We are thrilled to announce the games nominated for this year's Digital Dragons Awards. Frostpunk 2 (11 bit studios), Nobody Wants to Die (Critical Hit Games) and The Thaumaturge (Fool's Theory) each received five nominations. The best Polish (and not only) games of 2024 will be announced on May 19 during a gala at the ICE Krakow Congress Centre, which will take place during the Digital Dragons Conference 2025.
The iconic dragon egg-shaped statuettes will be awarded in seven categories this year: Best Polish Game, Best Polish Game Design, Best Polish Visual Game Art, Best Polish Game Audio, Best Polish Narrative, Best Polish Mobile Game and Best Foreign Game.
The titles were nominated by the Polish gamedev community in a questionnaire sent out by the organiser, the Krakow Technology Park.
An even match
This year, as many as three titles have been nominated in all categories for Polish PC and console games: Best Polish Game, Best Polish Game Design, Best Polish Visual Game Art, Best Polish Game Audio and Best Polish Narrative.
For 11 bit studios, competing for the dragon eggs is nothing new. It is one of the most-awarded companies in the competition's history. In 2019, the game of the year was Frostpunk, and now its sequel has a chance to repeat that success. Frostpunk 2 again focuses on developing and expanding a settlement in a world ravaged by a post-apocalyptic blizzard.
Critical Hit Games, on the other hand, is a studio that will be competing at Digital Dragons Awards for the first time, with Nobody Wants to Die as their debut title. It an interactive noir story that takes the player to a dystopian New York in the year 2329, where they search for a serial killer as a detective.
Fool's Theory, meanwhile, are the winners of one dragon's egg from the 2018 edition, when they won the Best Game Art for their debut Seven: The Days Long Gone. Their latest game, The Thaumaturge, an RPG set in the Tsarist Warsaw of 1905, will attempt to follow up on that success.
Forgive Me Father 2, a retroshooter inspired by Lovecraftian horror and featuring stylised graphics, boasts three nominations. The game's authors, Byte Barrel studio, are graduates of Digital Dragons Incubator and Accelerator.
The example of Forgive Me Father 2 proves that independent studios can also compete with the biggest companies. After all, game development is not just about the budget, but also about creativity and hard work. This year, we would like to honour indie games in particular by awarding them for the first time at DD Awards ceremony, which will be broadcast by the thematic video game media - GRYOnline.pl and tvgry.pl.
Anna Krampus-Sepielak, Head of Digital Dragons
There will also be an award for the Best Foreign Game, the competitors for which are Astro Bot (Team ASOBI), Balatro (LocalThunk), Black Myth: Wukong (Game Science), Indiana Jones and the Great Circle (MachineGames) and Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 (Saber Interactive). Last year, the award for Baldur's Gate 3 was collected in person by Swen Vincke, CEO of Larian Studios.
Ticket sales for Digital Dragons Conference 2025 are ongoing
Digital Dragons Conference 2025 is the next edition of one of the largest B2B events in the gamedev industry in Europe. Tickets can be purchased on the organiser's website. This year's speakers include Adam Skorupa (Music Composer & Sound Designer, author of soundtracks for games such as The Witcher 1/2, Bulletstorm or Diablo Immortal), Jennifer Wacrenier (Senior Operations & Communications Manager, PEGI) and Tori Schafer (Senior Narrative Designer, Activision).
LIST OF NOMINATED GAMES
Best Polish Game
- Age of History 3 - Łukasz Jakowski
- Forgive Me Father 2 - Byte Barrel
- Frostpunk 2 - 11 bit studios
- Nobody Wants to Die - Critical Hit Games
- The Thaumaturge - Fool's Theory
Best Polish Game Design
- Age of History 3 - Łukasz Jakowski
- Frostpunk 2 - 11 bit studios
- Nobody Wants to Die - Critical Hit Games
- Sumerian Six - Artificer
- The Thaumaturge - Fool's Theory
Best Polish Visual Game Art
- 63 Days - Destructive Creations
- Forgive Me Father 2 - Byte Barrel
- Frostpunk 2 - 11 bit studios
- Nobody Wants to Die - Critical Hit Games
- The Thaumaturge - Fool’s Theory
Best Polish Game Audio
- 63 Days - Destructive Creations
- Forgive Me Father 2 - Byte Barrel
- Frostpunk 2 - 11 bit studios
- Nobody Wants to Die - Critical Hit Games
- The Thaumaturge - Fool's Theory
Best Polish Narrative
- Frostpunk 2 - 11 bit studios
- Nobody Wants to Die - Critical Hit Games
- The Thaumaturge - Fool's Theory
- Vampire: The Masquerade - Reckoning of New York - Draw Distance
- Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Purgatory - Different Tales
Best Polish Mobile Game
- Clash of Destiny: Good vs Evil - BoomBit
- Endless Drive: RPG - Orbital Knight
- Jigsaw Puzzles 3D - Fuero Games
- Luxury Rush - Fun Monkey
- Mafia Rivals: Grand Wars - Gamesture
- Tomorrow: Online Survival - Rage Quit Games
- Wizard Whiskers - Orbital Knight
- Zozole Run - Vivid Games
Best Foreign Game
- Astro Bot - Team ASOBI
- Balatro - LocalThunk
- Black Myth: Wukong - Game Science
- Indiana Jones and the Great Circle - MachineGames
- Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 - Saber Interactive
About Digital Dragons Awards
Digital Dragons Awards are the oldest and most prestigious awards in the Polish game industry. This year's winners will be announced on 19 May 2025, during a gala ceremony that will be broadcast on video game media owned by Webedia Polska SA - GRYOnline.pl and tvgry.pl. The best titles from among the games nominated by Polish gamedev will be chosen by a jury composed of representatives of the industry, media and academia. The event will take place as part of Digital Dragons Conference 2025.
These activities are part of the comprehensive Digital Dragons ecosystem implemented by KTP, which, in addition to the conference, also includes programmes to support independent studios (DD Accelerator) and lectures to support budding developers (DD Academy).
