Astro Bot wins top prize

Astro Bot has swept this 12 months’s Bafta Video games Awards, profitable 5 awards in whole – together with the highest prize of greatest sport.

The 3D platformer, starring the PlayStation mascot character, additionally gained greatest animation, audio achievement, household sport and sport design.

Its director Nicolas Doucet devoted the very best sport gong to builders who had “impressed others to hitch the trade”.

In the meantime, Nonetheless Wakes the Deep – a horror sport set on a Scottish oil rig within the Nineteen Seventies – took residence three of the night time’s trophies.

It was a powerful night total for Sony as its different massive 2024 hit, Helldivers 2, picked up two awards for greatest multiplayer and music.

The squad-based shooter was a shock hit when it was launched, and its makers needed to race to spice up server capability to fulfill early demand.

Accepting the multiplayer award, Johan Pilestedt, chief inventive officer at developer Arrowhead, mentioned gamers had reached out to him to say Helldivers 2 had reconnected them with gamer mates from 10 to fifteen years in the past.

“That is such an honour,” he instructed the viewers at Queen Elizabeth Corridor on London’s South Financial institution.

Thank Goodness You are Right here! – a comedy cartoon sport made by two mates from Yorkshire – gained the award for greatest British sport.

It’s set within the fictional northern city of Barnsworth, closely impressed by builders Will Todd and James Carbutt’s residence city of Barnsley in South Yorkshire.

The quirky title options voice performances from the pair, in addition to actor Matt Berry.

Accepting the prize, the 2 mates mentioned: “We hope this evokes you to inform your individual story in your individual voice with out compromise.”

The Bafta Video games Awards, which launched 21 years in the past, have earned a status as inflicting main upsets.

In 2023, Vampire Survivors, a sport made by a tiny British crew, beat Sony’s big-budget blockbuster God of Warfare: Ragnarok to bag the very best sport prize.

Many had tipped Balatro – the poker-inspired card sport made by an nameless, lone developer often known as LocalThunk – to pip Astro Bot to the award this 12 months.

It did, nevertheless, win greatest debut.

Actor Ben Starr, accepting the award on the developer’s behalf, approached the stage in make-up and a jester’s hat – an outfit impressed by the sport’s character Jimbo.

Within the speech, he joked that developer LocalThunk was “actually wealthy now” and urged the viewers to “play extra unbiased video games… they’re the lifeblood of this trade”.

Legendary composer Yoko Shimomura accepted the Bafta fellowship in recognition of her contribution to gaming.

Maybe greatest recognized for her work on the Kingdom Hearts sequence, from Japanese writer Sq. Enix, she recalled how she had “felt like giving up” on her work many instances.

“The very fact I’m standing right here in any respect isn’t any because of my very own efforts, however to the individuals who have supported me,” she mentioned in her acceptance speech.

“I really feel if the music I’ve made has resonated with one particular person and touched their hearts in a method, it was value it.”

Nonetheless Wakes the Deep swept the lead and supporting efficiency classes, and was additionally named greatest new mental property.

Actor Abubakar Salim, recognized for performances in Murderer’s Creed and HBO’s Home of the Dragon, gave an emotional speech as he collected the video games past leisure award.

A eager gamer, he arrange his personal improvement firm and its debut launch, Tales of Kenzera: Zau, was impressed by the grief he felt on the lack of his father.

In the meantime, Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II, which went into the ceremony with 11 nominations, went residence with only one award: technical achievement.

Animation: Astro Bot

Inventive achievement: Neva

Audio achievement: Astro Bot

Bafta fellowship: Yoko Shimomura (composer)

Finest sport: Astro Bot

British Recreation: Thank Goodness You are Right here!

Debut sport: Balatro

Evolving sport: Vampire Survivors

Household sport: Astro Bot

Recreation past leisure: Tales of Kenzera: ZAU

Recreation design: Astro Bot

Multiplayer: Helldivers 2

Music: Helldivers 2

Narrative: Metaphor: ReFantazio

New mental property: Nonetheless Wakes the Deep

Main efficiency: Alec Newman as Caz in Nonetheless Wakes the Deep

Finest supporting actor: Karen Dunbar as Finlay in Nonetheless Wakes the Deep

Technical achievement: Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II