The nominees for the 2006 Game Developers Choice Awards have been announced, and Joystiq's got a chance to vote!
To be clear, this blogger has a fully paid media/press membership with the IGDA, which opened up the opportunity to submit nominations a few weeks ago, and now the "algorithmically selected" privilege of submitting votes for "AS MANY or AS FEW, ALL or NONE of the nominees in each category." Basically, we can vote for as many games and studios in each category as we see fit. The awards ceremony is set for March 22nd.
This is where you guys come in: Which games should we vote for? While this is a rather unscientific poll (we'll only be looking at the comments posted below and weighing your comments with the rest of our thoughts and concerns), it would be great to hear your arguments for or against the titles considered, which are listed in their entirety below. So who deserves to be chosen? We'll submit our vote on the 7th (as the voting deadline is Wednesday, March 8th), so speak up while you still can.
Best Game
The Best Game award recognizes the overall best--as interpreted by developers--game released during the year 2005.
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
New Studio
The New Studio award recognizes the outstanding achievement of a "new" game development studio and the obstacles it overcame in releasing its first publicly available game in the year 2005.
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
Audio
The Audio award recognizes the overall excellence of audio in a game--including, but not limited to, sound effects, musical composition, sound design, orchestration, etc.
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
The Character Design award recognizes the overall excellence of (non-licensed) character design in a game--including, but not limited to, originality, character arc, emotional depth, etc.
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
The Game Design award recognizes the overall excellence of design in a game--including, but not limited to, gameplay mechanics, puzzles, play balancing, scenarios, etc.
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
The Technology award recognizes the overall excellence of technology in a game--including, but not limited to, graphics programming, artificial intelligence, networking, physics, etc.
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
The Visual Arts award recognizes the overall excellence of visual art in a game--including, but not limited to, animation, modeling, art direction, textures, etc.
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, Masanori Kajita, Hironobu Nakano, Fumito Ueda
We Love Katamari (Namco Limited / Namco Hometek)
- Keita Takahashi, Takeshi Ugajin
Writing
The Writing award recognizes the overall excellence of writing in a game--including, but not limited to, story, plot construction, dialogue, branching narratives, etc.
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
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