Best Game Direction: Awarded for outstanding creative vision and innocation in game direction and design
I did a little web searching to see if my ideas of the terms "direction" and "design" match what I thought and they pretty much do.. because these terms are vague and fluid.
But basically direction in this case is like the boss of a game, the ultimate overseer of everything. This could, importantly, mean non-creative things like managing the actual team as a personnel director. But in terms of the creative direction it's kind of unifying all the sub-teams into a coherent whole.
Design is more the mechanics and visuals and stuff. Frankly I think this category is kind of dumb now that I'm thinking about it and I wonder if it exists because in movies there is a Best Director category. But the analogous position in movies to Game Director may be more the producer, and there is no seperate producer category at the Oscars- rather the Best Picture award goes to the producer (as in the case of the Game Awards the Game of the Year goes to the studio which "produces" the game).
Award-givers like auteurs because it's easy to connect an individual vision to the overall end result. I don't fault people for that, it's human empathic instinct to connect creator to creation, to put a face behind things. But that does skew things for collaborative projects like video games. And in this case it makes the award feel a potential "Best Video Game That's Actually a Movie." I have no problem with that type of game but it just makes things unfair and boring.
I said earlier and still believe that Baldur's Gate 3 will sweep the awards but this feels like the most Alan Wake 2 award if my presumption of award biases holds true. It's the most movie game and most auteur game, I even know the guy's name is Sam Lake and I haven't played it and I don't remember names.
The other extreme here is Zelda which is not a movie game, it's a big lego/roblox/minecraft thing where the mechanics have been praised as a design and mechanic marvel. Its physics stuff is one of the most remarkable pure design achievements of the year.
So if this category is "Best Direction" which is Alan Wake or BG3 and "Best Design" which is arguably Zelda for the physics toys than it's just kind of weird to look at them together.
The only nominated game I played significantly in this category is Spiderman 2 which- if Direction means combining all the elements in a cohesive whole- does deserve praise. I know we didn't all agree here on how the game ties in both protagonists, supporting characters, story and gameplay, but I think it did a remarkable job of it while also introducing enough new elements in both gameplay and story AND being a continuation of a series. It's just pure QUALITY which isn't enough to win an award in a year like this but something I always want to give credit to.
Also worth noting is that the game has 3 credited directors, not one, so it's NOT an auteur-driven game. If we're making a movie analogy it's more in line with the old Hollywood studio model of company men craftsmen- less romantic, but more quality control and consistent. And it is the only nominated game in this category with a director team instead of one individual.
There's also the Mario game which I don't have much to say about other than, you know, Mario- it's always pretty good.
Of course I get to thinking about my favorite games of the year like Cocoon and Dave the Diver and Jusante and my favorites are always my favorites not because of just one thing but how everything comes together. Yes the puzzles of Cocoon are great but they're great because the art design helps you progress through them and reward you with delight... which only works in context with the theme and vision of it's weird nature/tech vibe.
Probably all these posts will end with I would give Cocoon all the awards except for the acting one hahah.
thegameawards.com
