GDC Award nominees announced

The International Game Developers Association (IGDA) has announced the nominees for its upcoming Game Developers Choice Awards, which will be held next month during the Game Developers Conference in San Jose, Calif. The nominees were chosen by IGDA members and other game developers. They represent countries from around the world, and they represent games that have been published on a variety of platforms, including the PC and several console platforms. The complete list of nominees is posted below.

Game Developers Choice Awards Nominees:

Rookie Studio Award
Counter-Strike team (Counter-Strike)
Free Radical Design (TimeSplitters)
Massive Entertainment (Ground Control)
Nihilistic Software (Vampire: The Masquerade - Redemption)
Planet Moon Studios (Giants: Citizen Kabuto)

IGDA Award for Community Contribution
Chris Crawford
John Carmack
Michael Abrash
Robert Huebner
Warren Spector

Original Game Character of the Year
Cate Archer (No One Lives Forever)
Kabuto (Giants: Citizen Kabuto)
Ulala (Space Channel 5)
Seaman (Seaman)
Tamale Loco (Tamale Loco @ shockwave.com)

Excellence in Audio
Michael Sweet - BliX (music)
Jason Hayes, Andrea Pessino, Glen Stafford, and Matt Uelmen - Diablo II (composition)
Fumitaka Shibata - Samba De Amigo (music)
Naofumi Hataya and Kenichi Tokoi - Space Channel 5 (music)
Kaemal Amarasingham and Eric Brosius - Thief II: The Metal Age (sound effects)

Excellence in Game Design
Harvey Smith and Warren Spector - Deus Ex (game design)
Sean Clark and Michael Stemmle - Escape from Monkey Island (puzzles)
Shigeru Miyamoto and Eiji Aonuma - The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask (gameplay)
Ragnar Tornquist - The Longest Journey (story)
Neversoft team - Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 (gameplay)

Excellence in Level Design
American McGee, Jim Molinets, and team - American McGee's Alice
NOLF level design team - No One Lives Forever
Michel Ancel and team - Rayman 2: The Great Escape
SSX level design team - SSX
Christopher Foster, Tom Odell, and team - Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force

Excellence in Programming
Yu Suzuki and team - F355 Challenge (physics)
Scott Guest and Andy Astor - Giants: Citizen Kabuto (graphics)
Visual Concepts dev team - NFL 2K1 (networking)
Martin Brownlow - Sacrifice (graphics)
Sims programming team - The Sims (AI)

Excellence in Visual Arts
American McGee - American McGee's Alice (art direction)
Tomonobu Itagaki, Hiroaki Matsui, and team - Dead or Alive 2 (animation)
Ryuta Ueda and Kazuki Hosokawa - Jet Grind Radio (art direction)
Joby Otero - Sacrifice (art direction)
Insomniac art team - Spyro: Year of the Dragon (art direction)

Game of the Year
Deus Ex (Ion Storm Austin)
Jet Grind Radio (Smilebit)
No One Lives Forever (Monolith)
Shenmue (Sega AM2)
The Sims (Maxis)

Game Spotlight Awards
American McGee's Alice (Rogue/EA)
Counter-Strike (Counter-Strike team)
Crazy Taxi (Sega AM3)
Deus Ex (Ion Storm Austin)
Jet Grind Radio (Smilebit)
The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask (Nintendo)
NFL 2K1 (Visual Concepts)
No One Lives Forever (Monolith)
Sacrifice (Shiny)
Samba De Amigo (Sega Sonic Team)
Seaman (Vivarium)
Shenmue (Sega AM2)
SSX (EA Canada)
The Sims (Maxis)
Virtua Tennis (Sega)

Lifetime Achievement Award (Winner to be announced at awards ceremony)

The First Penguin Award (Winner to be announced at awards ceremony)

For more information about the IGDA and the Game Developers Choice Awards, visit the official IGDA Web site. Also, if you haven't already seen them, be sure to take a look at GameSpot's Best and Worst of 2000 awards, and the GameSpot Readers' Choice awards.