GDC Live Stream

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[Music] [Music] ladies and gentlemen the IGF and Choice Awards will begin in a few moments we ask that you please take your seats [Music]

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ladies and gentlemen tonight's program is about to begin please take your seats

as we will be starting momentarily also at this time if you would turn off your cell phone and other electronic devices it would be greatly appreciated [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] please welcome the chairperson of the

independent Games Festival Kellie Wallach [Music] [Applause] hello everyone and welcome to 20th annual independent Games Festival Awards [Applause] it's an honor to be here tonight and congratulations to the finalists and honorable mentions and to all the folks who submitted their games the members of the community who helped judge our pool of nearly 600 applicants and to all the jury members who dedicated their time and expertise to having countless discussions on this year's awards to award categories it's an incredible amount of work and is only made possible by the contributions of hundreds of dedicated members of the community I'm constantly humbled by the

efforts and I feel incredibly grateful to be a part of it also a big thank you to our sponsors so the IGF platinum sponsor ID at Xbox [Applause] and the igf platform sponsor steam [Music] [Applause] as technology continues to move to the forefront of our lives games are going to continue to become an integral way to connect explore and learn about the world around us games can also be a stepping stone to learning the language and skills necessary to exist in this changing world and to build and create the tools of the future it's imperative that we give this opportunity and language to as many people as possible if the same content is made by the same people with the same experiences over and over we're gonna turn off not only

fans but new creators as well if you don't see yourself reflected in the world around you it limits your possibilities it limits what's possible for all of us if you look at a movie like Black Panther not only is this a touchstone but it's vibrant its new and it's exciting and one of the reasons that it's so captivating is that every inch and every second of the film exists in a world that explores a rich history and culture long uncharted by mainstream blockbuster storytelling audiences are hungry for new experiences for new content and new worlds you see this exploration growing in games as well with roots in the indie community games like Ariane asura and Malacca the integrates storytelling of vast cultural worlds from all corners of the globe we see this reflected in hundreds of submissions we receive from all over the world for IGF and indie showcases popping up in Johannesburg to Saudi Arabia to China to everywhere in between the ability to share and create your stories and experience the stories of

others is what makes games so powerful as independent developers you have the creative freedom an entire universe of possibilities at your fingertips a kind of virtual world if you will that can express billions of stories experienced by each player in wholly unique ways this year's nominees proved that there's wonderful work already being done the next step is to open the doors to more communities to create more opportunities for more diversity and not just a gender or race but of economic backgrounds religion sexuality and diversity of thought this is accomplished through mentorship acts to funding room for failure and cushioning of risk by fostering individuals and supporting content that might not appeal to conventional wisdom the narrative is that there isn't an audience for this work well maybe there's no audience because there's no content it's time to prove that we can do it so thanks again to everyone in

this room for inspiring those around you for creating possibilities and building new and wonderful worlds for us to explore and now I'm very happy to introduce the chair of the free play independent Games Festival co-founder of League of geeks and one of Australia's finest exports since Tim Tams Trent custer's [Applause] [Applause] thanks Kelly Wow Australia's finest export cop that thought okay g'day everyone hey yeah that's literally the only Australian joke you're gonna get so alright 20 years 20 years of celebrating indie games independent games I mean I

think that deserves another round of applause and you know what I think that's that's actually a great note to start the show on that it's the 20th annual IGF Awards as you know we've been supporting the IGF s with updates new content bug fixes for what I think 20 years now since launch and well with the rising costs of award show development you all know how it is we're gonna be changing things up a bit this year this year instead of giving out IGF awards just the old-fashioned way every finalist will receive a special IGF chest my true story inside that chest is your chance finalists to win your IGF award for your category I mean what hey hey

seriously I mean that's a good deal and I mean don't fret if if you come up empty you can always purchase additional chairs from the in show store it's totally fine there are a few I can see yeah all right I can see a few faces in the audience look I know I know what you're thinking the IDF's pay to win now not the case no not the case in fact if you are the type of show attendee who doesn't want to spend any money purchasing additional chests you can actually earn them in-game true that's true game development that is just another three to five years slaving away with your team and who knows maybe we'll give you another one all right welcome to the 20th annual IGF Awards let's get this show on the road I just tried to introduce myself over

your applause which I don't think is probably gonna work out for me I'm Trent custer's of League of geeks and I'll be your host for this evening and of course don't worry the IGF award is gonna be the same as always rigged by the indie Illuminati yeah that's it those people who cheered are the Illuminati so you know just keep your eyes out seriously though you may not believe me what with an an Aussie host up here and all but this award show is it's a real deal some serious business I mean look at the lineup tonight folks what an absolutely fabulous array of games we have here this evening yeah that's definitely yeah reason for applause Bubba is you is up for four awards tonight for awards yeah absolutely phenomenal effort for a student game and of course a terrifying reminder of the slow but certain march

of time for the rest of us getting over it with Bennet Fadi up for three awards tonight give it up for Bennet everybody yeah so what by a fellow Australian too but he's now living in New York I mean you'd have to leave Australia to get away with putting your [ __ ] name in the title am i right Bennett no not many not many people know this but Bennett was actually the bassist in huge grammy-nominated electronic band Cut Copy and then yeah and then went on to be a professor or something at Oxford so a rock star academic luminary world famous game designer I don't know about you but it's pretty hard seeing people achieve your dreams without watching them nail it in Reverse we're all stuck in 2018 and Bennett's out here mariokart me remoting life on you Bennett well done

where the water tastes like wine another incredible game right yeah fantastic now I'm not sure if any but have seen it or played it but if you have you wouldn't have no doubt known and noticed that sting actually does vo in the game that's right D sting someone convinced team to do vo in a video game which tells us one thing sting has no idea what video games are cuphead beautiful game absolutely fantastic flawless beautiful well but I mean that's not to say that any of the other excellence in Visual Arts Award finalists should be concerned I mean you're all you're all absolutely excellent you look fantastic and besides you've let's be realistic you got bigger things to worry about this year a game with sticker is up for grand prize west of loathing everybody

turn stick out up there Seamus McNally and it's another thing that I noticed is you when I was going through the awards it's great to see a bunch of follow up finalists who've been here before they've been finalists in years previous it's fantastic it's a coma from Fulbright whose yeah yeah yeah fantastic right Tacomas level designer Nina Freeman actually was the igf Awards host last year so pretty stoked to find out I'll be a finalist next year subset games into the bridge back again or space crack to as it's known to the DEA and of course tooth and tail from pocket watch games which we all know is the second-best furry game ever made true story true story seriously though it's

great to have you all back all the finalists that are returned this year nominated again I mean it's incredibly important to us Indies to know that success can be repeated and that if we're successful enough we can stop making games altogether like Rami [Applause] congratulations right all right all right let's get this show on the road Who am I I'm horrendously over Scott three out of four of my team members did absolutely nothing I've missed more deadlines than spy party well I can tell you that it's none of these titles because these are the finalists for best student game best student game io interloper developed by Deng Ben Caulkins Sam sweet

[Music] don't make love developed by Maj a say Dario dan bruh Nina kill George Oh Carly no [Music] penny blue finds a clue developed by cactus curse games of digi pens Lawrence cuts stream Jessie hips Leonardo sigh Kali Garrett Huxtable we were here developed by total mayhem games the total mayhem games team [Music] baba is you developed by hem Puli RV takari guardian of the gears developed

by DigiPen team studio 76 cameron craig eduardo gornstein Julie Greg Kayden Nugent pretty decent all right and the winner of the IGF award for best student game is Bubba is you [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music]

do you have joke here thank you thank you it's pretty cool to be here well I guess I have a couple of minutes to thank some people for getting getting here with Baba as you there are a lot of people to thank and I have a tendency of talking a bit too much so I'll take try to keep it short there are four entities I'd like to thank specifically first of them is Anil ask Allah my girlfriend for supporting me throughout the development of Baba is you Thank You Annie the second one is Lukas Miller who is actually at GDC this year for teaching me how to use Lua which has been super important in thinking about as you there are programming genius in other ways as well so thank you for that then there's Niklas nifflas Nygren who is actually a finalist this year in a GF

as well for teaching me how to use some programs and how to keep working when it's very hard to stay motivated and finally I'd like to thank thank the Nordic game jam community for creating amazing events without which bubba's you wouldn't be here [Applause] so I guess it's a good time to start making those like babbles wind jokes let's keep doing that throughout the night I don't know whatever thank you [Applause] a sure sign of the maturation of the indie games community is no doubt the level of quality and polish that the presentation of our games now exhibit in fact indie games are beginning to look

so good that it's not uncommon to see comments like [ __ ] you EA on the steam reviews of indie games I mean what's better than some internet internet slug mistaking you for an army of publisher financed artists am i right I think we've made it folks and so with that the finalists for excellence in visual art excellence in visual art night in the woods developed by infinite fog Scott Benson Charles foot nerve Adam Saltzman Sven Ratner cuphead developed by studio mdh our Chad moldenhauer Jared moldenhauer Maya moldenhauer echo

developed by ultra ultra Martine M Borg Yoga Eckstrom Soren Beck Morton Peregrine Luna developed by phenomena Robin Hunicke Glenn Hernandez Alena Hale Elise Miller the gardens between developed by the voxel agents Jonathan Swanson Josh Bradbury Henrik pettersen Matthew Clark Churchill developed by Amanita design Jaromir plucky

all right some pretty games okay and the winner for the IGF award for excellence in visual art is Chiu Chow [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] this is crazy unbelievable Wow okay which I think we should thank mostly not everyone oh well everyone thank you but mostly to arakoa Chiara plushie whoo yeah who is the main creator of this game who design it make all the

animations and art and the game is well yeah sure sure who can't be here tonight with us because he's with his wife and their newborn son [Applause] [Music] so back at log HQ in Melbourne house studio we've got things on pretty much on lockdown we run a tight ship but our producer woody has a post-it note very important post-it note stuck to his desk and that post-it note reads don't forget audio the following games are from developers who did the literal opposite of forgetting about audio our nominees for excellence in audio are excellence in audio tormentor ex Punisher developed

by e studios Eunice Turner beau Blythe Tuukka Steffensen Nilo chuckle I mean cuphead developed by studio mdh our Christopher Madigan Luke patent crisp Sweetman Samuel justice vignette developed by skeleton business David Kanaga reign world developed by video coax James Syrian Lydia essrig

earn AAG earn limited developed by niklas games Nicolas Nygren hari demurred bjorn mumm-ra's hot dog Celeste developed by the Celeste team Lena range powerup audio [Music] and the award for excellence in audio goes to earn OGG Unlimited [Applause] [Music]

oh so neither of us are Nicolas so actually he couldn't make it he wanted me to tell everyone that he's really sorry but he has a very strong fear of flying so we're coming up to accept this for him and I'm shaking like crazy because this is the most nervous I think I've been in like 20 years but he wanted me to thank all the people that they just mentioned but I want to say whose hot dog the mystery of hot dog and the mystery of the air nog hot dog is Nicholas's dog who plate does all the voices for the dogs in the game thank you everyone

thank you for everybody who's in this industry who's doing these indie games who's taking risks I want to cry right now I'm just so like everybody here is so amazing it's like you know yeah everybody should be on this stage everybody should be getting away so sorry I'm getting closer thank you thank you [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you may remember him from his legendary mountain was sent in 2017 s getting over it with benefit e but where is he now we sent a reporter to get the answers over to you Lindsay on the scene with the story mimosas at lunch can't wait yeah ever since I I got over with

Bennett body things have been great I I get recognized on the street but you know I'm still just a normal guy my cauldron on one leg at a time just like everyone else I live in a really nice neighborhood you know Seymour loves it my dog I try to stay busy you know I got I got some hobbies I like to bake and I'm getting really good at really good at badminton if I do say so myself and yeah and I just recently got into painting which has been it's been really good for me yeah it's been really positive so we've heard they've been some changes in your life would you like to talk about that yeah yeah my my wife left a couple months ago you know it's been hard but I'm trying to stay positive I just recently made a tinder profile so you know I'm getting out there ladies and gents you're a man's available oh is that from your time on the mountain yeah

yeah I'm I'm kind of nostalgic you know so I like to have that one on there I'm sorry I have to go I'm sorry hey I called twice where were you sorry I had my phone on silent you are doing did you forget you have Connor this weekend oh I didn't forget okay well he hasn't lunch so you'll need to feed him okay here is his inhaler and his allergy lips I already have well you little B little buddy are you hungry yeah you're hungry I love being a dad you know he's so great he's my old man aren't you my little man are you ready you ready for the airplane so you're a single dad you're currently unemployed but you seem happy I mean once I got over it with Bennett foggy I kind of felt like I could get over

anything riveting stuff thanks Linds next up cuphead and wife welcomed their first child but rumor has it he may be more mug then Cup whoopsy totally not his kid but ya know it looks like a complete mug families just join bloodlines tainted it's over [Music] please welcome to the stage alt control GDC co-founder John Paulson [Music] [Applause] [Music] everyone good evening the alternative controller exhibit alt control GDC has hit its first major anniversary now five years in going strong with over a hundred amazing submissions this year I'm so fortunate

to get to organize all control GDC and see it grow every year I'm happy to also see all the cardboard hard wired and otherwise DIY controller experiments pop up inside and outside of the pavilion on the GDC show floor evidence that the game industry is excited to change the way we play only at alt control GDC can you experience true claustrophobia in a game played in a grave interact-as either audience or performer in a puppet show or embrasure in a rainbow unicorn and strap on a horn while surviving a mundane office job 2018 s unique award will shine in its own way handcrafted by jerry bellick a multi-year all controlled GDC along give it up for Jerry that is award [Applause] Jerry who guess as you guys may know is also the creator of the choose a Tron among the 20 awesome creations you can

play at GDC this year here are the finalists alt control GDC award bottle party by Phoenix Perry Freda app ting Helen steer unit Cornelia by Courtney Snavely Jane Mitchell Vivien tea leaves Dylan Negri puppet pandemonium by the puppet pandemonium team [Music] Wabble garden by robin Baumgarten too many captains and not enough wire by avi Romanov Giada's son mark Wars by the

Mark Wars team so please join me in congratulating the winner of the alt control GDC Award puppet pandemonium [Applause] [Music] [Music] thank you amazing I made a little list just in case so we don't forget anyone okay thank you thank you thank you to my team

Thank You GDC in the open trial judges obviously an idea this is amazing I'm thanking my mom for helping learned how to sell through Skype which is cool thank you to my boss rode he just put this thing together in his garage that was really nice I'd see done thank you as well and all the other fantastic inspiring pieces that make us all play these games and stuff and yeah and all the performers who played there was really scary I would like to thank Terrence for dragging us all together from some VR hackathon and a Halloween party to just make this crazy idea real yeah keep [Applause] [Music] game design is too often the most

illustrious and celebrated role in game development it's true it's very true I'm a game designer I could say that just like a great soundtrack great game design you don't notice great game design takes a step into the background and permits the player to become immersed in the experience as we craft great game designers we're the sole visionaries or dedicated teams a Masters of the unseen mavens of illusion but most importantly game designers are the advocate of the player and here are the nominees for excellence in design excellence in design into the breech matthew davis justin mom

Shenzhen aiyo developed by Zack Tronics Zack Barth Keith Holman Matthew Seiji burns Kyle steed Wilmots warehouse developed by hollow ponds Richard hog ricky hagit le rains berry baba is you developed by hem Puli RV takari earng ugh earn limited developed by nifflas games Nicolas Nygren Corrine kattiline hot dog

getting over it with Bennett fatty developed by Bennett fatty [Applause] [Music] all right and the excellence in design award goes to I've been trying to open these extra slow by the way barber is you [Applause] I kind of used everything I had to say in the first talk so let's keep this short thanks again I'm very surprised and yeah thanks

[Applause] I remember one of the first things that stuck with me when I entered the industry was a GDC talk Clint Hocking had done in 2007 or something where he talked about something a colleague said to him in response to some outlandish feature request he'd no doubt come up with and that person said dude it's code we can do anything the nuovo award is a category reserved for a very special type of developers who take that notion far too literally what a brilliant brilliant celebration of the vast landscape of our medium and an honor to celebrate these games and developers here are the finalists for the nuovo award nuovo award getting over

it with bennett body developed by bennett fatty [Applause] [Music] Tero ticaboo do developed by TPM tow Softworks the cushy Togo max Preston ten Mississippi develops by Karina pop [Music] a morticians tail developed by laundry bear games Gabi D'Arienzo Kaitlin Tremblay Jennifer Kosta Polina Heron cosmic top secret developed by plus film

and those eyes tree me layer Leeza sacks drop Bjorn swing Christian tour guard everything is going to be ok developed by Natalie lawhead [Applause] baba is you developed by hem Puli RB takari kids developed by playa bulls Michael Frey Mario von rickenrock [Music] I love it you're all [ __ ] awesome

that's that's that's awesome all right and the winner for the nuovo award is getting over it with bennett body [Applause] [Music] [Applause] my wife's gonna say that's living in your office welcome around the conference I've just been struck by how

many people I see who have really helped me a lot in the last 12 years you know just encouragement critique writing tools that I used creating online spaces that I that I needed I think without Derek use website I just honestly would never have gotten started yeah and you know I think that's like that's the only thing that makes indie games possible is that we're all helping each other all the time and that's what I'm gonna think about every time I look at this somewhere in my office [Applause] [Music] [Applause] trust the Australian to try and walk off the front of the stage of course all right we know we are so often talk about story in games but narrative is the very framework of a game storytelling

potential narrative is the architecture of the story the systems that communicate story the delivery method for connecting with the minds and hearts of our players it is perhaps one of one of the most specific and exclusive elements that our medium can offer above any other and so it's with great pleasure that I present to you this year's finalists for excellence in narrative excellence in narrative Tacoma developed by full brain the fulbright team attend taught 1942 developed by Charles University and sheykh Academy of Sciences vite she slur Jakob om rod Ricard Alexander

Murray chair know where the water tastes like wine developed by dim bulb gains and serenity forge the where the water tastes like wine writing team night in the woods developed by infinite fall Bethenny Hockenberry Scott Benson Alec coloca butterfly soup developed by Brianna play [Applause] [Music] tooth and tail developed by pocket watch games and ease shots Alex Kane Dexter Freedman Andy win and the

excellence in narrative award goes to night in the woods [Applause] [Music] hold on I'm going to tweet about this real quick no thank you I don't think I wasn't

expecting this I just told every single person I met I'm like we're not gonna win this this no man we're just gonna watch someone else walk up everybody you this is the first game for work thanks to Alec for saying hey you guys should just go with the story that you want to go with entrusting us with that it was obviously a group effort but it was just a huge vote of confidence in face oh thank you this goes out to everyone who doesn't get to tell their stories in games that end up on big screens here like five years ago or four years ago just the thought of us ever being able to tell the kind of story that we want to tell in a videogame let alone win an award for is this it's insane so just thank you thanks a lot [Applause]

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okay please give a warm welcome to Chris

Charla director of ID at Xbox and sarabande general manager Xbox third-party publishing who will be presenting the ID at Xbox gaming for everyone award [Music] [Applause] [Music] hey everyone everybody so one of the raddest things about the independent development community is just the diversity and games that folks are working on so we always like to take a little time during the IGF to put a spotlight on a group that's helping bring in gaming to everyone but that's not just about the games that you guys make it's also about making sure that everyone can play there are multiple great groups focusing on this in

different ways and they're all super cool tonight we want to showcase one of them our friends at special effects special effect a huge family and gaming something I want all my children to to be able to have the opportunities to chase has got a fearful a cerebral palsy and he has dystonia which means he can't fully control his body very well even trying to get chase to push a button is really difficult to do but he really loved gaming and you can see that he wanted to do more so we went up to the gaming room in Oxford and safe throughout the day our child of different race equipment lots of different games that's all we found out and will work best for Chase as a parent it's made so much difference chase being able to access video games you know I was really sad that I thought he was never really gonna be able to join in and do those things on his own teach you

to disable people I think games are really important because you know somebody who's anybody can go out they can play golf they can go drive a car like you've almost anything in real life choices we're gonna have those same opportunities so being able to sit down a lot of game things that it creates a level playing field you can do an activity that people they wouldn't be able to do in in normal day-to-day life but even better with game in he played an off-site someone who's everybody when it gives a real reason he's self-confident I think thanks Isaac please give a warm round of applause to McDonough can the CEO of special effects [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music]

yeah thank you yeah hi I'm McDonough ghen founder and CEO of special effect as you can see a charity that helps people with severe physical disabilities to play video games our base is in the UK but we don't think of ourselves as just being uk-based or were world based with video games there are no borders or boundaries to the countries in which they're played the only boundaries are those within the games themselves for those people who are unable to play them because of the disabilities special effect technicians software designers therapy staff work as a team to help severely disabled individuals on a face-to-face basis in order to unlock those barriers and provide them with a customized setup that enables them to

play the games they want to play at the highest possible level they can as a result of our help many of them can compete with and beats non-disabled gamers sometimes even the professionals the difference that this [Applause] thank you the difference that this specialist one-to-one support can make is literally life transforming one user a guy who hadn't been able to play his favorite game for 15 years simply said thank you for giving me my life back however however I want to want solutions don't just benefit individuals the insight and detailed knowledge we gain from the one-to-one lifelong assessment and support we provide puts us in a perfect position to share what we learn with both hardware and software developers worldwide so that they they have an opportunity to incorporate our

ideas put simply by implementing a feature that's worked successfully for just one individual literally tens of thousands of disabled people with similar needs across the world can benefit too I'm absolutely delighted and shocked to be honest to receive this award on behalf of special effect however I'd also like to take this opportunity to acknowledge and celebrate the work of all the individuals organizations and developers all over the world not least here in the US who so clearly understand the inclusivity and sheer joy but only access to video games can bring and are working increasingly successfully to share this joy with as many disabled people as possible whoever they are wherever they are and whatever their disability is it's a real privilege for myself and my special effect colleagues to be members of what I firmly believe is a global movement to give a game a life of gaming

to everyone thank you [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] as developers we showcase games all over the world standing on convention booths for sometimes days on end shaky shaky hands all the time talking to fans colleagues hugging we definitely hug too much yeah and just like the rabid unkillable viruses that sweep through game development studios the week after a conventions close this following game has swept through society and into our hearts it gives me great pleasure to announce this year's recipient of the IGF audience award Celeste

[Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] who talks weren't expecting this at all this is amazing Wow I wrote something

for the audio board actually but because we weren't expecting to win this No thank you so much holy [ __ ] [Applause] Celeste released just a few months months ago but in that time we've received such an overwhelmingly positive wave of feedback and love from fans that have resonated with the game its themes and Celeste is a game that so closely ties all those themes together through design through writing through characters and audio it provides an optimistic approach to tackling its challenges it says that it's okay to fail on your way to success I really do that a lot and I think it also shows in its reception in these few few months I've personally received hundreds of emails from people that have identified with its depictions and attitude towards depression and anxiety I've had someone reach out to tell me that they decided to live because of the encouragement the game gave them and that's no small thing I just wanted to

share that with all of you thank you so much for recognizing this one this whole game that was built from a lot of love from a lot of people thanks to Matt to Noel amaura Pedro Kevin Gabi's spend all of your contributions to something that I think is really truly special [Applause] [Music] please give a warm AGF welcome to the winner of last year's Seamus McNally grand prize award Brendon Chung [Music] [Applause] [Music] whenever I play a game and it doesn't crash it feels like a little miracle how

is this game running and not immediately getting crushed under the sheer weight of itself how did you make this interesting funny beautiful thing with such little time and resources and support well we all know how it feels to be small and we all know how to feels to be vulnerable and that is our strength and that is what makes our work we do so special here are the nominees for the Seamus McNally grand prize Seamus McNally grand prize getting over it with Bennett body developed by Bennett fighting night in the woods developed by infinite fog polic coloca bethany Hockenberry scott Benson m

Halberstadt west of loathing developed by asymmetric Zach Johnson Victor Thompson West Cleveland Kevin Simmons into the breach developed by subset games Matthew Davis Justin mom heat signatures developed by suspicious developments Tom Francis John Roberts John winter baba is you developed by hem Cooley RV takari

[Music] and the IGF same as Seamus McNally grand prize winner is night in the woods [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] I promise I'm not tweeting I'm just checking my notes wow this is weird [Applause]

I was here I think 11 years ago for Aquarius so this is very unusual I just want to say a couple things thanks to the amazingly talented and incredibly self-motivated team I was super lucky to get a chance to work with such incredibly funny and awesome and caring people and thank you to everyone in my life who believed that wasn't a completely irredeemable piece of garbage that especially includes my family Greg and Deborah Eileen and in and shout out to Bob Fenton my therapist his servic British man who you know called me on my [ __ ] so thank you very much [Applause] so I'm Becca Saltzman and I'm part of Sanjeev who sort of has like helped Shepherd this I have a few thank you sort of like as a studio that like I need to send out one is to our team at Sony who god bless them stayed up all night before launch night John ELISA and

Matt thank you very much also our dev teams who helped us launch on Xbox and switch I managed to do this trash on my own with our porting studio in 22nd century in Austin that's yeah Joe Tony and Taylor Wow thank you so much a couple of shout outs actually to Xbox and Nintendo god bless you Wally I don't know who you are I'll meet you someday yep there we go and also um Sarah and the assortment of people who answer third-party panicked emails over at Nintendo also a little shout-out to our gremlins our babies at home who made yep and also to ICO the cat thank you very much for that Wednesday before launch [Applause] well that was unexpected Thanks this is his second shame is McDow he by the way

he won another one 25 years ago Congrats Alec thank you for all the people that we've all the people who have supported us over the years this is a weird game we're still shocked that people that have found an audience and people were into it I'm there's too many people to thank for me personally I just wanted to thank my friend Charles who's not here right now he was he's just a good guy and he's been there and like my corner the entire time also our friend Carla who's over there with the rest of the team of Fulbright very much helped us through some pretty hard times and yeah thanks to Bethany and thanks to Alec and everyone else on the stage thank you to all the things I don't know I was just thinking about this and it's just kind of weird that I grew up in link Mifflin County PA and it's just cool that a lot

of people really enjoyed a lot of the stories that were things that I grew up with and family history and it seemed to thanks everyone [Music] [Applause] night in the woods everyone how about that all right yeah a night in the woods come on come on come on all right so we're nearing the end of the show so there's a few people that I want to thank of course our incredible sponsors IGF platinum sponsor ID at Xbox thank you so much yeah

the IGF platform sponsor steam I seem over there I'd also like to thank all of the incredible finalists here tonight if you're a finalist stand up get on your feet come on let's see you all get up let's see your faces if you're a finalist come on well Donna so thank you all of you for your incredible absolutely mind-blowing contributions to our medium thank you so much all right so honorable mentions as well I mean some of those folks don't even get to come here to San Francisco to GDC they

may not even be at the show they may not have a GDC pass but they're an honorable mention in a show that has over 500 over 400 entries I mean that's still an incredible achievement so please put your hands together for all of the honorable mentions this year of the IDF's yeah this year's judges and juries thank you I hope we didn't rattle too many friendships with all those debates and arguments that no doubt went down and of course all the crew behind the scenes tonight making the magic happen I mean I forced them all to do three dress rehearsals so thank you so much for that that includes Kelly sandesh Simon and of course GD C's brand new GM Katie Stern everyone please give her a warm welcome [Applause] all right so that brings us to the end

of the Indy Show but I mean don't get up don't get out of your seats stay right where you are because coming up next is the 18th annual Legend of Zelda rewards get ready everybody get ready all right no obviously it's the 18th game developer Choice Awards with all of our favorite awards like best money most Tigers at a GDC party and of course the pub G of the Year award some seriously incredible talent on display tonight folks some phenomenal games and very deserving developers so don't go anywhere as Robin Hunicke who is in D as [ __ ] is about to get on stage and absolutely slay at the 18th annual game developers Choice Awards I'm Trent Custer's I've been your host this evening have a wonderful night

[Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] ladies and gentlemen we are pleased to begin the second half of our evening and welcome you to the 18th annual game developers Choice Awards please welcome the host of the evening Robin Hunicke [Applause] [Music]

[Applause] hello India's [ __ ] yeah that's right hello welcome everyone to the 18th annual game developers Choice Awards let's give it a round of applause because it's badass it is such a pleasure to be your host once again failing to truly put replace Tim Schafer but clearly barring from his wardrobe Rent the Runway cannot touch that closet babe before we begin I would like to personally congratulate all of tonight's nominees across all categories getting nominated here is a sign that your peers across the crafts of game development truly cherish and value your work whether it's narrative design art sound

or technology your fellow developers know just what you went through to get here and they chew to choose you it is also very likely that you're making actual money for your publisher so please pick up the check for the rest of us this week thank you but seriously all if you are nominated and you can still stand you're not too drunk please do now it's your chance all nominees stand up for a round of applause it doesn't matter if you win fake it till you make it okay now sit down laugh at my jokes who are these magical mysterious developers there will be a lot of high production value videos to explain that about each of tonight's nominees and I don't want to spoil it for any of you

her just here for the chiptunes so I will say this many of this year's games took decades of developer time to build years of player time to enjoy and mere seconds to become scapegoats for the NRA seriously though 2018 as Kelly Wallach pointed out and her IGF chairperson remarks presents us with opportunities to innovate to be inclusive and celebrate the stories of a much broader range of creatives as a developer a CEO and a feminist and an advocate for these values throughout my own career it is so [ __ ] nice to be able to stand up here and say that out loud [Applause] I for one am thrilled to be standing up here giving dudes awards especially now

that we are finally all in agreement about the fact that her ass is one word so let's get on with it shall we you never forget your first I imagine almost everyone in this room fondly remembers their own debut game a game that despite many flaws you could not help but be insanely proud of proud because against all odds you managed to get it done sure it would have been better to ship a slightly smaller version of your game perhaps a year earlier on a platform that would actually [ __ ] monetize but you had a vision and you saw through to the bitter and bankrupt end c'est la vie a wise developer once told me that mefford's first law of game development read thus the worst thing that can

happen to a young developer is for their game to be successful as they might be tricked into thinking that they had something to do with it so don't be jealous of these Best Debut nominees pity them for they are destined to be [ __ ] to spend the profits from this game on the next one which will do about half as well the nominees are Best Debut team sharing nominated for how long ari Gibson William Pelin David Kazi Christopher Larkin sidebar games nominated for golf story Andrew muy [Music] studio mdh are nominated for cuphead Chad moldenhauer Jared moldenhauer

infinite fog nominated for night in the woods Pollock coloca Bethany Hockenberry Scott Benson M Halberstadt buried signal nominated for gorgoa Jason Roberts I just love that last one it's just him it's a beautiful game and the winner is cuphead [Applause]

[Music] [Music] I can't believe you yeah wrong steps I was here the whole time and as I moved forward I heard front steps but still my heart led me in the direction in the same way of approaching this game which was go with what I'm feeling go with what I know and some of it pans out yep such as this and some of it lets you do whatever I get we have to thank our

whole team which unfortunately not everyone is here but this is a team effort for this game and our families everybody for putting up with us Microsoft all of our fans just super exciting them to win this award thank you so much [Applause] [Applause] tonight's first nominee for Game of the Year Nier automata developed by Platinum Games published by Square Enix yokel taro Yosuke Saito taka hiza Tarawa

enemies destroyed not quite anyone with parents over 40 or who is one is painfully familiar with the argument that smartphones are the leading purveyors of social political and personal apathy why do something productive when you can just thumb through your Instagram do I get to know that person sitting next to you we can text your cousin and ask about the warrior score why download music illegally when you can rent shitty copies of it that barely stream to your handheld computer the truth is there's no reason to do anything control is an illusion the past is gone and the future is [ __ ] unknowable so you might as well download these nominees for Best mobile game and decide if you agree on the winner especially if they're free

the nominees are best mobile game brands her majesty developed by Mary owned published by devolver digital they Muriel team [Music] hidden folks developed by adrienne too young and sylvan to goat or a drienne too young Sylvan take Rose Martin Cavalli Monument Valley to developed by us to games Adrienne law Minesh mystery daveed Fernandez Huerta Jonathan topped Gora Gora developed by buried signal published by annapurna interactive jason

roberts bury me my love developed by the pixel hunt figs and art a france published by play dias Florin moran LaRon AERB a hate opening these envelopes the winner is Goregaon [Applause] [Music]

[Music] well thanks everybody I think when I was up here back in 2014 I said that I started this the journey of making this game alone but now I feel like I'm part of a big family and that's especially true now I got my sound designer beside me thanks head thanks to Joel cool its composure on the game thanks to everybody at Annapurna interactive without whom I think the game literally would never have been finished yeah it was anything yet just thank you to Jason / letting me be part of this journey you're welcome thank you that's it thank you guys yeah [Applause]

the second nominee for game of the year Super Mario Odyssey developed by Nintendo EPD published by Nintendo the Nintendo EPV team [Music] narrative in games have come a long way in a short time it wasn't that long ago that most antagonists and games were two dimensional characters of villains devoid of motivation for all their

wrongdoings developers didn't need a reason to have a player shoot thousands of rounds of ammo chewing through hundreds of digital enemies and their games but look at us now now games can tell moving stories deeply personal stories before sending the player off to kill their way through hours of entertainment as our nominees in this category illustrate some developers are willing to do much much more they are willing to take risks and weave tales that make us laugh make us think and make us ask why let's all press f to pay respect to these nominees best narrative night in the woods developed by infinite fall published by fin G Bethany Hockenberry Scott Benson Alec Aloka hell-blade sin you--is sacrifice

developed by ninja theories Tamim Antonia des what remains of Edith Finch developed by giant sparrow published by Annapurna interactive the giant sparrow team horizon zero dawn developed by Guerrilla Games published by Sony interactive entertainment the guerrilla team Wolfenstein tunes the new Colossus developed by machine games published by Bethesda Softworks Yin's Mathis yerk Gustavson Tommy towards the viewer and

the best narrative award goes to what remains of Edith [ __ ] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] thank you there's so many good sound reasons why this game should not have been started or funded or completed but thank you so much to the team and all of our friends at Sony and Annapurna for your tireless patience and enthusiasm and being sure that it does exist thank you I just after being a part of this community for so long and having being seeing so many amazing things created by

so many amazing people just being here is such an honor and I'm so grateful for everybody who made it possible Annapurna Sony and thank you hey everyone yeah this was a labor of love it took everything to get this done we went through a big road of trials special thanks to my brother whose thing right here was a big help on the game my girlfriend my parents all our families everyone put like way more than themselves into this and it's [ __ ] amazing I love you guys [Applause] here tonight to present the ambassador of the Year award is pouria torquing [Applause]

[Music] [Applause] [Music] good evening I was born in Iran my family fled to the Netherlands when I was six years old but I was lucky growing up Dutch provided me with incredible opportunities that many children like me never had I was incredibly fortunate to spend several years working and growing at the peerless guerrilla games in Amsterdam hammer ng almost badonk for all accounts we team ever FIFA thank you so much and later when I applied to a studio I've wanted to work at ever since I first played halo Bungie brought me to the United States I am lucky and today standing in front of a room filled with my peers I am honored to introduce my dear friend Rami

because not everyone has been as lucky as I have been it is easy to forget that there are hundreds of thousands of people across the globe who would drop everything to have an internationally acclaimed game studio nearby their homes and there are hundreds of thousands of people who share the dream of standing on this stage or even simply being in this room but who do not have the opportunities that we were granted they didn't have access to the knowledge the jobs the network the press and the visas that we indefinitely I benefited from all four reasons entirely out of their control it is because of and for these people that we are honoring rami tonight he is not just he is not just receiving this award for

his passion for independent development his love of games and the power they have to change us or his formidable beard he is receiving this award for his accomplishments in work focused on providing people with opportunities and access that each and any of us deserve but not all of us are granted his studio flung beer has diverted significant resources towards helping fellow and aspiring game developers from creating new press kits a free tool which is used by thousands of independent and mid-sized developers around the world to working with young initiatives like Trane Jam in the mega boots or playgrounds from supporting and advising platforms and events with their indie offerings to organizing one reason to be he consistently uses his reach to raise awareness and urgency on things he recognizes as unjust or underrepresented he spends a significant portion of his

time traveling to emerging territories to speak to students local developers and investors governments and accelerators museums university and media all with the goal to help cultivate game development communities and guide opportunities for developers with potential and perhaps most notable of all he introduced his mother to Final Fantasy and share that experience with all of us on Twitter [Music] please join me in welcoming my friends the man with as many names as initiatives Rami Ibrahim Ahmed Anna feel a smile [Applause] [Music]

[Music] [Applause] Salam alaikum my name is Rami a smile one-half of Dutch independent city of lambier and I'm thankful I am thankful to my parents who have each in their own way inspired me to be driven humble and curious their presence here tonight means the world to me

I'm thankful for my siblings who have instilled in me a sense of playfulness of responsibility and a kindness towards others I'm thankful towards my family or friends who despite not many understanding what it is I do have always supported me in following my passions I am thankful for those who created and worked in this medium and industry long before I was part of it for creating a medium that I fell in love with decades ago for nurturing a culture of sharing and self-improvement and for working on improving this industry tiny step by tiny step I will try to uphold those values and I will try to improve upon that which you would not or could not I'm thankful to everyone who took a chance on me and there are many of you from my early childhood until just today I'm very

aware that I'm far from perfect and that many of you have worked hard to support me teach me correct me workaround or with my idiosyncrasies and help me do what I do I'm thankful to my co-founder JW who despite our well-documented differences [Applause] - despite our well-documented differences has always been a person I'm thankful to work with and who has without exception or reservation supported me using language time brand and resources to help other developers and pushes me to stand up for what I believe is right I'm thankful to my wife Adria [Music] [Applause] who I met through games who proposed to me through games us through support an example shown to me what it means to be

a gracious considerate and inspiring human first and a hard-working generous and responsible creator second her generosity and thoughtfulness are daily inspiration I'm thankful to the passionate players around the world those that support this medium with their passion their kindness their constructive criticism their curiosity and their love for this medium and its creators Your Enthusiasm is an inspiration a goal to work towards and a reward all at once I'm thankful for the designers the programmers the artists the musicians the actors sound designers writers QA localizers platforms publishers press critics content creators marketeers investors producers and other people that touch games on their way from the tiniest concept to the curious input and hearts of a player you are all part of what allows this medium to flourish and this medium is

better for having you be part of it I'm thankful for the event organisers community organizers teachers and professors government employees archivists activists researchers and other passionate people sacrificing part of their life towards helping this industry and community connect and grow without your passion and efforts I would not be able to visit your communities to learn from your cities your cultures and your country's unique stories challenges and opportunities I am thankful for those that work and fight to democratize this medium to stand against injustice and toxicity despite the hatred anger and so often lack of support they face your belief that this medium can be more makes this medium safer more representative more accessible and more inclusive to those

of any sex race gender sexuality ideology heritage history language country culture disability social economic reality age or situation I am thankful to those of you who participate in this medium despite feeling or being treated as different or out of place I am thankful to those of you who participate in this medium and would want to be here in this room but could not be here due to their financial geographical or political realities your work adds perspective to our medium and your work will continue to make our medium stronger richer and more

representative I'm thankful for those of you who are now taking their first step into our medium or who dreamed of one day being part of it as a medium as an industry as a people we have our challenges and problems we have our disagreements and controversies but throughout all of human history people have created ways to be playful ways to be curious and ways to learn and you well might choose to take that torch forward into the future and if you do I hope that you will try to improve upon that well which we here today will not or cannot being an ambassador of something can only be a point of pride if you believe that that which you represent is valuable throughout my life I've seen games give people joy wonder curiosity a means of expression

education friendship and love through both play and creation so the overwhelming pride I feel in receiving this award comes not from the award itself or from the title implied in it the pride I feel comes from the idea that I could be an ambassador for you the work that you do and the valued adds to life's current past and future so I'm thankful for those who support you for those who encourage you and for those who believe in you because I and thankful for you all of you you are why I am proud right now and that pride I feel can only exist because I'm proud of you make games [Applause] [Music]

[Applause] tonight's third nominee for game of the year The Legend of Zelda breath of the wild developed by Nintendo EP days published by Nintendo the Nintendo EPD team [Music] [Music] hello everybody still here all right I think we can all agree that technology makes our lives so much better from untraceable currency primarily used in illegal transactions to social media platforms that bring unsolicited dick pics right into your DMS there's pretty

much no such thing it's about technology and our industry is certainly no exception think of all the ways we innovate innovate even when we make the same game over and over and over again really the only thing more amazing than the engineering work that is gluing together the interactive experiences showcased here tonight is the fact that I didn't have to say blockchain even once the nominees are best technology destiny two developed by Bungie published by Activision the Bungie engineering team [Music] hell-blade Sen you--is sacrifice developed by Ninja Theory the Ninja

Theory team [Music] Assassin's Creed origin developed by Ubisoft Montreal published by Ubisoft Sylvain Trottier Julianne bass some hairs Alexandre beg notch floor horizon zero dawn developed by Guerrilla Games published by Sony interactive entertainment the guerrilla team The Legend of Zelda breath of the wild developed by Nintendo EPD published by Nintendo the Nintendo epd team and the award for best technology goes to horizon zero dawn

[Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] so yeah let's let's make a open-world RPG in our first-person engine sure oh and we want to have giant [ __ ] robots as well - robot dinosaurs please yes no

problem so you can imagine those design meetings we had back then it was it was fun but holy [ __ ] we pulled it off and I'm super proud of this achievement I have first off I'd like to thank our amazing fence for their feedback the the gifs that we got the videos the screenshots it's it's super awesome to see all that stuff I'd like to thank our family for being very very very patient with us I like to thank Sony wws for sticking with us in this crazy plan that we had and of course I'd like to thank all the people at guerilla including the people we did not bring anything it's a few of them and I'd like to thank all of you for this amazing award super proud thank you [Applause] [Music]

what are you I'm a human what are you I once I knew who I was it was a me the Mario but now I know nothing you don't understand I am NOT a human I am NOT a told Mario what is a Mario waiver a fight some monsters should see to it he

does not become a monster himself and if you again the abyss will gaze back into a [Music] Oh [Music] [Music] hey he will become a monster you're getting this family apart Briggs himself ever being a man [Music] [Laughter]

Who am I [Music] [Applause] one of the things unique to audio and video games that is often done with a very small team unlike say graphics which can employ many many artists and programmers working to achieve a desired visual effect audio often comes down to the craftsmanship of just a few people sometimes it's just one slightly weird dedicated person working hard to achieve their vision in this way audio developers impact a game on a much more personal level than almost any other discipline which is pretty [ __ ] cool this is the part where I describe how

these special privileges make audio people really difficult to deal with at times like especially around deadlines but honestly I actually really believe that audio folks are the truly unsung heroes of game development so I'm just gonna let these nominees roll with mucho gratitude best audio cut and developed by Studio mdh are Christopher Madigan Luke Hatton Chris Sweetman Samuel justice Nier automata developed by Platinum Games published by Square Enix Chi Chi Okabe Yoko taro Yosuke Saito hell-blade Sen you--is sacrifice developed by Ninja Theory

david garcia ideas The Legend of Zelda breath of the wild developed by Nintendo epd published by Nintendo the Nintendo a PD team horizon zero dawn developed by Guerrilla Games published by Sony interactive entertainment the guerrilla team [Music] and the best audio award goes to The Legend of Zelda [Applause] [Music] [Applause]

[Music] that's um hi everyone and thank you so much for this award my name is Cindy I work at Nintendo and it is my honor my privilege to accept this award tonight on behalf of the zelda team and also on behalf of nintendo guy who couldn't be here tonight we like him he's a keeper now Hajime what KY is not only a really cool name just say how'd you may what KY and his team of talents are responsible

for the amazing sounds in Zelda and often theatrical sounds you know so whether it's the for me the the sound of the wind blowing through that grassy plain or the buzz of the insects that you hear when you're standing on a mountain at sunrise Hyrule really feels alive in this game and that has everything to do with sound design so on behalf of mr. Wu Chi and his team thank you so much [Applause] [Music] tonight's 4th nominee for Game of the Year player unknowns battlegrounds developed by pub G corporation Cheng Han Kim Brendon green tastes up Jane Chang Holi

let's give it up for a Nintendo girl [Applause] yes seriously he's really he's really cool our direction is a miracle the ability to pluck ideas from one's brain and bring them to life on screen is truly amazing that this happens in the crucible of game development where a team's vision is often at odds with the game engine schedule budget the producer your mom means that when everything does come together it is a sight to behold who can forget the first time they saw games like inside Firewatch or the witness truly beautiful

games whose visuals served a compliment or even amplify all the other elements of the gameplay experience inside them this year's batch of nominees for best visual art are no different here are the nominees best visual art persona 5 developed by P studio published by Atlas cat Sula Hoshino chicken nori so edgy ma now told hiraoka cuphead developed by studio MD H R Chad moldenhauer Jared moldenhauer Maya moldenhauer [Music] horizon zero dawn developed by Guerrilla Games published by Sony interactive entertainment the guerrilla team The

Legend of Zelda breath of the wild developed by Nintendo EPD published by Nintendo the Nintendo EPD team night in the woods developed by infinite fall published by Finn G Scott Benson Charles Whitner Adam Saltzman spend Rutten are there should really be five envelopes here so I'm only going over the one but it's a really tough category winner for best visual art goes to cup head [Applause]

[Music] thanks to everybody that believed in our crazy little game and supported us because of course without you buying it Chad and Jared would now be in crippling debt forever I'd like to give a shout out to all the other artists that couldn't make it to the stage today Tina nerve nerve Rakhi Joseph Coleman Caitlin Russell Ally Moore bee Maya moldenhauer and of course Chad moldenhauer who single-handedly animated and designed the very first trailer that caught the eyes and imaginations of so many of you thank you all [Applause]

[Music] sweetheart whoopee you want to invest in the future of video games take it from me okay nobody's gonna want to spend $300 on a home console when they could put a couple of quarters in at the arcade am i right just one second that he needs a bum [ __ ] you want to waste your time with a playing card company Nintendo more like Nintendo to waste my money am i right look this is what you want to invest it okay I just got a box of mint condition of et for the Atari 2600 that's right this field bird picture so how many can I put you down for one second let me pop these loose so say what look just roll

with me on this one okay the only way to tell stories and games is through cutscenes all right I bet my life on it okay look I know I haven't always been right okay but what I know for sure is that gamers love good graphics and a linear story okay take your [ __ ] and get out I'm keeping the house just give me a second just look do not invest in mobile games whatever you do baby listen to me listen to me okay you cannot do free-to-play you have to charge at least 50 bucks up front if you want a snowball's chance in hell of making your money back okay Don Giovanni sends his regards

[Music] [Music] that's our yearly visit out of the way let's go home and play pop G huh oh [ __ ] yeah mom's it's all here for all that great advice designers are often seen as the rock stars of our industry the designer is the creative force of a project that does most of the press and gets to make all sorts of glamorous decisions on the features and the feel and the tone that go into the videogames that we love to play I look around this room I see a lot

of designers I know and trust I've got a couple of questions for you number one if your game had only one button in it would you make that button our three have you ever and I mean ever considered the possibility of putting a headphone jack into a child's chest number three do you like anime if you answered yes to all these questions then you're actually kijima and your leather pants are on fire for everyone else thanks for working so hard to make games better or one failure at a time the best design award nominees are best design super mario odyssey developed by nintendo epd

published by nintendo the Nintendo a PD team [Music] horizon zero dawn developed by Guerrilla Games published by Sony interactive entertainment the guerrilla team player unknowns battlegrounds developed by pub G corporation Cheng Han Kim brendan green tastes up jane chang holy the legend of zelda breath of the wild developed by nintendo EPD published by nintendo the nintendo wii pd team Nier automata developed by platinum games

published by Square Enix yokel taro Yosuke Saito taka hiza teruah and the best design award goes to The Legend of Zelda [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] I'm in a Nintendo girl I wish I had warned higher Hill said no one ever so so many ask so many aspects

of this games design were remarkable from the massive world that the developers built to the open-air game structure that literally tore down Zelda standards and gave players absolute freedom and all of it really comes down to a singular vision and we are beyond happy that it connected with so so many people thank you so much on behalf of mr. onuma and mr. fujibayashi and the entire zelda team [Applause] and now our fifth and final nominee for game of the year horizon zero dawn developed by Guerrilla Games while we can publish by Sony Interactive Entertainment prey won't save us the gorilla team and the killers so you will have to leave the sacred land where the

trail leads I will go to be totally honest with y'all it's pretty hard for me to stand up here and give an award away for VR because most early titles on new platforms are glorified tech demos plus shooting which I kind of [ __ ] detest at the same time I just self-published an artsy fartsy VR fairy tale I got a little bird who swallows the last piece of the waning moon so you clearly should not come to me for advice about what will sell but all joking aside I do truly think that someday there will be VR games that expand the way that people

see our medium which is an art form and that's why I'm truly hoping that people actually [ __ ] by VR hardware this holiday season tonight's VR nominees are best VR AR game superhot VR developed by the super hot team tomash cash marsh chick P oh sure II won a key [Music] Star Trek bridge crew developed by Red Storm entertainment published by Ubisoft David bow típica Robbie Edwards Clarke Gibson lone echo developed by ready at dawn published by oculus studios the ready at dawn team Resident Evil 7

biohazard developed by Capcom June Takeuchi Koshi nakanishi masa chica quwata the elderscrolls v skyrim VR developed by Bethesda Game Studios published by Bethesda Softworks Todd Howard Andrew sharp Jesse Flanagan this year's winner / vr AR game is super hot [Applause]

[Music] boy Wow well that was unexpected did you see the other nominees it's it's actual big brand names this time so I guess Robin there's actually hope for VR somebody's going to buy the headset so well it's been it's been a pretty while the year for us in terms of VR and I would like to thank pretty much everybody but I will also allow a couple of words to our game director who's currently down with a cold that hour from me in the Airbnb at least we think it's called it's like a cold or a typhoid fever from what we've seen so pure say hi to

everybody [Applause] the crowd is amazing Fiat which it gets here and I wish that all of the guys back at home in Poland will see it as well the creative team is extremely smart and this I think about three dozen of us right now and we hope to stay in the industry and we hope to build more we are stuff in the future so all the potestas and the Ubisoft of the world please keep up the good work we need your customers to buy our games as well thank you guys [Music] [Music]

and now to present this year's Lifetime Achievement Award please welcome to the stage the producer of the Game Awards Jeff Keely [Music] hello everyone surprise how you doing all right well this is a really special moment for me because back in 2007 Shigeru Miyamoto won the GDC Lifetime Achievement Award and he told Time magazine that the obvious objective of video games is to entertain people by surprising them with new experiences Tim Schafer is a guy who specializes in the new [Applause] tip of logic

I have been playing Tim's games for so long as a little kid and he specializes in the new he bursts new worlds brainstorms new characters and architects new experiences time and time again tim is one of our gaming industry's most original and creative thinkers is also of course one of the funniest now at a time when the breadth and depth of content made by this industry can be misrepresented Tim's fun colorful and comedic games are more important than ever yes now I first came across Tim's work when I was very young about 12 years old because between schoolwork I'd play LucasArts adventure games home in Canada where Tim got his start with a $27,000 a year salary working on some of

the earliest adventure games and of course there was the Secret of Monkey Island where he learned about game design from the legendary Ron Gilbert let's hear it for Monkey Island and one of my favorites day of the tentacle which he designed alongside Dave Grossman I will still always remember the cd-rom talkie version of dot and my quest to power up the chrono John these are memories from many years ago but they still stick with me now as I played those games I couldn't quite believe this rich interactive storybook that I could shape with the click of a mouse and you know I remember me and my brother playing through those games trying to figure out the puzzles the inventory items and often resorting to CompuServe to get hints to figure out how to get through these incredible games the Tim built many decades ago now as Tim's career progressed at LucasArts he started designing his own games like full-throttle

yes and grim fandago which is celebrating an anniversary this year now these seminal games helps them at Tim's signature style rich quirky worlds with funny talking characters and challenging puzzles now one of the things that I most admire about Tim is how over a 30-year career he's never built games based on what genre is trending in the market he builds what's in his heart and we love you for it Tim and Tim has put everything on the line time and again in pursuit of his art today he runs his own independent studio Double Fine right here in San Francisco hometown boy it hasn't been an easy 18 years for double fine but together with his fans and his team they found a way

to fund and support their own games like Psychonauts Psychonauts - in production now and broken age and even pay it forward by helping other smaller developers through Double Fine presents tonight it is my great honor to present G DC's Lifetime Achievement Award to a friend who's built some of this industry's most memorable and new experiences and on a personal level has helped inspire me to devote my career to celebrating games and the people who make them ladies and gentlemen please welcome to the stage Tim of legend [Applause]

thank you [Applause] thank you thank you buddy thanks so much I should uh Thanks I got this I got this under control this is where I feel most comfortable I've hosted these awards many times and I thought I'm super this is I'm the master of my domain here this is cool I got this and then Jeff makes me feel like a blubbering idiot with this little yep yeah but and all of you thank you so much thanks thanks Jeff

thank you thank you everybody thanks everybody here thanks everyone at GDC thanks to Simon and Katie and the spooky ghost of Meghan Scottie oh thanks everyone at Table eight yeah they play everybody in the back thank you thank you so much this is a tremendous honor and I'm incredibly humbled and happy to be giving this award tonight so thank you I know what a lot of you are thinking how can they give this award to this guy he's so young but I'll have you know the truth is I've been as Jeff spoiled you know in this industry almost 30 years to set that time in in a particular place when I started in the games industry in 1989 the Berlin Wall was still standing and then I started making games and then the Berlin Wall fell

[Music] Yeah right yes so you're welcome I'm not saying I did it all by myself and I've got to thank a few people for that much like my Tama games I'd I'd been incredibly lucky a lot of times and I realized as I was writing this it's like a list of times when I should have died and I didn't and I gotta thank all the people who who helped me with that I've been so lucky in the the just amazing people I've crossed paths with a cross paths with us along the way I gonna remember who I first were there I started my career in the industry at a company then called Lucasfilm games and David Fox had no reason to hire me especially after in my interview I totally accidentally confessed Admira ting ball blazer but he did and I'm so

grateful for everything that happened after and I want to thank Noah falstein forgive me a crash course in programming AI so that I could ride the ship combat in Monkey Island and I want to thank Ron Gilbert for cutting the ship combat in Monkey Island yep I assume because it was so good that he couldn't beat it I'm really grateful for wrong for picking me and Dave Grossman to work on Monkey Island Sakura mochi line my first gig in games I learned a lot from Ron and I especially had a stop worrying and stop censoring my own ideas I wrote a joke really quickly about a three-headed monkey and I was and Ron came out to see it and I was like don't worry that's temporary dialogue I'm gonna take out the three-headed monkey joke and Ron's like no we're keeping it and in fact we're gonna have to keep yourself dry three-headed monkey it's gonna be great and I was like what and then it really is like a profound moment for me to realize that me like everybody is so creative and one of our biggest

problems is just how much we censor ourselves how much we like that's too silly that's too ridiculous that can't I can't share that with people and that that experience may realize but I just let it out and that's that's formed the the tone of everything I've made ever since so thanks Ron for that thanks also to Dave Grossman for pushing me to be a better rider just by sitting next to me and writing such amazing dialogue in the next desk I want to thank how lucky was ID to work down the hallway from how bar would the director of Corvette summer right right down the hallway who taught me when I was whining about how I had to cut the dialogue down by half and he was like just do it and he taught me how to edit my own dialogue and not worry about it and it's the greatest lesson I ever learned be ruthless when editing your own dialogue oh my god I want to thank all the great people and and smart people and LucasArts upper-management lucy bradshaw and well that's it okay I

have been lucky enough to work at the best artists in the industry Peter Chan Larry I heard Peter sagal Scott Campbell Lee Patty and others I've met amazing composers Michael and company Qian and sitting over here at Table eight the man who scored almost every game I've ever made Peter McConnell right there those one-time special thanks to you Peter I want to thank all the amazing people who make all my dialogue sound so much better than it is the amazing actors I've worked with and the amazing producers and directors and casting agents back at LucasArts kamalinee leo darah Farrell and especially Chris Brown who's also sitting right here Chris Brown thank you so much I worked with Christians like 1992 or like 1850 I don't remember she can like cast direct and edit and somehow convince movie stars for to work for indie game breaks and it's amazing

and I owe her so much thank you Chris I want to thank everybody but I'm sorry I'm running that time thanks the amazing animators I love animated sync the amazing programmers and the testers and the producers I've worked with thank heaven help all the producers who have to keep me on schedule [Music] by the way we're hiring producers right now so forget I said that it's great to work with me as a producer thanks to all the publishers had worked with and we worked with just about all of them but I want to call it one in particular when Psychonauts was cancelled we took it around to get it resigned and everybody passed on it everybody not that I'm bitter it's that's what this is about they were a cell since chorus no I'm kidding I want to call out one in particular we would have gone out of business in 2004 if it wasn't for a little family operation in Jersey called Majesco so I don't think the Sutton family for helping us out with that Jesse and Joey

they all the Suttons also thinking through that really trying time with Seamus blackly and all his cohorts the CAA it was really great to have someone on our side during a horrible experience like that and I want to thank okay wait now I have to tell a story now and I asked for permission tell story and I didn't get permission but then that bartender over there has served me four shots of tequila so in between getting cancelled and getting signed by Majesco there was a long period we didn't have any money and we ran out of money and I had to make a talk to the whole company to tell them that the next payroll was not coming and there were 30 people who were like we've been crunching on a game for four years and now it's gonna disappear and no one will ever know that this company ever existed which is hilarious if you've ever been in that position it's really fun

so I thought okay I was really desperate and there was one lifeline I could call I had a friend who had sold his company to EA and I thought he might be able to make that kind of loan I hated to do it but I I called him and I said I hate to ask you but if you lend me that money I'll give you like 10% of my company oh my god please help us out and he said I'll think about it that I'll go talk to our lawyers and I'll see if I can do that and I sat there on my desk and it was just you I chewed off all my fingernails and then he called back he's like my lawyers telling me I can't take stock in another game company so I'm just gonna give you the money and lend you the money and it was amazing hey we just think it was just had such an effect on me [Applause] it's just that I was I was so embarrassed and desperate to making that call and just to be met with that kind of generosity anyway it struck me and so to this day

it's own two-stage you play one of my games you'll see special thanks to will right and I want to think well [Applause] thanks will I hope it's okay if I told that story but no one else asked him for money I swear he's don't do it it really struck me and it motivates me to do whenever I tried I really want to help people as best I can because I remember how that felt to be in that position anyway we didn't go out of business and we're still here 18 years later there

are a lot of double finders here in the audience tonight they're the loud ones in the back double fine hey there they are I want to thank everybody Double Fine all the beautiful people a double fine a special shout-out to the veterans who work as a company for 16 or 17 years where a crook Dave Russell Jeff solace Kichi and the captain is Nathan Stapley and the rest of you I want to thank all the new new applies to for injecting so much new blood into the company I broke the trophy [Applause] I'm so sorry anyway thank you everybody

hey I want to thank also Justin Bailey for boldly going into a charter waters with fig and taking us another crowdfunding it is on a crazy journey with him and I want to thank a man who if not the tallest person in the games industry he's the tallest in my heart I want to thank Greg rights for all the work he does keep being not just in keeping double firing the float but also in helping out other Indies with double vine presents and day of the devs thank you and I want to thank my wife Rachel who's sitting right there Rach yeah I met Rachel in 2003 right before we went into second uh scrunchy but I was like I'm a big time game person it's gonna be great

everything's gonna be easy and she has stuck with me through that and through everything this came after so thank you and I didn't trip on the little hologram stairs by the way so that and finally I want to thank all the backers and all the players everywhere for not just playing our games at reaching out to us and letting us know that they matter to you because that has made all the difference and so that's it I want to tell you even though you gave me this Lifetime Achievement Award that it broke I'm not gonna stop making games because because uh because I can't afford to but there's so many memories came up when I was making this list it's easy to look back in all the games and all the ups and downs and the roller coaster and the troubles and everything but what I realized when I was making this list is this crazy collection of human beings that really makes this experience so meaningful and made it possible and I'm

so rewarding so I want to thank everybody who that's really what keeps me making games is all these people so I want to thank you again for all your help over the years and I think again for this generous generous award thank you everybody [Applause] [Music] cheers to Tim Schafer [Applause] and we'll [ __ ] right alright little emotional here if we've learned anything over the past few years it's that the

collective wisdom of the voting populace [Music] it's an error-free finely-tuned [Music] [Applause] victory machine collectively we are simply incapable of making a bad choice the Borg doesn't have [ __ ] on us and with that in mind we turn our eyes to the audience award we're in the same people that voted a research submarine boaty mcboatface decide what their

favorite game was last year I for one can't wait to find out what we all picked [Applause] all right here we go [ __ ] the audience of word goes to nearer automata [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music]

[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] hung on just show thinking it don't look you know how to do good stay my stop don't stop thank you [Applause]

[Music] man this job just keeps getting better and better alright it says you're on the sample of choice Innovation Award while games is a growing business the community of developers is fairly tight-knit that means that many of you will recognize folks running in tonight's memoriam reel let's take a moment to note their passing and recognize their contributions [Music]

[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music]

[Music] [Music] [Music] what is innovation our games art what's

the sound of one hand clapping this category is often the place where we put games that probably won't sell but look really [ __ ] cool and also games about difficult subjects like love sex collaboration and compromise in the end there's never one clear definition of what pushes the boundaries of our craft however there can only be one chicken dinner tonight's nominees for innovation are Innovation Award gorgoa developed by

buried signal published by annapurna interactive jason roberts The Legend of Zelda breath of the wild developed by Nintendo EPD published by Nintendo the Nintendo a PD team [Music] what remains of Edith Finch developed by giant sparrow published by Annapurna interactive the Giants Faro team [Music] everything developed by David O'Reilly published by Double Fine's production the everything team player unknowns

battlegrounds developed by pub G corporation Cheng Han Kim brendan green tastes up jane chang holy the innovation award goes to gorgoa [Applause] [Music]

[Applause] [Music] [Music] well I you know I left my sensible career path in my late 30s and I'm over 40 now and my knees hurt and so I guess it's it's never too late to innovate Thanks yes just when I say that I mean I extremely lucky position to be to have contributed to three games in this category I want to thank David O'Reilly for letting me make sounds to the

universe and introducing me to the words of Alan Watts which are life-changing and two giant sparrow for also let me contribute to their beautiful narrative experience and Jason thank you again all right thank you thanks [Applause] [Music] chick also helps me run SF Indies shout-out to all SF developers in the room it keeps us from never meeting cuz I'm always so [ __ ] busy anyway as someone whose team won this award years ago I have to keep saying that because it's the only reason that a publisher whatever give me any money I can say that there is no better feeling than to have been chosen as the game of the year by all you [ __ ] yes

the industry is callous and cold-hearted at times yes we tend to privilege games with huge budgets and huge sales numbers yes we still have a real shortage of games with strong black protagonists but we're working on that [ __ ] looking at you Campo Santo [Music] when all is said and done what matters the most is that we keep focusing on new designs new technologies and new stories that open our field to new players who will one day grace this stage as developers themselves [Applause] every one of us started as a kid playing

games and every one of us will start as a kid playing games let's hear it for all the kids out on the internet right now internet genes for playing games once again here is a recap of all of tonight's game of the Year nominees game of the year player unknowns battlegrounds near automata [Applause] The Legend of Zelda breath of the whining horizon zero dawn

[Applause] SuperMario Odyssey [Applause] you all touched so many hearts this year thank you for all the hard work your teams did you all deserve a round of applause before I open this envelope come on alright ladies and gentlemen the 2018 winner of the game developers Choice Awards game of the year is the Legend of Zelda [Applause]

[Music] Wow thank you so much just beyond a great really great big thank you the only other thing I really want to say is that this particular Game of the Year award is especially meaningful and especially humbling for our developers because they're voted on by their fellow developers so thank you for that yeah and speaking of those guys I couldn't possibly do this award acceptance justice without their help so let me turn it over now to mr. Aonuma and mr. fujibayashi thank you hello

yeah the wild oh oh shut up I heard shamanism on Tony ariados Emerson tomoko Eddie's Matta some kind emanate oh Santa still attend who gave - the mo one of our very step fangio transit a directional zero density syriza came to town sakuga Oakland start not a maternity home kind you know mother taught us nothing said well whatever I did she need to take kento transit not a Vista so no we're not sure engine is it a poke at avataq gyro condita ducky such they make you technique irritated I'll Caputo bukhara cancer steamers dances she's a diva sangeun a Geneva in support of sick Rosario aah - aah - Amanda or Alamos one

second even awoken a volcano tavini you need a closet repertoire the audacity the dice - I know elaborate upon autonomous yamadera a positive anova korekara Mohana - ah no tameni atarashi derivatized Academy - Magnus desert emo Nintendo die host thank you [Applause] [Music] seriously how many hours of this game have you all played let's it's just really seriously how many hours of Zelda have we all played this is amazing it's a great franchise all right that is all folks award shows are never short enough and there are never enough trophies to go around and everyone here deserves at least two more drinks than they got while sitting here listening to

me talk once again it is a huge honor to have been up here and give away these awards to people that I know personally have struggled to make this art to make this industry open and diverse and amazing and I want you to just all give a huge round of applause to all of tonight's nominees and since i'm the queen of the universe right in this very moment I'm going to ask you all to make great games in 2018 and for the love of God [ __ ] vote zero next year [Applause] [Music]

[Applause] [Music]

so [Music]

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