Hades wins top prize at the Game Developers Choice Awards

By Andrew Zucosky July 22, 2021

Hades won Game of the Year for the 21st Game Developers Choice Awards along with two other awards. The nominees were announced in late April and all of the winners were announced last night at the ceremony.

Along with winning Game of the Year, Hades also took home the awards for Best Audio and Best Design. Hades beat out Animal Crossing: New Horizons, The Last of Us Part II, Ghost of Tsushima, and Half-Life: Alyx for the title of Game of the Year.

Developer Supergiant Games was not the only studio that brought home awards last night. The Last of Us Part II won Best Narrative at the awards ceremony, Half-Life: Alyx won Best VR/AR Game, and Ghost of Tsushima won the Audience Award, as well as the award for Best Visual Art. Kinetic Games, the developers of Phasmophobia, won the Best Debut Developer Award this year.

Special awards were given to both Tom Fulp and Laralyn McWilliams. Tom Fulp, the creator of the website Newgrounds and the co-founder of The Behemoth was awarded the Pioneer Award. Laralyn McWilliams was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award. She is known in the industry as the creative director of Free Realms as well as the lead director of Full Spectrum Warrior.

The 21st Game Developers Choice Awards ceremony was handled a little differently this year. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the awards ceremony was completely digital and was streamed live on the internet. The awards ceremony was streamed alongside the Independent Games Festival Awards as well.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Andrew has been playing video games since he was a small boy, and he finally got good at them like a week ago. He has been in…

Gaming

The Game Awards could have its own Parasite moment tonight if Hades wins big

Hades

The 2020 Game Awards show is tonight, and the Game of the Year category is a hot topic of conversation. While many big budget studio games are competing for top prizes this year, a historic upset could be coming. There’s a very real possibility that indie game Hades could steal the show — and it should.

Hades has been the talk of the industry ever since it exited early access in September. Developer Supergiant Games’ God-filled roguelike game gained widespread praise from critics and fans alike, even winning over players who had written the niche genre off long ago. Now, the game finds itself in the brightest spotlight possible as it goes head-to-head with the likes of The Last of Us Part II — our own Game of the Year pick. That widespread exposure alone is a testament to the comparatively smaller game’s breakout success.

Gaming

Here are our favorite video games of 2020, from Animal Crossing to Hades

Animal Crossing New Horizons Beach

The Digital Trends team named The Last of Us Part II our game of the year for 2020. In our post detailing why, we noted that it was a contentious debate. That's because 2020 was filled with gaming highlights, big and small. Major studios rolled out a slate of high-budget games that sent the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One off with a bang, while welcoming their new iterations in style. Nintendo had a slow year, but delivered the only exclusive that mattered in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Despite COVID-19 related delays, which seemed to jumble up plans left and right, there were no shortage of big-budget hits.

Other success stories came out of left field. Among Us returned from obscurity to become a multiplayer sensation two years later. Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout spun the battle royale genre on its head and had brands clamoring for a piece of its pie. Blaseball, a minimalist baseball simulator, took the internet by storm and gained attention from unlikely places like The Paris Review and NPR. It felt like there was a wild story like this every month as gamers looked for creative ways to connect with one another in an all-digital era. We've put together a list of some of our favorite games of this year that paints a well-rounded picture of the video game climate in 2020.
Best Adventure Game: The Last of Us Part II

Gaming

The Last of Us Part II, Animal Crossing, Hades lead 2020 Game Awards nominations

the last of us part ii tips featured

The Game Awards nominations are here, giving us a look at 2020's game of the year race. The topnominees include The Last of Us Part II, and Animal Crossing: New Horizons, which are joined by smaller hits like Hades and Among Us.

The nominees for Game of the Year are The Last of Us Part II, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Ghost of Tsushima, Doom: Eternal, Hades, and Final Fantasy VII Remake. Each game is nominated in multiple categories, with The Last of Us Part II leading the pack with 10 nominations.