The ceremony, produced and hosted by the Game Developers Conference (GDC) and presented by the International Game Developers Association (IGDA), is the only peer-based, open nomination awards program in the industry where honors are bestowed to developers by developers. Recipients will be announced during the GDC, slated for March 20-24, 2006 in San Jose, Calif.
"Recognizing and showcasing individual achievement in the creation of games is a core principle of the GDC," Jamil Moledina, director, Game Developers Conference, said. "For that reason, we are proud to produce and host the Choice Awards."
The ceremony will take place Wednesday, March 22 at 6:30p.m. at the San Jose Civic Auditorium.
"Every year, thousands of nominations are submitted by developers from around the world," Jason Della Rocca, executive director, IGDA, said. "Voting on the final recipients will be extremely competitive, and who can spot excellence and creative achievement better than the creators themselves?"
Nominations were free of charge and open to all IGDA members, ensuring that the nominees reflect the international development community's opinions. The IGDA membership will vote on the finalists.
The 6th annual Game Developer Choice Awards are supported by Platinum Sponsor Motorola and Gold Sponsor AGEIA. In addition to the voted award categories, honors will be presented for the Lifetime Achievement, First Penguin, Community Contribution, Maverick and Innovation awards.
For more information about the Game Developers Choice Awards, check out www.gamechoiceawards.com.
The complete list of nominees is:
Best Game
- Animal Crossing: Wild World (Nintendo EAD / Nintendo) Katsuya Eguchi, Hisashi Nogami, Takashi Tezuka, Kazumi Totaka
- God of War (Sony Computer Entertainment America) David Jaffe, Shannon Studstill
- Guitar Hero (Harmonix Music Systems / RedOctane) Rob Kay, Greg LoPiccolo, Alex Rigopulos
- Shadow of the Colossus (Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.) Kenji Kaido, Yasuhide Kobayashi, Fumito Ueda
- The Movies (Lionhead Studios / Activision) Gary Carr, Peter Molyneux, Mark Webley
Audio
- Call of Duty 2 (Infinity Ward / Activision) Mark Ganus
- Electroplankton (Nintendo) Toshio Iwai, Koichi Kyuma, Yuichi Ozaki
- God of War (Sony Computer Entertainment America) Dave Murrant
- Guitar Hero (Harmonix Music Systems / RedOctane) Eric Brosius, Kasson Crooker
- Project Gotham Racing 3 (Bizarre Creations / Microsoft Game Studios) Nick Bygrave, Guy Whitmore, Nick Wiswell
Character Design
- City of Villains (Cryptic Studios / NCsoft Corporation) Ocala Bellows Kulig, Ryan Butts, Jay Doherty, Jeremy Mattson
- God of War (Sony Computer Entertainment America) David Jaffe, Terry Smith, Charlie Wen
- Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath (Oddworld Inhabitants / Electronic Arts) Lorne Lanning, Rich McKain, Iain Morton, Raymond Swanland
- Psychonauts (Double Fine Productions / Majesco Entertainment Company) Scott Campbell
- Shadow of the Colossus (Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.) Atsuko Fukuyama, Hitoshi Niwa, Shunpei Suzuki, Fumito Ueda
Game Design
- Animal Crossing: Wild World (Nintendo EAD / Nintendo) Katsuya Eguchi, Hisashi Nogami, Takashi Tezuka, Kazumi Totaka
- God of War (Sony Computer Entertainment America) David Jaffe
- Nintendogs (Nintendo EAD / Nintendo) Tsutomu Kaneshige, Hideki Konno, Shigeru Miyamoto, Kiyoshi Mizuki
- Psychonauts (Double Fine Productions / Majesco Entertainment Company) Erik Robson, Tim Schafer
- Shadow of the Colossus (Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.) Junichi Hosono, Fumito Ueda
Technology
- Battlefield 2: Modern Combat (Digital Illusions / Electronic Arts) Fred Gill, Måns Vestin
- Guitar Hero (Harmonix Music Systems / RedOctane) Eran Egozy, Eric Malafeew, Phil Winston
- Nintendogs (Nintendo EAD / Nintendo) Tsutomu Kaneshige
- Project Gotham Racing 3 (Bizarre Creations / Microsoft Game Studios) Edmund Clay, Roger Perkins, Phil Teschner, Ian Wilson
- Shadow of the Colossus (Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.) Jinji Horagai, Takuya Seki, Hajime Sugiyama, Masanobu Tanaka
Visual Arts
- God of War (Sony Computer Entertainment America) Steve Caterson, Terry Smith, Charlie Wen
- Project Gotham Racing 3 (Bizarre Creations / Microsoft Game Studios) Gren Atherton, Julie McGurren, Peter Roe, Kiki Wolfkill
- Resident Evil 4 (Capcom Production Studio 4 / Capcom Entertainment) Yusuke Hashimoto, Yoshiaki Hirabayashi, Yusuke Kan, Masaki Yamanaka
- Shadow of the Colossus (Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.) Koji Hasegawa, Hironobu Nakano, Masanori Kajita, Fumito Ueda
- We Love Katamari (Namco Limited / Namco Hometek) Keita Takahashi, Takeshi Ugajin
Writing
- Freedom Force vs. The 3rd Reich (Irrational Games / Vivendi Universal Games) Ken Levine
- God of War (Sony Computer Entertainment America) David Jaffe, Marianne Krawcyzk, Alex Stein
- Indigo Prophecy (Quantic Dream / Atari) David Cage
- Jade Empire (BioWare Corp. / Microsoft Game Studios) Drew Karpyshyn, Brian Kindregan, Luke Kristjanson, Mike Laidlaw, Peter Thomas,
Mac Walters - Psychonauts (Double Fine Productions / Majesco Entertainment Company) Tim Schafer, Erik Wolpaw
New Studio
- ArenaNet (Guild Wars) Mike O'Brien, Jeff Strain, Patrick Wyatt
- Double Fine Productions (Psychonauts) Caroline Esmurdoc, Tim Schafer
- New Crayon Games (Bonnie's Bookstore) Phil Steinmeyer
- TellTale Games (Bone: Out From Boneville) David Bogan, Kevin Bruner, Dan Connors, Troy Molander
- Wideload Games (Stubbs the Zombie in Rebel Without a Pulse) Alexander Seropian