Even with big franchise games taking top honors, the list of nominees for the 15th annual Game Developers Choice Awards is one of the most diverse yet.

Warner Bros. continues to have a very good year with Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor. The Monolith Software-developed open-world action game shows that licensed games can be great. It takes five nominations in 2015, including one for Game of the Year.

Platinum Games’ Bayonetta 2, Bungie’s Destiny, and Creative Assembly’s Alien: Isolation also had great showings this year with multiple nominations, with all also listing under Game of the Year.

As a fan of card games, mobile games, and of Blizzard, I’m glad to see that Hearthstone rounds out the list of nominees for Game of the Year. The free-to-play collectible card battler also picked up nominations for Best Handheld/Mobile Game and Best Design.

Nintendo is sitting pretty this year. Aside from Bayonetta 2 getting so much love, Super Smash Bros. 3DS (Best Handheld/Mobile Game), Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker (Best Design), and Mario Kart 8 (Best Desgin: Honorable Mention) get recognized.

Finally, continuing the trend for the GDCAs in recent years, small games get big recognition this year. Ustwo’s beautiful Monument Valley takes three nominations, including an Innovation Award. Game Oven’s couples dancing game Bounden, reading journey 80 Days, math game Threes!, and mobile tapper Crossy Road get nods in 2015. Even pigeon-dating sim Hatoful Boyfriend gets some love!

Check out more coverage of award-nominated indies with
our 5 most innovative games of the Independent Games Festival.

You’ll find the complete list of 2015 GDCA nominees below:

Game of the Year

  • Bayonetta 2 (Platinum Games/Nintendo)
  • Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor (Monolith Productions/Warner Bros.)
  • Destiny (Bungie/Activision)
  • Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft (Blizzard)
  • Alien: Isolation (Creative Assembly/Sega)

Honorable Mentions: Titanfall (Respawn/Electronic Arts), Valiant Hearts: The Great War (Ubisoft Montpellier/Ubisoft), Far Cry 4 (Ubisoft Montreal/Ubisoft), Dragon Age: Inquisition (BioWare/Electronic Arts), Super Smash Bros. for Wii U (Sora Ltd. and Bandai Namco/Nintendo)

Innovation Award

  • Bounden (Game Oven)
  • Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor (Monolith Productions/Warner Bros.)
  • This War of Mine (11 bit studios)
  • The Vanishing of Ethan Carter (The Astronauts)
  • Monument Valley (Ustwo)

Honorable Mentions: Crypt of the Necrodancer (Brace Yourself Games), Extrasolar (Lazy 8 Studios), Elite: Dangerous (Frontier Developments), Elegy For A Dead World (Dejobaan Games), 80 Days (Inkle Studios)

Best Debut

  • Yacht Club Games (Shovel Knight)
  • Respawn Entertainment (Titanfall)
  • The Astronauts (The Vanishing of Ethan Carter)
  • Stoic Studio (The Banner Saga)
  • Upper One Games (Never Alone)

Honorable Mentions: Dynamighty (CounterSpy), Hinterland Games (The Long Dark), 1337 & Senri (Leo’s Fortune), MachineGames (Wolfenstein: The New Order), Hipster Whale (Crossy Road)

Best Design

  • Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor (Monolith Productions/Warner Bros.)
  • Shovel Knight (Yacht Club Games)
  • Dragon Age: Inquisition (BioWare/Electronic Arts)
  • Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker (Nintendo EAD Tokyo and 1-Up Studio/Nintendo)
  • Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft (Blizzard)

Honorable Mentions: Mario Kart 8 (Nintendo EAD Tokyo/Nintendo), Alien: Isolation (Creative Assembly/Sega), Destiny (Bungie/Activision), Monument Valley (Ustwo), Far Cry 4 (Ubisoft Montreal/Ubisoft)

Best Handheld/Mobile Game

  • Threes! (Sirvo)
  • Super Smash Bros. 3DS (Sora Ltd. and Bandai Namco/Nintendo)
  • Hearthstone (Blizzard)
  • 80 Days (Inkle Studios)
  • Monument Valley (Ustwo)

Honorable Mentions: Bounden (Game Oven), Bravely Default (Silicon Studio and Square Enix/Nintendo and Square Enix), Desert Golfing (Blinkbat Games), Velocity 2X (FuturLab), Fantasy Life (Level-5/Nintendo)

Best Visual Art

  • Monument Valley (Ustwo)
  • Hohokum (Honeyslug and Sony Santa Monica/Sony)
  • Child of Light (Ubisoft Montreal/Ubisoft)
  • Bayonetta 2 (Platinum Games/Nintendo)
  • Alien: Isolation (Creative Assembly/Sega)

Honorable Mentions: Never Alone (Upper One Games/E-Line Media), The Vanishing of Ethan Carter (The Astronauts), Transistor (Supergiant Games), Broken Age: Act 1 (Double Fine Productions), Destiny (Bungie/Activision)

Best Narrative

  • 80 Days (Inkle Studios)
  • This War of Mine (11 bit studios)
  • Kentucky Route Zero: Episode 3 (Cardboard Computer)
  • Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor (Monolith Productions/Warner Bros.)
  • The Vanishing of Ethan Carter (The Astronauts)

Honorable Mentions: Dragon Age: Inquisition (BioWare/Electronic Arts), Valiant Hearts: The Great War (Ubisoft Montpellier/Ubisoft), Tales From The Borderlands: Episode 1 (Gearbox Software/Telltale Games), D4: Dark Dreams Don’t Die (Access Games/Microsoft), Hatoful Boyfriend (Mediatonic/Devolver Digital)

Best Audio

  • Alien: Isolation (Creative Assembly/Sega)
  • Hohokum (Honeyslug/Sony)
  • Destiny (Bungie/Activision)
  • Transistor (Supergiant Games)
  • The Vanishing of Ethan Carter (The Astronauts)

Honorable Mentions: Child of Light (Ubisoft Montreal/Ubisoft), Far Cry 4 (Ubisoft Montreal/Ubisoft), D4: Dark Dreams Don’t Die (Access Games/Microsoft), Bayonetta 2 (Platinum Games/Nintendo), Crypt of the Necrodancer (Brace Yourself Games)

Best Technology

  • Destiny (Bungie/Activision)
  • Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor (Monolith Productions/Warner Bros.)
  • Wolfenstein: The New Order (MachineGames/Bethesda)
  • Elite: Dangerous (Frontier Developments)
  • Far Cry 4 (Ubisoft Montreal/Ubisoft)

Honorable Mentions: Assassin’s Creed Unity (Ubisoft Montreal/Ubisoft), The Last of Us: Remastered (Naughty Dog/Sony), Sunset Overdrive (Insomniac Games/Microsoft), Alien: Isolation (Creative Assembly/Sega), Infamous: Second Son (Sucker Punch Productions/Sony)