| D.I.C.E. Award for Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction | |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Presented by | Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences |
| First award | 1998 |
| Currently held by | Black Myth: Wukong |
| Website | www |
The D.I.C.E. Award for Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction is an award presented annually by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences during the D.I.C.E. Awards. This award is "presented to the individual or team whose work represents the highest level of achievement in designing a unified graphic look for an interactive title". [1] Creative/technical Academy members with expertise as an artist, animator or programmer are qualified to vote for this award. [2]
The award's most recent winner is Black Myth: Wukong , developed and published by Game Science.
The Academy originally offered Outstanding Achievement in Art/Graphics at the first two annual awards ceremonies. [3] [4] This would be separated into the categories of Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction and Outstanding Achievement in Animation at the third annual awards ceremony. [5] [6] Since the categories separated, roughly half of the finalists and winners for "Art Direction" and "Animation" were the same game within its respective release year. The games that had won both awards for "Art Direction" and "Animation" were:
The games that won the "Art Direction" award but were not finalists in the "Animation" category were:
2022 was the only year that the "Art Direction" and "Animation" categories had the same five finalists and winner. 2025 was the only year that the two categories did not have any of the same finalists.
| Indicates the winner |
Sony has published the most nominees and winners in this category; Sony also has published games with multiple back-to-back wins, yet with different developers. The only other publisher with back-to-back wins has been Square Electronic Arts. Nintendo and Microsoft have also published multiple nominees, with two wins each. Sony, Nintendo, Microsoft, Ubisoft, and Square Enix Europe have the distinction of publishing multiple nominees within the same year. Ubisoft is the most nominated publisher without a win in this category (12 nominations, 0 win).
Several of Sony's developing subsidiaries have developed multiple nominees and winners. Insomniac Games has developed the most nominees, but only one of its nominated games has won ( Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart ). Sony subsidiary Naughty Dog is the studio who has developed the most winners in this category. Sony's second party studios Sucker Punch Productions and Santa Monica Studio, as well as Sony's in-house Japan Studio, have all won this award category twice. The only developer with back-to-back wins has been SquareSoft. Ubisoft Montreal is the most nominated developer without a single win in this category (8 nominations, 0 win).
| Developer | Nominations | Wins |
|---|---|---|
| Naughty Dog | 6 | 3 |
| SquareSoft/Square Enix | 6 | 2 |
| Japan Studio | 4 | 2 |
| Santa Monica Studio | 4 | 2 |
| Remedy Entertainment | 3 | 2 |
| Sucker Punch Productions | 3 | 2 |
| Insomniac Games | 10 | 1 |
| Valve | 4 | 1 |
| Rare | 3 | 1 |
| Media Molecule | 2 | 1 |
| Moon Studios | 2 | 1 |
| Nintendo EAD/EPD | 2 | 1 |
| Ubisoft Montreal | 8 | 0 |
| DICE | 4 | 0 |
| Infinity Ward | 4 | 0 |
| Ninja Theory | 4 | 0 |
| Ubisoft Montpellier | 4 | 0 |
| LucasArts | 3 | 0 |
| Capcom | 3 | 0 |
| Guerrilla Games | 3 | 0 |
| 2K Boston/Irrational Games | 2 | 0 |
| Arkane Studios | 2 | 0 |
| Bethesda Softworks | 2 | 0 |
| Retro Studios | 2 | 0 |
| Treyarch | 2 | 0 |
| Publisher | Nominations | Wins |
|---|---|---|
| Sony Computer/Interactive Entertainment | 38 | 12 |
| Electronic Arts | 12 | 2 |
| Microsoft/Xbox Game Studios | 11 | 2 |
| Nintendo | 8 | 2 |
| SquareSoft/Square Enix | 5 | 2 |
| Rockstar Games | 2 | 1 |
| Ubisoft | 12 | 0 |
| Activision | 7 | 0 |
| LucasArts | 4 | 0 |
| 2K Games | 3 | 0 |
| Bandai Namco Entertainment | 3 | 0 |
| Bethesda Softworks | 3 | 0 |
| Capcom | 3 | 0 |
| Devolver Digital | 2 | 0 |
| Oddworld Inhabitants | 2 | 0 |
| Sierra On-Line | 2 | 0 |
| Square Enix Europe | 2 | 0 |
| Valve | 2 | 0 |
The most nominated franchises have been Call of Duty (six nominations) and Final Fantasy (five nominations). Final Fantasy , God of War , and Uncharted have been the only franchises to have won more than once. The Call of Duty franchise has not won any award in this category despite receiving the most nominations.
| Franchises | Nominations | Wins |
|---|---|---|
| Final Fantasy | 5 | 2 |
| God of War | 4 | 2 |
| Uncharted | 3 | 2 |
| Ratchet & Clank | 3 | 1 |
| Alan Wake | 2 | 1 |
| BioShock | 2 | 1 |
| Half-Life | 2 | 1 |
| The Last of Us | 2 | 1 |
| The Legend of Zelda | 2 | 1 |
| Ori | 2 | 1 |
| Red Dead | 2 | 1 |
| Sly Cooper | 2 | 1 |
| Call of Duty | 6 | 0 |
| Spider-Man | 4 | 0 |
| Assassin's Creed | 3 | 0 |
| Horizon | 3 | 0 |
| Prince of Persia | 3 | 0 |
| Resident Evil | 3 | 0 |
| Star Wars | 3 | 0 |
| Spyro | 3 | 0 |
| Battlefield | 2 | 0 |
| Halo | 2 | 0 |
| Hellblade | 2 | 0 |
| Metroid | 2 | 0 |
| Monkey Island | 2 | 0 |
| Oddworld | 2 | 0 |
| Rayman | 2 | 0 |