Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 won Best Game at the Develop:Star Awards 2026, taking three prizes at a ceremony held on the evening of July 15. Sandfall Interactive's role-playing game was also named Best Narrative and Best Audio, GamesIndustry.biz reported the following day.
The three categories cover different parts of the same production, and the awards list credits the game to Sandfall Interactive and publisher Kepler Interactive. GamesIndustry.biz described the result as a continuation of the run of recognition the game has collected since release.
Frontier Developments was named Best Studio on the back of launching Jurassic World Evolution 3. Landfall Games and Aggro Crab shared the Best Small Studio award and also took Best Original IP for Peak. Sony Interactive Entertainment received the Publishing Star award, which was sponsored by IO Interactive.
Sucker Punch Productions' Ghost of Yotei won Best Visual Art, Hello Games' No Man's Sky took the inaugural Best Ongoing Game award, and FuturLab's PowerWash Simulator was named Best Mobile Game. This year's Develop:Star Award, the ceremony's individual honour for a studio, went to Monument Valley 3 developer Ustwo Games.
The rest of the field was spread thinly by comparison: on the published winners list, no other game took more than a single prize.
The rest of the winners
- Best Game Design: Blue Prince (Dogubomb, Raw Fury)
- Best Technical Innovation: Crimson Desert (Pearl Abyss)
- Best In-Game Accessibility: Doom: The Dark Ages (id Software, Bethesda Softworks)
- Best Marketing Campaign: Dispatch (AdHoc Studio, Guillotine)
- Best EDI Initiative: Limit Break Mentorship
- Tomorrow's Star: Nicole Gregory (Jagex)
- Supporting Star: Dead Nice Studio
- Talent & Recruitment Star: IO Interactive Talent & Acquisition Team
It was a wonderful evening spent celebrating the very best of the amazing work released over the past year, and the amazing people behind that work.
Lane thanked the ceremony's sponsors and everyone who voted, and said the awards would return on Wednesday, July 14, 2027, during Develop:Brighton 2027.
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