Gears of War takes best game at GDCA, Aquaria wins IGF best game prize

At tonight's Game Developers Choice Awards, Epic Games' Gears of War took home three awards: best technology, visual arts, and the coveted Game of the Year award. On the independent side of things, Bit Blot's Aquaria won the Seumas McNally Grand Prize from the Independent Games Festival.

Okami picked up a win in one of the four categories it was nominated in (take that, AIAS). Unfortunately, Loco Roco did not pick up any awards despite two nominations (character design and audio). Independent game Everyday Shooter won two awards and a distribution deal from GameTap.

View the full list winners and nominees from both events below.

Game Developers Choice Awards

New studio

• Gastronaut, Small Arms
• Naked Sky Ent, Roboblitz
• Iron Lore, Titan Quest
• Ready at Dawn, Daxter
• Wadjet Eye, the Shiva

Writing award:

• Bully
• Dreamfall: The longest Journey
• Sam & Max episode 1: Culture Shock
• Oblivion
• Twilight Princess

Game design

• Bully
• Okami
• Oblivion
• Viva Pinata
• Wii Sports

Audio

• Company of Heros
• Defcon
• Guitar Hero II
  
• Tomb Raider Legend
• Loco Roco

Character design

• FF XII
• Loco Roco
• Okami
• Rayman Raving Rabbids
• Viva Pinata

Best technology

• Company of Heroes
• Dead Rising
• Gears of War
  
• Table Tennis
• Wii Sports

Visual Arts

• FFXII
• Gears of War
  
• Okami
• Oblivion
• Viva Pinata

Best game

• Okami
• Oblivion
• Gears of War
• Twilight Princess
• Wii Sports

Community :George "The Fat" Man
Lifetime Achievement Award: Shigeru Miyamoto
Maverick Award: Greg Costikyan.



Best mod:

• Darkness over Daggorford (NVN)
• Spawns of Deflebub (UT2004)
• Eternal Silence (HL2)
• Weekday Warrior (HL2)
  

Student showcase:

• Base Invaders: Digipen
• Invalid Tangram: Guildhall at SMU
• Opera Slinger: Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy
• Gelatin Joe: Digipen
• And Yet it Moves: Tu Wien
• Rooms: Sungkyunkwan University
• Toblo: Digipen
  
• Euclidean Crisis: Stanford
• Ball of Bastards: Koln International
• The Blob: Hogeschool van de Kunsten, Utrecht

Excellence in Audio

• Aquaria
• Bone: The Great Cow Race
• Everyday Shooter
  
• Fizzball
• Racing pitch

Excellence in Visuals

• Aquaria
• Golf?
• Samorost 2
• Castle Crashers
• Roboblitz

Game Design Innovation

• Aquaria
• Everyday Shooter
• Armadillo Run
• Toblo
• Toribash

Tech Excellence

• Arcane Legions
• Armada Online
• Bang! Howdy
• Blast Miner
• Band of Bugs

Web Browser game

• Bible Islands
• Gamma Bros.
• Samorost 2
  

Seumas McNally

• Aquaria
  
• Armadillo Run
• Bang! Howdy
• Roboblitz
• Everyday Shooter

GameTap distribution deals: Blast Miner, Roboblitz, Everyday Shooter
Audience Award: Castle Crashers