14 DAY TRIAL // The Game Developers Conference has not one, but two major awards associated with it, and the big winner of the night was Her Story, the investigative-driven narrative title that impressed with its mix of mechanics and emotion.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, created by CD Projekt RED, picked up another Game of the Year award at the GDC ceremony, becoming one of the if not the most celebrated title of 2015.
Rocket League from Psyonix received the award for Best Design, and Ori and the Blind Foret from Moon Studios is considered to be the title with the Best Visual Art.
Her Story picked up the prizes for Best Handheld/Mobile Game, Best Narrative, and the Innovation Award while Best Audio was the award given to Crypt of the NecroDancer, created by Brace Yourself Games.
The Witcher 3 was also celebrated for Best Technology, and Ori and the Blind Forest also received the prize associated with Best Debut.
The GDC Awards also presented Todd Howard, the leader of the Bethesda Game Studios, with a Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Pioneer Award was offered to Markus Persson, aka Notch, the man who initially created Minecraft.
Independent Games Festival awards were also dominated by Her Story
The IGF is designed to celebrate video games that are created by small teams and aim to introduce innovative mechanics and ideas, and once again, Her Story was the big winner, picking up both the Seamus McNally Grand Prize and an award for Excellence in Narrative.
The rest of the prizes are: Excellence in Visual Art - Oxenfree from Night School Studio, Excellence in Design - Keep Talking & Nobody Explodes from Steel Crate Games, Excellence in Audio - Mini Metro by Dinosaur Polo Club, Nuovo Award - Cibele by Star Maid Games, Best Student Game - Beglitched from Jenny Jiao Hsia & Alec Thomson, Audience Award - Undertale by Toby Fox.
Sam Barlow, the creator of Her Story, has not yet revealed plans for another video game, but it seems that he will once again focus on a narrative experience with unique elements.
Meanwhile, CD Projekt RED, which created The Witcher 3, has said that it wants to launch another title before the end of the year, although it will not be linked to the franchise. It has also announced that Cyberpunk 2077 is its next big project and that it wants to make it bigger than better in order to satisfy player expectations.