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Finalists & Winners

Honoring the Best Games of 2000

For photos, please browse our albums.

Lifetime Achievement Award

Will Wright

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)