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Finalists & Winners

Honoring the Best Games of 2001

For photos, please browse our albums.

Lifetime Achievement Award

Yuji Naka

President and CEO of Sega's SONICTEAM, for the innovative and award-winning work he has produced during his career, including the creation of SEGA mascot, Sonic The Hedgehog.

First Penguin Award

Hubert Chardot

For his risk-taking work on Alone in the Dark, a game that started the "survival-horror" genre.

IGDA Award for Community Contribution

Jeff Lander

For his writings on game development, community building efforts and student outreach.

Game of the Year

GRAND THEFT AUTO III (DMA Design/Rockstar Games)

BLACK & WHITE (Lionhead Studios)
HALO: COMBAT EVOLVED (Bungie Studios)
ICO (Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc.)
MAX PAYNE (Remedy Entertainment)

Rookie Studio of the Year

Bohemia Interactive Studio for OPERATION FLASHPOINT

Adrenium Games for AZURIK: RISE OF PERATHIA
Croteam for SERIOUS SAM
Pseudo Interactive for CEL DAMAGE
TimeGate Studios for KOHAN: IMMORTAL SOVEREIGNS

Original Game Character of the Year

Daxter from JAK & DAXTER: THE PRECURSOR LEGACY

Dante from DEVIL MAY CRY
Ico from ICO
Max Payne from MAX PAYNE
Munch from ODDWORLD: MUNCH'S ODDYSEE

Excellence in Audio

Marty O'Donnell & team for sound effects in HALO: COMBAT EVOLVED

Erik Kraber & Jack Grillo for sound design in CLIVE BARKER'S UNDYING
Harry Gregson-Williams for composition in METAL GEAR SOLID 2: SONS OF LIBERTY
Josh Randall for sound design in FREQUENCY
Thomas Engel, Rudolf Stember & Chris Huelsbeck for sound engineering in STAR WARS ROGUE SQUADRON II: ROGUE LEADER

Excellence in Level Design

Fumito Ueda & team for level design in ICO

Craig Filshie, William Mills, Chris Rothwell & James Worrall for level design in GRAND THEFT AUTO III
Ghost Recon team for level design in TOM CLANCY'S GHOST RECON
Scott Campbell, Dave Jaffe, Kellan Hatch & team for level design in TWISTED METAL: BLACK
Toshihiro Nagoshi & team for level design in SUPER MONKEY BALL

Excellence in Programming

Richard Evans for artificial intelligence in BLACK & WHITE

Akihiko Tan & team for physics in GRAN TURISMO 3 A-SPEC
Andy Gavin & Stephen White for programming in JAK & DAXTER: THE PRECURSOR LEGACY
Jason Jones & team for programming in HALO: COMBAT EVOLVED
Sherman Archibald, John Carmack & Ryan Feltrin for graphics in RETURN TO CASTLE WOLFENSTEIN

Excellence in Game Design

GTA3 team for game play in GRAND THEFT AUTO III

Fumito Ueda & team for game design ICO
Lorne Lanning & Chris Ulm for story/writing in ODDWORLD: MUNCH'S ODDYSEE
Peter Molyneux & team for game design in BLACK & WHITE
Shigeru Miyamto & team for game design in PIKMIN

Excellence in Visual Arts

Fumito Ueda & team for art direction in ICO

Greg Griffith, Bill Harper, John Kim, Jordan Pitchon, Bob Rafei, Josh Scherr & Rob Titus for animation in JAK & DAXTER: THE PRECURSOR LEGACY
Kazunori Yamauchi & team for modeling in GRAN TURISMO 3 A-SPEC
Lorne Lanning & Farzad Varahramyan for art direction in ODDWORLD: MUNCH'S ODDYSEE
Tetsuya Mizuguchi, Jun Kabayashi & team for art direction in REZ

Game Innovation Spotlights

BLACK & WHITE (Lionhead Studios)
GRAND THEFT AUTO III (DMA Design)
ICO (Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc.)
MAJESTIC (Electronic Arts)
REZ (United Game Artists)

CEL DAMAGE (Pseudo Interactive)
FREQUENCY (Harmonix Music Systems)
KOHAN: IMMORTAL SOVEREIGNS (TimeGate Studios)
MAX PAYNE (Remedy Entertainment)
SUPER MONKEY BALL (Amusement Vision)