Innovators David Jaffe, Tim Schafer and Fumito Ueda Dominate List of Nominees for 6th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards

'God of War' Leads With Six Nominations, 'Shadow of the Colossus' Garners Five; 'Guitar Hero,' 'Project Gotham Racing 3' and 'Psychonauts' Tie With Three Nods Each

PRNewswire
SAN FRANCISCO
Feb 27, 2006

Sony Computer Entertainment's "God of War" and "Shadow of the Colossus" lead the list of nominated games for the 6th annual Game Developers Choice Awards, receiving six and five nominations, respectively. "Guitar Hero," "Project Gotham Racing 3" and "Psychonauts" follow close behind with three nods.

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, Mans 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

  About the International Game Developers Association (IGDA)

The International Game Developers Association is a non-profit membership organization that advocates globally on issues related to digital game creation. The IGDA's mission is to strengthen the international game development community and effect change to benefit that community. For more information on the IGDA, please visit www.igda.org or e-mail info@igda.org.

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