Keen Games Wins Big at German Developer Award 2024

Around 500 guests from the industry, as well as from politics and society, attended the awards gala, which was held for the first time in the Gürzenich in Cologne. The show was hosted by Daniel Budiman and Lynne Glaner. The big winner of the evening was Keen Games with the survival action role-playing game Enshrouded. The game received a total of three awards, including "Best German Game", "Best Game Design" and "Best Technical Achievement". But the studio behind Enshrouded was also honoured as "Studio of the Year".

Around 500 guests from the industry, as well as from politics and society, attended the awards gala, which was held for the first time in the Gürzenich in Cologne. The show was hosted by Daniel Budiman and Lynne Glaner. The big winner of the evening was Keen Games with the survival action role-playing game Enshrouded. The game received a total of three awards, including "Best German Game", "Best Game Design" and "Best Technical Achievement". But the studio behind Enshrouded was also honoured as "Studio of the Year".

The slice-of-life simulation game Closer the Distance by Osmotic Studios from Hamburg also received a lot of encouragement. The title won in the categories "Best Audio Design" and "Best Story" as well as the "Innovation Award". Oddada, developed by Sven Ahlgrimm and Mathilde Hoffmann, which received four nominations, left empty-handed. The Special Award for Social Commitment went to Sebastian Sterzik. The content creator from Instinct3 organises 24-hour LAN parties in which he and his friends and fellow content creators play games to raise funds for charitable causes. Each year, the "Sterzik LAN" supports a different charity.

"When creativity and technical prowess go hand in hand, great games are created. The award-winning games of the German Developer Award 2024 impressively demonstrate this. I would like to congratulate all of this year's winners," said Nathanael Liminski, Media Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia and Head of the State Chancellery. He continues: "Games are technology drivers and an important economic factor. The state government has recognised this potential and has been a reliable partner to the industry for years. As the number one games state, we will continue to support the games industry with more than five million euros per year, and in 2025 we will provide an additional one million euros for the development of video games that help prevent disinformation and Islamist propaganda."

The winners were selected by a jury of 160 people in a two-stage process. Games were eligible for the award if they were primarily developed in Germany, Austria or Switzerland. In the list below, the winners are at the top of each category and are highlighted in bold. The other nominees are listed below in italics.

Best German Game

• Enshrouded (Keen Games, Frankfurt am Main - Hesse)
• Closer the Distance (Osmotic Studios, Hamburg)
• Harold Halibut (Slow Bros., Cologne - North Rhine-Westphalia)

Studio of the Year

• Keen Games (Frankfurt am Main - Hesse)
• CipSoft (Regensburg - Bavaria)
• Rockfish Games (Hamburg)

Best Indie Game

• Dungeons of Hinterberg (Microbird, Vienna - Austria)
• Oddada (Sven Ahlgrimm and Mathilde Hoffmann, Berlin and Hamburg)
• shapez 2 (tobspr Games, Aachen - North Rhine-Westphalia)

Best Casual Game

• CubeQuest - A QB Game (Stephan Göbel, Kassel - Hesse)
• Footgun: Underground (Turtle Knight Games, Weiterstadt - Hesse)
• Oddada (Sven Ahlgrimm and Mathilde Hoffmann, Berlin and Hamburg)

Best Game Beyond Entertainment

• Vampire Therapist (Little Bat Games, Berlin)
• Closer the Distance (Osmotic Studios, Hamburg)
• Emyo (refutura, Cologne - North Rhine-Westphalia)

Best Game Design

• Enshrouded (Keen Games, Frankfurt am Main - Hesse)
• Dungeons 4 (Realmforge Studios, Munich - Bavaria)
• Songs of Silence (Chimera Entertainment, Munich - Bavaria)

Best Audio Design

• Closer the Distance (Osmotic Studios, Hamburg)
• Enshrouded (Keen Games, Frankfurt am Main - Hesse)
• Reveil (Pixelsplit, Eschborn - Hesse)

Best Graphics

• Harold Halibut (Slow Bros., Cologne - North Rhine-Westphalia)
• Oddada (Sven Ahlgrimm and Mathilde Hoffmann, Berlin and Hamburg)
• Songs of Silence (Chimera Entertainment, Munich - Bavaria)

Best Story

• Closer the Distance (Osmotic Studios, Hamburg)
• Harold Halibut (Slow Bros., Cologne - North Rhine-Westphalia)
• Suzerain: The Kingdom of Rizia (Torpor Games, Berlin)

Best Technical Achievement

• Enshrouded (Keen Games, Frankfurt am Main - Hesse)
• Harold Halibut (Slow Bros., Cologne - North Rhine-Westphalia)
• shapez 2 (tobspr Games, Aachen - North Rhine-Westphalia)

Innovation Award

• Closer the Distance (Osmotic Studios, Hamburg)
• Enshrouded (Keen Games, Frankfurt am Main - Hesse)
• Oddada (Sven Ahlgrimm and Mathilde Hoffmann, Berlin and Hamburg)

Special Award for Social Commitment

• Sebastian Sterzik - Sterzik LAN (Berlin)
• Aerosoft (Büren - North Rhine-Westphalia)
• Friendly Fire (Berlin)

Ubisoft Newcomer Award

• Map Map - A Game About Maps (Pipapo Games, Hamburg)
• Dawn of Defense (6side Studio, Zülpich - North Rhine-Westphalia)
• Dung Slinger (Acorn Interactive, Berlin)

NRW Sponsorship Award for Young Developers

• Kathrin Radtke

The politically independent awards (as opposed to the German Computer Game Award, known as the DPC for short) have been presented since 2004 for the development of outstanding video and computer games from German-speaking countries, making it the oldest award for the best games from Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Since 2022, the award has been organised by games.nrw e.V., the association representing the interests of the games industry in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW). The German Developer Award is sponsored by NRW, the Film- und Medienstiftung NRW, KölnBusiness and game - the German Games Industry Association.