TheCanadian Game Awardshas officially crowned its Game of the Year 2025 during its February 15 livestream and in-person event. The annual awards ceremony spotlights and celebrates the game developers, content creators, professional players and more, who are all contributing to the growing Canadian games industry.
Taking place both onTwitchand live at the TIFF Lightbox, this year’sCanadian Game AwardscrownedBalatroas its Game of the Year 2025. While the nominees for the GOTY category presented some tough competition,Balatrois a well-deserving winner. One of 2024’s best games - and with aMetacriticscore of 90 -the Canadian game’s impact on the industry and its players can’t be ignored. Developer LocalThunk ended upscooping a total of five awardsduring CGA, including Studio of the Year and Best Debut Studio.
Who Were The Game Of The Year Nominees?
The Nominees, Explained
While the Canadian Game Awards recognized plenty of studios, developers, innovators, and experts in games - along with some of the best AAA and indie releases of the last year - the Game of the Year award showdown was of particular note.Six of the boldest, brightest, and most exciting releases of 2024 went head-to-head for the accolodate, ultimately going toBalatro.
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Firstly, we had the visually stunning metroidvaniaBIOMORPH, a challenging release from Lucid Dream Studio that has a free demo on Steam. Next wasLil Guardsmanfrom Hilltop Studios, a deduction adventure with an art style for fans of Saturday morning cartoons. Meanwhile, the Montreal-setÉtéisa must-play thanks to its stunning beautiful painting-brought-to-life visuals, while1000xRESISTis a sci-fi adventure with an impressiveMetacriticscore of 84. Lastly,Dragon Age: The Veilguardwas one of the standout RPGs of 2024, whichScreenRantawarded a 9/10 to.
Balatro Is A Well-Deserving Winner
Setting A High Bar For The Next Canadian Game Awards
WinnerBalatrotook the gaming world by storm when it released last year, and is well worth playing thanks to its unique gameplay. Described as a “poker roguelike” that really develops on classic deckbuilding mechanics, it’s hard not to see just what developer LocalThunk achieved with this wonderfully addictive indie gem.
What’s perhaps even more impressive than its gameplay is the fact that LocalThunk - from Saskatchewan, Canada - is the solo developer behindBalatro, making this GOTY win an even more impressive achievement for the relatively new creator. While we don’t know what’s coming next from LocalThunk, we hope we’ll see him again at the nextCanadian Game Awards.
