British Academy Games Award for Debut Game

British Academy Video Games Award for Debut Game
Awarded for	The best first game from any studio or individual
Country	United Kingdom
Presented by	BAFTA
First awarded	2012
Currently held by	Tunic
Website	www.bafta.org/games

The British Academy Video Games Award for Debut Game is an award presented annually by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA). It is given in honor of the best first game from any studio or individual.[1]

Since its inception, the award has been given to eleven games. The category was first presented at the 8th British Academy Video Games Awards ceremony, held in 2012, with the Microsoft Studios-published title Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet as the inagurual recipient.[2] The publishers Annapurna Interactive has received the most nominations in this category with six, followed by Xbox Game Studios with five. To date, no publisher has won in the category more than once.

The current holder of the award is Venba, developed and published by Visai games, which won at the 20th British Academy Games Awards in 2024.

Winners and nominees

In the following table, the years are listed as per BAFTA convention, and generally correspond to the year of game release in the United Kingdom.

Table key

Indicates the winner

Year	Game	Developer(s)	Publisher(s)	Ref.
2011 (8th)	Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet	Shadow Planet Productions	Microsoft Studios	[2]
	Bastion	Supergiant Games	Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
	Eufloria	Omni Systems	Omni Systems
	L.A. Noire	Team Bondi	Rockstar Games
	Monstermind	Bossa Studios	Bossa Studios
	Rift	Trion Worlds	Trion Worlds
2012 (9th)	The Unfinished Swan	Giant Sparrow, Santa Monica Studio	Sony Computer Entertainment	[3]
	Deadlight	Tequila Works	Microsoft Studios
	Dear Esther	The Chinese Room	The Chinese Room
	Forza Horizon	Playground Games, Turn 10 Studios	Microsoft Studios
	Proteus	Ed Key, David Kanaga	Valve
	The Room	Fireproof Games	Fireproof Games
2013 (10th)	Gone Home	Fullbright	Fullbright	[4]
	Badland	Frogmind Oy	Frogmind Oy
	Castles in the Sky	The Tall Trees	The Tall Trees
	Gunpoint	Suspicious Developments	Suspicious Developments
	Remember Me	Dontnod Entertainment	Capcom
	The Stanley Parable	Galactic Cafe	Galactic Cafe
2014 (11th)	Never Alone	Upper One Game, E-Line Media	E-Line Media	[5]
	The Banner Saga	Stoic Studios	Versus Evil
	CounterSpy	Dynamighty	Sony Computer Entertainment
	Hitman Go	Square Enix Montreal	Square Enix
	Shovel Knight	Yacht Club Games	Yacht Club Games
	The Vanishing of Ethan Carter	The Astronauts	The Astronauts
2015 (12th)	Her Story	Sam Barlow		[6]
	Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes	Steel Crate Games	Steel Crate Games
	Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime	Asteroid Base	Asteroid Base
	Mini Metro	Dinosaur Polo Club	Dinosaur Polo Club, Playism
	Ori and the Blind Forest	Moon Studios	Microsoft Studios
	Prune	Joel McDonald	Joel McDonald
2016 (13th)	Firewatch	Campo Santo	Panic	[7]
	Overcooked	Ghost Town Games	Team17
	Oxenfree	Night School Studio	Night School Studio
	That Dragon, Cancer	Numinous Games	Numinous Games
	Virginia	Variable State	505 Games
	The Witness	Thekla, Inc.	Thekla, Inc.
2017 (14th)	Gorogoa	Buried Signal	Annapurna Interactive	[8]
	Cuphead	StudioMDHR Entertainment Inc.	StudioMDHR Entertainment Inc.
	Hollow Knight	Team Cherry	Team Cherry
	Night in the Woods	InfiniteFall	Finji
	The Sexy Brutale	Cavalier Game Studios	Tequila Works
	Slime Rancher	Monomi Park	Monomi Park
2018 (15th)	Yoku's Island Express	Villa Gorilla	Team17	[9]
	Beat Saber	Beat Games	Beat Games
	Cultist Simulator	Weather Factory	Humble Bundle
	Donut County	Ben Esposito	Annapurna Interactive
	Florence	Mountains	Annapurna Interactive
	Gris	Nomada Studio	Devolver Digital
2019 (16th)	Disco Elysium	ZA/UM		[10]
	Ape Out	Gabe Cuzzillo	Devolver Digital
	Death Stranding	Kojima Productions	Sony Interactive Entertainment
	Katana Zero	Askiisoft	Devolver Digital
	Knights and Bikes	Foam Sword	Double Fine Presents
	Manifold Garden	William Chyr Studios	William Chyr Studios
2020 (17th)	Carrion	Phobia Game Studio	Devolver Digital	[11]
	Airborne Kingdom	The Wandering Bard
	Call of the Sea	Out of the Blue	Raw Fury Games
	Factorio	Wube Software
	The Falconeer	Tomas Sala	Wired Productions
	Röki	Polygon Treehouse	United Label
2021 (18th)	Toem	Something We Made		[12]
	The Artful Escape	Beethoven and Dinosaur	Annapurna Interactive
	Eastward	Pixpil	Chucklefish
	The Forgotten City	Modern Storyteller	Dear Villagers
	Genesis Noir	Feral Cat Den	Fellow Traveller
	Maquette	Graceful Decay	Annapurna Interactive
2022 (19th)	Tunic	Finji		[13]
	The Case of the Golden Idol	Color Gray Games	Playstack
	Stray	BlueTwelve	Annapurna Interactive
	Trombone Champ	Holy Wow Studios
	As Dusk Falls	Interior Night	Xbox Game Studios
	Vampire Survivors	Poncle

Multiple nominations

The following publishers received two or more Debut Game nominations:

Nominations	Publisher
6	Annapurna Interactive
5	Microsoft/Xbox Game Studios
4	Devolver Digital
3	Sony Computer Entertainment/Sony Interactive Entertainment
2	Finji

References

1. "British Academy Games Awards Rules and Guidelines 2015" (PDF). British Academy of Film and Television Arts. Archived from the original (PDF) on 1 May 2015. Retrieved 14 March 2015.
2. "Games in 2012". BAFTA Awards. British Academy of Film and Television Arts. Retrieved 14 March 2015.
3. "Games in 2013". BAFTA Awards. British Academy of Film and Television Arts. Archived from the original on 13 April 2016. Retrieved 14 March 2015.
4. "Games in 2014". BAFTA Awards. British Academy of Film and Television Arts. Retrieved 14 March 2015.
5. "Games in 2015". BAFTA Awards. British Academy of Film and Television Arts. Retrieved 14 March 2015.
6. Nunneley, Stephany (7 April 2016). "Fallout 4 wins Best Game at 2016 BAFTA Game Awards". VG247. Archived from the original on 8 April 2016. Retrieved 8 April 2016.
7. "Games in 2017 | BAFTA Awards". awards.bafta.org. Retrieved 2017-03-24.
8. "What Remains of Edith Finch wins Bafta's top games award". BBC. 12 April 2018. Retrieved 12 April 2018.
9. Fox, Chris; Kleinman, Zoe (4 April 2019). "God of War wins best game at Bafta Awards". BBC. Retrieved 4 April 2019.
10. "2020 BAFTA Games Awards: The Nominations". BAFTA. 3 March 2020. Retrieved 4 March 2020.
11. "2021 Games Debut Game". BAFTA Awards. Retrieved 10 April 2021.
12. "2022 BAFTA Games Awards Winners". 3 March 2022.
13. "2023 BAFTA Games Awards: The Winners". BAFTA Games Awards. 30 March 2023. Archived from the original on 31 March 2023. Retrieved 30 March 2023.

External links

• British Academy Video Games Awards official website