The developer behind Steam hit roguelike survival recreation Megabonk was nominated Monday for Finest Debut Indie Recreation at The Recreation Awards. On Tuesday, the developer identified solely as vedinad mentioned that he was withdrawing Megabonk from rivalry, saying that “sadly i do not suppose it qualifies for the class.”
On the Megabonk X account, vedinad (aka “John Megabonk”) posted about withdrawing the sport from this 12 months’s award, additional explaining his reasoning.
“It is an honor and a dream for Megabonk to be nominated for TGA, however sadly i do not suppose it qualifies for the class ‘Debut Indie Recreation,'” the developer mentioned in a put up noticed by Kotaku. “I’ve made video games previously beneath totally different studio names, so Megabonk is just not my debut recreation. i actually respect the nomination, assist and votes, however it does not really feel proper on this class. you need to vote for an additional one of many wonderful debut titles, they’re all wonderful video games!”
Based on The Recreation Awards host Geoff Keighley, the Finest Debut Indie Recreation “acknowledges a improvement group that hasn’t received a Recreation Award earlier than.” Groups eligible “revealed their first video games this 12 months,” Keighley mentioned throughout Monday’s nominations announcement livestream. The Recreation Awards web site describes the class as recognizing the “finest debut recreation created by a brand new impartial studio.”
The developer often known as vedinad solely has one recreation beneath that Steam developer account: Megabonk. vedinad has not publicly revealed what different video games he was concerned in. vedinad’s id has been the supply of intense hypothesis, with one oft-posted concept being that he’s Dani (aka danidev), the favored YouTuber and recreation developer behind Crab Recreation (a Squid Recreation-like) and Muck (a roguelike survival recreation).
No matter vedinad’s id and previous work, he could very nicely qualify beneath The Recreation Awards guidelines, similar to Dispatch developer AdHoc Studio — which consists of veteran builders from Telltale Video games, Ubisoft, and Evening Faculty Studio — does as a brand new entity.
It is unclear if The Recreation Awards organizers will grant vedinad his want and withdraw Megabonk from rivalry. Polygon has reached out to The Recreation Awards and to creator Geoff Keighley, and can replace this story after they reply.
The Recreation Awards 2025 will happen on Dec. 11. Whether or not that may provide Megabonk followers a have a look at its creator, ought to he win, remains to be up within the air.
