The D.I.C.E. Award for Outstanding Achievement in Game Design is an award presented annually by the

Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS) is a non-profit organization of video game industry professionals. It organizes the annual Design Innovate Communicate Entertain summit, better known as D.I.C.E., which includes the presentation ...

during the

D.I.C.E. Awards The D.I.C.E. Awards (formerly the Interactive Achievement Awards) is an award show in the video game industry started in 1998 and commonly referred to in the industry as the "video games Academy Awards, Oscar". The awards are arranged by the Ac ...

. This award is "presented to the title that most effectively combines interactive and non-interactive elements to create a cohesive gameplay experience. Outstanding design is exemplified by balanced system design, cohesive mechanics that relate to overall aesthetic direction, level layout, challenge flow, progression elements, interface design, and social game mechanics. This award recognizes the Lead Designer or Design Director in architecting all elements into a unified design". Creative/technical Academy members with expertise as a game designer or producer are qualified to vote for this award. The award's most recent winner is ''

Elden Ring is a 2022 action role-playing game developed by FromSoftware and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment. Directed by Hidetaka Miyazaki with worldbuilding provided by fantasy writer George R. R. Martin, it was released for PlayStation 4, ...

'', developed by

FromSoftware FromSoftware, Inc. is a Japanese video game development and publishing company based in Tokyo. Founded by Naotoshi Zin in November 1986, the company developed business software before releasing their first video game, ''King's Field (video game) ...

and published by

Bandai Namco Entertainment is a Japanese multinational video game video game publisher, publisher headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo. Its international branches, Bandai Namco Entertainment America and Bandai Namco Entertainment Europe, are respectively headquartered in ...

History

It was originally presented as Outstanding Achievement in Interactive Design; it was later renamed Outstanding Achievement in Game Design at the 3rd Annual Interactive Achievement Awards. A separate award category was offered at the 2010 awards ceremony for Outstanding Achievement in Portable Game Design, presented to the title that makes "the most compelling contribution to the unique opportunities and challenges of portable, mobile and networked game play". This award would not be presented at the ceremonies between 2011 and 2014; however, the category would be offered again in 2015, and has been offered every year since. *Outstanding Achievement in Interactive Design (

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...

) *Outstanding Achievement in Game Design (

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

-present) *Outstanding Achievement in Portable Game Design (

)

Game Design and Game of the Year

More than half of the finalists for the "Game Design" category were also finalists for "Game of the Year". However, only eight winners for "Game Design" ended up winning "Game of the Year": '' The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time'', ''

The Sims ''The Sims'' is a series of life simulation video games developed by Maxis and published by Electronic Arts. The franchise has sold nearly 200 million copies worldwide, and it is one of the best-selling video game series of all time. The games ...

'', ''

Overwatch ''Overwatch'' is a multimedia franchise centered on a series of online multiplayer first-person shooter (FPS) video games developed by Blizzard Entertainment: ''Overwatch'' released in 2016, and ''Overwatch 2'' released in 2022. Both games fea ...

'', '' The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild'', ''

God of War (2018) ''God of War'' is an action-adventure game developed by Santa Monica Studio and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. It was released for the PlayStation 4 in April 2018, with a Windows port in January 2022. The game is the eighth ins ...

'', ''

Hades Hades (; grc-gre, ᾍδης, Háidēs; ), in the ancient Greek religion and myth, is the god of the dead and the king of the underworld, with which his name became synonymous. Hades was the eldest son of Cronus and Rhea, although this also ...

'', '' It Takes Two'', and ''

''. ''

Grand Theft Auto III ''Grand Theft Auto III'' is a 2001 action-adventure game developed by DMA Design and published by Rockstar Games. It is the third main entry in the ''Grand Theft Auto'' series, following 1999's ''Grand Theft Auto 2'', and the fifth instalment o ...

'', ''

World of Goo ''World of Goo'' is a puzzle video game developed and published by independent game developer 2D Boy. The game was released on Microsoft Windows and Wii platforms on October 13, 2008, with releases on Nintendo Switch, Mac OS X, Linux, and var ...

'', and '' Baba Is You'' were the only winners for "Game Design" that were not finalists for "Game of the Year". The "Game of the Year" winners that were not finalists for "Game Design" (excluding winners during years when the "Game Design" category was not offered) were ''

Diablo II ''Diablo II'' is an Action role-playing game, action role-playing hack and slash, hack-and-slash video game developed by Blizzard North and published by Blizzard Entertainment in 2000 for Microsoft Windows, Classic Mac OS, and macOS. The game, ...

'', ''

Call of Duty ''Call of Duty'' is a first-person shooter video game Media franchise, franchise published by Activision. Starting out in 2003, it first focused on games set in World War II. Over time, the series has seen games set in the midst of the Cold W ...

'', ''

Gears of War ''Gears of War'' is a media franchise centered on a series of video games created by Epic Games, developed and managed by The Coalition, and owned and published by Xbox Game Studios. The franchise is best known for its third-person shooter vide ...

'', ''

LittleBigPlanet ''LittleBigPlanet'' (stylized as ''LittleBIGPlanet''; abbreviated ''LBP'') is a puzzle platform video game series created and produced by British developer Media Molecule and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Most games in the series ...

'', '' Dragon Age: Inquisition'', and ''

Untitled Goose Game ''Untitled Goose Game'' is a 2019 puzzle stealth game developed by House House and published by Panic Inc. Players control a goose who bothers the inhabitants of an English village. The player must use the goose's abilities to manipulate object ...

''.

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

and

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

were the only years that all finalists for "Game Design" were finalists for "Game of the Year". In

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

, the

PlayStation Portable The PlayStation Portable (PSP) is a handheld game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on December 12, 2004, in North America on March 24, 2005, and in PAL regions on September 1, 2005, ...

release of ''

'' and ''

Scribblenauts ''Scribblenauts'' is a series of action puzzle video games primarily developed by 5th Cell. The series is owned and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. The first game in the series was titled '' Scribblenauts'' and was first rel ...

'' were finalists for " Portable Game of the Year" in addition to Outstanding Achievement in Portable Game Design; ''Scribblenauts'' would be the winner for both awards. '' Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story'' received a nomination for Outstanding Achievement in Game Design while also nominated for "Portable Game of the Year".

Winners and nominees

1990s

2000s

2010s

The Outstanding Achievement in Game Design category was not offered at the award ceremonies from 2011 to 2014.

2020s

Multiple nominations and wins

Developers and publishers

Nintendo is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. It develops video games and video game consoles. Nintendo was founded in 1889 as by craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi and originally produce ...

is the most nominated developer in this category, and the only developer to have won more than once;

has also published the most winners, with

Sony , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...

publishing the most nominees.

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment (WBIE; also known as Warner Bros. Games or WB Games) is an American video game publisher based in Burbank, California, and part of the newly-formed Global Streaming and Interactive Entertainment unit of ...

has published both winners in 2010 for Game Design and Portable Game Design. In addition, Warner Bros. technically has published back-to-back winners, but the 4-year gap has existed in which the award has not been offered between wins.

Franchises

The Legend of Zelda ''The Legend of Zelda'' is an action-adventure game franchise created by the Japanese game designers Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka. It is primarily developed and published by Nintendo, although some portable installments and re-rele ...

'' franchise is the most nominated franchise in this category, and is the only franchise to have won more than once.

Notes

References

{{DICE Awards D.I.C.E. Craft Awards Awards established in 1998 Awards for best video game