Digital Dragons Awards: The Nominated Games Revealed

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 gamedev will be presented. Nominations for the best games of 2023 were selected through votes given by companies in the Polish games industry.

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 gamedev. 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 Stanisław 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 Entertaiment), 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).

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 recognised, 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 Digital Dragons Awards gala held on 20 May 2024 during 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 Nieśpielak - director, documentary filmmaker, photographer and cinema connoisseur. For the first time in the history of Digital Dragons Awards, the gala will be broadcast live, and it will happen on Remigiusz Maciaszek's channels (YouTube, Twitch).

Digital Dragons Awards are the oldest and most prestigious awards in the Polish games industry. Their winners are selected through the votes given by the experts appointed to the jury and the entire gamedev community, which has created the list of nominated productions through an open survey. The awards will be presented during a gala on the second second day of the leading B2B conference for the games industry, Digital Dragons, which will take place on 19-21 May 2024 at the ICE Congress Centre in Krakow and the Park Inn by Radisson hotel. Tickets for the conference can be purchased on the organiser's website.

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).

Województwo Małopolskie is the Main Partner of the event: the regional authorities implementing a range of projects that serve innovation and economic development of Małopolska, and its attractiveness for investors. Małopolska is a perfect location for running business, particularly based on new technologies. Evidence of that is the number of new ventures growing every year, including dynamically developing tech start-ups. Thanks to the massive support given to entrepreneurship and the optimal utilization of EU funds and other public funds, Województwo Małopolskie positively stands out among other voivodships.

The Main Sponsor of Digital Dragons Conference 2024 is Activision.

Activision is a leading worldwide developer, publisher and distributor of interactive entertainment and products whose mission is to create the most iconic brands in gaming and e​ntertainment and deliver unrivaled gaming experiences for the world to enjoy, together.