The 2006 Game Developers Choice Awards are just around the corner, and the group today announced the slate of would-be winners for its March 22 presentation ceremony.
Hosted by the Game Developers Conference and presented by the International Game Developers Association (IGDA), the nominees are chosen and voted on solely by developers, providing a look at what industry professionals think are praiseworthy games.
"Every year, thousands of nominations are submitted by developers from around the world," said IGDA executive director Jason Della Rocca in a statement. "Voting on the final recipients will be extremely competitive, and who can spot excellence and creative achievement better than the creators themselves?"
To make sure games were not overlooked and that the end slate of titles were representative of developers worldwide, all IGDA members were given the chance to nominate games free of charge. Five finalists in each category were then selected by a 20-person advisory board, and the IGDA membership then votes on the winner of each category.
This year, God of War leads all games with six nominations, followed closely by a quintet of nods for Shadow of the Colossus. Project Gotham Racing 3, Guitar Hero, and Psychonauts each received three nominations. GameSpot's
The 2006 Game Developers Choice Awards ceremony will take place Wednesday, March 22 at 6:30 p.m. at the San Jose Civic Auditorium. In addition to the voted award categories, Lifetime Achievement, First Penguin, Community Contribution, Maverick, and Innovation awards will also be handed out. A complete list of announced nominees follows:
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
Shadow of the Colossus should get definitely win the art award, and character design. The graphics were definitely the best Ive seen on current gen games. Also it was so unique, its so different from any other game out there. I'm awaiting with much exitement for the sequel on PS3. PS. SotC is a prequel to ICO, for those that didnt know. (Look at the horns)
PS : Shadow of the colossus for GOTY !
Every RE fan is bashing this award show now :roll: This is the best video game award show there is with out a doubt im glad that shadow is nominated as many times at it is . RE4 is good, but ive got to agree with them, but comon Animal Crossing Wild World GOTY nominee ?
viva la GOD OF WAR!
i think gow deserve all these awards and more i think re4 is repetitive and boring after 2 hours or less in a few words and please DONT COMPARE GOW WITH THE FUKING DMC SERIES BECAUSE IT LACKS LOTS OF THINGS TO REACH THE QUALITY OF GOW in a few words ; ALL OF THE GAMES IN THE WORLD SUCKS EXCEPT GOW
RE4 should had more, but good news for SotC and GoW.
RE4 is only in one category? We have another joke award show, ladies & gents!
GOW is a great game.
WaY To Go GOW
Where is F.E.A.R.? Where is Battlefield 2? Where is Jade Empire? Where is Half-Life 2 (Xbox)? and above all, where is RE4?
bout time RE4 wasnt nominated, Shadow of the Collosus was Awe inspiring, it had better ****ing win
God of War is a BEAST!
If you keep saying RE4 deserve in Best Game award? then u must be compoare RE4 to rest of RE series but not the other games. It's wasnt even the best game of the year at all, the graphic was average and the gameplay was average but the camera make this game a little hard to see. So finally a REAL award here, not like rest of magazine and site saying game of the year: RE4.........ya I bet Capcom pays them for that little awards.
how many of these stinkin things are there? (best game, sound, etc.)
The Movies for best game!!! Dear lord we are all in trouble.
yay God of War... great game...
for me....re4 is just a much better improvement to the re series...it revolutionized the series, i agree......but it didnt do nothing much to the whole game industry i guess....so many third-person game does the aiming better than re4 did... the lack of side stepping frustrated me the most.....
as always,God of War is nominated.
Not one PSP title........hmmmm
God of War almost in all nominations! That's good!
Most porbably there is some kind of ANTI marketing going on I think because RE4 got a lot of POstivie review and people are nhappy that other games are being overshadowed by it:p But even then Al the noinees seem Fair. I mean Animal crossing and Movies deserve to be there as they really did something Unique and unlike others and something that is VERY difficult to do.
Im surprised that Re4 wasnt in the best game list (since it got game of the year) But my second fav game of 2k5, God of War has a lot of nominations
Looks like a great list! Hope to see both Psychonauts and Shadow of the Colossus get some love!
My Kratos！！！
OdinDragoonX GoW is just a DMC clone, and it gets so damn repetative. Come on people, hype up GoW some more, cause it really falls flat on its face compared to the hype it has recieved.----------- You obviously now sqaut about good game design. Obviously you think you know more about good game design than the people who freaking make the very games you and I play. You know that is who chose this list, right? I am going to college for Game Design and Art and I tell you that GoW is so much more than DMC. it has better controls, a better camera, better story, better characters, better everything pretty much. I like DMC a lot, but GoW is near perfection in terms of good game design. --- I repeat to everyone here, this NOT about how kool you thought the game was or how awesome it was. It is about GAME DESIGN. It is an art and a science and if anyone here thinks it is easy stuff then you are fools. The people who compiled this list have studied Game Design for decades. They now more than me, you or anyone who works here at even Gamespot. If anyone here knew as much as them, then you would have a job making 100K+ a year plus benefits and a 401K plan. You can have your opinions, put these people are professinals. And if you think you DO know as much as them, go to college, join their ranks and make games. I am. ;)
Im with you Onizuka36. I have RE4 and its hype was even more than GOW's. RE4 is a great sequel and a good and standard game that does its best to do everything right. Good story, graphics, sound and acceptable gameplay but nothing new or special let alone innovative and groundbreaking. its writing is nothing compared to Psychonauts, GOW or Indigo (infact story of Capcom's Devil May Cry 3 DA was way better than RE4). Graphics? ok they could be here. I agree that Animal Crossing isnt fit but RE4 is not the replacement. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --== Real GAMES that had to be there: 1)F.E.A.R. 2)Civilization IV 3)GT4 4)KOTORII: Sith Lords 5)Devil May Cry 3:DA ==-- --== Games that had to have more nods: 1)Psychonauts 2)Indigo Prophecy 3)The Movies ==-- --== Games that should not be there: 1)AC:WW 2)City of Villains (Hey were is Killer 7?) ==-- --== Games that deserve not being there: 1)Tekken 5 (=Tekken 3 +2) 2)Ninja Gaiden Black ==--
Thats crazy! I played Animal Crossing and it is fun, just not game of the year. How can Resident Evil 4 receive only one nomination?
AC:WW for best game? WTF were they smoking?
HMMM... I have played... none of the Game of the Year nominees. I will try RE4 and The Movies pretty soon, so I'll have a clearer picture as far as the others soon.
I may be confusing News I've read here in the past, but I thought that it was b/c Capcom didn't want to join that group or whatever, thus their game (RE4) was not nominated...am I wrong? I can't remember.
Animal Crossing actually got first spot for best game? Weird.
wtf... how did re4 only get one nomination...I know for a fact it is FAR better then animal crossing ds i have them both. these people are on crack...
I think Psychonauts should win the best writing award, since it had an awesome story line with well written and humorous dialogue.
I personally believe that God of War is the best game of the year, but you have to be INSANE not to nominate Resident Evil 4 for game of the year. Animal Crossing is NOTHING compared to RE4. Animal Crossing wasn't even that good.
God of War will probably take GOTY but it is hard to tell with devs. Guitar Hero SHOULD take the audio award. I would personally give several of the awards to SOTC, but I am not quite sure how the devs feel about it. We'll just have to wait and see. I'm actually not surprised about RE4 not getting nominated for GOTY. It was a POPULAR game but not neccessarily the BEST game when it comes to how it was developed. I'm sure the devs are looking for a good game that is innovative and pushes the boundaries. I have not actually played RE4 so for all I know it may have all these things, but I am sure there is a good reason they didn't nominate it for more than one award.
Damn, that's awesome. Good for Jaffe and his team- they deserve to be nominated after working as hard as they did.
Best game of the year... God of War, Guitar Hero, Shadow of the Colossus... its good to have a PS2!
It's a shame that Resident Evil wasn't nominated for game of the year. It was a great game overall and I think that it's really sad that this game didn't got nominated.
SOTC will win without any doubt
GoW is just a DMC clone, and it gets so damn repetative. Come on people, hype up GoW some more, cause it really falls flat on its face compared to the hype it has recieved.
RE4 with one nomination and no game of the year? HELLOOO??? They're supposed to know their stuff. I like how they can appreciate the lesser known games for their good aspects like Shadow of the Colossus and Psychonauts and Indigo Prophecy, but no RE4 game of the year or other awards? THE GAME IS AMAZING. It's innovative, new, and has great EVERYTHING. People these days...
who wanna wager $5 bucks that GoW will take most of the awards?
RE4 with only one nomination? Who would've thought that the developers would think so lowly of, clearly, one of the best games of 2005.
Resident Evil 4? FEAR? is this award show worse than SpikeTV?
CoD will always get best sound
god of war is amazing
Nice. 1st. Pretty obvious with the nominees in the first category that God of War is going to win... Not that PGR3 wasn't a great game, it was. But "the Movies"? And what is that animal crossing game? A DS title? Woulda thought they'd go with that Nintendogs game they talk so much about rather than a game I haven't even heard of... I heard of the original but never heard of that one... I would pick RE4 as GOTY over any of the nominated titles.