The Game Developers Choice Awards are awards annually presented at the Game Developers Conference for outstanding game developers and

games A game is a structured form of play, usually undertaken for entertainment or fun, and sometimes used as an educational tool. Many games are also considered to be work (such as professional players of spectator sports or games) or art (such ...

. Introduced in 2001, the Game Developers Choice Awards were preceded by the Spotlight Awards, which were presented from 1997 to 1999. Since then, the ceremony for the Independent Games Festival is held just prior to the Choice Awards ceremony.

Winner selection process

Nominations for games are by made by

International Choice Awards Network International is an adjective (also used as a noun) meaning "between nations". International may also refer to: Music Albums * ''International'' (Kevin Michael album), 2011 * ''International'' (New Order album), 2002 * ''International'' (The T ...

(ICAN), a group of leading game creators. Votes are then additionally made by editors of Game Developer. Any video game released in the preceding calendar year, regardless of medium, is eligible to be nominated, though upgrades, expansions, and mission packs are not eligible to be nominated. The top nominated games are assembled into the list of nominees, typically presented in December, are then voted on by final voting body, made up of ICANs, and editors of Game Developer. In this final stage of voting, games with the highest votes in a category are the winners. Winners for Special Awards (Lifetime Achievement, Pioneer, Ambassador) are decided by a "Special Awards Jury", which appears to consist of a variety of 5 people. This group may consider recommendations from ICAN members. The winners are announced during the Game Developers Conference, which is typically held in March of the calendar year. GDC related properties are owned by the UBM technology group.

Historical process

In 2007, gamasutra.com took over management of the awards from the IGDA. An advisory board selected by the editors of gamasutra.com and '' Game Developer'' magazine oversees the selection process. In the past, nominations are accepted from registered gamasutra.com users, confirmed to be game developers, and from the advisory board. Once the nomination process is complete, the advisory board identifies five finalists for each regular category. The recipients of the Lifetime Achievement, Pioneer (formerly known as First Penguin) and Maverick awards are selected by the advisory board. For the other awards, a vote open to all those who participated in the nomination process chooses a recipient from each category's finalists.

List of winners

''Note: Events held for awards are held early in the following year. Winners are listed first and highlighted in bold.''

Game of the Year

The Game of the Year Award recognizes the overall best game released during the previous calendar year, as interpreted by the members of the Game Developers Conference.

Best Audio

Best Audio award recognizes the overall excellence of audio in a game, including sound effects, musical composition, sound design and orchestration. * 2000: '' Diablo II'' * 2001: '' Halo: Combat Evolved'' * 2002: '' Medal of Honor: Allied Assault'' * 2003: ''

Call of Duty ''Call of Duty'' is a first-person shooter video game Media franchise, franchise published by Activision. Starting out in 2003, it first focused on games set in World War II. Over time, the series has seen games set in the midst of the Cold W ...

'' * 2004: '' Halo 2'' * 2005: '' Guitar Hero'' * 2006: '' Guitar Hero II'' * 2007: '' BioShock'' * 2008: '' Dead Space'' * 2009: '' Uncharted 2: Among Thieves'' * 2010: '' Red Dead Redemption'' * 2011: '' Portal 2'' * 2012: '' Journey'' * 2013: '' BioShock Infinite'' * 2014: '' Alien: Isolation'' * 2015: '' Crypt of the NecroDancer'' * 2016: '' Inside'' * 2017: '' The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild'' *

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'' *

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: '' Control'' *

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: ''

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'' *

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Unpacking Unpacking may refer to: * Unpacking (linguistics), the separation of the features of a segment into distinct segments * ''Unpacking'' (video game), a 2021 puzzle game * Unpacking (computer science), unpacking programming variables See also * ...

Best Debut

The Best Debut Award recognizes the best game from any development studio which released its first publicly available title during the calendar year. This was formerly known as the New Studio of the Year Award. In years prior to 2008, the award was awarded to the studio name, as opposed to the game title. * 2000: Valve /

Minh Le Minh Le (Vietnamese: Lê Minh), also known by his online nickname Gooseman, is a Vietnamese Canadian video game programmer who co-created the ''Half-Life'' mod ''Counter-Strike'' with Jess Cliffe in 1999 and started the ''Counter-Strike'' seri ...

/ Jess Cliffe (for '' Counter-Strike'') * 2001: Bohemia Interactive (for '' Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis'') * 2002: Retro Studios (for '' Metroid Prime'') * 2003: Infinity Ward (for ''

'') * 2004: Crytek (for '' Far Cry'') * 2005:

Double Fine Productions Double Fine Productions, Inc. is an American First-party developer, first-party video game developer of Xbox Game Studios based in San Francisco, California. Founded in July 2000 by Tim Schafer shortly after his departure from LucasArts, Double ...

(for '' Psychonauts'') * 2006: Iron Lore Entertainment (for '' Titan Quest'') * 2007: Realtime Worlds /

Microsoft Game Studios Xbox Game Studios (previously known as Microsoft Studios, Microsoft Game Studios, and Microsoft Games) is an American video game publisher and part of the Microsoft Gaming division based in Redmond, Washington. It was established in March 2000, ...

(for ''

Crackdown Crackdown may refer to * ''Crackdown'' (web series) * ''Crackdown'' (video game series) ** ''Crackdown'' (video game) ** '' Crackdown 2'' ** '' Crackdown 3'' * ''Crackdown'' (podcast) * '' The Crackdown'', a 1983 album {{dab ...

'') * 2008: Media Molecule (for '' LittleBigPlanet'') * 2009: Runic Games (for '' Torchlight'') * 2010: Mojang (for '' Minecraft'') * 2011: Supergiant Games (for ''

Bastion A bastion or bulwark is a structure projecting outward from the curtain wall of a fortification, most commonly angular in shape and positioned at the corners of the fort. The fully developed bastion consists of two faces and two flanks, with fi ...

'') * 2012:

Subset Games ''FTL: Faster Than Light'' is a real-time strategy roguelite game created by independent game development, indie developer Subset Games, which was released for Microsoft Windows, macOS and Linux in September 2012. In the game, the player contro ...

(for '' FTL: Faster Than Light'') * 2013: The Fullbright Company (for '' Gone Home'') * 2014:

Stoic Studio Stoic is a video game development company located in Austin, Texas. Founded by three ex-BioWare staff in December 2011, Stoic is most known for developing the tactical role-playing video game ''The Banner Saga'' (2014) and its sequels, ''The Banne ...

(for '' The Banner Saga'') * 2015: Moon Studios (for ''

Ori and the Blind Forest ''Ori and the Blind Forest'' is a platform-adventure Metroidvania video game developed by Moon Studios and published by Microsoft Studios. The game was released for Xbox One and Microsoft Windows in March 2015, and for Nintendo Switch in Sep ...

'') * 2016: Campo Santo (for '' Firewatch'') * 2017: Studio MDHR (for '' Cuphead'') *

: Mountains (for '' Florence'') *

: ZA/UM (for '' Disco Elysium'') *

: Kinetic Games for ''

Phasmophobia The fear of ghosts in many human cultures is based on beliefs that some ghosts may be malevolent towards people and dangerous ''(within the range of all possible attitudes, including mischievous, benign, indifferent, etc.''). It is related to fe ...

'' *

: Iron Gate Studio for '' Valheim''

Best Design

Best Design award recognizes the overall excellence of design in a game, including gameplay, mechanics, puzzles, play balancing and scenarios. * 2000: '' Deus Ex'' * 2001: ''

Grand Theft Auto III ''Grand Theft Auto III'' is a 2001 action-adventure game developed by DMA Design and published by Rockstar Games. It is the third main entry in the ''Grand Theft Auto'' series, following 1999's ''Grand Theft Auto 2'', and the fifth instalment o ...

'' * 2002: ''

Battlefield 1942 ''Battlefield 1942'' is a 2002 first-person shooter video game developed by DICE and published by Electronic Arts for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X. The game can be played in single-player mode against the video game AI or in multiplayer mode a ...

'' * 2003: '' Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time'' * 2004: '' Katamari Damacy'' * 2005: '' Shadow of the Colossus'' * 2006: '' Wii Sports'' * 2007: '' Portal'' * 2008: '' LittleBigPlanet'' * 2009: '' Batman: Arkham Asylum'' * 2010: '' Red Dead Redemption'' * 2011: '' Portal 2'' * 2012: '' Journey'' * 2013: '' The Last of Us'' * 2014: '' Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft'' * 2015: '' Rocket League'' * 2016: '' Overwatch'' * 2017: '' The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild'' *

: '' Into the Breach'' *

: '' Baba Is You'' *

: ''

'' *

: '' It Takes Two''

Best Mobile/Handheld Game

Best Mobile/Handheld Game Award recognizes the overall best game commercially released on any handheld platform. * 2007: '' The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass'' * 2008: '' God of War: Chains of Olympus'' * 2009: '' Scribblenauts'' * 2010: '' Cut the Rope'' * 2011: '' Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP'' * 2012: '' The Room'' * 2013: '' The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds'' * 2014: ''

Monument Valley Monument Valley ( nv, Tsé Biiʼ Ndzisgaii, , meaning ''valley of the rocks'') is a region of the Colorado Plateau characterized by a cluster of sandstone buttes, the largest reaching above the valley floor. It is located on the Utah-Arizona s ...

'' * 2015: '' Her Story'' * 2016: '' Pokémon Go'' * 2017: ''

Gorogoa ''Gorogoa'' is a puzzle video game developed by Jason Roberts and published by Annapurna Interactive. The game was released for Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, and iOS on 14 December 2017, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in March 2018, and s ...

'' *

: '' Florence'' *

: ''

What the Golf ''What the Golf?'' (stylized in all caps as ''WHAT THE GOLF?'') is a video game developed and published by Triband. It was originally published on Apple Arcade subscription by The Label on 19 September 2019. Gameplay The game revolves around ...

?'' *

: '' Genshin Impact''

Innovation Award

The Innovation Award recognizes games that demonstrate innovation and push the boundaries of games as an expressive medium. Multiple awards per year were given before 2007. * 2000: '' Counter-Strike''; ''

Crazy Taxi ''Crazy Taxi'' is a series of racing video games that was developed by Hitmaker and published by Sega. The first game appeared in arcades in 1999 and was very successful, prompting Sega to port the arcade version to their Dreamcast consol ...

''; '' Deus Ex''; ''

Jet Grind Radio (originally released in North America as ''Jet Grind Radio'') is a 2000 action game developed by Smilebit and published by Sega for the Dreamcast. The player controls a member of a youth gang, the GGs, as they use inline skates to traverse Tok ...

''; ''

No One Lives Forever ''The Operative: No One Lives Forever'' (abbreviated as ''NOLF'') is a first-person shooter video game with stealth gameplay elements, developed by Monolith Productions and published by Fox Interactive, released for Windows in 2000. The game w ...

'' * 2001: ''

Black and White Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white in a continuous spectrum, producing a range of shades of grey. Media The history of various visual media began with black and white, and as technology improved, altered to color. ...

''; ''

''; '' ICO''; '' Majestic''; '' Rez'' * 2002: '' Animal Crossing''; ''

''; '' Medal of Honor: Allied Assault''; '' The Thing'' * 2003: '' EyeToy: Play''; '' Viewtiful Joe''; '' WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$!'' * 2004: '' Donkey Konga''; '' I Love Bees''; '' Katamari Damacy'' * 2005: '' Nintendogs''; '' Guitar Hero'' * 2006: '' Line Rider''; '' Ōkami''; '' Wii Sports'' * 2007: '' Portal'' * 2008: '' LittleBigPlanet'' * 2009: '' Scribblenauts'' * 2010: '' Minecraft'' * 2011: '' Johann Sebastian Joust '' * 2012: '' Journey'' * 2013: '' Papers, Please'' * 2014: ''

'' * 2015: '' Her Story'' * 2016: '' No Man's Sky'' * 2017: ''

'' *

: Nintendo Labo *

: '' Baba Is You'' *

: '' Dreams'' *

: ''

Best Narrative

Best Narrative award recognizes the quality of writing in a game, including story, plot construction, dialogue and branching narratives. * 2002: '' Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell'' * 2003: '' Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic'' * 2004: '' Half-Life 2'' * 2005: '' Psychonauts'' * 2006: '' The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess'' * 2007: '' BioShock'' * 2008: '' Fallout 3'' * 2009: '' Uncharted 2: Among Thieves'' * 2010: '' Mass Effect 2'' * 2011: '' Portal 2'' * 2012: '' The Walking Dead'' * 2013: '' The Last of Us'' * 2014: '' Kentucky Route Zero: Episode 3'' * 2015: '' Her Story'' * 2016: '' Firewatch'' * 2017: '' What Remains of Edith Finch'' *

: '' Return of the Obra Dinn'' *

: '' Disco Elysium'' *

: '' The Last of Us Part II'' *

: '' Psychonauts 2''

Best Technology

Best Technology award recognizes the overall excellence of technology in a game, including graphics programming, artificial intelligence, networking and physics. * 2004: '' Half-Life 2'' * 2005: '' Nintendogs'' * 2006: ''

Gears of War ''Gears of War'' is a media franchise centered on a series of video games created by Epic Games, developed and managed by The Coalition, and owned and published by Xbox Game Studios. The franchise is best known for its third-person shooter vide ...

'' * 2007: '' Crysis'' * 2008: '' LittleBigPlanet'' * 2009: '' Uncharted 2: Among Thieves'' * 2010: '' Red Dead Redemption'' * 2011: '' Battlefield 3'' * 2012: '' Far Cry 3'' * 2013: ''

Grand Theft Auto V ''Grand Theft Auto V'' is a 2013 action-adventure game developed by Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games. It is the seventh main entry in the Grand Theft Auto, ''Grand Theft Auto'' series, following 2008's ''Grand Theft Auto IV'', and ...

'' * 2014: '' Destiny'' * 2015: '' The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt'' * 2016: '' Uncharted 4: A Thief's End'' * 2017: '' Horizon Zero Dawn'' *

: '' Red Dead Redemption 2'' *

: '' Control'' *

: '' Microsoft Flight Simulator'' *

: '' Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart''

Best Visual Art

Best Visual Art award recognizes the overall excellence of visual art in a game, including animation, modeling, art direction and textures. * 2000: ''

'' * 2001: '' ICO'' * 2002: ''

Kingdom Hearts is a series of action role-playing games developed and published by Square Enix (originally by Square (video game company), Square). It is a collaboration between Square Enix and The Walt Disney Company and is under the leadership of Tetsuya ...

'' * 2003: '' The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker'' * 2004: '' World of Warcraft'' * 2005: '' Shadow of the Colossus'' * 2006: ''

'' * 2007: '' BioShock'' * 2008: ''

Prince of Persia ''Prince of Persia'' is a video game franchise created by Jordan Mechner. It is built around a series of action-adventure games focused on various incarnations of the eponymous Prince, set in ancient and medieval Persia. The first two games i ...

'' * 2009: '' Uncharted 2: Among Thieves'' * 2010: '' Limbo'' * 2011: '' Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception'' * 2012: '' Journey'' * 2013: '' BioShock Infinite'' * 2014: ''

'' * 2015: ''

'' * 2016: '' Inside'' * 2017: '' Cuphead'' *

: ''

Gris ''Gris'' is a platform-adventure game by Spanish developer Nomada Studio and published by Devolver Digital. The game was released for macOS, Nintendo Switch, and Windows in December 2018, for iOS in August 2019, for PlayStation 4 in November 20 ...

'' *

: '' Control'' *

: '' Ghost of Tsushima'' *

: '' Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart''

Best VR/AR Game

* 2016: '' Job Simulator: The 2050 Archives'' * 2017: ''

Superhot VR ''Superhot'' is an independent first-person shooter (FPS) video game developed and published by Superhot Team. Though the game follows traditional first-person shooter gameplay mechanics, with the player attempting to take out enemy targets usi ...

'' *

: '' Beat Saber'' *

: ''

Vader Immortal ''Vader Immortal: A Star Wars VR Series'' is a series of three virtual reality adventure games originally released on May 21, September 25, and November 21, 2019, respectively, for the Oculus Quest and Rift systems. A Playstation VR version was ...

'' *

: '' Half-Life: Alyx''

Special Awards Recipients

Audience Award

These awards are voted by the audience for best game of that year. * 2012: '' Dishonored'' * 2013: ''

Kerbal Space Program ''Kerbal Space Program'' (''KSP'') is a space flight simulation video game developed by Mexican developer Squad for Microsoft Windows, macOS macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system de ...

'' * 2014: '' Elite: Dangerous'' * 2015: ''

Life Is Strange ''Life Is Strange'' (abbreviated ''LIS'') is a series of primarily episodic graphic adventure games published by Square Enix's European subsidiary. Created by Dontnod Entertainment, the series debuted with the eponymous first installment, ...

'' * 2016: ''

Battlefield 1 ''Battlefield 1'' is a first-person shooter game developed by DICE and published by Electronic Arts. It is the tenth installment in the ''Battlefield'' series and the first main entry in the series since '' Battlefield 4'' in 2013. It was rele ...

'' * 2017: '' Nier: Automata'' *

: '' Beat Saber'' *

: '' Sky: Children of the Light'' * 2020: '' Ghost of Tsushima'' * 2021: '' Valheim''

The Pioneer Award

Known as the First Penguin award until 2007, the Pioneer Award celebrates individuals who developed a breakthrough technology, game concept or gameplay design. * 2000: Chip Morningstar and Randy Farmer (creators of LucasArts's '' Habitat'') * 2001: Hubert Chardot ("for his risk-taking work on '' Alone in the Dark''") * 2002: David Crane,

Larry Kaplan Larry Kaplan is an American game designer who was the co-founder of Activision. Kaplan studied at the University of California, Berkeley from 1968 through 1974 and graduated with a degree in Computer Science. He started at Atari, Inc. in Augus ...

Jim Levy Jim Levy was a music industry executive before he became the founding chief executive officer for Activision Activision Publishing, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in Santa Monica, California. It serves as the publishing busin ...

, Alan Miller, Bob Whitehead (founders of Activision) * 2003: Masaya Matsuura (founder of NanaOn-Sha, pioneer of music/game integration) * 2004: Richard Bartle (co-creator of

MUD A MUD (; originally multi-user dungeon, with later variants multi-user dimension and multi-user domain) is a Multiplayer video game, multiplayer Time-keeping systems in games#Real-time, real-time virtual world, usually Text-based game, text-bas ...

, ancestor to MMOs) * 2005: Don Woods, Will Crowther (creators of the early text game ''Adventure'') * 2006: Alexey Pajitnov (creator of '' Tetris'') * 2007: Ralph Baer (inventor of the '' Magnavox Odyssey'') * 2008:

Alex Rigopulos Alexander Peter Rigopulos (born 1970s in Boxford, Massachusetts) is an American video game designer and musician, best known as the former CEO and current creative director of Harmonix Music Systems, a company he founded with Eran Egozy in 1995 ...

and Eran Egozy (founders of Harmonix) * 2009: Gabe Newell (co-founder of Valve) * 2010: Yu Suzuki (lead of Sega AM2 development team responsible for several arcade games and the '' Shenmue'' series) * 2011:

Dave Theurer David Theurer is a game designer and computer programmer. In 1980, he created the ''Missile Command'' and ''Tempest'' arcade games for Atari, Inc., considered two of the major releases from the Golden age of arcade games. Theurer also designed '' ...

(developer of '' Missile Command'' and '' Tempest'') * 2012: Steve Russell (creator of ''

Spacewar! ''Spacewar!'' is a space combat video game developed in 1962 by Steve Russell in collaboration with Martin Graetz, Wayne Wiitanen, Bob Saunders, Steve Piner, and others. It was written for the newly installed DEC PDP-1 minicomputer at the Mas ...

'') * 2013: Brandon Beck and Marc Merrill (creators of

Riot Games Riot Games, Inc. is an American video game developer, publisher and esports tournament organizer based in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in September 2006 by Brandon Beck and Marc Merrill to develop ''League of Legends'' and went on t ...

) * 2014: David Braben (founder of

Frontier Developments Frontier Developments is a British video game developer founded by David Braben in January 1994 and based at the Cambridge Science Park in Cambridge, England. Frontier is known for developing amusement park Construction and management simulation ...

, co-creator of the ''Elite'' series) * 2015: Markus "Notch" Persson (creator of '' Minecraft'') * 2016:

Jordan Mechner Jordan Mechner (born June 4, 1964) is an American video game designer, author, screenwriter, and filmmaker. He is best known for designing and programming the Broderbund Apple II games '' Karateka'' and ''Prince of Persia'' in the 1980s, the l ...

(creator of ''

'') * 2017: None (see below) *

: Rieko Kodama (graphic artist/director/producer for several Sega titles) *

Roberta Williams Roberta Lynn Williams (; born February 16, 1953) is an American video game designer and writer, who co-founded Sierra On-Line with her husband, game developer Ken Williams. In 1980, her first game, ''Mystery House'', became a modest commerci ...

(co-founder of Sierra On-line and early developer of the

adventure game An adventure game is a video game genre in which the player assumes the role of a protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and/or Puzzle video game, puzzle-solving. The Video game genres, genre's focus on story allows it to draw ...

genre) *

: Tom Fulp (creator of Newgrounds and co-founder of

The Behemoth ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

) GDC had announced their intention to award Nolan Bushnell (co-founder of

Atari Atari () is a brand name that has been owned by several entities since its inception in 1972. It is currently owned by French publisher Atari SA through a subsidiary named Atari Interactive. The original Atari, Inc. (1972–1992), Atari, Inc., ...

) the 2017 Pioneer Award. However, after several people asked the GDC to reconsider this in light of documented sexist activities in Bushnell's past in light of the current #MeToo movement, GDC opted to not award the Pioneer Award and instead "will dedicate this year's award to honor the pioneering and unheard voices of the past".

Ambassador Award

The Ambassador Award is given to individuals within or outside the industry who helped video games "advance to a better place." It replaced the IGDA Award for Community Contribution after 2008. * 2007: Jason Della Rocca (former head of International Game Developers Association) * 2008: Tommy Tallarico (video game musician and composer) * 2009: Jerry Holkins, Mike Krahulik and Robert Khoo (creators and founders of ''

Penny Arcade ''Penny Arcade'' is a webcomic focused on video games and video game culture, written by Jerry Holkins and illustrated by Mike Krahulik. The comic debuted in 1998 on the website ''loonygames.com''. Since then, Holkins and Krahulik have establish ...

'') * 2010: Tim Brengle and Ian Mackenzie (Organizers of the Game Developers Conference volunteer program for 20+ years) * 2011: Kenneth Doroshow and Paul M. Smith (the lawyers which argued ''

Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association ''Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association'', 564 U.S. 786 (2011), was a landmark decision of the US Supreme Court that struck down a 2005 California law banning the sale of certain violent video games to children without parental supervision ...

'' to the US Supreme Court supporting the video game industry) * 2012:

Chris Melissinos Christopher Robert Melissinos is a leading figure in the Java programming language community. He served as Sun Microsystems' Chief Evangelist and Chief Gaming Officer. During his tenure at Sun, he was responsible for the creation of their Game ...

(developer at

Sun Microsystems Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Sun for short) was an American technology company that sold computers, computer components, software, and information technology services and created the Java programming language, the Solaris operating system, ZFS, the ...

leading gaming-related Java initiatives) * 2013: Anita Sarkeesian (creator of '' Feminist Frequency'') * 2014: Brenda Romero (game developer, one of the leads of Romero Games) * 2015: Tracy Fullerton (game developer and professor at USC Interactive Media & Games Division) * 2016:

Mark DeLoura Mark A. DeLoura (born 1969 or 1970) is a video gaming advocate and an author. He served as the Senior Advisor for Digital Media for the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), he was Editor in Chief of ''Game Developer (magaz ...

(former editor of '' Game Developer'' and served as Senior Advisor for Digital Media for the U.S.

Office of Science and Technology Policy An office is a space where an organization's employees perform administrative work in order to support and realize objects and goals of the organization. The word "office" may also denote a position within an organization with specific dut ...

) * 2017: Rami Ismail (co-founder of Vlambeer, assistance to indie game development) * 2018: None given * 2019: Kate Edwards (former head of the International Game Developers Association) * 2021:

Steven Spohn The AbleGamers Foundation (also known as The AbleGamers Charity) is an American nonprofit organization dedicated to improving accessibility in the video game space, enabling more people with disabilities to be able to play video games. The chari ...

(founder of

AbleGamers The AbleGamers Foundation (also known as The AbleGamers Charity) is an American nonprofit organization dedicated to improving accessibility in the video game space, enabling more people with disabilities to be able to play video games. The charit ...

)

Lifetime Achievement Award

The Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes the achievements of a developer who has impacted games and game development. * 2000: Will Wright ( ''Sim'' games) * 2001: Yuji Naka (''

Sonic the Hedgehog is a Japanese video game series and media franchise created by Sega. The franchise follows Sonic, an anthropomorphic blue hedgehog who battles the evil Doctor Eggman, a mad scientist. The main ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' games are platformers mo ...

'') * 2002: Gunpei Yokoi (1941–1997) ( Game Boy, ''

Super Mario Land ''Super Mario Land'' is a 1989 side-scrolling platform video game developed and published by Nintendo as a launch game for its Game Boy handheld game console. It is the first ''Mario'' platform game to have been released for a handheld cons ...

'' series, ''Metroid'' series) * 2003: Mark Cerny ('' Crash Bandicoot'' and '' Spyro the Dragon'') * 2004: Eugene Jarvis ('' Defender'' and ''

Robotron: 2084 ''Robotron: 2084'' (also referred to as ''Robotron'') is a multidirectional shooter developed by Eugene Jarvis and Larry DeMar of Vid Kidz and released in arcades by Williams Electronics in 1982. The game is set in the year 2084 in a fictional wo ...

'') * 2005: Richard Garriott ('' Ultima'') * 2006:

Shigeru Miyamoto is a Japanese video game designer, producer and game director at Nintendo, where he serves as one of its representative directors. Widely regarded as one of the most accomplished and influential designers in the history of video games, he is ...

(creator of '' Mario'', '' Donkey Kong'', '' The Legend of Zelda'', '' Star Fox'', '' F-Zero'', and '' Pikmin'') * 2007: Sid Meier (''

Civilization series ''Civilization'' is a series of turn-based strategy video games, first released in 1991. Sid Meier developed the first game in the series and has had creative input for most of the rest, and his name is usually included in the formal title of the ...

'' and many different simulators) * 2008:

Hideo Kojima is a Japanese video game designer, director, producer and writer. He is regarded as an auteur of video games. He developed a strong passion for action/adventure cinema and literature during his childhood and adolescence. In 1986, he was hired ...

('' Metal Gear series'') * 2009:

John Carmack John D. Carmack II (born August 20, 1970) is an American computer programmer and video game developer. He co-founded the video game company id Software and was the lead programmer of its 1990s games ''Commander Keen'', ''Wolfenstein 3D'', ''Doo ...

(''

Doom series ''Doom'' (stylized as ''DOOM'') is a video game series and media franchise created by John Carmack, John Romero, Adrian Carmack, Kevin Cloud, and Tom Hall. The series focuses on the exploits of an unnamed space marine (often referred to as ...

'') * 2010: Peter Molyneux ('' God games'') * 2011: Warren Spector ('' Deus Ex'', ''

System Shock ''System Shock'' is a 1994 first-person action-adventure video game developed by LookingGlass Technologies and published by Origin Systems. It was directed by Doug Church with Warren Spector serving as producer. The game is set aboard a space s ...

'', '' Thief: The Dark Project'') * 2012: Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk (co-founders of BioWare) * 2013: Ken Kutaragi ("father" of the

PlayStation is a video gaming brand that consists of five home video game consoles, two handhelds, a media center, and a smartphone, as well as an online service and multiple magazines. The brand is produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment, a divisi ...

console line) * 2014: Hironobu Sakaguchi (''

Final Fantasy series is a Japanese video game, Japanese science fantasy anthology media franchise created by Hironobu Sakaguchi and developed and owned by Square Enix (formerly Square (video game company), Square). The franchise centers on a series of fantasy and ...

'') * 2015: Todd Howard ('' Elder Scrolls'', '' Fallout'') * 2016:

Tim Sweeney Tim Sweeney may refer to: * Tim Sweeney (disc jockey), disc jockey and host of Beats in Space * Tim Sweeney (game developer) (born 1970), game developer and founder of Epic Games * Tim Sweeney (ice hockey) (born 1967), American ice hockey player * ...

(founder of

Epic Games Epic Games, Inc. is an American video game and software developer and publisher based in Cary, North Carolina. The company was founded by Tim Sweeney as Potomac Computer Systems in 1991, originally located in his parents' house in Potomac, M ...

) * 2017: Tim Schafer (developer for LucasArts adventure games, founder of Double Fine) *

Amy Hennig Amy Hennig (born August 19, 1964) is an American video game director and script writer, formerly for the video game company Naughty Dog. She began her work in the industry on the Nintendo Entertainment System, with her design debut on the Super ...

(video game writer/director, notably for the '' Uncharted'' series) *

Laralyn McWilliams Laralyn McWilliams (born 25 February 1965 in Vicenza, Italy) is an American game designer and video game producer. She was creative director for Free Realms, a massively multiplayer virtual world for teens and 'tweens. In 2010, she was recog ...

, creative director of '' Free Realms'' and lead director of '' Full Spectrum Warrior'' *

: Yuji Horii, creator of the ''

Dragon Quest previously published as ''Dragon Warrior'' in North America until 2005, is a franchise of Japanese role-playing video games created by Armor Project (Yuji Horii), Bird Studio (Akira Toriyama) and Sugiyama Kobo (Koichi Sugiyama) to its publi ...

'' series

Retired awards

The following award categories have been retired or replaced with a different focus.

Best Downloadable Game

Best Downloadable Game Award recognizes the overall best game released on console or PC platforms specifically and solely for digital download - with an emphasis on smaller, more 'casual'-friendly titles. * 2007: ''

flOw Flow may refer to: Science and technology * Fluid flow, the motion of a gas or liquid * Flow (geomorphology), a type of mass wasting or slope movement in geomorphology * Flow (mathematics), a group action of the real numbers on a set * Flow (psych ...

'' * 2008: '' World of Goo'' * 2009: '' Flower'' * 2011: '' Minecraft'' * 2012: ''

'' * 2013: '' Journey'' * 2014: '' Papers, Please''

Character Design

The Character Design award recognizes the overall excellence of non-licensed character design in a game, including originality, character arc and emotional depth. * 2004: '' Half-Life 2'' * 2005: '' Shadow of the Colossus'' * 2006: '' Ōkami''

Excellence in Level Design

* 2000: '' American McGee's Alice'' * 2001: '' ICO'' * 2002: '' Metroid Prime''

Excellence in Programming

* 2000: '' The Sims'' * 2001: ''

'' * 2002: '' Neverwinter Nights'' * 2003: '' Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time''

IGDA Award for Community Contribution

The IGDA Award for Community Contribution recognized developers for significant efforts "building community, sharing knowledge, speaking on behalf of developers and/or contributing to the art form of game development". The

Ambassador Award The Ambassador Award is one of the most prestigious Union level awards of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) that recognizes individuals whose excellence and leadership in research, education and innovation have significantly advanced Earth an ...

replaced it after 2007. * 2000:

* 2001:

Jeff Lander Jeff Lander is an American video game programmer. He creates real-time 3D graphics at Darwin 3D, a game technology specialist company. He has written several articles on 3D graphics for Gamasutra and Game Developers Conference. In 2002, he receiv ...

* 2002: Doug Church (

Eidos Interactive Square Enix Limited (formerly Domark Limited and Eidos Interactive Limited) is a British subsidiary of the Japanese video game company Square Enix, acting as their European publishing arm. The company formerly owned ''Tomb Raider'', which was in ...

) * 2003: Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk * 2004: Sheri Graner Ray * 2005: Chris Hecker * 2006: George Sanger

Original Game Character of the Year

* 2000: Seaman from ''

Seaman Seaman may refer to: * Sailor, a member of a marine watercraft's crew * Seaman (rank), a military rank in some navies * Seaman (name) (including a list of people with the name) * ''Seaman'' (video game), a 1999 simulation video game for the Seg ...

'' * 2001: Daxter from '' Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy'' * 2002: Sly Cooper from '' Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus'' * 2003: HK-47 from '' Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic''

Maverick Award

The Maverick Award recognizes the current achievements of a developer who exhibits independence in thought and action while experimenting with alternate/emerging forms of digital games. * 2003: Brian Fiete, Jason Kapalka, and John Vechey (

PopCap Games PopCap Games, Inc. is an American video game developer based in Seattle, and a subsidiary of Electronic Arts. The company was founded in 2000 by John Vechey, Brian Fiete and Jason Kapalka. Originally founded under the name "Sexy Action Cool", ...

) * 2004: Matt Adams, Ju Row Farr, and

Nick Tandavanitj Nick may refer to: * Nick (given name) * A cricket term for a slight deviation of the ball off the edge of the bat * British slang for being arrested * British slang for a police station * British slang for stealing * Short for nickname Plac ...

(

Blast Theory Blast Theory is a Portslade-based artists' group, whose work mixes interactive media, digital broadcasting and live performance. Biography The group was founded in 1991 by Matt Adams, Niki Jewett, Will Kittow and Ju Row Farr. The group is curr ...

) * 2005:

Mike Dornbrook Mike may refer to: Animals * Mike (cat), cat and guardian of the British Museum * Mike the Headless Chicken, chicken that lived for 18 months after his head had been cut off * Mike (chimpanzee), a chimpanzee featured in several books and documenta ...

, Eran Egozy, Greg LoPiccolo, and

(

Harmonix Music Systems Harmonix Music Systems, Inc., doing business as Harmonix, is an American video game developer company based in Boston, Massachusetts. The company was established in May 1995 by Alex Rigopulos and Eran Egozy. Harmonix is perhaps best known as bei ...

) * 2006: Greg Costikyan

Best New Social/Online Game

* 2009: '' FarmVille''

Game Developers Choice Online Awards

For its eight iteration in 2010, GDC Austin was rebranded as GDC Online, with a greater focus on MMOs, and social and casual games. The Game Developers Choice Online Awards were also introduced to recognize technical excellence and innovation in

online game An online game is a video game that is either partially or primarily played through the Internet or any other computer network available. Online games are ubiquitous on modern gaming platforms, including PC game, PCs, Console game, consoles and ...

s. In addition to the awards of the competitive categories, special awards were given out to pioneering online games and creators. In 2012 it was announced that GDC Online would be replaced by GDC Next in Los Angeles in 2013, and the awards were subsequently discontinued.

2010

The 2010 awards ceremony took place on October 7, 2010. '' League of Legends'' by

led the winners with five awards from six nominations, including the publicly voted Audience Award. Richard Bartle received the Online Game Legend award for his work on the first

and the 2003 book ''

Designing Virtual Worlds ''Designing Virtual Worlds'' is a book about the practice of virtual world development by Richard Bartle. It has been noted as an authoritative source regarding the history of world-based online games. College courses have been taught using it. ...

''. The massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) '' Ultima Online'' was inducted into the GDC Online Awards Hall of Fame for being "a specific online game that has resulted in the long-term advancement of the medium, pioneering major shifts in online game development and games as a whole."

2011

Kelton Flinn - Game Developers Choice Online Awards

The 2011 awards ceremony took place on October 12, 2011. All the awards from the previous year returned, and a new award for Online Innovation was introduced. '' Minecraft'' and '' Rift'' by Mojang and Trion Worlds respectively took home the most awards, with two each. Kelton Flinn and

John Taylor John Taylor, Johnny Taylor or similar may refer to: Academics *John Taylor (Oxford), Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University, 1486–1487 *John Taylor (classical scholar) (1704–1766), English classical scholar *John Taylor (English publisher) (178 ...

received the special Online Game Legend award as founders of Kesmai and creators of '' Island of Kesmai'' and '' Air Warrior''. Additionally, the MMORPG '' EverQuest'' was inducted into the GDC Online Awards Hall of Fame.

2012

The 2011 awards ceremony took place on October 10, 2012. '' Star Wars: The Old Republic'', developed by BioWare Austin, became the top winner at four awards, with ''League of Legends'' by Riot Games trailing slightly behind at three awards. The Online Game Legend award was given to Raph Koster, developer of previous Hall of Fame inductee ''Ultima Online'' as well as '' Star Wars: Galaxies''. MMORPG '' World of Warcraft'' was inducted into the GDC Online Awards Hall of Fame.

Winner selection process

Historical process

List of winners

Game of the Year

Best Audio

Best Debut

Best Design

Best Mobile/Handheld Game

Innovation Award

Best Narrative

Best Technology

Best Visual Art

Best VR/AR Game

Special Awards Recipients

Audience Award

The Pioneer Award

Ambassador Award

Lifetime Achievement Award

Retired awards

Best Downloadable Game

Character Design

Excellence in Level Design

Excellence in Programming

IGDA Award for Community Contribution

Original Game Character of the Year

Maverick Award

Best New Social/Online Game

Game Developers Choice Online Awards

2010

2011

2012

Notes

References

External links