Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Dominates Game Developers' Choice Awards Nominations At GDC Festival

The GDC Festival schedule for March now includes the full slate of nominations for the 26th annual Game Developers Choice Awards, and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 once again sits at the center of the conversation. I’ve followed this awards cycle closely, and this is the fourth major show where Sandfall Interactive’s RPG has emerged as the most-nominated title. This time it leads with eight nominations, including Game of the Year, Design, Narrative, Technology, and Visual Art.

The announcement was made by organizers of the GDC Festival of Gaming, confirming that the ceremony will take place on March 12 in San Francisco. Attendance is open to all GDC passholders, with a public livestream confirmed on GDC Twitch. Nominees and winners are selected by the International Choice Awards Network, a peer-based body made up of game developers across disciplines and regions. Unlike most award shows, each category also includes honorable mentions, broadening the field beyond the final ballot.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33’s dominance is notable not just for the number of categories, but for their spread. The game appears across creative, technical, and narrative disciplines, suggesting broad support rather than a single standout strength. Its closest competitor this year is Ghost of Yōtei, which secured five nominations. Blue Prince, Donkey Kong Bananza, and Split Fiction follow with four each. Hollow Knight: Silksong, long treated as a fan favorite and industry myth, appears only once, but that single nod is for Game of the Year.

Voting will also include an Audience Award, open to the public. Ballots are available from January 26 through February 8, allowing players to weigh in alongside the developer-driven selection process.

Below is the complete list of Game Developers Choice Awards nominees for 2026, as released by the organizers.

Best Audio

• Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 — Sandfall Interactive/ Kepler Interactive
• Death Stranding 2: On the Beach — Kojima Productions/ Sony Interactive Entertainment
• Ghost of Yōtei — Sucker Punch Productions/ Sony Interactive Entertainment
• Rift of the NecroDancer — Brace Yourself Games, Tic Toc Games/ Klei Publishing
• South of Midnight — Compulsion Games/ Xbox Game Studios

Honorable Mentions

• ARC Raiders — Embark Studios
• Donkey Kong Bananza — Nintendo EPD/ Nintendo
• Doom: The Dark Ages — id Software/ Bethesda Softworks
• Lumines Arise — Enhance/ Monstars Inc.
• To a T — uvula LLC/ Annapurna Interactive

Best Debut

• BALL X PIT — Kenny Sun & Friends/ Devolver Digital
• Blue Prince — Dogubomb/ Raw Fury
• Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 — Sandfall Interactive/ Kepler Interactive
• Dispatch — AdHoc Studio

Honorable Mentions

• ARC Raiders — Embark Studios
• Consume Me — Jenny Jiao Hsia
• Hollow Knight: Silksong — Team Cherry
• The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy — Too Kyo Games, Media.Vision Inc./ Aniplex
• The Roottrees are Dead — Evil Trout Inc.

Best Design

• BALL X PIT — Kenny Sun & Friends/ Devolver Digital
• Blue Prince — Dogubomb/ Raw Fury
• Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 — Sandfall Interactive/ Kepler Interactive
• Donkey Kong Bananza — Nintendo EPD/ Nintendo
• Split Fiction — Hazelight Studios/ Electronic Arts

Honorable Mentions

• Death Stranding 2: On the Beach — Kojima Productions/ Sony Interactive Entertainment
• Ghost of Yōtei — Sucker Punch Productions/ Sony Interactive Entertainment
• Kingdom Come: Deliverance II — Warhorse Studios/ Deep Silver
• The Alters — 11 Bit Studios

Innovation Award

• BALL X PIT — Kenny Sun & Friends/ Devolver Digital
• Baby Steps — Gabe Cuzzillo, Maxi Boch, Bennett Foddy/ Devolver Digital
• Blue Prince — Dogubomb/ Raw Fury
• Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 — Sandfall Interactive/ Kepler Interactive
• Donkey Kong Bananza — Nintendo EPD/ Nintendo

Honorable Mentions

• CloverPit — Panik Arcade/ Future Friends Games
• Consume Me — Jenny Jiao Hsia
• REPO — Semiwork Studios
• Sunderfolk — Secret Door/ Dreamhaven
• To a T — uvula LLC/ Annapurna Interactive

Best Narrative

• Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 — Sandfall Interactive/ Kepler Interactive
• Despelote — Julián Cordero, Sebastián Valbuena/ Panic
• Dispatch — AdHoc Studio
• Ghost of Yōtei — Sucker Punch Productions/ Sony Interactive Entertainment
• Split Fiction — Hazelight Studios/ Electronic Arts

Best Technology

• Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 — Sandfall Interactive/ Kepler Interactive
• Death Stranding 2: On the Beach — Kojima Productions/ Sony Interactive Entertainment
• Donkey Kong Bananza — Nintendo EPD/ Nintendo
• Ghost of Yōtei — Sucker Punch Productions/ Sony Interactive Entertainment
• Split Fiction — Hazelight Studios/ Electronic Arts

Best Visual Art

• Absolum — Guard Crush Games, Dotemu, Supamonks/ Dotemu
• Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 — Sandfall Interactive/ Kepler Interactive
• Death Stranding 2: On the Beach — Kojima Productions/ Sony Interactive Entertainment
• Ghost of Yōtei — Sucker Punch Productions/ Sony Interactive Entertainment
• Hades II — Supergiant Games
• Keeper — Double Fine Productions/ Xbox Game Studios

Social Impact

• And Roger — TearyHand Studio/ Kodansha
• Consume Me — Jenny Jiao Hsia
• Despelote — Julián Cordero, Sebastián Valbuena/ Panic
• Dispatch — AdHoc Studio

Game of the Year

• Blue Prince — Dogubomb/ Raw Fury
• Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 — Sandfall Interactive/ Kepler Interactive
• Donkey Kong Bananza — Nintendo EPD/ Nintendo
• Ghost of Yōtei — Sucker Punch Productions/ Sony Interactive Entertainment
• Hollow Knight: Silksong — Team Cherry
• Split Fiction — Hazelight Studios/ Electronic Arts

Honorable Mentions

• Absolum — Guard Crush Games, Dotemu, Supamonks/ Dotemu
• BALL X PIT — Kenny Sun & Friends/ Devolver Digital
• Hades II — Supergiant Games

The winners will be revealed live during the GDC Festival ceremony in March, followed closely across the industry as an early signal of how developers themselves assess the past year’s work. With its current momentum, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 enters the event as the title to beat, even in a field crowded with established franchises and long-awaited releases.

Read also, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has already defined 2025, collecting more than 300 Game of the Year wins, including top honors at Game Awards 2026, cementing Sandfall Interactive’s debut as one of the most awarded games of the decade.