers Gate 3 today um I always Delight in how um our creative director and founder Sven [ __ ] finds something that he has never seen and knew about in our game for the first time uh it's amazing somebody sneaked in something dinosaurs why are there dinosaurs in this game well uh life uh

away so it's it's a lot of people right that you're imagining but Boulders Gate 3 was not made in one day and arguably it was not made in six years either um the ideas and the philosophy of L and design has have been developed for over 20 years stretching back way back into uh into this game called Divine Divinity um an underappreciated Gem and I can gush about this game because I didn't contribute to it uh because I was in Middle School at the time um something else we played in middle school around that time was a really exciting new RPG revolutionary and it was called bal's gate um one and two and folks who worked on it um without their work I wouldn't be here we wouldn't be here there would be no jira Minsk and bpon Saga so they belong here on this on this stage and this brings us to the elephant in the room because we're talking about design and bers gate and a d and d game so of course I want

to shout out uh lovely Folks at uh Wizards of the Coast um the creators of Dungeons and Dragons fifth edition and all of the other editions before them all the way back to uh sir Gary gak who started this whole thing um 50 years ago um 50 years that's um that's around the time our creative director and founder Sven link was born coincidence butter fly fact um we'll never know we'll never know so by now the the whole the whole stage is full of people right uh you can imagine this giant crowd but this is all just professionals working on this game but there is still a big big crowd of people that I would like to thank for their direct contribution to the design of Boulders Gate 3 and they these people would not fit on the stage they would not fit even in this room and I'm talking about our community I love our community they've been with us through a lot through Co lockdowns through through three years of Early Access they've been

inspiring us every time we ship anything we go online and we go like so what do they say do you like it is it bad is it horrible I love the memes I love the fan art I love the Reddit post that you have to scroll through to read the whole thing where they go with painful Precision into how much better we could do and so uh being a designer on bers Gate 3 was a bit like being a rogue so you have to stay very quiet and you have to sneak around this this giant crowd of extremely creative people and you have to listen very carefully to what they have to say and you have to to steal I mean uh synthesize everybody's ideas into your own ideas Tada so uh I hope that um young and future designers are watching this or maybe they don't know anything about us but that they will synthesize our ideas for their future

Creations um go Rogues thank you so [Applause] much please welcome back your host Alana [Music] Pierce [Music] I think he might have to give that speech a few more times tonight uh our next award is always one of my favorites we've established that again despite what Reddit told me and they are experts so maybe I'm wrong here making games is Pretty Tough making your first game as a brand new studio is even tougher anyone who manages to release a game as a hero in my books but these particular Heroes Did It For The First Time In 2023 and what a start they had here are the nominees the best

debut Best debut the nominees for Best debut are cocoon developed by geometric interactive published by anaa interactive yepe Carlson yakob Schmidt and Ain Co Dave the diver developed and published by Mint rocket J Wang Chi Wu buong sa and Andrew Kim dredge developed by black salt Games published by Team 17 Nadia Thorne Joel Mason Alex witchie and Michael Bastion

Vana developed and published by visai games a Sam Elana Shin Khan tatsuya Morita [Music] Ahad viewfinder developed by sad owl Studios published by thunderful [Music] publishing unbelievable lineup those were their first games it's absolutely nuts the winner is [Applause] venba

[Music] hi again uh uh really really nice to win this award again um I often uh during making Bena um my favorite uh Tam movie director uh vetri Martin he would often say uh the more local you are the more International you become um I think m was a very very local story um and I'm really really happy that it's resonated with so many of you thank you so [Applause] much please welcome to the stage Osama dorius and Ramy [Applause] [Music] Ismail

[Music] asalam alaykum my name is Ramy and I Usama dorius and since 2021 the two of us have a games podcast called the Habib together with our third member our dear Habibi fousy [Music] mesmar and we wanted to explain to you for a moment why we agree with all of our games industry peers that chose fosy as the 2024 recipient of the game developers Choice ambassador award when I started in games development I was not aware of any other Arab game developers I'd simply never met one none nor had I ever seen an Arab name in the credits of any game as I was growing up I'd seen more Chris's and Johns in the code Department of a single video game than i' seen Arab credit lines in my entire

lifestyle I've been making games my entire life from card games and board games when I was 9 years old to eventually learning how to make games in Flash in my teens but I had never considered a career in video games until I saw another Arab become a game designer and and that makes that makes the the dream of making games feel impossible for for kids like us because surely if it was possible I'd have heard of other people with names like ours doing it so with that in mind it feels deeply remarkable to be standing here tonight as an Iraqi and an Egyptian to celebrate a Jordanian efforts to make the to make the global games industry a better place through my own career I've come to believe that one of the

greatest acts of resistance of our stereotype as Arabs and Middle Eastern people being the bad people that one of the greatest acts of resistance that we have against primarily being represented as Cannon father and bombing targets that one of the greatest acts of resistance that we have against these hores and playing out in real life they are afterday in our lands in our region to our people in Gaza one of the greatest acts of resistance we have as minorities against this dehumanization is simply to exist loudly that one of the greatest acts of resistance as a minority in any space is to thrive

[Applause] and boy has FY been thriving from his humble roots being a part of the very first game development team in Jordan to working on so many incredible games including a Mario game not many of us can say that we've worked on a Mario game I I will I will never forget fy's excitement at getting to work at a Mario game best that's not what we're here to celebrate the game developers Choice Awards Define the Ambassador Awards as honoring an individual or individuals who have helped the games industry Advanced to a better place either through facilitating a better game Community from within or by reaching outside the industry to be an advocate for video games and help

further our art and who better to commemorate with this award than the very person who literally wrote the book on video games in Arabic the first and only comprehensive Arabic language resource bringing our beloved craft to an entire segment of the human population for whom that knowledge was completely out of reach fosy actually had to invent new Arabic words to describe game design ideas and Concepts that simply don't exist in Arabic as the Arabic proverb [Music] goes if you talk to someone in a language

that they understand it will reach their head but if you talk to them in their own language it will reach your [Applause] heart and in the many languages he speaks fos he has been a mentor a teacher an advocate an ambassador to the medium and to the people that make games in every country he's worked in and mind you fy's journey in games has taken him from Jordan to New Zealand from Japan to Sweden but in every country he's lived in or visited you'll find stories of fy's kindness his energy his humility and his generosity over the past decades he has turned from a kid realizing that someone somewhere around the world actually created the games he played and dreaming of having that job it's someone who not

only worked on games in every segment of the games industry but someone who helps others achieve those very dreams no matter where they are and if that wasn't enough and let's be clear that's more than enough fos has a superpower it's actually true it is physically impossible to take a bad picture of fosy and believe me I've tried every snap you take results in a GQ Magazine cover photo and if you don't believe me follow him on Instagram and see for yourself it's true fosy Habibi you are distressingly photogenic as a games industry colleague thank you for your boundless efforts and unrelenting work in making games a more inclusive space as your friend thank you for your thoughtful kindness and genuine generosity and as a fellow Eric sh for

existing and for thriving [Applause] Ali we love you Habibi so please join us in welcoming to the stage fosy mesmar [Music] hello um there were there were lot of examples contrary to the photogenic

myths that those guys are talking about um I can't tell you guys how surreal it is to be here to be recognized by my peers standing on the stage today is a moment I wouldn't have even dreamed of um first time I attended these Awards I was 22 years old and I sat all the way in the back with my boss at the time George shali and I do remember that there was a column right there in front of us I couldn't see the main stage and I was watching the show Mostly through the big screens shout out to everybody behind that column right now um and I do remember I was so in awe and I'm thinking to myself look at all these real game developers like they all seem to know each other they're joking around and they're doing so a lot of inspiring things and acknowledging each other's achievement would be great if I too can be a real

game developer one day next to me on the floor was a box filled with like 360 demos of a game that uh we were working on in Jordan at the time and it's the one that George and I we've been pitching to Publishers backtack 30 minute meetings for the three-day leading to the ceremony and as far as I know that game was probably one of the first console games to be made in the Middle East and though I've been making games for like 5 years at the time and I've made several firsts with my friends and comrades back home I didn't think it amounted to much because I didn't see myself as a game developer it's hard to do so when like there weren't that many people that looked like me or a precedence of someone Arab that made it for me to imagine that I can make it too and it pains me that there's a lot of people that look a lot like me and talk like me born not so far from where I was born that will never see the light of day and realize their

dreams the struggle of my people has been passed down to me for Generations but the hope of a peaceful future where everybody lives in Freedom and dignity is what powers me to show up every day and be the best that I can be thank [Applause] you I wouldn't be here today if it wasn't for my brother F us who is the best of human ity in one person and has been my rock you being here means the world to me I love you little bro I also dedicate this award to my family especially my late father and late grandfather who both instilled in me the love of education and helping others I grew up wanting to be the best Virgin of both of them my dad reading my book in Arabic and kind of getting what I do for a living for the first time um

is a moment of Pride that will stay with me forever rest in peace dad thank you for everything my sisters SOA Misha I love you both and I'm so proud of you thank you to my dear friends khed Al salm RBA Alonso Valeria yak and Eric and to my friends who are joining me here tonight I love you all everything good that has ever happened to me was because someone took a chance on me someone believed that I was a real game developer and I could do the job and there's so many of them that I want to thank and I will do my best thank you Kash Brothers Brothers Adnan Sam AB hin SAR Abu Z J and Jo sh for believing in me and for allowing me to be part of your history making Journeys and for the many that have worked together uh with

me making games when everybody else thought that we are out of our minds I and Zena thank you so much for being part of their journey and for being here tonight thank you Jerome gustaff cleia Trevor and the rest of my New Zealand crew you're amongst the first game developers that I've ever got to work with and we had the time of our lives doing some crazy stuff um thank you for always sticking by my side when things were rough and for being a family for me uh when I was far from home gustu thank you for being here I love you like a brother and I need to take a moment to thank my mentor Hiro Masa yasaki hero I will always look up to you your impact on the Japanese games industry is evident on all of our colleagues your mentorship and friendship and unrelenting support as well as your personal career journey is nothing short of inspiring and not to

the to several of my bosses to Eve Gil David suani Ahmed Sal and the rest of the global creative crew to uh Oscar gabrielson viar johanes Lars and Robert and the other guys at dice um Phillip Duncan George Rudolph Abigail and Seb humam and the many other leaders thank you for putting your trust in me to the incredible design team that I had the absolute honor and privilege to service the hundreds of you across the world in Ubisoft EA ABK enes Atlas Gameloft I'm inspired by your passion and the work that you do every day uh so inspiring for me I am forever proud of the games we ship together to my students around the globe I am so honored uh and I hope I honored You by pushing you in the right direction and I'm always overjoyed and proud to welcome you to our industry as Pierce ramanama I love you guys thank you for

being an inspiration for me and many others for the Habib and Haba out there I hope your WhatsApp group filled with stream of flower pictures this evening so if you're sitting out there tonight and you can't see the stage because of that stupid column in front of you um know that you belong here and if you're going through some hard times or have gone through some hard times at as a developer you belong here I urge you that no matter where you are in your career or in your life that you will take a chance on others that you will help them with whatever you can afford to no matter how little because it will make somebody believe that they're a real game developer too shukan thank you very very [Applause] [Music] much

[Music] please welcome back your host Alana [Music] pierce three of the me most wholesome people I know it's like hard to come up on stage after those three uh huge congratulations again to FY and thank you to Ramy and [Applause] Osama our next award is currently more precious than ever to everyone who is nominated in this category or Works in this field I like you so much more than I've ever liked a single robot and I say that knowing they're going to cancel me for it in 10 years but I don't think you really realize how impressive the games Industries Otis are until you request something then the art team comes back and it's 10 times cooler than your brain could ever have a imagined genuinely every artist I work with makes me feel

like I've never seen anything a potent mixture of all and just comparative inadequacy we don't deserve our artists but I'm so thankful we have them please stay here are the nominees for best visual art best visual art the nominees for best visual art are Alan Wake 2 developed by remedy entertainment published by epic games Jana hinin and an mat cocoon developed by geometric interactive published by Ana Perna interactive Awin Co Nikki stosa Nichol Fenson jaob agraham yonson Final Fantasy 16 developed and published by square

enex Nai Yoshida hirosi kakai and Hiroshi [Music] minawa HiFi Rush developed by Tango Gameworks published by Bethesda softworks kuki Tanaka Ka zakai and Yun m wanabi The Legend of Zelda tears of the Kingdom developed and published by [Music] Nintendo and the winner is Alan awake [Applause] too

[Music] good evening uh congratulations to all the other nominees everybody did excellent work but we're very happy to win uh accepting this on behalf of our esteemed lovable art director Yan pulkinen who's and the entire team back home in Finland and not just the art team but the entire Dev team everybody at remedy and of course the fabulous North light engine and tools team that enables us to put all those lovely pixels on the screen so thank you for them as well Kyle do you have some magical words no thank you uh no honestly the remedy team are amazing uh Yanni poken

mentioned anim Mata like we've done a lot of live action work in this game and trying to find the visual identity using live action and blending it inside the game engine was something that we really pushed hard on and he was a key part of that so just want to thank him too and as as Thomas said like the whole art team nazareno lead environment John lead characteriz Ron hard Serv artist Damian lighting artist Johannes VC artist all of the artists that remedy you're amazing I love working with you thank you I also want to give a shout out that everybody has had incredibly powerful and excellent speeches so it had to end at some point but thank [Applause] [Music] you please welcome to the stage zivia Nelson Jr

[Music] narrative is the glue that holds a project together the context and framing the characters and worlds that transform a good game into something Transcendent this past year unfortunately the most common narrative brought To Us by the games industry is that making fantastic games requires layoffs and the destruction of human lives the story is not only Cru cruel it is definitively impr provably [Applause] false far more necessary and true stories can be found in games themselves like the titles built by this year's incredible nominees narrative the nominees for best narrative are Allen wake 2 developed by remedy

entertainment published by epic games Sam Lake clay Murphy and Simo Lelo balers Gate 3 developed and published by laran [Music] Studios [Music] Marvel Spider-Man 2 developed by Insomniac Games published by Sony interactive entertainment know what you took from me the Legend of Zelda tears of the Kingdom developed and published by Nintendo link you are our final

hope Vana developed and published by visai games a [Music] be and the winner is balers Gate [Applause] [Music] 3 oh wow um so I thought Jason or cinematic director was going to pick up

this award so I didn't prepare anything um and as a matter of fact I'm doing a talk tomorrow so I didn't prepare anything for anything else so I hope we're not winning anything anymore uh because otherwise going to be really painful I was walking here I was say you got to do something you got to do something in case you win something and I didn't have anything and then the speeches here have been so good and basically stole my funer of the things I wanted to talk about uh so about stopping war and about stopping the greed which been [ __ ] this thing up for so long so long ever since I started ever since I've been fighting with Publishers my entire life so it's like and I keep on seeing I I keep on seeing the same same same mistakes over and over and over and it's always the quar toly profits the only thing that matters is the numbers and then you fire everybody and then like next year you're going to see [ __ ] I'm out of developers and you're going to start hiring ing people again and then you do Acquisitions and then you put them in the same loop again and it's

just be broken and broken and broken you don't have to you just can make reserves slow down a little bit slow down on the Greet be resilient take care of the people don't lose the institutional knowledge that's been built up in all of those people that you lose every single time so that you have to go through the same cycle over and over and over all right so because it really pisses me off anyway thank you so uh yeah so I do have to talk about the narrative though uh um The Narrative of bals gatri has been a very complex process to create it is the collaboration of an incredible amount of people uh going from uh the writers obviously uh to the Cinematic team uh to the scriptors uh to the QA team giving us feedback all the way to our players telling us like what we did wrong and why Shadow heart should say

this thing and not say that thing and so um is that collaboration and the the sheer pursuit of trying to get players to really immerse themselves that made the narrative BS Gate 3 possible uh it took us a very very long time I hope we never is going to take so long again because it was really long um but uh this is incredibly appreciated uh we uh we worked very very hard on so I know that the team uh back home and sitting here is going to be thrilled with this award uh which is appreciation by its peers uh so thank you very much thank you very much please welcome back your host Alana [Music] Pierce

back when I lived here in San Francisco I used to play this game where I'd go on a walk until I overheard at least one Tech word being used in conversation like a tech buzz word Synergy disruption distributed Cloud automation agile multi-experience I still don't know what that means then Pokémon go came out and my walks were much more about catching Pikachus with different little hats and that was way better but the next award is for something that sounds like a buzz word and frankly is in a lot of app development but in the games industry which is still incredibly new in the grand scheme of entertainment media it genuinely has the power to shape every game that comes next these are the games that have the power The Innovation to shape our medium to inspire other Studios to challenge what we think of when we think of video games it's so much more than Pikachu in a cute little hat here are the nominees for best Innovation innovation theom knes for the Innovation award are balers Gate 3 developed and

published by laran [Music] Studios cocoon developed by geometric interactive published by anera interactive ye Carlson yakob Schmid and Michels [Music] senson high-fi Rush developed by Tango Gameworks published by Bethesda softworks John johannis Yuji Nakamura Kaa zakai and shuichi Kori sorry The Legend of Zelda tears of the Kingdom developed and published by Nintendo [Music]

the making of kartica developed and published by digital Eclipse Chris Kohler Mike mic B Kelvin [Music] Vu and the winner is the Legend of Zelda teas of the [Applause] [Applause] kinger

we believe that providing players with surprise and Delight requires Innovation and because of that we're Overjoyed to receive this award as a recognition of that and in Legend of the excuse me Legend of Zelda tears of the Kingdom the word innovation has another meaning

this is because the game was built with the intent and desire to not only provide Innovation but also embrace the Innovative gaml by players it really is and it really is the combination of the players Innovative gameplay that really completes the game experience so on behalf of the development team thank you very much for this [Applause] award please welcome to the stage Bryant Francis [Applause]

good evening everyone every year the teams at game developer and GDC work in tandem to document and memorialize those in our community who have passed away tonight I invite you to share in our process with three simple words tell their stories telling stories about those we've lost is more than just a matter of recordkeeping it's a ritual that shows they are still a part of our community we can tell their stories through our words our deeds and even our art we may leave an in-game Monument for players to find we may think of their favorite color When painting a landscape we might name a character in their honor we remember the lessons they left us with and share them with those in Our Lives who need them most so tonight if there's someone you wish to honor someone who isn't here with us anymore all you have

to do is tell their [Music] story [Music] oh

[Music]

break them out once or twice a year when things get tough play them again remind yourself why you're excited why you are

[Music] here thank you please welcome back your host Alana Pierce [Music] there's no way to transition out of that that isn't a little sad so let's just do it uh into our next award this one was voted for by all of you specifically the people in this very room or Walking The Halls of GDC this week we don't technically have nominees because all the titles are eligible for this year's audience award and the winner is baldis Gate

[Music] 3 wow uh thank you everybody for voting for us there's a whole there's a whole lot of you um who played our game and I'm so happy that it resonated with so many of you so thank you very very much for voting for us the publishing team on in Larry and is we're a small bunch and we need all of you to keep talking about our games so thank you very much please welcome to the stage lyanna [Music] rert

finally a mic that's my size yay all right let's be honest here right now we all need a little bit of light and luckily for us we work in an industry that can provide that light for each other and for those that enjoy the stories we tell all over the world through impactful games that leave a lasting impression for this year's social impact word we're celebrating those games that go above and beyond to put a little light back into the world in an effort to make it just a little bit better of a place for all which is important and no it's not just about making a snazzy tweet here and there but actually putting a genuine foot forward through breathtaking gaming experiences that make a loud and proud difference for the better so which game said the beacons are lit Gondor calls for Aid the nominees for the social impact award

are social impact the nominees for the social impact award are a space for the Unbound developed by mojic Studio published by to Productions diano e prita Mam eln leeander and [Music] Bria Assassin's Creed Mirage developed by Ubisoft Bordeaux published by Ubisoft Stefan budo Jean luk Salo Sarah Buu and Rafel [Music] wayand balers Gate 3 developed and published by laryan [Applause] Studios terrail developed by free lives

published by devolver digital Jonathan ha Yun and Sam [Music] Alfred Vana developed and published by Bai games a Sam Alana Sharin Khan and tatsuya Marita Ahad [Music] and the winner is [Applause] [Music] zinba [Music]

um genuinely running out of things to say at this point but um I first um when I first had the idea for venba I texted uh my friend Sam uh the artist uh on the game and uh he really liked it and it was just that Park that started the whole game um I had a really really hard time getting Bena published or funded but once again it was the audience reacting to the trailer and uh all the materials we put out that helped us uh make it uh proper and show that there is a market for this game I think um when your game gets funded people look at something that's similar to it uh but as soon as you start tracking the market you fall behind it so it doesn't give space for something that's new are interesting um so that being said I think um for venba

specifically now we and I pitched the idea to Sharon uh she said this is the kind of game that might make people call their moms after they start after they finish playing it um and it's that happened a lot but it also LED way to it it was this weird new genre where it's a game you play with your mom um and that's not something we ever expected and you can't expect these kind of reactions or predict for it um so you just have to stay through the story you want to tell um yeah Sharon do you want I'm tired of speak do you want to say something thank [Applause] [Music] you please welcome to the stage Austin [Music] wintery speaking as a composer the single most

difficult thing is to write music that is essentially instantly recognizable when we're lucky we do so once maybe in our career and in those instances it usually feels like it happened essentially by accident but tonight's Honore proves that some people simply just have a gift for this and can manage this rare feat repeatedly over a long and storied career Yoko shimamura has worked on a massively eclectic range of games from classics like Street Fighter 2 Super Mario RPG Parasite Eve Legend of mana and more recent games like Xenoblade Chronicles Final Fantasy 15 and Mario plus Rabbids Sparks of Hope in addition to an Incredible video game portfolio she has performed in bands her work's been celebrated by uh major orchestras throughout the world and she has lent her music and talents to charity recording her contribution to the game industry and music communities alike are indicative of a spirit that is both bold

and generous Shima morisan was born in Japan and played piano from a very young age eventually composing her own music she attended the Osaka College of Music and upon graduation because she loved gaming decided to send samples of her work to various video game companies Capcom invited her for her first audition and interview and despite this being a not particularly popular choice among her family and instructor instructors who shared that all too common feeling that games were a trivial waste of time for someone of her Talent Shima morisan remained focused the doors that open not only set her on the remarkable career path that we celebrate today but indeed led to the creation of music that we are all the better for having experienced so please help me welcome to the stage the 2024 game developers Choice Awards lifetime Achievement Award winner Yoko [Applause]

[Music] [Applause] [Music] shimamura [Laughter] good evening everyone I'm yosim thank you so much wow I'm really nervous right now

good evening everyone it is a it is truly an honor to be here today to accept this prestigious award thank you all so much it's actually been more than 30 years since I was last in San Francisco San Francisco was actually the first place I visited outside of Japan and I'm honored to be back here today to accept this Lifetime Achievement Award

for 36 years ago when I first began working as a composer I was an ordinary young woman who loved music and playing video games while I was able to achieve my goal of becoming a game composer I was soon confronted with a very difficult period of my life I didn't really understand how to compose game music or

how to compose music in general during these tough times I would cry to myself every day overcome by feelings of depression and hopelessness I felt waited down by my lack of ability maybe I just wasn't cut out to be a game composer what I what had I gotten myself into by choosing to pursue game music I would often say to myself that's it I'm quitting tomorrow however for some reason I couldn't bring myself to quit the tough times continued but at a

certain point I rediscovered something about myself that I had lost track of music was my passion and I made the choice to become a game composer if for whatever reason my career as a composer wasn't meant to last forever I wanted to at least tough it out until I shipped one game for the NES from that point my Outlook slowly began to change so finally that day came my first game shipped sure it wasn't a runaway success but I was personally very satisfied at having made it to the finish line and then it hit me I now wanted to release

one more soundtrack after that soundtrack the same feeling came back once again I wanted to do one more game soundtrack just one more time and again and again and again and to this day the cycle has continued this is the Yoko shimamura standing before you today thank you so [Applause] much

for music has the ability to heal people and give them the strength to live but it can also have a darker and more cruel side to it as well when I'm in a creative rut and experiencing severe writers block those feelings of uselessness resurface there are times when I just want to throw music in the trash and run away from it all despite the fact that I love music so much however music also gets me through difficult times it almost feels like a one-sided love affair like something I want so badly but just can't have when I

think that music might be looking right at me I try to meet its gaze only for it to quickly Look Away in another Direction but I know deep down that music is Never Too Far Away music is always a love a one-sided love affair while this sounds counterintuitive it's actually what allows me to continue composing music I was able to embark on the path I chose for myself as a game composer thanks to everybody who has been there for me including my parents mentors colleagues

friends family and all who have supported me and my work I couldn't have made it onto this stage all by myself it's thanks to having so many supporters that I stand before you here today for

in closing I would like to express my utmost gratitude to everyone I've ever had the privilege of being involved with I also want to thank everyone who has enjoyed the games I've composed for and also to those who have listened to their soundtracks from the bottom of my heart thank you so much I hope and pray that the game industry continues to evolve and all gamers in the world live prosperous lives I hope my music can provide color even if just a little bit in all of your lives it has been an honor to greet you all tonight thank you very much thank [Music] you please welcome back your host Alana [Music]

Pierce congratulations Yoko unbelievably welld deserved uh we only have two Awards left everyone look at us go I kept it pretty quick um at least fer than a balers Gate 3 BX speedrun probably I don't no that game's like 150 hours minimum which Flawless segue incoming is a lot of audio our final award tonight before game of the year is best audio these are the games that delighted terrified enticed or assisted us all through sound it's one of those things that's so often underappreciated because if it's done well it's seamless and organic and it sucks you in almost like nothing else can but tonight we're appreciating it here are the nominees the best audio best audio the nominees for best audio are bers Gate 3 developed and published

by laran [Music] Studios high-fi Rush developed by Tango Gameworks published by Bethesda softworks shuichi Kori makot Yamaguchi and masatoshi [Music] yagi Marvel's Spider-Man 2 developed by Insomniac Games published by Sony interactive entertainment you want to join us the Legend of Zelda tears of the Kingdom developed and published by Nintendo [Music]

vanar developed and published by Bai games alpha something andha Patel and the winner is high-fi [Applause] [Music] Rush all right I should not be accepting this word I'm accepting this on behalf of the Fantastic audio team we have at Tango Gameworks um specifically kisan

who's our audio director Yaman who's our our lead sound designer uh Yanagi andanan and our also uh the glass pyramids who helped us con uh make the streamer mode soundtrack and again thank you to all the artists who contributed their works so we can have this fun experience um this I to me this award is not just about the music it's about the all of the audio design and um we pitched this and I pitch this game going back to my roots of I like to play play live music and there's a very visceral feeling that you got when playing music live that is very hard to describe for people who never experienced it and I wanted to give people that um that ability to do so even if they were not musically able to do so and so we tried really hard it was an extreme effort to get teams who never knew what a quarter note was or a beat was to finally make animations to that stuff and to be recognized for that is unbelievably

rewarding so thank you for everyone who voted for us so thank you so much all righty everyone we are at the final Award of the night the big one and this was such a competitive year for this 2023 had so many incredible games genuinely one of the best years in the history of the medum so to anyone who released anything in 2023 whether you were nominated or not congratulations and thank you again without further delay here are the nominees for Game of the Year game of the year the nominees for game of the year are balers Gate 3 developed and published by laran Studios

cocoon developed by geometric interactive published by annaa interactive yepe Carlson yakob Schmid and Awin Co Dave the diver developed and published by Mint rocket J W ch IU buong and kop CH dredge developed by black salt Games published by Team 17 Joel Mason Alex Richie Nadia Thorne and Michael bastions Marvel Spider-Man 2 developed by insomnia Games published by Sony interactive entertainment I know I can St him out of this we can fight this

together The Legend of Zelda tears of the Kingdom developed and published by Nintendo [Music] link [Music] and the winner is bald's Gate [Applause] [Music] 3 I'll wait for the gang the bad news is the speech writing has not progressed

so and I really um I need to thank over 2,000 people who worked on this other than these fantastic people and the 450 50 people within laran uh I'm always afraid if I do that I'm going to have to wrap it up uh so um we've been in a cave for a very long time you can maybe see it uh working on balers gate tree and uh coming here and really in the last uh months as as we've been uh getting rewards uh for the work that the team has been doing uh we had a a lot of people come to us and tell us how much the game meant to them and how it changed their lives and just walking here in San Francisco there were so many people that came to me which sometimes problematic uh but it's been incredible to hear players experiences and I think uh that is the biggest reward of them all is to hear from your players that they're having so much fun uh what it

means to them and I think all of you have that when you make your game and you get players that come to you and you tell you hey that really meant something or that gave me a moment and that was at the time that I needed it you were there I think it's the the biggest reward of all sorry uh biggest reward of all of them for for game developers and so um you should thank all of yourselves for creating that and giving that to the players and um we are just but an example of what you are all doing uh together so thank you very much uh it's an incredible uh honor to be standing here I never thought we were going to be here uh getting this reward when we were making this game because I thought people were going to hate us uh for making it because it was such a legacy um I do want to thank all our partners that work together with us uh together with the team and uh yeah I didn't prepare a speech so you can notice so thank you uh and until yeah thank you I

[Music] guess didn't prepare a speech this guy uh that is it for this year's gain developers Choice Awards everybody I've tried to keep my part in this pretty short because you guys don't need to hear from me and frankly there are a lot of people who say a lot of things in the games industry like for some reason we know what every AAA game Studio thinks of abortion but everybody's very quiet about the genocide happening halfway across the worldall right [Applause] now despite being an industry that knowingly has profited quite tremendously from brown people being shot in video games I I don't know what the [ __ ] we do so all of that said a huge congratulations to everybody who is nominated to all of our winners and to everybody else for

the absolute pleasure of getting to experience all of these incredible games this year it's a very brutal time for our industry as well the thousands of people who had any hand in making any of these games a reality truly excelled I'm just so so so glad and maybe a little sad that you've chosen to spend your time in an industry that probably doesn't deserve you it's happen again hasn't it come on I've been your host Alana pi thank you so much to everybody who presented up here tonight and to all of you for coming have a great night everyone we'll see you next [Applause] [Music] year