Each award recipient is highlighted in blue.
Lifetime Achievement Award
- Will Wright
The First Penguin Award
- Chip Morningstar & Randy Farmer for Habitat/Club Caribe (LucasFilm)
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
- John Carmack
- Chris Crawford
- Michael Abrash
- Robert Huebner
- Warren Spector
Original Game Character of the Year
- Seaman (Seaman)
- Cate Archer (No One Lives Forever)
- Kabuto (Giants: Citizen Kabuto)
- Ulala (Space Channel 5)
- Tamale Loco (Tamale Loco @ shockwave.com)
Excellence in Audio
- Matt Uelmen, Jason Hayes, Glenn Stafford & Andrea Pessino - Diablo II (composition)
- Michael Sweet - BliX (music)
- Fumitaka Shibata - Samba de Amigo (music)
- Naofumi Hataya & Kenichi Tokoi - Space Channel 5 (music)
- Kemal Amarasingham & Eric Brosius - Thief II: The Metal Age (sound effects)
Excellence in Game Design
- Harvey Smith & Warren Spector - Deus Ex (game design)
- Sean Clark & Michael Stemmle - Escape from Monkey Island (puzzles)
- Shigeru Miyamoto & Eiji Aonuma - Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask (gameplay)
- Ragnar Tornquist - The Longest Journey (story)
- Neversoft Entertainment - Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 (gameplay)
Excellence in Level Design
- American McGee, Jim Molinets & team - American McGee's Alice
- NOLF level design team - No One Lives Forever
- Michel Ancel & team - Rayman 2: The Great Escape
- SSX level design team - SSX
- Christopher Foster, Tom Odell & team - Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force
Excellence in Programming
- Sims programming team - The Sims (AI)
- Yu Suzuki & team - F355 Challenge (physics)
- Scott Guest & Andy Astor - Giants: Citizen Kabuto (graphics)
- Visual Concepts dev team - NFL2K1 (networking)
- Martin Brownlow - Sacrifice (graphics)
Excellence in Visual Arts
- Ryuta Ueda & Kazuki Hosokawa - Jet Grind Radio (art direction)
- American McGee - American McGee's Alice (art direction)
- Tomonobu Itagaki, Hiroaki Matsui & team - Dead or Alive 2 (animation)
- Joby Otero - Sacrifice (art direction)
- Insomniac art team - Spyro: Year of the Dragon (art direction)
Game of the Year
- The Sims (Maxis)
- Deus Ex (ION Storm Austin)
- Jet Grind Radio (Smilebit)
- No One Lives Forever (Monolith)
- Shenmue (Sega AM2)
Game Spotlight Awards
- Counter-Strike (Counter-Strike team)
- Crazy Taxi (Sega AM3)
- Deus Ex (ION Storm Austin)
- Jet Grind Radio (Smilebit)
- No One Lives Forever (Monolith)
- American McGee's Alice (Rogue/EA)
- NFL2K1 (Visual Concepts)
- Sacrifice (Shiny)
- Samba de Amigo (Sega Sonic Team)
- Seaman (Vivarium)
- Shenmue (Sega AM2)
- SSX (EA Canada)
- The Sims (Maxis)
- Virtua Tennis (Sega)
- Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask (Nintendo)
- IGDA Announces 2001 Game Developers Choice Award Winners (March 24, 2001)
- Game Developers Choice Awards Honor Lifetime Achievement And Ground-Breaking Work In the Game Development Industry (March 21, 2001)
- Nominees Announced For Game Developers Choice Awards (February 22, 2001)
- IGDA To Present Game Developers Choice Awards At 2001 Game Developers Conference (January 10, 2001)