CEDEC AWARDS 2026 On-Site Report! Donkey Kong Bananza, Which Brought Destruction to Games, Highly Evaluated With Wins in 3 Categories (75 Photos in Total) | Saiga NAK(esports News Media)

On Thursday, July 23, 2026, the presentation ceremony for the CEDEC AWARDS 2026, which honors the achievements of game developers from a technical perspective, took place at Pacifico Yokohama.
We bring you comments straight from the venue from the development teams that won Excellence and Grand Awards.

What Were the Excellence and Grand Awards in Each Category at CEDEC AWARDS 2026...? Each Team's Passions for Development

CEDEC 2026, one of Japan's largest conferences regarding game development technologies and knowledge, took place from Wednesday, July 22 to Friday, July 23, 2026.
Conference attendees and speakers voted to decide the Grand Awards for the CEDEC AWARDS 2026, which honors game developers' achievements from a technical standpoint.
At the awards ceremony held at Pacifico Yokohama on Thursday, July 23, 2026, developers who won Excellence and Grand Awards shared their comments!

Shuhei Yoshida Wins the Special Award! Contributing Overall to Computer Entertainment Development

The awards ceremony kicked off with the presentation of the Special Award, which honors contributions to computer entertainment development as a whole.
Shuhei Yoshida, who works as an advisor for indie game developers and publishers, won the 2026 Special Award!

Yoshida formerly worked at Sony Interactive Entertainment Inc. and has participated in development since the launch of the PlayStation platform.
He quickly focused on 3D technology and has consistently brought innovation and excitement to the gaming industry.
Even now, he continues to contribute to game development as an advisor for indie games.
These achievements earned recognition, leading to this Special Award win.

There's a saying in the gaming industry that I really love.
That is, "You are only as good as your last game."
This means, "No matter how amazing a creator you are, people judge you by the most recent game you made."
No matter how great a game someone made, they cannot remain a legend forever.
The gaming industry is a world of fierce competition where new creators emerge constantly.

Recently, wonderful games are also coming out of Japan.
Titles like The Exit 8, which became a movie, NamaTakahashi's globally acclaimed Öoo, and yona's and Roger are coming from young Japanese creators and earning recognition all over the world.
Seeing the recently released Super Chameleon sell 15 million copies, I imagine veterans are thinking, "We can't afford to rest on our laurels."
I think indie creators will continue to make things with new ideas and concepts that threaten your positions, so please steel yourselves and keep striving.
I will continue to cheer you all on.

(Translated from Japanese)

Engineering Division Announced! Excellence Awards Won Broadly from Capcom and Nintendo to Indie Developers

Here are the winners of the Excellence Award in the Engineering Division!

Okazu (@pafuhana1213) of “Kawaii Physics”
Street Fighter 6 Development Team (Capcom Co., Ltd.)
Monster Hunter Wilds Development Team (Capcom Co., Ltd.)
Donkey Kong Bananza Development Team (Nintendo Co., Ltd.)
Nozomu Uchida, Access Controller Project Leader (Sony Interactive Entertainment Inc.)

Each Winner in the Engineering Division Shares Comments

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Winner: Okazu of “Kawaii Physics”
Target: Providing a package that allows hair and clothing to sway 'easily' and 'cutely'

I have been developing this as a hobby for seven years, and I am truly grateful to receive such an award among such illustrious members, especially since so many projects have used it.
I sincerely thank everyone who used it, everyone who provided bug reports and reviews, as well as my wife who supports my daily life and my 1-year-old son who gives me energy.

(Translated from Japanese)

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Winner: Street Fighter 6 Development Team (Capcom Co., Ltd.)
Target: Sim Sim: Realization of a practical AI sparring partner

In competitive games, I think attention inevitably tends to focus heavily on winning and losing.
We created Sim Sim with the idea of allowing players to find enjoyment outside of victory and defeat, particularly in gaining a sense of accomplishment through their own personal growth.
This is already the 4th year since release, and I am deeply honored to receive such recognition from everyone once again at this time.

(Translated from Japanese)

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Winner: Monster Hunter Wilds Development Team (Capcom Co., Ltd.)
Target: Detailed disclosure of a wide range of technical information in large-scale commercial title development

Thank you very much for this wonderful award.
Monster Hunter Wilds is the latest installment in the Monster Hunter series, and it was a title that required various evolutions and challenges.
As we pursued multi-faceted approaches to make the game better, we are honored that our technical initiatives received high praise.

We plan to solidly give back the insights and experiences gained from this development to the industry moving forward, contributing to the advancement of game development itself, so we look forward to your continued support.

(Translated from Japanese)

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Winner: Donkey Kong Bananza Development Team (Nintendo Co., Ltd.)
Target: Advanced integration of terrain destruction and physics calculations using voxel technology

First of all, thank you very much for this wonderful award.
In Donkey Kong Bananza, we aimed for an action game where players can destroy everything using voxels.
We proceeded with development while holding discussions within the team on how to represent terrain and characters with voxels and how to create level design that doesn't break down even when destroying terrain.
If everyone was able to enjoy the destruction as a result of those accumulated efforts, we are truly happy.
On behalf of the development staff, I express my heartfelt gratitude.

(Translated from Japanese)

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Winner: Nozomu Uchida, Access Controller Project Leader (Sony Interactive Entertainment Inc.)
Target: Development of an accessibility controller kit that overturns stereotypes and can be handled by anyone

I am truly grateful to receive such a wonderful award today.
Our development team did not develop this controller alone; members of the disability community nurtured it together with us.
I would like to dedicate this award to everyone in the disability community.
Thank you very much.

(Translated from Japanese)

What is the Grand Award in the Engineering Division...?

Grand Award: Donkey Kong Bananza Development Team
Target: Advanced integration of terrain destruction and physics calculations using voxel technology

The committee stated the reason for the award as follows:

In order to establish a world where players can freely destroy terrain and objects as a game, developers must make visual changes, position updates, convincing destruction effects, and physics behavior appear simultaneously without breaking down.
To achieve this, developers need advanced optimization of both memory and execution performance in addition to clever design.
The members of the Bananza development team took on this difficult challenge boldly.

Grounded in voxel technology, they constructed a world where destruction seamlessly and exhilaratingly connects to the next variety of actions and exploration, leaving nothing else to say except that it is magnificent.

(Translated from Japanese)

The attempt to build everything with voxels was a major challenge for us where our accumulated past development experience and common sense were completely inapplicable.
I remember holding my head in my hands early on because Donkey Kong couldn't even walk properly on the voxel terrain.
However, I feel that we are where we are today precisely because everyone on the development team faced the challenges and voxels, and kept pushing themselves until the very end.
We feel deeply honored that the committee evaluated our development efforts with such a result.
We want to share this joy with all of our fellow developers.

(Translated from Japanese)

Game Design Division Announced! Overseas Development Teams Also Voice Their Joy

Here are the winners of the Excellence Award in the Game Design Division!

MIMESIS Development team (Developer: ReLU Games, Publisher: KRAFTON)
Blue Prince Development team (Dogubomb)
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Development team (Sandfall Interactive)
NamaTakahashi, Hachinosu, Tsuyomie (Öoo Team)
Donkey Kong Bananza Development Team (Nintendo Co., Ltd.)

Each Winner in the Game Design Division Shares Comments!

プレイヤーになりすましたAIが「恐怖」と「笑い」を生み出す、新たなボイスチャット体験

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Winner: MIMESIS Development team (Developer: ReLU Games, Publisher: KRAFTON)
Target: A new voice chat experience where AI impersonating players generates 'fear' and 'laughter'

We at ReLU Games have continued to take on the challenge of fusing AI with core game experiences to create new "fun."
MIMESIS also started from the belief that monsters intricately mimicking humans could generate new "fun."
We are deeply honored that voters recognized this challenge as a possibility.

Taking this opportunity, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to the Mimesis development team and all members of ReLU Games, who have run alongside me keeping the game's fun as the top priority.
I would also like to thank all the players who enjoyed MIMESIS and cheered us on.

(Translated from Japanese)

Winner: Blue Prince Development team (Dogubomb)
Target: A new epiphany experience born from the fusion of 'roguelite' and 'puzzle-solving'

We are extremely honored to receive such an award.
First of all, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to our publisher, Raw Fury, and everyone on the Blue Prince team.
I also want to sincerely thank the community members who have searched for secrets and opened doors to rooms yet unseen, as well as all the players who have enjoyed this title while eagerly taking notes.

(Translated from Japanese)

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Winner: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Development team (Sandfall Interactive)
Target: A new combat experience fusing turn-based and action gameplay

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a project that all members of our studio in France developed with extraordinary passion.
As a unified team, we have worked hard on production with a strong desire to deliver an unforgettable experience inspired by classic JRPGs.

In terms of gameplay, we aimed to achieve a balance between action and strategy by fusing traditional turn-based command battles represented by the Final Fantasy and Persona series with real-time reactive elements such as dodging and parrying, reminiscent of FromSoftware titles like Sekiro.

We are happier than anything that new fans around the world have widely accepted, embraced, and evaluated this challenging gameplay.

(Translated from Japanese)

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Winner: NamaTakahashi, Hachinosu, Tsuyomie (Öoo Team)
Target: Exploration puzzle design of 'knowledge unlocking' created through realizations and epiphanies

We developed this as a three-person team.
It makes us very happy and we feel extremely grateful that a venue like this can recognize such a small team.

I am thankful to the team members who stuck with us until completion, and I think that precisely because we were small-scale, it might have made things easier for us to do.

We want to keep making more and more interesting games going forward, and as Yoshida mentioned at the beginning, we hope we can threaten the positions of pros and veteran legends.
We look forward to your continued support.

(Translated from Japanese)

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Winner: Donkey Kong Bananza Development Team (Nintendo Co., Ltd.)
Target: Exhilarating exploration experience through destruction utilizing character charm

Once again, thank you very much for receiving such an award in Game Design as well.
In this title, we aimed to express Donkey Kong's power and character through the action of destruction.
We proceeded with development hoping to create an experience where, while Donkey Kong is engrossed in pushing forward with destruction as if chasing bananas, before you know it, the world has completely transformed.
We are truly happy that voters evaluated this new character of Donkey Kong and the action of destruction in this way.

(Translated from Japanese)

What is the Grand Award in the Game Design Division...?

Grand Award: Donkey Kong Bananza Development Team
Target: Exhilarating exploration experience through destruction utilizing character charm

The committee stated the reason for the award as follows:

Starting from the power and physicality of the character Donkey Kong, the developers crafted a highly polished game design that reconfigured those traits into actions such as breaking, digging, climbing, and throwing, consistently tying them to various gameplay elements like exploration, movement, combat, and puzzle-solving.
In particular, the high degree of freedom in environmental interaction—acting directly on the terrain itself—goes beyond a satisfying gimmick; it functions beautifully as a mechanism for players to find routes, understand the world, and make new discoveries.
We believe that the proactive and emergent play design demonstrated through tactile environmental interaction in this title offers major implications for future action games.

(Translated from Japanese)

As a development team, we proceeded with "there are discoveries beyond what you break" as the core theme of our game design.
Donkey Kong Bananza is a voxel game, and we often had to break our existing game design know-how and established methods to move forward, which presented many challenges.
Receiving this award gives us great encouragement, and we want to continue developing new games in the future.

(Translated from Japanese)

Sound Division Announced! Focusing Not Only on Game Sound, But Also on Interaction Between Creators

Here are the winners of the Excellence Award in the Sound Division!

Ghost of Yōtei Sound Team (Sucker Punch Productions)
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Sound Team (Sandfall Interactive)
Nintendo Music Development & Operations Team (Nintendo Co., Ltd., Nintendo Systems Co., Ltd.)
Masafumi Watanabe (evance inc.)
GameSoundQuest Executive Committee (CRI Middleware Co., Ltd.)

Each Winner in the Sound Division Shares Comments!

あらゆる要素が丁寧に作り込まれた、ストーリーとプレイ体験を増幅させるサウンドデザイン

Winner: Ghost of Yōtei Sound Team (Sucker Punch Productions)
Target: Sound design where every element is carefully crafted, amplifying the story and play experience

I am Bradley Meyer, Audio Director at Sucker Punch.
It's unfortunate I couldn't participate in person, but on behalf of our internal audio team, PlayStation, and Arrival UK, thank you with all my heart.
Ghost of Yōtei is a period drama we poured our love into making.
From environmental sounds to BGM, we painstakingly crafted every detail of the game world's sounds.
We are honored to receive your recognition.

(Translated from Japanese)

独特な世界観を引き立てる楽曲。注力すべき箇所にきちんと注力した、制作意図が明確に伝わるオーディオ演出

Winner: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Sound Team (Sandfall Interactive)
Target: Music that accentuates the unique worldview. Audio direction that properly focuses on where attention is needed and clearly conveys production intent

コメント代読 — Reading the comments of the *Clair Obscur: Expedition 33* Sound Team

We express our heartfelt gratitude to everyone who supports us for selecting us for the Excellence Award in the Sound Division.
The warm support we received from everyone provides great encouragement to all members of Sandfall Interactive, serving as the driving force for us to continue working sincerely on producing even more captivating soundscapes and music.

Taking this opportunity, I would like to deeply thank the entire sound team for their efforts in fusing all acoustic elements—such as composer Lorien Testard's work, sound effects, environmental sound design, and voice acting—to maximize the game's immersion to its limits.

(Translated from Japanese)

膨大な楽曲の継続的なライブラリ化と、ゲームミュージックの特徴を活かした音楽体験の提供

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Winner: Nintendo Music Development & Operations Team (Nintendo Co., Ltd., Nintendo Systems Co., Ltd.)
Target: Continuous cataloging of a massive number of songs and providing a musical experience leveraging the characteristics of game music

At Nintendo Music, we have cherished the connection between fun gaming memories and game music, taking on the challenge of shaping it so that users can enjoy it safely and for a long time in their daily lives through features like length restrictions and spoiler prevention.
We are deeply honored that voters recognized the ingenuity our entire team accumulated to adjust a massive number of tracks and ensure stable operations.

(Translated from Japanese)

フォーリーノウハウの体系化と、デジタル時代におけるフィジカルな表現アプローチの提示

Winner: Masafumi Watanabe (evance inc.)
Target: Systematization of Foley know-how and presentation of physical expression approaches in the digital age

In 1927, filmmakers created talkie films and added sound to them.
We operate by cherishing a technique called Foley, which adds live sounds to video and creators have handed down for 99 years.
Amidst the evolution of technology, we believe an interesting aspect of the production process exists that creators can only show because it is analog, and we are working hard to brand that.

Recently, we had the opportunity to speak at workshops for elementary school students, and in their feedback, more students express a desire to become Foley artists.
I think an increase in practitioners also contributes to this industry's development and sparks interesting new ideas.
Receiving this award helps convey to the world once again that jobs like this exist and that game sound is fascinating.

(Translated from Japanese)

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Winner: GameSoundQuest Executive Committee (CRI Middleware Co., Ltd.)
Target: Revitalization of the game sound industry and nurturing of next-generation creators

I believe that we won this award thanks to everyone who gathered at our game sound exchange meetings or spoke at our study sessions.
I personally love game sound, and ever since entering this industry, I've had many opportunities to talk with game sound professionals.
Feeling once again that game sound is wonderful and that the people who create game sounds are amazing, I want to continue providing spaces where technical exchange and connections can flourish.

(Translated from Japanese)

What is the Grand Award in the Sound Division...?

Grand Award: Nintendo Music Development & Operations Team
Target: Continuous cataloging of a massive number of songs and providing a musical experience leveraging the characteristics of game music

The committee stated the reason for winning the Grand Award as follows:

Nintendo Music is a music service that continues to deliver a major impact to both users and developers.
Its sudden launch two years ago generated huge buzz, but Nintendo has continuously added various tracks old and new—ranging from the Famicom to the latest hardware—expanding its presence as a massive music library.
In addition, playback features based on the unique qualities of game music, such as changing track lengths and syncing playback to the current time, stand out. We strongly resonate with the team's approach of highlighting and sharing the charm of game music.
We also look forward to future developments, such as support for interactive music assistance.

(Translated from Japanese)

Nintendo Music aims to deliver game music into customers' lives in a signature Nintendo way.
The entire development and operations team is extremely happy that voters recognized our challenge toward unique ways of listening to game music.
While cherishing fun gaming memories, we will take this as encouragement for future operations so that we can deliver new encounters with game music to our customers.

(Translated from Japanese)

Visual Arts Division Announced! Evaluating the Technology and Beauty of Visual Expressions

Here are the developers and development teams that won the Excellence Award!

Donkey Kong Bananza Development Team (Nintendo Co., Ltd.)
SideFX Houdini Development Team (SideFX)
Monster Hunter Wilds Development Team (Capcom Co., Ltd.)
Academy Software Foundation (Academy Software Foundation)
SILENT HILL f Development Team (NeoBards Entertainment, Konami Digital Entertainment Co., Ltd.)

Each Winner in the Visual Arts Division Shares Comments!

Saiga NAK

Winner: Donkey Kong Bananza Development Team (Nintendo Co., Ltd.)
Target: Voxel technology realizing a completely destructible 3D world

We polished the dense underground world and the tactile feel of terrain breaking down to the finest detail so that players can feel the surprise of "you can break even a place like this?!"
We are happy that voters recognized our production, where artists and engineers joined forces just like Donkey Kong and Pauline.
On behalf of the development team, I express my gratitude.
Thank you very much.

(Translated from Japanese)

30年にわたるプロシージャル技術の牽引と継続的な情報発信による現代のアセット制作基盤の確立

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Winner: SideFX Houdini Development Team (SideFX)
Target: Establishment of modern asset production foundations through 30 years of leading procedural technology and continuous information dissemination

Houdini marks exactly 30 years this year, and we are happy to receive such an honorable award in this milestone year.
We thank all developers who create using Houdini and all our users.

(Translated from Japanese)

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Winner: Monster Hunter Wilds Development Team (Capcom Co., Ltd.)
Target: Animation expression making you feel the very breath of massive monsters through body shape deformation and posture control

I believe that "muscle expression using machine learning," which was one of the reasons for selection, is quite a novel expression.
Implementing something like this reflects the Monster Hunter team's ingenuity and desire to challenge new expressions.
To continue incorporating new expressions going forward, we want to tackle development sincerely.

The RE Engine progresses daily to realize what every development team wants to express.
We hope to continue advancing technology and connect it to the next generation of game engines.

(Translated from Japanese)

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Winner: Academy Software Foundation (Academy Software Foundation)
Target: Establishment and dissemination of open technology foundations supporting visual expression and animation

This award honors the efforts and achievements of the entire community.
Our members, studios, software vendors, and developers around the world have contributed to building the open technology foundations that support today's VFX and animation industry.
Single individuals cannot accomplish such achievements alone; cooperation across corporate and national borders realizes them.
If anyone has not yet joined our activities, we would be delighted if you joined our open-source initiatives.

(Translated from Japanese)

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Winner: SILENT HILL f Development Team (NeoBards Entertainment, Konami Digital Entertainment Co., Ltd.)
Target: Comprehensive visual expression elevating the aesthetics of Japanese horror with modern technology

As this is the first title in the series set in Japan, we faced various challenges, but I am truly happy that so many players have supported it.
Based on the concept of being grotesque because it is beautiful, we pursued visual art at a very high level, so winning in the Visual Arts Division moves me deeply.
Young people in their 20s make up about half of the Silent Hill team, so I would like to share a comment from our younger members as well.

I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to everyone on the NeoBards team who ran with all their might for several years, and to Kera, who brought forth wonderful creatures and characters.
Thank you very much today.

(Translated from Japanese)

What is the Grand Award in the Visual Arts Division...?

Grand Award: Donkey Kong Bananza Development Team
Target: Voxel technology realizing a completely destructible 3D world

The committee stated the reason for the award as follows:

What impressed us is that the technology is not limited to a specific job role, but permeates the entire development process.
The team connected each domain around the same core technology—from artistic decisions on depicting terrain and internal contents when broken, to game design where destruction becomes core gameplay, sound linked to destruction, and quality assurance for a fully destructible world—unifying them into a single experience running at 60 FPS on the Nintendo Switch 2.
By transforming the quality of play through visual power and direction, this title offers valuable insights into the nature of technology and development structures.

(Translated from Japanese)

In producing Donkey Kong Bananza, positioning art properly was essential to us.
As I mentioned earlier, this award is the result of artists and engineers cooperating to move forward.
Expressing art using voxel technology presented difficult challenges, but thank you very much for recognizing our development team's passion in this way.

(Translated from Japanese)

CEDEC AWARDS 2026 Ceremony Concludes! All Grand Awards Won by Nintendo Development Teams

The Grand Awards across all four categories at CEDEC AWARDS 2026 went entirely to development teams from Nintendo Co., Ltd.
In particular, the technology that incorporated "destruction" into gameplay in Donkey Kong Bananza earned high praise from game developers.

Engineering Division: Donkey Kong Bananza Development Team
Game Design Division: Donkey Kong Bananza Development Team
Sound Division: Nintendo Music Development & Operations Team
Visual Arts Division: Donkey Kong Bananza Development Team

At this awards ceremony, each team shared the passionate thoughts they poured into game development.
From major titles to indie games, developers across the industry continue to create innovative technologies.
We will keep a close eye on evolving game development technologies moving forward.