Play’n GO, Playtech, Elk Studios, Pragmatic Play and streamer CasinoDaddy were some of the big names celebrating victories at the 2024 edition of the Game Developer Awards ceremony.

Concluding the final day of the highly successful CasinoBeats Summit, the illustrious awards ceremony, which took place at the Hilton Malta, was a night dedicated to honouring the remarkable achievements of the iGaming industry.

The evening witnessed the return of veteran host Trudy Kerr, alongside award-winning game developer John Romero, as they handed out 28 awards to accomplished operators, game studios and individuals. Award categories included Game Performance, Streamers, Game Creation, Game People, SlotCatalog, Casino Platform, and Best Game Release.

Rasmus Sojmark, Founder and CEO of SBC, said: “The Game Developer Awards offers a pivotal opportunity to honour the remarkable accomplishments of the industry, celebrating both regional and global brands as well as individual talent. This year’s shortlist was by far the most competitive we have seen, and I would like to congratulate all our esteemed winners.”

It was a good night for Play’n GO, who secured the prestigious SlotCatalog’s Game Studio of the Year (Large) award for the second consecutive year, whilst also picking up the Game Music / Soundtrack accolade for their title Hugo Legacy.

The game creation categories saw Playtech once again take home the Game Licensed Content award for their work on Breaking Bad: Cash Collect & Link. Hacksaw Gaming was awarded Game Feature of the Year for their title Chaos Crew 2, Relax Gaming was honoured with the Game Design & Art Direction award for Money Train 4, and GAMOMAT was named winner of the Game Retro-Style award for Fancy Fruits Deluxe. 

Pragmatic Play notably took home two awards on the night, winning both the Game Mechanic of the Year award for their MultiHold mechanic and Slot Legacy Title for Gates of Olympus.

The SlotCatalog categories saw GAMOMAT return to the stage to pick up their second award of the night for Best Game Development Company Central Europe, while Playson was awarded Best Game Studio In Development Countries. Reel Kingdom secured the SlotCatalog’s Game Studio of the Year (Medium) award, Fortune Factory Studios was named SlotCatalog’s Game Studio of the Year (Small) and IGT Play Digital claimed SlotCatalog’s Best Game Development Company North America. 

The coveted SlotCatalog’s Rookie of the Year accolade was presented to industry newcomers Area Vegas.

In honour of the individual achievements in the industry, the Game People categories saw Andrei Filipovich of Aviatrix awarded Game Designer of the Year, Julia Aliakseyeva from BGaming named Product Manager of the Year and PearFiction Studios’ Jean-Pierre Larouche presented with the Game Composer of the Year award.

EveryMatrix won the Aggregator of the Year award, The Mill Adventure was awarded Platform Innovation of the Year, while the Best Game Release award went to Lambda Gaming for 8Bit Football Twinko.

This year’s edition saw the introduction of two new awards, the FTN Game of the Year award which was sponsored by BetConstruct and presented to Rubyplay for Mad Hit Olympic First, and the CasinoBeats Annual Community Recognition Award which was awarded to SoftConstruct for its work on BFTH Arena.

It was a big night for CasinoDaddy who took home the esteemed Streamer of the Year award, while The Slot Beasts and Haddzy were recipients of two new Streamer awards, Responsible Streamer of the Year and Next-Gen Streamer of the Year, respectively.

In the Game Performance categories, PowderKeg Studios claimed the Slot Debut award for their title Munition Mines, Stormcraft Studios won Slot to Watch for their work on Immortal Romance 2, while Light & Wonder and Netflix took home Slot Collaboration of the Year for Squid Game. The illustrious Slot of the Year award went to Elk Studios for Pirots 2.

“Last night’s ceremony was a tremendous success and proved to be a truly memorable night. I would like to thank our official partner Gaming Malta, alongside all our supporting sponsors for their help in honouring the incredible achievements of the industry” Sojmark added.

The awards ceremony concluded the final day of the CasinoBeats Summit, which saw 4,500 industry professionals convene at the InterContinental Hotel in Malta, the hub of iGaming.