Game Developers Choice Awards

Game Developers Choice Awards
Awarded for	Outstanding game developers and games
Presented by	Game Developers Conference
First awarded	2001
Official website	gamechoiceawards.com

The Game Developers Choice Awards are awards annually presented at the Game Developers Conference for outstanding game developers and games. Introduced in 2001, the Game Developers Choice Awards were preceded by the Spotlight Awards, which were presented from 1997 to 1999.

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.

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.

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

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.

The Best Debut Game Award recognizes the best game from any development studio which released its first publicly available title during the calendar year. This was formally 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.

Best Handheld Game Award recognizes the overall best game commercially released on any handheld platform.

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.

The Excellence in Audio award recognizes the overall excellence of audio in a game, including sound effects, musical composition, sound design and orchestration.

The Excellence in Game Design award recognizes the overall excellence of design in a game, including gameplay, mechanics, puzzles, play balancing and scenarios.

The Technology award recognizes the overall excellence of technology in a game, including graphics programming, artificial intelligence, networking and physics.

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