The Game Developers Choice Awards are the premier accolades for peer recognition in the digital games industry. Each year, the Choice Awards recognize and celebrate the creativity, artistry and technical genius of the finest developers and games created in the last year.
The 11th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards
Moscone Convention Center, North Hall D
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
6:30 – 8:30 pmWednesday, March 2, 2011
Nominees and Award Recipients
2010 Special Awards Recipients
These three special honors, selected by the Game Developers Choice Awards advisory board, will be presented at the ceremony.
Lifetime Achievement
The Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes the career and achievements of a developer who has made an indelible impact on the craft of game development and games as a whole.- Peter Molyneux
Pioneer Award
The Pioneer Award (formerly known as the First Penguin Award) celebrates those individuals who developed a breakthrough technology, game concept, or gameplay design at a crucial juncture video game history - paving the way for the myriads who followed them.- Yu Suzuki
Ambassador Award
The Ambassador Award honors an individual or individuals who have helped the game industry advance to a better place, either through facilitating a better game community from within, or by reaching outside the industry to be an advocate for video games and help further our art.- Tim Brengle and Ian MacKenzie
2010 Recipients & Nominees
In addition to the Ambassador, Pioneer and Lifetime Achievement Awards, Choice Awards were given in the following categories below. These particular categories will be both nominated and voted on by the development community.
Game of the Year
The Game of the Year Award recognizes the choice of game developers for the overall best game release during 2010.- Red Dead Redemption (Rockstar San Diego)
-Rockstar San Diego Team - Mass Effect 2 (BioWare)
-BioWare Mass Effect Team - Call of Duty: Black Ops (Treyarch)
- Limbo (Playdead)
-Arnt Jensen, Dino Patti, Mads Wibroe - Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood (Ubisoft Montreal)
-Vincent Pontbriand, Patrick Plourde, Jeffrey Yohalem, Mohamed Gambouz, Gaelec Simard, Christopher Weiler
Best Writing
The Best Writing Award recognizes the overall excellence of storytelling in a game - including, but not limited to, art direction, animation, modeling, character design, texture creation, and so on.- Mass Effect 2 (BioWare)
-BioWare Mass Effect Team - Red Dead Redemption (Rockstar San Diego)
-Rockstar San Diego Team - Heavy Rain (Quantic Dream)
-David Cage - Costume Quest (Double Fine)
-Tim Schafer, Elliott Roberts, Tasha Harris, Gabe Miller - Fallout: New Vegas (Obsidian)
-John Gonzalez, Eric Fenstermaker, Travis Stout
Best Game Design
The Best Game Design Award recognizes the overall excellence of design in a game - including, but not limited to, gameplay mechanics, playability, play balancing, and level design.- Red Dead Redemption (Rockstar San Diego)
-Rockstar San Diego Team - Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Nintendo)
-Nintendo EAD Tokyo Team - Mass Effect 2 (BioWare)
-BioWare Mass Effect Team - Limbo (Playdead)
-Arnt Jensen - God of War III (SCE Santa Monica)
-Stig Asmussen, Todd Papy, Adam Puhl
Best Technology
The Best Technology Award recognizes the overall excellence of technology in a game - including, but not limited to, graphics programming, artificial intelligence, networking, and physics.- Red Dead Redemption (Rockstar San Diego)
-Rockstar San Diego Team - Starcraft II (Blizzard)
-Blizzard Entertainment Team - Heavy Rain (Quantic Dream)
-Damien Castelltort - Mass Effect 2 (BioWare)
-BioWare Mass Effect Team - God of War III (SCE Santa Monica)
-Vassily Filippov, Christer Ericson, Tim Moss
Best Visual Arts
The Best Visual Arts Award recognizes the overall excellence of visual art in a game - including, but not limited to, art direction, animation, modeling, character design, texture creation, and so on.- Limbo (Playdead)
-Arnt Jensen, Morten Bramsen - God of War III (SCE Santa Monica)
-Stig Asmussen, Ken Feldman, Cecil Kim - Call of Duty: Black Ops (Treyarch)
-Colin Whitney, Brian Anderson, Dominique Drozdz - Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood (Ubisoft Montreal)
-Vincent Pontbriand, Patrick Plourde, Jeffrey Yohalem, Mohamed Gambouz, Gaelec Simard, Christopher Weiler - Red Dead Redemption (Rockstar San Diego)
-Rockstar San Diego Team
Best Debut Game
The Best Debut Game Award recognizes the game from any development studio which released its first publicly available title in the year 2010.- Minecraft (Mojang)
-Markus Persson - Limbo (Playdead)
-Arnt Jensen, Dino Patti - Darksiders (Vigil Games)
-David Adams, Joe Madureira - Monday Night Combat (Uber Entertainment)
-Bob Berry, Jon Mavor, Chandana Ekanayake, John Comes - Super Meat Boy (Team Meat)
-Edmund McMillen, Tommy Refenes
Innovation Award
The Innovation Award recognizes the single game that demonstrates true innovation, advances the state of the art, and pushes the boundaries of games as an expressive medium.- Minecraft (Mojang)
-Markus Persson - Heavy Rain (Quantic Dream)
-David Cage, Guillaume de Fondaumiere, Damien Castelltort, Christophe Brusseaux - Kirby's Epic Yarn (Good-Feel & HAL Laboratory)
-Nintendo and Good-Feel Teams - Limbo (Playdead)
-Arnt Jensen - Dance Central (Harmonix)
-Tracy Rosenthal-Newsom, Kasson Crooker, Dean Tate, Naoko Takamoto
Best Handheld Game
Best Handheld Game Award recognizes the overall best game commercially released on any handheld platform during 2010.
- Cut the Rope (ZeptoLab)
-Semyon Voinov, Efim Voinov - God of War: Ghost of Sparta (Ready At Dawn/SCE Santa Monica)
-Dana Jan, Ru Weerasuriya, Nathan Phail-Liff, Marc Turndorf - Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker (Kojima Productions)
-Hideo Kojima - Game Dev Story (Kairosoft)
-Usui - Dragon Quest IX (Level 5)
-Square Enix and LEVEL-5 Teams
Best Audio
The Best Audio Award recognizes the overall excellence of audio in a game - including, but not limited to, sound effects, musical composition, sound design, orchestration, etc.
- Red Dead Redemption (Rockstar San Diego)
-Rockstar San Diego Team - Limbo (Playdead)
-Martin Stig Andersen - Halo: Reach (Bungie)
-Marty O’Donnell, Jay Weinland, C Paul Johnson, David Henry - Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (DICE)
-Stefan Strandberg, The DICE Audio Team - Mass Effect 2 (BioWare)
-BioWare Mass Effect Team
Best Downloadable Game
Best Downloadable Game Award recognizes the overall best game released on console or PC platforms specifically and solely for digital download - with an emphasis on smaller, more 'casual'-friendly titles.
- Minecraft (Mojang)
-Markus Persson - Costume Quest (Double Fine)
-Tasha Harris, Tim Schafer, Gabe Miller, Anna Kipnis - Limbo (Playdead)
-Arnt Jensen, Dino Patti, Mads Wibroe - Super Meat Boy (Team Meat)
-Edmund McMillen, Tommy Refenes - Monday Night Combat (Uber Entertainment)
-Bob Berry, Jon Mavor, Chandana Ekanayake, John Comes