The Golden Joystick Awards return on November 21 with overhauled rules for indie games

22 Awards will be handed out

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The Golden Joystick Awards return for their 42nd iteration later this year, with revamped rules to make it easier than ever to highlight the best indie games of the year.

The Golden Joystick Awards 2024 will take place on November 21 during an in-person event in London that will be streamed on all major platforms. The Joysticks are primarily decided by public vote, and this year’s shortlist will be announced right here at GamesRadar+hereon Friday, October 4, 2024, with public voting opening on the same day.

The 2023 awards saw a record number of votes cast, and led toBaldur’s Gate 3taking home a record-breaking seven awards (on its way to a record-breaking awards season run), but this year will see some changes. Four new categories have been introduced this year, celebrating the best soundtracks, game adaptations, games from small studios, and those mobile games that you just can’t put down.

Best Indie Game (Small Studio) is perhaps the biggest change. It can be hard to draw a single line to define what an indie game is and isn’t, and as such, this year’s Golden Joystick Awards will celebrate teams of less than ten people, while larger independent teams with more flexible budgets will be eligible for the Best Indie Game award.

The full list of awards at this year’s ceremony is as follows:

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I’m GamesRadar’s news editor, working with the team to deliver breaking news from across the industry. I started my journalistic career while getting my degree in English Literature at the University of Warwick, where I also worked as Games Editor on the student newspaper, The Boar. Since then, I’ve run the news sections at PCGamesN and Kotaku UK, and also regularly contributed to PC Gamer. As you might be able to tell, PC is my platform of choice, so you can regularly find me playing League of Legends or Steam’s latest indie hit.

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