The developer behind Steam hit roguelike survival game Megabonk was nominated Monday for Best Debut Indie Game at The Game Awards. On Tuesday, the developer known only as vedinad said that he was withdrawing Megabonk from contention, saying that “unfortunately i don’t think it qualifies for the category.”
On the Megabonk X account, vedinad (aka “John Megabonk”) posted about withdrawing the game from this year’s award, further explaining his reasoning.
“It’s an honor and a dream for Megabonk to be nominated for TGA, but unfortunately i don’t think it qualifies for the category ‘Debut Indie Game,'” the developer said in a post spotted by Kotaku. “I’ve made games in the past under different studio names, so Megabonk is not my debut game. i really appreciate the nomination, support and votes, but it doesn’t feel right in this category. you should vote for another one of the amazing debut titles, they are all amazing games!”
According to The Game Awards host Geoff Keighley, the Best Debut Indie Game “recognizes a development team that hasn’t won a Game Award before.” Teams eligible “published their first games this year,” Keighley said during Monday’s nominations announcement livestream. The Game Awards website describes the category as recognizing the “best debut game created by a new independent studio.”
The developer known as vedinad only has one game under that Steam developer account: Megabonk. vedinad has not publicly revealed what other games he was involved in. vedinad’s identity has been the source of intense speculation, with one oft-posted theory being that he is Dani (aka danidev), the popular YouTuber and game developer behind Crab Game (a Squid Game-like) and Muck (a roguelike survival game).
Regardless of vedinad’s identity and past work, he may very well qualify under The Game Awards rules, just like Dispatch developer AdHoc Studio — which is composed of veteran developers from Telltale Games, Ubisoft, and Night School Studio — does as a new entity.
It’s unclear if The Game Awards organizers will grant vedinad his wish and withdraw Megabonk from contention. Polygon has reached out to The Game Awards and to creator Geoff Keighley, and will update this story when they respond.
The Game Awards 2025 will take place on Dec. 11. Whether that will offer Megabonk fans a look at its creator, should he win, is still up in the air.