Horii addressed the crowd at the award show via a video, where he recounted his early life and what led into him creating the Dragon Quest games (via Gematsu). Horii recalled that as a kid he always wanted to be a manga artist, and during his college years he worked as a freelance writer working towards the same goal, up until the arrival of home computers, which shifted his interest. Enjoying mathematics, he taught himself how to code and started making his own games for fun, and after submitting one of his games in a programming competition to Enix, he got himself into the world of game development..

Horii also talked about his interest in adventure games back then, and how his love for games like Ultima and Wizardry compelled him to deliver his own take on the genre, which became Dragon Quest.

“One of the fantastic things about computers is their interactive nature,” Horii said. “You just have to imagine what a player is going to do, and then program the system to react to it. I really enjoyed that kind of systematic storytelling. I also loved RPGs like Wizardry and Ultima, where gameplay followed the rails set down by the story. So I made my own version—Dragon Quest.”

Finally, Hori reiterated that he and his team are currently working on Dragon Quest 12, alongside a lot of other titles, and that he he hopes players will love those games, with announcements coming very soon.

Some key takeaway from this year saw the Daniel Mullins Games-developed Inscryption bagging the Game of the Year award, over titles such as Forza Horizon 5, Deathloop, Resident Evil Village, and It Takes Two. Additionally, the game also won the Seumas McNally Grand Prize at the Independent Games Festival Awards, which happens on the same night, making it the first game to win both.

Apart from that, other highlights included Ratchet and Clank: A Rift Apart bagging the best visuals and best technology awards, Unpacking winning the best audio and best innovation awards, Psychonauts 2 winning the best narrative award, and It Takes Two taking home the best design award.

The full list of winners for DICE Awards 2022 can be found below (via Shacknews):

THE ANNUAL GAME DEVELOPERS CHOICE 2022 WINNERS

• Game of the Year winner: Inscryption
• Best Audio winner: Unpacking
• Best Design winner: It Takes Two
• Best Debut winner: Valheim
• Innovation Award winner: Unpacking
• Best Narrative winner: Psychonauts 2
• Social Impact Award winner: Boyfriend Dungeon
• Best Technology winner: Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart
• Best Visual Art winner: Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart

The 16th annual Game Developers Choice Awards are coming up to take place on March 16th during GDC 2016 and to no one’s surprise,  Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt are leading the nominees with four nominations each. While the former has been nominated for Best Audio, Best Design, Best Technology and Game of the Year, the latter is nominated Best Visual Art, Best Narrative, Best Technology and Game of the Year.

Other noteworthy nominations include Star Wars Battlefront with three nominations for Best Audio, Best Technology and Best Visual Art while Bloodborne was nominated for Best Design, Best Visual Art and Game of the Year. Fallout 4 has received three nominations as well for Best Design, Best Technology and Game of the Year while Splatoon was nominated for Best Design, Innovation Award and Best Visual Art.

What are your thoughts on the nominations? Let us know in the comments.

Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us bagged the Game Of The Year at this Game Developers Choice Awards. It also earned the Best Design and Best Narrative awards, which can be added to the long list of awards that the developer won for the third person survival action experience.

Indie puzzler Papers, Please also had a good run winning the Innovation and Best Downloadable awards at the GDC. This comes after the recent news that Papers, Please sold 500,000 units after its release. Currently, creator Lucas Pope is working on his next game and concerned about how to meet the expectations of his fans.

As for Naughty Dog, the developer is currently working on adapting The Last of Us to the big screen. There are also discussions regarding a sequel or some additional content to expand the universe, besides on-going development for Uncharted 4. What are your thoughts on the GDC Awards? Let us know in the comments.