The International Game Developers Association (IGDA) has named the nominees for the Third Annual Game Developers Choice Awards. The recipients will be announced at a ceremony on March 6, during the Game Developers Conference (GDC), March 4-8 in San Jose, Calif. Produced by the Gama Network, the GDC is the largest annual event exclusively for game development professionals.
Voting was open to all professional game developers, regardless of membership or affiliation, ensuring that the nominees reflect the international development community’s opinions.
Vying for Game of the Year are Battlefield 1942 (Digital Illusions), Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (Rockstar North), Metroid Prime (Retro Studios), Neverwinter Nights (BioWare Corp.) and Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell (Ubi Soft Montreal).
Original Game Character of the Year will be a showdown between Blinx from Blinx the Time Sweeper, Ratchet from Ratchet and Clank, Rau from The Mark of Kri, Sam Fischer from Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell and Sly Cooper from Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus.
The other nominees are:
Rookie Studio of the Year
Arkane Studios for Arx Fatalis
Day 1 Studios for MechAssault
Gas Powered Games for Dungeon Siege
Pipeworks Software for Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee
Retro Studios for Metroid Prime
Excellence in Audio
GTA Team for sound design in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
Rich Briggs, Latch Brothers, Takayuki Kawagoe, Noah Musler, Hideki Naganuma and Fumitaka Shibata for sound design in Jet Set Radio Future
EA Sound Studio for sound effects in Medal of Honor: Allied Assault
Metroid Team for sound effects in Metroid Prime
Andrew Boyd, Chris Hegstrom and Robb Mills for composition in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
Excellence in Game Design
Romain de Waubert de Genlis for Battlefield 1942
GTA Team for Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
Metroid Team for Metroid Prime
Satoru Iwata, Yoshiaki Koizumi, Shigeru Miyamoto, Takashi Tezuka and Kenta Usui for in Super Mario Sunshine
Splinter Cell Team leaders for Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell
Excellence in Level Design
Metroid Team for Metroid Prime
Brian Allgeier, Mark Cerny, Lesley Mathieson and Colin Munson Ratchet & Clank
Brendan McNamara, Chun Wah Kong and the SCEE Design Team The Getaway
Francois Pelland and Team for Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell
Pancho Eekels, Dave Ewing and James Schmalz for Unreal Tournament 2003
Excellence in Programming
Mike Biddlecombe, Scott Bilas, Bartosz Kijanka, James Loe, Eric Tams and Chad Queen Dungeon Siege
Metroid Team for Metroid Prime
Mark Brockington, Scott Greig, Jason Knipe, Don Moar and Don Yakielashek for Neverwinter Nights
Antoine Dodens and Team for Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell
WarCraft III Team for Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos
Excellence in Visual Arts
Jonathan Chey, Ken Levine and Team for art direction in Freedom Force
Shinji Hashimoto and Tetsuya Nomura for art direction in Kingdom Hearts
Hokyo Lim, Suzanne Kaufman, Dev Madan, Augie Pagan and Karin Yamagiwa for art direction in Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus
Nicolas Cantin, Frederick Gagne and Benoit Sokal for art direction in Syberia“Jay Beard, Erik Medina, Jeff Merghart, Dan Mueller and Tim Neveu for animation in The Mark of Kri
Excellence in Writing
Denis Dyack and Ken McCulloch for Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem
GTA Team for Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
Lukas Kure and Dan Vavra for Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven
Craig Hubbard and Team for No One Lives Forever 2: A Spy In H.A.R.M.S. Way
Clint Hocking and JT Petty for Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell
An advisory committee from the IGDA will select the recipients of the Lifetime Achievement Award, First Penguin Award and the IGDA Award for Community Contribution. All registered GDC attendees are invited to attend the ceremony.
