Australian Game Developer Awards 2026: All The Winners

The Australian Game Developer Awards returned in 2026, celebrating the best games, studios and developers from across the Australian games industry.

This year’s AGDAs were one again held at the Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre as part of Melbourne International Games Week, with Jordan Raskopoulos and Lee Naimo returning to host the ceremony. However, unlike previous years the show this year was held at an earlier time, kicking off at 3PM in the afternoon.

Heading into the awards, Bits & Bops from Tempo Lab Games and Mixtape from Beethoven & Dinosaur lead the nominations, with five nominations each.

Four games were competing for the night’s biggest prize, Game of the Year: Aether & Iron, Go-Go Town!, Mixtape and Momento.

Here are all the winners from the 2026 Australian Game Developer Awards.

Excellence in Visual Art

• Bits & Bops — Tempo Lab Games
• Key Fairy — Owl Machine
• Mixtape — Beethoven & Dinosaur [WINNER]

Excellence in Gameplay

• Bits & Bops — Tempo Lab Games [WINNER]
• Isopod: A Webbed Spin-off — Sbug Games with Supertonic
• Schrodinger’s Cat Burglar — Abandoned Sheep with SuperTonic, Actuator Digital & Translationz

Excellence in Narrative

• Crabmeat — Nicholas McDonnell with Mitchell Pasmans
• Mixtape — Beethoven & Dinosaur
• Schrodinger’s Cat Burglar — Abandoned Sheep with SuperTonic, Actuator Digital & Translationz [WINNER]

Excellence in Sound Design

• Bits & Bops — Tempo Lab Games
• Crabmeat — Nicholas McDonnell with Mitchell Pasmans
• Mixtape — Beethoven & Dinosaur [WINNER]

Excellence in Music

• Don’t Stop, Girlypop! — Funny Fintan Softworks with Intr Studio, Subzero Sound & Kwalee
• Malys — Summerfall Studios [WINNER]
• Mixtape — Beethoven & Dinosaur

Excellence in Accessibility

• Bits & Bops — Tempo Lab Games
• Key Fairy — Owl Machine
• Schrodinger’s Cat Burglar — Abandoned Sheep with SuperTonic, Actuator Digital & Translationz [WINNER]

Excellence in Extended Reality

• Espire: MR Missions — Digital Lode Immersive Media
• Hyper Bullet — Protostar [WINNER]
• On Point — Actuator Games

Excellence in Impact

• Bluey’s Happy Snaps — Gameloft Brisbane with BBC Studios, Ludo Studio & Bandai Namco [WINNER]
• The Last Werewolf — Unnatural Freaks
• The Walks We Used to Take — Junebug

Excellence in Debut

• Bits & Bops — Tempo Lab Games
• Key Fairy — Owl Machine [WINNER]
• Momento — Fat Alien Cat & Nomo Studio with Screen Queensland & Silver Lining Interactive

Excellence in Ongoing

• Crossy Road Castle — Hipster Whale
• Forts — EarthWork Games
• Static Shift Racing — Timbo Jimbo [WINNER]

Game of the Year

• Aether & Iron — Chaos Theory Games with Seismic Squirrel
• Go-Go Town! — Prideful Sloth
• Mixtape — Beethoven & Dinosaur [WINNER]
• Momento — Fat Alien Cat & Nomo Studio with Screen Queensland & Silver Lining Interactive

“Mixtape was the outcome of an amazingly talented team,” said Beethoven & Dinosaur director, Johnny Galvatron. “To go from wanting to make a game around DEVO to creating something that resonates with so many people is mind blowing. We’re lucky to be part of such a talented community, and I’m so proud of Mixtape and my team.”

Studio of the Year

Uppercut Games won this years Studio of the Year award.

The Adam Lancman Award

Paris Butterfield-Addison won this years Adam Lancman.

The Rising Star Award

There were two winners for this years Rising Star Awards! Tyson Butler-Boschma and Amy Potter-Jarman.

GCAP Legacy Award

There was a new award that wasn’t previously announced, the GCAP Legacy Award which honours those who have brought a lot to the 20 years of GCAP. This years inaugural winner was Tony Albrecht.

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“This year’s selection of winners and finalists is a great showcase of Australia’s games industry,” said Ron Curry, CEO of IGEA. “The breadth and diversity of submissions across all our categories from across all the country represents the remarkable talent we have here and the maturity of the Australian video game industry. On behalf of IGEA, I’d like to thank and congratulate the finalists, winners, and judges for their work and commitment in making the Australian video game industry what it is today.

“Behind every great Australian game and individual is a robust ecosystem that allows them to flourish. Support from state, territory and federal governments not only drives growth but enables Australian studios to take creative risks, create more jobs, and compete on the global stage. Continued government funding is crucial in ensuring Australia continues to produce great games that are exported to the rest of the world.”

That’s all the winners from the 2026 Australian Game Developer Awards. Let me know your thoughts on the awards in the comments section below.