GDC: Gears of War Sweeps Developers Choice Awards

Epic Games and Microsoft Game Studios' Xbox 360 shooter Gears of War won Best Game at the Game Developers Choice Awards, hosted by the Game Developers Conference (GDC) at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco. The title also picked up awards for Visual Arts and Technology. The Game Developers Awards are the only peer-based, open nomination awards program in the industry. GDC Executive Director Jamil Moledina commented of the awards ceremony that it is “like no other”, adding that “by celebrating our visionaries by name, we give the audience and the public at large a chance to give credit where credit is due”. Nominations are open to all members of the International Game Developers Association, with the finalists chosen by the Choice Awards Advisory Board, before winners are finally voted on by IDGA members. Clover Studios and Capcom Entertainment's Okami and Nintendo's Wii Sports fared well too, picking up two awards each, for Character Design and Game Design respectively, as well as one each for Innovation. The Innovation award was also shared by Bostjan Cadez, developer of Flash title Line Rider. Other major award winners included Harmonix Music Systems and RedOctane’s Guitar Hero II for Audio, Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, which walked away with the Writing award and Titan Quest developer Iron Lore Entertainment, which picked up the award for New Studio. Shigeru Miyamoto, creator of the Mario, Zelda and Donkey Kong franchises, amongst many others, was awarded the Lifetime Achievement award, and Manifesto Games co-founder Greg Costikyan received the Maverick award. Composer George “The Fat Man” Sanger was given the Community Contribution award for his work to encourage interactive audio innovation, while this year’s First Penguin award, presented to industry pioneers, was awarded to Alexey Pajitnov, creator and developer of Tetris, and pioneer of the casual games industry. "Once again, the Game Developers Choice Awards have shown that gaming greatness can be found within every type of game,” noted Jason Della Rocca, Executive Director of the IGDA, “from the most hardcore of experiences, to those that have brought all new audiences into our industry's fan base. Each year, I am humbled by what our members can do with this great art form.”