Vampire Survivors, a shoot-’em-up game primarily developed by a solo coder, Luca Galante, caused a major upset at the Bafta Game Awards 2023. The game was awarded the best game title at the event, surpassing blockbuster titles such as Elden Ring and God of War Ragnarök.
The announcement was met with gasps from the crowd at Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, and Galante’s small team accepted the award on his behalf, looking visibly shaken. Vampire Survivors had earlier won the game design award at the ceremony.
Although God of War Ragnarök, a mythological adventure game, received the most Bafta masks, taking home six awards, including the EE game of the year, best audio, animation, music, performer in a leading role, and performer in a supporting role, the night belonged to smaller and more offbeat titles.
Tunic, a role-playing adventure game developed by Andrew Shouldice, won the artistic achievement and debut awards, while Immortality, an interactive movie created by Sam Barlow, won the narrative award.
Two awards goes to Elden Ring at Bafta Game Awards 2023
The acclaimed fantasy adventure game, Elden Ring, developed by From Software, received multiple nominations and won two awards: original property and best multiplayer, beating more traditional online titles such as Overwatch 2 and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. The game, which we will continue to talk about for a long time with the upcoming Elden Ring DLC, Shadow of Erdtree, showed us that its popularity is not just empty hype with this success.
Final Fantasy XIV Online won the best-evolving game award, Horizon Forbidden West won the technical achievement award, and Rollerdrome won the British game award.
In a surprising turn of events, cyberpunk adventure game, Stray, received multiple nominations but failed to win any awards. Shuhei Yoshida, the head of Sony Interactive Entertainment’s Independent Developer Initiative, and previously president of Sony Interactive Entertainment Worldwide Studios, was awarded the Bafta games fellowship for his outstanding contributions to the industry. Yoshida was applauded by developers for his enthusiastic endorsement of independent games on social media and was quoted as saying,
“Indie developers, dream on, because your next game could change the face of the industry forever”.
-Shuhei Yoshida on Bafta Game Awards 2023
A complete list of the winners can be found on the Bafta Game Awards website.
