Here are the nominees for the 2025 Canadian Game Awards

The full list of nominees for the 2025 Canadian Game Awards has been revealed.

As confirmed last week, the fifth show from producer Carl-Edwin Michel will take place on February 15th at the TIFF Lightbox, and now, we know everything that’s up for awards. Read on for the full list:

Best Art Direction

• Dragon Age: The Veilguard (BioWare Edmonton/EA) — Edmonton, Alberta
• Été (Impossible) — Montreal, Quebec
• Lil’ Guardsman (Hilltop Studios/Versus Evil/tinyBuild) — Toronto, Ontario
• 1000xResist (Sunset Visitor/Fellow Traveller) — Vancouver, B.C.
• Venture to the Vile (Cut to Bits/Aniplex) — Montreal, Quebec

Best Game Design

• Balatro (LocalThunk/Playstack) — anonymous lone developer somewhere in Canada
• Beastieball (Wishes Ultd/Klei Publishing) — Vancouver, B.C.
• Dragon Age: The Veilguard (BioWare Edmonton/EA)
• Été (Impossible)
• The Outlast Trials (Red Barrels — Montreal, Quebec)

Best Score

• Dragon Age: The Veilguard (Hans Zimmer, Lorne Balfe)
• Été (Impossible)
• Lil’ Guardsman (Hilltop Studios)
• 1000xResist (Sunset Visitor)
• Spirit City: Lofi Sessions (Mooncube Games) — Montreal, Quebec

Best Narrative

• Dragon Age: The Veilguard (BioWare Edmonton)
• Lil’ Guardsman (Hilltop Studios)
• 1000xResist (Sunset Visitor)
• Times & Galaxy (Copychaser Games/Fellow Traveller) — Edmonton, Alberta

Best Performance

• Nhi Do as Watcher, Blue (1000xResist) — Vancouver, B.C.
• Humberly González as Kay Vess (Star Wars: Outlaws) — Toronto, Ontario
• Gordon Little as the main character (Moving Houses) — St. John’s, Newfoundland
• Matthew Mercer as Manfred (Dragon Age: The Veilguard) — Los Angeles, California

Best Audio Design

• Balatro (LocalThunk/Playstack)
• Dragon Age: The Veilguard (BioWare Edmonton/EA)
• Été (Impossible)
• Lil’ Guardsman (Hilltop Studios/Versus Evil/tinyBuild)
• 1000xResist (Sunset Visitor/Fellow Traveller)

Best Technology/Innovation

• Balatro (LocalThunk/Playstack)
• Dragon Age: The Veilguard (BioWare Edmonton/EA)
• Homeworld 3 (Blackbird Interactive/Gearbox Publishing) — Vancouver, B.C.
• Moving Houses (Gordon Little) St. John’s, Newfoundland
• Times & Galaxy (Copychaser Games/Fellow Traveller) — Edmonton, Alberta

Best Debut Indie Game

• Balatro (Localthunk/Playstack)
• Été (Impossible)
• 1000xResist (Sunset Visitor/Fellow Traveller)
• Nightinggale (Inflexion Games) — Edmonton, Alberta
• Spiral (Folklore Games/SpaceJazz) — Montreal, Quebec

Best Debut Studio

• Folklore Games (Spiral)
• Impossible (Été)
• Inflexion Games (Nightingale)
• LocalThunk (Balatro)
• Sunset Visitor (1000xResist)

Best Studio

• BioWare (Dragon Age: The Veilguard)
• Folklore Games (Spiral)
• Lucid Dreams Studio (Biomorph) — Montreal, Quebec
• Red Barrels (The Outlast Trials)

Esports Player

• Arteezy — Vancouver, B.C.
• Sarah_frags — Ontario
• Scarlett — from Kingston, Ontario
• Twistzz — from Kelowna, B.C. (now in Malta)
• TenZ — from Nanaimo, B.C. (now in Los Angeles)

Esports Organization

• Lazarus Esports (Kitchener, Ontario)
• Luminosity Gaming (Toronto, Ontario)
• Shopify Rebellion (Toronto, Ontario)
• Toronto Defiant (Toronto, Ontario)
• Toronto Ultra (Toronto, Ontario)

Esports Event

• Bell Esports Challenge
• Blast R6 Major Montreal 2024
• Call of Duty League: Stage 3 Major
• Electric Clash Tekken World Tour Challenger Event
• Toronto Ultra Major III Tournament 2024

Content Creator

• Aiekillu — Montreal, Quebec
• AshleyRoboto — southern Ontario
• Ghost Cece — Toronto, Ontario
• NickEh30 — Halifax, Nova Scotia
• Pokimane — raised in St. Catharines, Ontario (now in Los Angeles)

Studio of the Year

• Behaviour Interactive (Dead by Daylight) — Montreal, B.C.
• BioWare (Dragon Age: The Veilguard)
• Hilltop Studio (Lil’ Guardsman)
• Inflexion (Nightingale)
• LocalThunk (Balatro)

Game of the Year

• Balatro (LocalThunk/Playstack)
• Biomorph (Lucid Dreams Studio)
• Dragon Age: The Veilguard (BioWare Edmonton/EA)
• Été (Impossible)
• Lil’ Guardsman (Hilltop Studios/Versus Evil/tinyBuild)
• 1000xResist (Sunset Visitor/Fellow Traveller)

More information on the Canadian Game Awards, including details on purchasing public tickets, will be revealed at a later date.

Disclaimer: MobileSyrup‘s Brad Shankar is on the judging committee for the Canadian Game Awards but is otherwise uninvolved with the production.

Image credit: Playstack/Fellow Traveller/Versus Evil/tinyBuild