Astro Bot, Black Myth: Wukong lead Game Developers Choice Award nominees

digitaltrends.com:

The nominees for the 2025 Game Developers Choice Awards are here. This year,Astro Bot and Black Myth: Wukong lead the field, while indies like Animal Well made a big splash.

The Game Developers Choice Awards take place every year at GDC, directly following the Independent Games Festival awards show. While the latter is focused on indie games, the GDC awards are more akin to The Game Awards, honoring a mix of AAA and independent games.

This year,Astro Bot and Black Myth: Wukong both secured seven nominations. That makes them both frontrunners for this year’s Game of the Year honor. The field also includes Balatro, Helldivers 2, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, and Metaphor: ReFantazio.

A few indie games broke through this year in a big way. Animal Well is up for five awards, including Best Design, and UFO 50 made it into the Innovation category. Critical darling 1000xResist nabbed three nominations, including one for Best Narrative. Horror hit Mouthwashing will also compete for that award.

The ceremony will live stream on GDC’s Twitch channel on March 19

Best Audio

• Animal Well (Billy Basso / Bigmode)
• Astro Bot (Team ASOBI / Sony Interactive Entertainment)
• Black Myth: Wukong (Game Science)
• Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (Square Enix)
• Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II (Ninja Theory / Xbox Game Studios)

Honorable Mentions: Balatro (LocalThunk / Playstack), Lorelei and the Laser Eyes (Simogo / Annapurna Interactive),Metaphor: ReFantazio (ATLUS / SEGA / Studio Zero), Neva (Nomada Studio / Devolver Digital), Silent Hill 2 (Bloober Teams SA / KONAMI)

Best Debut

• 1000xResist (Sunset Visitor / Fellow Traveller)
• Animal Well (Billy Basso / Bigmode)
• Balatro (LocalThunk / Playstack)
• Pacific Drive (Ironwood Studios / Kepler Interactive)
• Tiny Glade (Pounce Light)

Honorable Mentions: Manor Lords (Slavic Magic / Hooded Horse),Mullet Madjack (HA