2008 Recipients

The recipients of the 8th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards are:

2007 Best Game Design
Portal (Valve)
Kim Swift, Realm Lovejoy, Paul Graham

2007 Best Visual Art
BioShock (2K Boston/2K Australia / 2K Games)
Scott Sinclair, Shawn Robertson, Andrew James

2007 Best Technology
Crysis (Crytek/Electronic Arts)
Cevat Yerli, Douglas Binks, Timur Davidenko, Martin Mittring

2007 Best Writing
BioShock (2K Boston/2K Australia / 2K Games)
Ken Levine, Emily Ridgway, Joe McDonagh, Susan O’Connor

2007 Best Audio
BioShock (2K Boston/2K Australia / 2K Games)
Eric Brosius, Pat Balthrop, Emily Ridgway, Justin Mullins

2007 Best Debut
Crackdown (Real Time Worlds / Microsoft Game Studios)
Ramon Gonzalez, Violetta Sanchez, Rafael Diaz, Jose Guerra

2007 Innovation
Portal (Valve)
Kim Swift, Erik Wolpaw

2007 Best Handheld Game
The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (Nintendo / Nintendo)
Eiji Aonuma

2007 Best Downloadable Game
Flow (thatgamecompany / Sony Computer Entertainment)
Kellee Santiago, Jenova Chen, Martin Middleton, Hao Cui, John Edwards, Nick Clark

2007 Game of the Year
Portal (Valve)
Kim Swift, Erik Wolpaw

2008 Special Awards Recipients

These three special honors, selected by the Game Developers Choice Awards advisory board, will be presented at the ceremony.

Lifetime Achievement

The Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes the career and achievements of a developer who has made an indelible impact on the craft of game development and games as a whole.

Sid Meier

Pioneer Award

The Pioneer Award (formerly known as the First Penguin Award) celebrates those individuals who developed a breakthrough technology, game concept, or gameplay design at a crucial juncture video game history - paving the way for the myriads who followed them.

Ralph Baer

Ambassador Award

The Ambassador Award honors an individual or individuals who have helped the game industry advance to a better place, either through facilitating a better game community from within, or by reaching outside the industry to be an advocate for video games and help further our art.

Jason Della Rocca

2008 Nominees

In addition to the Ambassador, Pioneer and Lifetime Achievement Awards, Choice Awards will be given in the following categories below. These particular categories will be both nominated and voted on by the development community.

Game of the Year

The Game of the Year Award recognizes the choice of game developers for the overall best game release during 2007.

BioShock
Call of Duty 4
Portal
Rock Band
Super Mario Galaxy

Best Writing

The Best Writing Award recognizes the overall excellence of storytelling in a game - including, but not limited to, art direction, animation, modeling, character design, texture creation, and so on.

Portal
God of War II
Mass Effect
Half-Life 2: Episode 2
BioShock

Best Game Design

The Best Game Design Award recognizes the overall excellence of design in a game - including, but not limited to, gameplay mechanics, playability, play balancing, and level design.

BioShock
Call of Duty 4
Mass Effect
Portal
Super Mario Galaxy

Best Technology

The Best Technology Award recognizes the overall excellence of technology in a game - including, but not limited to, graphics programming, artificial intelligence, networking, and physics.

Halo 3
Crysis
Call of Duty 4
Portal
Assassin's Creed

Best Visual Arts

The Best Visual Arts Award recognizes the overall excellence of visual art in a game - including, but not limited to, art direction, animation, modeling, character design, texture creation, and so on.

Assassin's Creed
Team Fortress 2
Crysis
BioShock
Uncharted: Drake's Fortune

Best Debut Game

The Best Debut Game Award recognizes the game from any development studio which released its first publicly available title in the year 2007.

Crackdown (Realtime Worlds)
flOw (ThatGameCompany)
The Witcher (CD Projekt)
Everyday Shooter (Queasy Games)
Aquaria (Bit Blot)

Innovation Award

The Innovation Award recognizes the single game that demonstrates true innovation, advances the state of the art, and pushes the boundaries of games as an expressive medium.

Rock Band
Portal
flOw
Peggle
Mass Effect

Best Handheld Game

Puzzle Quest: Challenge of The Warlords
The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
Phase
Contra 4
Peggle (for iPod)

Best Audio

Call of Duty 4
Everyday Shooter
BioShock
God of War II
Mass Effect

Best Downloadable Game

Pac-Man Championship Edition
Everyday Shooter
Peggle
Puzzle Quest: Challenge of The Warlords (XBLA version)
Flow

Pictures are available in the Photos page.