Monument Valley cleans up at 2015 GDC Awards

UK indie Ustwo Games was the biggest winners at this year’s Game Developers Choice Awards, with the studio picking up three accolades for its seminal mobile puzzle game Monument Valley.

The game was recognised for Best Visual Art, Innovation, and Best Handheld/Mobile Game at last night’s awards ceremony in San Francisco.

Ustwo wasn’t the only British dev to take home prizes, with Creative Assembly winning Best Audio for its sci-fi horror title Alien: Isolation and Frontier Developments receiving the Audience Award for Elite: Dangerous.

One of the biggest awards – Game of the Year – went to Monolith Productions’ Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor, while Best Debut went to indie dev Stoic Studio for its excellent first title, The Banner Saga.

"I continue to be amazed by the diversity of games that we honoured tonight, from triple-A action titles like Shadow of Mordor to stand-out mobile games like Monument Valley," said GDC general manager Meggan Scavio.

"The games recognised tonight highlight that the video game industry is moving in bold new directions, and they can offer experiences that can be big, small, intimate, epic, unique, grand and compelling."

As was previously announced, Brenda Romero took home the Ambassador Award, while David Braben was given the Pioneer Award. Final Fantasy creator and Mistwalker president Hironobu Sakaguchi was honoured with the Lifetime Achievement award.

Here is the list of winners in full:

Best Debut
Stoic Studio (The Banner Saga) 

Innovation Award
Monument Valley (ustwo)

Best Technology
Destiny (Bungie/Activision) 

Best Audio
Alien: Isolation (Creative Assembly/Sega) 

Ambassador Award 
Brenda Romero 

Best Visual Art
Monument Valley (ustwo) 

Best Narrative
Kentucky Route Zero: Act III (Cardboard Computer)

Pioneer Award
David Braben

Best Design
Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft (Blizzard) 

Best Handheld/Mobile Game
Monument Valley (ustwo)

Audience Award
Elite: Dangerous (Frontier Developments)

Lifetime Achievement Award
Hironobu Sakaguchi

Game of the Year
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor (Monolith Productions/Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment)

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