The Game Designer Award concluded in 2026. Masahiro Sakurai, who served as the head judge for many years, stated in an interview that he dislikes forcibly ranking games that target different players and pursue different experiences. However, he continued to participate in the award because publicly recognizing works brings joy to developers and leaves a visible record.
The Game Designer Award ran for 16 years starting from 2010, within the Annual Works category of the Japan Game Awards. It aimed to focus on the originality and novelty of games from the perspective of professional creators. Sakurai believes that popularity-based awards tend to favor titles with high visibility or strong sales performance, so he hoped for another evaluation perspective that emphasizes game content and creativity.
The interview also revealed the selection process: judges are, in principle, directors who have produced original games. In the first round, judges can freely distribute their 10 points; works that reach a certain score and receive multiple recommendations advance to the second round, where each judge selects one title. Judges are not allowed to discuss candidate works beforehand to avoid influencing each other.
Sakurai cited Text Game, the winner of the final edition, to illustrate the importance of revisiting works that were less familiar during the first round. This is also the selection perspective he emphasized when looking back on the Game Designer Award.