Digital Dragons Awards: The Nominated Games Revealed
Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty (CD PROJEKT RED) and Witchfire (The Astronauts) are the games that earned the most nominations for the prestigious Digital Dragons Awards. Each of them has received as many as five nominations. The best Polish games of 2023 will be announced on May 20, 2024.
Best Polish Game, Best Polish Game Design, Best Polish Game Visual Art, Best Polish Game Audio, Best Polish Narrative, Best Polish Mobile Game, and Best Foreign Game are the categories in which the oldest awards in Polish game dev will be presented. Nominations for the best games of 2023 were selected through votes given by companies in the Polish games industry.
Digital Dragons Conference will take place between May 19th and 21st in Cracow, Poland. The tickets at regular, not increased prices are available only until the end of April!
Hits of the year 2023
Two games have received five nominations each, in almost all categories for Polish developers, except the category for mobile games.
Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty is the latest work of CD PROJEKT RED, which transported players to the new Night City district, Dogtown, offering the atmosphere of a spy thriller, further improving the mechanics of the basic version. Witchfire, on the other hand, is a long-awaited FPS from The Astronauts studio, whose founder and creative director is Adrian Chmielarz, a legend of Polish game dev. The title itself offers dynamic gameplay in a dark fantasy atmosphere in combination with the implementation of roguelike mechanics.
It is also worth mentioning the four nominations for The Invincible (Starward Industries), a game that takes the player to the world of Stanislaw Lem's eponymous novel, and the three nominations for Against the Storm (Eremite Games), a strategy game which skilfully combines city-builder and roguelike mechanics.
There is also a category for Best Foreign Game. It features the latest hits, including Baldur's Gate 3 (Larian Studios) and Alan Wake 2 (Remedy Entertainment), whose creators will be giving talks at Digital Dragons Conference 2024. Larian Studios will be represented by Adam Smith (Writing Director), Chris Vossen (Head of Narrative), Borislav Slavov (Music Director & Composer), and Octaaf Fieremans (Head of QA), while Remedy Entertainment will be represented by Erik Jansson (Senior Graphics Programmer).
Awards in various categories
As per tradition, nominations for Digital Dragons Awards were given in several categories, including, for the first time, Best Polish Narrative. Within this category, the best game narrative will be recognized, which consists of, among other factors, the overall scenario, the way it has been created, environmental storytelling, or dialogues.
The results will be announced at the Digital Dragons Awards gala held on 20 May 2024 during the Digital Dragons Conference 2024. The patron of the gala is the Rock and Borys podcast (RCKBRS), which brings together Remigiusz Maciaszek, better known as Rock - one of the most popular Polish YouTubers and streamers, and Borys Niespielak - director, documentary filmmaker, photographer and cinema connoisseur. For the first time in the history of the Digital Dragons Awards, the gala will be broadcast live, and it will happen on Remigiusz Maciaszek's channels (YouTube, Twitch).
LIST OF NOMINATED GAMES
Best Polish Game
Against the Storm (Eremite Games)
Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty (CD PROJEKT RED)
RoboCop: Rogue City (Teyon)
The Invincible (Starward Industries)
Witchfire (The Astronauts)
New features at Digital Dragons Conference 2024
This year, for the first time, the programme will be expanded to include thematic summits, such as the Game Design Summit powered by Anshar Studios & Fool's Theory, which will take place at the Park Inn by Radisson Hotel. Workshops within the summit will be led by, among others, Robert Kurvitz (Creative Director of Disco Elysium), Tomasz Marchewka (Story Director, CD PROJEKT RED) and Mateusz Piaskiewicz (Principal Designer, Activision).