This year, the German Developer Award offers the industry plenty of time to exchange ideas and celebrate. Admission on December 8, 2022 begins at 4:30 p.m., with the dinner opening at 5:45 p.m.. From 20:00 the award ceremony starts, which ends at approximately 22:00. This will be followed by the big after-show party.

The German Developer Award is the oldest award in the games industry and has been presented annually since 2004. It honors the best achievements in the development of video and computer games from Germany, Austria and Switzerland. This year's event will be hosted for the first time by games.nrw e.V., the representative body of the digital games industry in North Rhine-Westphalia.

Kristin Janulik, DEP project manager and deputy chairperson of games.nrw: "Together with the games industry, we have further developed the German Developer Award and positioned it for the future. In this way, we were able to sharpen the award categories and adapt them to the developments in the industry. For example, with the new award category "Best Game Beyond Entertainment" we are honoring a game that takes the value of games far beyond pure entertainment. The jury work and rules have also been updated, making the way the judging is done even more transparent. In addition, the winning teams can look forward to a newly designed trophy. We wish all nominees and guests an exciting award ceremony on December 8, 2022 in Cologne."

The nominated games and their developer teams at a glance:

Best German Game

Chorus (Fishlabs, Hamburg)
LEGO Bricktales (ClockStone, Innsbruck - Austria)
The Wandering Village (Stray Fawn Studio, Zurich - Switzerland)

Best Indie Game - presented by game Verband

ITORAH (Grimbart Tales, Kaiserslautern - Germany)
Revita (BenStar, Buchenbach)
White Shadows (Monokel, Cologne)

Best Casual Game

Idle Ant Colony (Bling Bling Games, Karlsruhe)
LEGO Bricktales (ClockStone, Innsbruck - Austria)
Wildshade: Horse Racing (Tivola, Hamburg)

Best Game Beyond Entertainment

Beholder 3 (Paintbucket Games, Berlin)
White Shadows (Monokel, Cologne)
Where is Goldi? (wayside, Mönchengladbach)

Best Game Design

LEGO Bricktales (ClockStone, Innsbruck - Austria)
The Cycle: Frontier (YAGER, Berlin)
The Wandering Village (Stray Fawn Studio, Zurich - Switzerland)

Best Audio Design

Chorus (Fishlabs, Hamburg - Germany)
Hell Pie (Sluggerfly, Essen)
ITORAH (Grimbart Tales, Kaiserslautern)

Best Graphics

Chorus (Fishlabs, Hamburg)
Destroy All Humans! 2 - Reprobed (Black Forest Games, Offenburg)
LEGO Bricktales (Clockstone, Innsbruck - Austria)

Best Story

Beholder 3 (Paintbucket Games, Berlin)
Cleo - a pirate's tale (Christoph Schultz, Wegberg)
The Fermi Paradox (Anomaly Games, Berlin)

Best Technical Achievement

Chorus (Fishlabs, Hamburg)
LEGO Bricktales (ClockStone, Innsbruck - Austria)
The Wandering Village (Stray Fawn Studio, Zurich - Switzerland)

Innovation Award - presented by KölnBusiness

BEETHOVEN // OPUS 360 (agon e.V., Bonn)
The Wandering Village (Stray Fawn Studio, Zurich - Switzerland)
Townsmen VR (HandyGames, Giebelstadt)

Special Award for Social Commitment - presented by Gaming-Aid e.V.

Antura &the Letters (Cologne Game Lab &Video Game Without Borders, Cologne)
Equal Esports Initiative (esports player foundation, Deutsche Telekom &SK Gaming, Cologne/Bonn)
LetsPlay4Charity e.V. (Berlin)

Ubisoft Newcomer Award

Light of Atlantis (DrownTown, Hamburg)
Lose Ctrl (Play From Your Heart, Berlin)
Paws and Leaves - A Thracian Tale (grownarts, Brake)

As in previous years, the NRW award for young female developers will be presented without nominations.