The Last of Us and Grand Theft Auto V Sweep the BAFTAs

Last night’s BAFTA Game Awards were a huge success for developers Naughty Dog and Rockstar Games, who together took home half of the eighteen awards that were up for consideration.

Naughty Dog’s highly-acclaimed game The Last of Us, which follows a pair of survivors in a world ravaged by a zombie-like parasite, was the ultimate victor at the ceremony, raking in the awards for Best Game, Action and Adventure, Audio Achievement, Story, and Performer  for Ashley Johnson in the role of Ellie, one of the two protagonists.

The commercial success Grand Theft Auto V came in close behind with four awards, including Multiplayer and Game Design. Surprisingly, several big-name games like Tomb Raider and Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag failed to place, losing out to smaller productions like Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons and the exploration-based Gone Home, which won Game Innovation and Debut Game respectively.

Perhaps most interesting, although not unexpected, was the success of Tearaway, a PlayStation Vita game created by the studio behind LittleBigPlanet. Tearaway took home three awards, including Artistic Achievement, where it beat out more serious, high-profile titles like The Last of Us, Bioshock Infinite and Beyond Two Souls.

The awards ceremony also recognized the iPad game Size DOES Matter, created by a team of university students, with it's Ones to Watch award. The award category was created to recognise talented young developers from the Dare to be Digital Conference, which brings university students and recent graduates together from across to the UK to design and develop their own games.

The BAFTA Game Awards brought together a surprising mix of developers and titles this year, and while the big names seemed to take home most of the awards, the ceremony spotlighted a few indie developers it would be worth keeping an eye on.