Australian Game Developer Award Winners Announced

The winners of the Australian Game Developers (AGD) Awards have been announced, with developers from Australia and New Zealand being honored for the first time in their own award show. All finalists and winners were selected by the AGDC awards committee, comprising the AGDC Advisory board with additional invited industry representatives. Australasia's increasing diversity in terms of mainstream console and handheld releases was highlighted in the awards, which saw Irrational Games' Australian branch win many of the major awards for its PC multiplayer FPS Tribes: Vengeance, with other awards going to Atari Melbourne House for PS2 action game Transformers, and Krome Studios for its Australian-themed, EA-published multiplatform and handheld title, Ty the Tasmanian Tiger 2. The full list of winners can be found below, with more information available via the website www.agdc.com.au. Career Achievement Award: John De Margheriti, Micro Forté Award for Outstanding Innovation : Andrew Bailey of Tantalus, for contribution to the Tantalus CRIS GBA game engine Award for Best New Start-Up : Binary Star Limited Award for Best Game of 2004: Irrational Games, for Tribes: Vengeance Award for Best PC Game : Irrational Games, for Tribes: Vengeance Award for Best Console Game: Atari Melbourne House, for Transformers Award for Best Handheld Game : Krome Studios, for Ty the Tasmanian Tiger 2: Bush Rescue Award for Best Game Design: Edward Orman, Irrational Games, for Tribes: Vengeance Award for Best Level Design: Dean Tate, Irrational Games, for Tribes: Vengeance Award for Best Game Audio: Krome Studios, for Ty the Tasmanian Tiger 2: Bush Rescue Award for Programming Excellence : Atari Melbourne House, for Transformers Award for Outstanding Visual Arts: Krome Studios, for Ty the Tasmanian Tiger 2: Bush Rescue Best Unsigned Game (Professional): Homeland by Binary Star Limited