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Localthunk wants to make sure Blue Prince gets love at The Game Awards

Fresh off a BAFTA Game Awards win, the Balatro developer appealed directly to Geoff Keighley to make Blue Prince a GOTY candidate.

TJ Denzer

April 9, 2025 10:14 AM

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It was another big weekend for Balatro and developer localthunk as the game got another set of flowers at the BAFTA Game Awards, but localthunk didn’t just take in the praise. They also directed it to other awesome indie games. Recently, localthunk has been as into Dogubomb and Raw Fury’s Blue Prince as everyone else who played and they want to make sure it’s on Geoff Keighley’s radar for The Game Awards 2025.

Localthunk’s week started big at the BAFTAs, where they won awards for Balatro, adding to an already lengthy list of accolades that includes Shacknews Game of the Year 2024. They used the stage to call on viewers to continue to support good independent games, but it wasn’t confined to the stage. On their personal social media, localthunk specifically called out Blue Prince as a Game of the Year contender and demanded Geoff Keighley be sure to do the same when it comes to The Game Awards. To his credit, Keighley isn’t against the idea.

Amazing game, been tracking this one for a while!

— Geoff Keighley (@geoffkeighley) April 7, 2025

The Game Awards generally take place around December, as 2024’s presentation did. As such, Blue Prince has a long road to the show, and it’s a bit difficult to keep any game in the collective conscious for so long, let alone an indie, but Balatro was in a similar position in 2024. Balatro came out in March 2024 and floored players and critics with its gameplay mechanics. Blue Prince has similarly gotten a lot of love, especially here at Shacknews, so with localthunk’s support, maybe it can pull off the end of  the year celebration that Balatro enjoyed for 2024.

Either way, at least Geoff Keighley knows and is enthused about Blue Prince. As we watch for further updates, stay tuned to the Blue Prince topic for news and coverage.

TJ Denzer

Senior News Editor

TJ Denzer is a player and writer with a passion for games that has dominated a lifetime. He found his way to the Shacknews roster in late 2019 and has worked his way to Senior News Editor since. Between news coverage, he also aides notably in livestream projects like the indie game-focused Indie-licious, the Shacknews Stimulus Games, and the Shacknews Dump. You can reach him at tj.denzer@shacknews.com and also find him on BlueSky @JohnnyChugs.