Cliff Bleszinski hosting GDC 2012 awards

Epic Games' Cliff Bleszinski doesn't have a title nominated for an award at this year's Game Developers Choice Awards, but the North Carolina-based gaming figure is still playing a major role in this year's show.

Today, event organizers announced that Bleszinski will host the 12th annual Game Developers Choice Awards in San Francisco. Bleszinski will be filling the shoes of Double Fine boss Tim Schafer, who has hosted the ceremony for the past three years. Bleszinski is most famous for his work on the Gears of War franchise, but the developer started his professional career with platformer Jazz Jackrabbit, which he released while in high school.

On top of that, event organizers announced today that Pocketwatch Games' Andy Schatz will host the 2012 Independent Games Festival awards, now in its 14th year. Schatz created 2010 IGF grand prize winner Monaco and returns for a fourth time as the awards show's host.

Fans who can't attend the awards show in March can watch a live stream of both events here on GameSpot (and through GameSpot's YouTube channel) the evening of March 7 at 6:30 p.m. PDT.

For complete lists of games nominated for this year's awards shows, see GameSpot's previous coverage of the 2012 GDCA nominees and the IGF 2012 nominees.