Nominations for games are made by International Choice Awards Network (ICAN), a group of leading game creators. Votes are then additionally made by editors of Game Developer.[3] Any video game released in the preceding calendar year, regardless of medium, is eligible to be nominated, though upgrades, expansions, and mission packs are not eligible to be nominated.[3]
The top nominated games are assembled into the list of nominees, typically presented in December, are then voted on by final voting body, made up of ICANs, and editors of Game Developer.[3] In this final stage of voting, games with the highest votes in a category are the winners.[3]
Winners for Special Awards (Lifetime Achievement, Pioneer, Ambassador) are decided by a "Special Awards Jury", which appears to consist of a variety of 5 people.[4] This group may consider recommendations from ICAN members.[3]
The winners are announced during the Game Developers Conference, which is typically held in March of the calendar year.
GDC related properties are owned by the UBM technology group.
Historical process
In 2007, gamasutra.com took over management of the awards from the IGDA.[5]An advisory board selected by the editors of gamasutra.com and Game Developer magazine oversees the selection process.
In the past, nominations are accepted from registered gamasutra.com users, confirmed to be game developers, and from the advisory board. Once the nomination process is complete, the advisory board identifies five finalists for each regular category.
The recipients of the Lifetime Achievement, Pioneer (formerly known as First Penguin) and Maverick awards are selected by the advisory board. For the other awards, a vote open to all those who participated in the nomination process chooses a recipient from each category's finalists.[6]
List of winners
''Note: Events held for awards are held early in the following year. Winners are listed first and highlighted in bold.''
Game of the Year
The Game of the Year Award recognizes the overall best game released during the previous calendar year, as interpreted by the members of the Game Developers Conference.
Best Audio
Best Audio award recognizes the overall excellence of audio in a game, including sound effects, musical composition, sound design and orchestration.
The Best Debut Award recognizes the best game from any development studio which released its first publicly available title during the calendar year. This was formerly known as the New Studio of the Year Award. In years prior to 2008, the award was awarded to the studio name, as opposed to the game title.
2000: Valve / Minh Le / Jess Cliffe (for Counter-Strike)
2001: Bohemia Interactive (for Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis)
The Innovation Award recognizes games that demonstrate innovation and push the boundaries of games as an expressive medium. Multiple awards per year were given before 2007.
2000: Counter-Strike; Crazy Taxi; Deus Ex; Jet Grind Radio; No One Lives Forever
2001: Black and White; Grand Theft Auto III; ICO; Majestic; Rez
2002: Animal Crossing; Battlefield 1942; Medal of Honor: Allied Assault; The Thing
2003: EyeToy: Play; Viewtiful Joe; WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$!
2004: Donkey Konga; I Love Bees; Katamari Damacy
2005: Nintendogs; Guitar Hero
2006: Line Rider; Ōkami; Wii Sports
Best Narrative
Best Narrative award recognizes the quality of writing in a game, including story, plot construction, dialogue, and branching narratives.
2002: Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell
2003: Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
2004: Half-Life 2
2005: Psychonauts
2006: The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
2007: BioShock
2008: Fallout 3
2009: Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
2010: Mass Effect 2
2011: Portal 2
2012: The Walking Dead
2013: The Last of Us
2014: Kentucky Route Zero: Episode 3
Best Technology
Best Technology award recognizes the overall excellence of technology in a game, including graphics programming, artificial intelligence, networking, and physics.
2004: Half-Life 2
2005: Nintendogs
2006: Gears of War
2007: Crysis
2008: LittleBigPlanet
2009: Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
2010: Red Dead Redemption
2011: Battlefield 3
2012: Far Cry 3
2013: Grand Theft Auto V
2014: Destiny
2015: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
2016: Uncharted 4: A Thief's End
Best Visual Art
Best Visual Art award recognizes the overall excellence of visual art in a game, including animation, modeling, art direction, and textures.
Known as the First Penguin award until 2007, the Pioneer Award celebrates individuals who developed a breakthrough technology, game concept or gameplay design.
GDC had announced their intention to award Nolan Bushnell (co-founder of Atari) the 2017 Pioneer Award.[49] However, after several people asked the GDC to reconsider this in light of documented sexist activities in Bushnell's past in light of the current #MeToo movement, GDC opted to not award the Pioneer Award and instead "will dedicate this year's award to honor the pioneering and unheard voices of the past".[50][51]
2000: Chip Morningstar and Randy Farmer, creators of LucasArts's Habitat
2001: Hubert Chardot, "for his risk-taking work on
Ambassador Award
The Ambassador Award is given to individuals within or outside the industry who helped video games "advance to a better place."[52] It replaced the IGDA Award for Community Contribution after 2007.[53]
2007: Jason Della Rocca (former head of International Game Developers Association)
2008: Tommy Tallarico (video game musician and composer)
2009: Jerry Holkins, Mike Krahulik and Robert Khoo (creators and founders of Penny Arcade)
2006: Shigeru Miyamoto (creator of Mario, Donkey Kong, The Legend of Zelda, Star Fox
Retired awards
The following award categories have been retired or replaced with a different focus.
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.
2007: flOw
2008: World of Goo
2009: Flower
2011: Minecraft
2012: Bastion
2013: Journey
2014: Papers, Please
Character Design
The Character Design award recognizes the overall excellence of non-licensed character design in a game, including originality, character arc and emotional depth.
The IGDA Award for Community Contribution recognized developers for significant efforts "building community, sharing knowledge, speaking on behalf of developers and/or contributing to the art form of game development".[53] The Ambassador Award replaced it after 2007.[52]
2000: John Carmack
2001: Jeff Lander
2002: Doug Church (Eidos Interactive)
2003: Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk
2004: Sheri Graner Ray
2005: Chris Hecker
2006: George Sanger
Original Game Character of the Year
2000: Seaman from Seaman
2001: Daxter from Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy
2002: Sly Cooper from Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus
2003: HK-47 from Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
Maverick Award
The Maverick Award recognizes the current achievements of a developer who exhibits independence in thought and action while experimenting with alternate/emerging forms of digital games.
2003: Brian Fiete, Jason Kapalka, and John Vechey (PopCap Games)
2004: Matt Adams, Ju Row Farr, and Nick Tandavanitj (Blast Theory)
2005: Mike Dornbrook, Eran Egozy, Greg LoPiccolo, and Alex Rigopulos (Harmonix Music Systems)
2006: Greg Costikyan
Best New Social/Online Game
2009: FarmVille
Game Developers Choice Online Awards
For its eight iteration in 2010, GDC Austin was rebranded as GDC Online, with a greater focus on MMOs, and social and casual games.[61] The Game Developers Choice Online Awards were also introduced to recognize technical excellence and innovation in online games.In addition to the awards of the competitive categories, special awards were given out to pioneering online games and creators.[62] In 2012 it was announced that GDC Online would be replaced by GDC Next in Los Angeles in 2013, and the awards were subsequently discontinued.[63][64]
2010
The 2010 awards ceremony took place on October 7, 2010. League of Legends by Riot Games led the winners with five awards from six nominations, including the publicly voted Audience Award.[65]Richard Bartle received the Online Game Legend award for his work on the first MUD and the 2003 book Designing Virtual Worlds.The massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) Ultima Online was inducted into the GDC Online Awards Hall of Fame for being "a specific online game that has resulted in the long-term advancement of the medium, pioneering major shifts in online game development and games as a whole."[66]
2011
The 2011 awards ceremony took place on October 12, 2011. All the awards from the previous year returned, and a new award for Online Innovation was introduced. Minecraft and Rift by Mojang and Trion Worlds respectively took home the most awards, with two each.Kelton Flinn and John Taylor received the special Online Game Legend award as founders of Kesmai and creators of Island of Kesmai and Air Warrior.Additionally, the MMORPG EverQuest was inducted into the GDC Online Awards Hall of Fame.[67]
2012
The 2011 awards ceremony took place on October 10, 2012. Star Wars: The Old Republic, developed by BioWare Austin, became the top winner at four awards, with League of Legends by Riot Games trailing slightly behind at three awards.[68] The Online Game Legend award was given to Raph Koster, developer of previous Hall of Fame inductee Ultima Online as well as Star Wars: Galaxies.MMORPG World of Warcraft was inducted into the GDC Online Awards Hall of Fame.[69]
32.Ghost of Tsushima was the second most awarded game at the 21st GDC, receiving the Best Visual Art, Audience Awards. 21st Game Developers Choice Awards: Here are the winners TechSpot, July 22, 2021, retrieved October 29, 2021^
34.Ghost of Tsushima was the second most awarded game at the 21st GDC, receiving the Best Visual Art, Audience Awards. 21st Game Developers Choice Awards: Here are the winners TechSpot, July 22, 2021, retrieved October 29, 2021^
36.Ghost of Tsushima was the second most awarded game at the 21st GDC, receiving the Best Visual Art, Audience Awards. 21st Game Developers Choice Awards: Here are the winners TechSpot, July 22, 2021, retrieved October 29, 2021^
2007: Ralph Baer, inventor of the Magnavox Odyssey
2008: Alex Rigopulos and Eran Egozy, founders of Harmonix
2009: Gabe Newell, co-founder of Valve
2010: Yu Suzuki, lead of Sega AM2 development team responsible for several arcade games and the Shenmue series
2011: Dave Theurer, developer of Missile Command and Tempest
2012: Steve Russell, creator of Spacewar!
2013: Brandon Beck and Marc Merrill, creators of Riot Games[45]
2014: David Braben, founder of Frontier Developments, co-creator of the Elite series
2015: Markus "Notch" Persson, creator of Minecraft
2016: Jordan Mechner, creator of Prince of Persia[23]
2017: None (see below)
2018: Rieko Kodama, graphic artist/director/producer for several Sega titles[46]
2019: Roberta Williams, co-founder of Sierra On-line and early developer of the adventure game genre[47]
2020: Tom Fulp, creator of Newgrounds and co-founder of The Behemoth[48]
2021: None given
2022: Mabel Addis, first female video game designer[29]
2024: Lucas Pope, developer of Papers, Please and The Return of the Obra Dinn
2011: Kenneth Doroshow and Paul M. Smith (the lawyers which argued Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association to the US Supreme Court supporting the video game industry)
2012: Chris Melissinos (developer at Sun Microsystems leading gaming-related Java initiatives)
2013: Anita Sarkeesian (creator of Feminist Frequency)[45]
2014: Brenda Romero (game developer, one of the leads of Romero Games)
2015: Tracy Fullerton (game developer and professor at USC Interactive Media & Games Division)
2016: Mark DeLoura (former editor of Game Developer and served as Senior Advisor for Digital Media for the U.S. Office of Science and Technology Policy)[23]
2017: Rami Ismail (co-founder of Vlambeer, assistance to indie game development)[49]
2018: None given
2019: Kate Edwards (former head of the International Game Developers Association)[55]
2020: None given
2021: Steven Spohn (founder of AbleGamers)
2022: None given
2023: Fawzi Mesmar (creative director, game designer, leader, and author, known for his work in the video game industry)
