Megabonk developer Vedinad has pulled his game from this year’s Game Awards, citing concerns over whether the bullet heaven roguelite truly counts as an “indie debut”.
The nominees for The Game Awards this year were announced on Monday, and Megabonk is (or was) one of the indie titles up for Best Debut Indie Game, alongside such luminaries (no pun intended) as Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and Blue Prince.
However, in a message on social media, Vedinad says they have chosen to withdraw their game from The Game Awards because they’ve “made games in the past under different studio names”, and thus Megabonk doesn’t qualify for the category in which it’s nominated.
Vedinad says that although they “really appreciate the nomination, support, and votes”, Megabonk “doesn’t feel right” in the Best Debut Indie Game category, and so voters should “vote for another one of the amazing debut titles” up for the nomination.
While I think Vedinad’s commitment to ethics is admirable, The Game Awards’ definition of “indie” has always been a bit sketchy. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33‘s team contains former Ubisoft developers, and Dispatch, another game that’s up for the Best Debut Indie award, was made by ex-Telltale veterans.
Still, I suppose Vedinad can only make the decisions that make them comfortable, and Megabonk has already received a ton of attention from its player base, so I guess it probably doesn’t really need the further exposure The Game Awards would bring (although that’s probably also true of some of the other titles).
If you’re not familiar with Megabonk, it’s an action roguelite along the lines of Vampire Survivors, although it swaps the top-down perspective of that game for a full 3D look that adds verticality and other considerations to the core combat.
You can check out Megabonk right now on PC via Steam.
