The gamescom dev awards 2026 celebrated outstanding creativity, innovation, and industry contributions during a live ceremony on Monday afternoon at gamescom dev in Cologne. Hosted by Markus Wilding, the event honored six games, teams, and individuals across competitive and speakers’ choice categories.
The ceremony presented four awards to projects from this year’s gamescom dev indie expo, recognizing visual excellence, innovation, future potential, and sound design. Two additional Speakers’ Choice awards were decided in advance by the gamescom dev speaker community, with speakers from both the 2025 and 2026 editions invited to vote for exceptional achievements in game design and long-term contributions to the industry.
2026 Winners
Competitive Awards
- Visual Excellence Award: MUTTER – DeadlyCrow Games
- Set in wartime England, MUTTER follows a nine-year-old boy as his mother slowly transforms into a monster. The game’s distinctive stop-motion animation creates an eerie visual identity and unsettling characters, making its artistic presentation central to the experience.
- Most Innovative Game: PRAVDA(concept25) – Floating Stone Studio
- This narrative-driven stealth-puzzle game explores truth in an age of control. Set in a surreal world where truth is constructed rather than discovered, the project introduces an unusual narrative and mechanical approach that sets it apart within the genre.
The category is supported by Epic Games Store with a €3,000 prize for the winning team, presented on stage by Kyle Billings, Director of Portfolio and Strategy at Epic.
- This narrative-driven stealth-puzzle game explores truth in an age of control. Set in a surreal world where truth is constructed rather than discovered, the project introduces an unusual narrative and mechanical approach that sets it apart within the genre.
- Most Promising Game: Cards & Cannons – Flamehead Games
- Combining roguelite tower defense, deckbuilding, and strategy, Cards & Cannons tasks players with constructing worlds from scratch, defending them across individual runs, and unlocking upgrades between attempts while progressing through different environments and challenging bosses.
- Best Sound Design: INVASIA – Rocat Games
- An atmospheric sci-fi survival horror game set aboard an abandoned space station affected by a mysterious parasitic outbreak, INVASIA uses sound design to create an oppressive atmosphere, reinforcing tension, environment, and player immersion.
Speakers’ Choice Awards
- Game Design Excellence Award: Blue Prince – Dogubomb / Raw Fury
- Blue Prince combines mystery, strategy, and puzzle design within the constantly shifting halls of Mt. Holly. Players determine which rooms appear behind closed doors, with each choice shaping their route before the layout resets. The design rewards observation, planning, and experimentation while continually introducing new layers to the game’s central mystery.
- Ambassador Award: Amir Satvat – Business Development Director at Tencent Games and founder of ASGC
- Satvat was selected by the gamescom dev speaker community in recognition of his continued commitment to supporting people across the games industry. Through ASGC, he has built an extensive free support network providing career resources, community assistance, and practical help for games professionals during a period of significant change across the industry.
A Special Tribute to Stephan Reichart
The ceremony concluded with a personal and emotional moment as Stephan Reichart, founder of the event and former Managing Director of game events, was invited on stage and honored for his significant contributions.
Looking back on many years of developing gamescom dev after creating it in 2017 under the name devcom, game chairman Lars Janssen and game events Managing Director Frederik Hammes thanked Reichart for his outstanding commitment, creativity, and empathetic stewardship of gamescom dev and its community. A selection of moments from across the years reflected on the development of the event and the people who helped shape it along the way.
“Stephan’s legacy simply cannot be overstated,” said Frederik Hammes, his successor as Managing Director. “His incomparable enthusiasm, his way of connecting instantly with so many people has shaped the identity of this event as something special. The fact that this year it stands alongside with the worldwide phenomenon that is gamescom as gamescom dev is testament to his achievement.”
