This year's Game Developers Choice Awards and Independent Games Festival awards were presented quite well. It was nice to be back in the Civic Auditorium once again. They had it set up much in the way they did back in 2004, however the production booth was much nicer and they had a second camera as well. The floor was open for cocktails at 5:30 for finalists and press, but I didn't make it there until around 6 since I had decided to post up some stuff before heading on over. While a huge line formed outside, the finalists mingled and tried to calm down jittery nerves. Of course it wasn't just the finalists who had to deal with nerves; poor Dave Perry was trying to settle himself in preparation to host the event with Tommy Tallarico. I gave him a reassuring pat on the shoulder but it didn't seem to help much :P

So lets go over some of the positives of this year's event. One thing that was interesting was the fact that the awards show now has a host, or in this case at least, hosts. In years past the show simply had presenters - two developers would come out and each take turns announcing an award. After two awards another pair would come out. I'm not sure why they decided to have hosts this year, the presenter format always worked out great. I suppose they could have shaved a few minutes off the event by not having to constantly announce new presenters, but it seems rather insubstantial to me. Regardless, Dave and Tommy were great hosts, although I think they tried a little too hard to be funny. Tommy especially liked to say "cool" a lot and seemed to be a little hyped-up nervous. But who can blame them? Game developers certainly aren't cut out for roles like this so I applaud them for their effort. Another highlight of the event was AdultSwim.com. During various points in the show they had one of their text montages like they do on TV. The first one ran something like: "we're happy to be a platinum sponsor" "wait" "why the hell are we platinum and Microsoft is only gold?" "come on Bill, we know you have the money" "those 360's all sold out!" "we saw it!". That's a taste, they were all quite humorous. Finally, the event programmers redeemed themselves for the debacle last year by airing videos from Mega64. These guys take video games (like Metal Gear Solid) and film themselves acting as those characters in those games in the real world in public - without telling a single person what the hell they're doing. It was quite entertaining to say the least. I highly recommend you check out their site. Another positive was the fact that, unlike last year, no one rambled on in their speeches. Thank heavens! In fact Chris Hecker's speech even used the projection screen to put up slides - brilliant idea and well executed too.

I'm happy to say there weren't many negatives at this year's event. There was a bit more sponsor thanking than usual, but that was mainly thanks to the fact that there were several types of sponsors for the event, like those for the IGF, the GDCAs, the Moto contest, the game art contest... They're still using plasma screens as static displays, which continues to annoy me. If the whole stage backdrop is an animated projection screen I fail to see anything wrong with animating the podium screen as well. I suppose one issue is the fact that people way in the back can't see it that well anyways but still - it's a video screen. Use it as a video screen! There were no major production hiccups, although Mrs. Perry did forget to bring an envelope out once however she corrected herself before Dave could skip a beat. My only other minor complaint is that they used "winner" to announce the awards. I think "the IGF award goes to..." is much better. They do it with the GDCAs and although the IGF is technically a contest that doesn't mean you have to announce the recipients as "winners".

Overall I was very happy with the way the event was carried out this year. Going back to San Francisco I can only hope that they actually get a venue for this awards ceremony, or someone's getting beat over the head with a stick. If they stick it in that ballroom again they're only hurting themselves. Judging by the attendance this year - the Civic was completely packed, people were standing up on the balcony - the conference planners really have no choice but to find a venue capable of hosting the awards. That doesn't mean it will happen though. Cross your fingers.

And now on to the pictures. Many many thanks to DaveRM for sacrificing his knees (poor guy was limping after sitting on the floor for two hours) to take pictures of the event. These are way better pics that I could have ever produced with my (relatively) weak-ass camera, so yea - thanks Dave!! All of the first two pics are mine, the rest are all Dave's.

Preshow

A shot of the stage over the nominee tables	The Large Animal Games crew
A closer shot of the stage	The nominee/finalist tables
Nominees getting settled

Starting the Show

Jason Della Rocca (IGDA Executive Director) and Jamil Moledina (GDC Director) welcome everyone to the show	Your hosts, David Perry (formerly Shiny) and Tommy Tallarico (Tommy Tallarico Studios)

The Independent Games Festival

IGF Best Mod - Half-Life 2

Dystopia (Team Dystopia)

IGF Best Mod - Doom 3

Last Man Standing Coop (Platinum Arts)

IGF Best Mod - Neverwinter Nights

Rose of Eternity - Chapter 1 - The Coming (Challseus)

IGF Best Mod - Unreal Tournament 2004

Path of Vengeance (Lotus Arts)

Innovation in Audio

Weird Worlds: Return to Infinite Space (Digital Eel)

Innovation in Visual Arts

Darwinia (Introversion Software)

Innovation in Game Design

Braid (Number None)

Technical Excellence

Darwinia (Introversion Software)

Best Web Browser Game

Dad 'n Me (Tom Fulp and Dan Paladin)

AdultSwim.com Award

AdultSwim.com representative	Dodge That Anvil (RabidLab)

Audience Award

Dofus (Ankama)

Seumas McNally Grand Prize

Last year's Grand Prize recipients (when there were two categories) Simon Hallam (Reflexive Entertainment) and Alex Austin (Chronic Logic) presented the award to Introversion Software for Darwinia
As the they came on stage they flung little green Darwinians out into the audience
One of them made it back and struck the far left team member dead in the head	Mark Morris tells how Introversion didn't let publishers "fuck with our heads" and even went a year without income in order to make the game and make it right. That they did.

Graphic Impact Competition

A montage of entries and the announcement of finalists in the Graphics Impact Competition

Motorola Mobile Competition

Motorola representative announces the winners	Only one of the two teams announced was on hand to accept their award

Game Developers Choice Awards

Innovation Awards

The Innovation awards recognize games that demonstrate true innovation, advance the state of the art, and push the boundaries of games as an expressive medium. In essence, these are the games that are leading the way as the medium continues to evolve. Up to three Innovation awards may be bestowed on games that contain such outstanding contributions.

Jason Della Rocca and Jamil Moledina announce the recipients	Shadow of the Colossus (Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.) - Junichi Hosono, Fumito Ueda
Nintendogs (Nintendo EAD / Nintendo) - Tsutomo Kaneshige, Hideki Konno, Shigeru Miyamoto, Kiyoshi Mizuki - accepted by Nintendo's regional representative	Guitar Hero (Harmonix Music Systems / RedOctane) - Greg LoPiccolo, Ryan Lesser. "Rock on!"

New Studio Award

The New Studio award recognizes the outstanding achievement of a “new” game development studio and the obstacles it overcame in releasing its first publicly available game in the year 2004.

Nominees

• ArenaNet (Guild Wars)
  - Mike O'Brien, Jeff Strain, Patrick Wyatt
• Double Fine Productions (Psychonauts)
  - Caroline Esmurdoc, Tim Schafer
• New Crayon Games (Bonnie's Bookstore)
  - Phil Steinmeyer
• TellTale Games (Bone: Out From Boneville)
  - David Bogan, Kevin Bruner, Dan Connors, Troy Molander
• Wideload Games (Stubbs the Zombie in Rebel Without a Pulse)
  - Alexander Seropian

Double Fine Productions [Psychonauts] - Caroline Esmurdoc, Tim Schafer

Writing Award

The Writing award recognizes the overall excellence of writing in a game - including, but not limited to, story, plot construction, dialogue, branching narratives, etc.

Nominees

• Freedom Force vs. The 3rd Reich (Irrational Games / Vivendi Universal Games)
  - Ken Levine
• God of War (Sony Computer Entertainment America)
  - David Jaffe, Marianne Krawcyzk, Alex Stein
• Indigo Prophecy (Quantic Dream / Atari)
  - David Cage
• Jade Empire (BioWare Corp. / Microsoft Game Studios)
  - Drew Karpyshyn, Brian Kindregan, Luke Kristjanson, Mike Laidlaw, Peter Thomas, Mac Walters
• Psychonauts (Double Fine Productions / Majesco Entertainment Company)
  - Tim Schafer, Erik Wolpaw

Psychonauts (Double Fine Productions / Majesco Entertainment Company) - Tim Schafer, Erik Wolpaw

Game Design Award

The Game Design award recognizes the overall excellence of design in a game - including, but not limited to, gameplay mechanics, puzzles, play balancing, scenarios, etc.

Nominees

• Animal Crossing: Wild World (Nintendo EAD / Nintendo)
  - Katsuya Eguchi, Hisashi Nogami, Takashi Tezuka, Kazumi Totaka
• God of War (Sony Computer Entertainment America)
  - David Jaffe
• Nintendogs (Nintendo EAD / Nintendo)
  - Tsutomu Kaneshige, Hideki Konno, Shigeru Miyamoto, Kiyoshi Mizuki
• Psychonauts (Double Fine Productions / Majesco Entertainment Company)
  - Erik Robson, Tim Schafer
• Shadow of the Colossus (Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.)
  - Junichi Hosono, Fumito Ueda

Shadow of the Colossus (Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.) - Junichi Hosono, Fumito Ueda

Maverick Award

The Maverick award recognizes those who take risks by experimenting with unconventional methods. The recipient of this year's award are the founders of Harmonix Music Systems, Inc., Alex Rigopulos (CEO) and Eran Egozy (CTO), and executive colleagues Mike Dornbrook and Greg LoPiccolo. Rigopulos and Egozy established the independent company in 1995 after having worked together at MIT Media Laboratory, a computer music group. Harmonix initially created interactive music attractions for theme parks, including Disney's Epcot Center. Now, Harmonix has shifted to incorporating music into gameplay.

"The guys from Harmonix have not only taken a risk by using music as a centerpiece for game design, but they have turned out titles that expand video games into the mass market in a meaningful way," Jason Della Rocca, executive director, IGDA, said.

The company has developed a number of successful music-based games, including The Axe, Frequency (2001) and Amplitude (2003). Frequency and Amplitude are currently the world's first and only online multiplayer music titles. Their hugely popular Karaoke Revolution series turns the console into a karaoke machine and lets players test their singing skills. EyeToy: AntiGrav (2004), Harmonix's first non-music based game, is an extreme sports title featuring hoverboards where players must use their entire bodies to move the characters and not just their thumbs.

The company's most recent title, Guitar Hero, features a guitar-like controller, allowing gamers to play rock anthems they grew up with and still love. The game topped most of 2005's best games lists and received numerous accolades, including Official PlayStation Magazine's description "ridiculously awesome."

Masaya Matsuura fittingly presents the award	Mike Dornbrook, Eran Egozy, Greg LoPiccolo, Alex Rigopulos of Harmonix

Audio Award

The Audio award recognizes the overall excellence of audio in a game - including, but not limited to, sound effects, musical composition, sound design, orchestration, etc.

Nominees

• Call of Duty 2 (Infinity Ward / Activision)
  - Mark Ganus
• Electroplankton (Nintendo)
  - Toshio Iwai, Koichi Kyuma, Yuichi Ozaki
• God of War (Sony Computer Entertainment America)
  - Brad Aldredge, Clint Bajakian, Chuck Doud, Dave Murrant
• Guitar Hero (Harmonix Music Systems / RedOctane)
  - Eric Brosius, Kasson Crooker
• Project Gotham Racing 3 (Bizarre Creations / Microsoft Game Studios)
  - Nick Bygrave, Guy Whitmore, Nick Wiswell

And the award goes to...

Guitar Hero (Harmonix Music Systems / Microsoft Game Studios) - Eric Brosius, Kasson Crooker

Character Design Award

The Character Design award recognizes the overall excellence of (non-licensed) character design in a game - including, but not limited to, originality, character arc, emotional depth, etc.

Nominees

• City of Villains (Cryptic Studios / NCsoft Corporation)
  - Ocala Bellows Kulig, Ryan Butts, Jay Doherty, Jeremy Mattson
• God of War (Sony Computer Entertainment America)
  - David Jaffe, Terry Smith, Charlie Wen
• Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath (Oddworld Inhabitants / Electronic Arts
  - Lorne Lanning, Rich McKain, Iain Morton, Raymond Swanland
• Psychonauts (Double Fine Productions / Majesco Entertainment Company)
  - Scott Campbell
• Shadow of the Colossus (Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.)
  - Atsuko Fukuyama, Hitoshi Niwa, Shunpei Suzuki, Fumito Ueda

And the award goes to...

Shadow of the Colossus (Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.) - Atsuko Fukuyama, Hitoshi Niwa, Shunpei Suzuki, Fumito Ueda

First Penguin Award

The First Penguin award acknowledges developers who dive head first into unknown territory and pave the way for the rest of the development community. This year's award will go to Will Crowther and Don Woods, who are credited with pioneering the videogame genre of Role Playing Games (RPGs).

"We are touched to be thought of for this prestigious award," said Crowther. "Adventure was an experiment in interactivity, which took hold and has blossomed into new forms, joining other popular games that exist today."

In 1976, the two pioneers created the text-interactive fiction game Adventure. Crowther initially developed the game for his children, but it soon spread to friends, colleagues and even made it onto a computer at Stanford University. Woods was a Stanford PhD student when he expanded the game's reach by opening it up to other players through the early stages of the Internet. He formed new obstacles, added scoring rules and made the game source available. Over the years, Woods gave away over a hundred copies. The game was translated into several languages and adapted to run on different systems. Adventure revolutionized the industry by expanding the games market and forming a new category of interactive entertainment: RPGs.

The Awards Advisory Board selects the recipient of this award. Read up on the origin and background of the First Penguin Award.

Steve Meretzky (Floodgate Entertainment) and Bob Bates introduce the recipient, dressing up as spelunkers in tribute to Adventure	Will Crowther accepts his award and gives a speech on Don Wood's behalf

Technology Award

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

Nominees

• Battlefield 2: Modern Combat (Digital Illusions / Electronic Arts)
  - Fred Gill, Måns Vestin
• Guitar Hero (Harmonix Music Systems / RedOctane)
  - Eran Egozy, Eric Malafeew, Phil Winston
• Nintendogs (Nintendo EAD / Nintendo)
  - Tsutomu Kaneshige
• Project Gotham Racing 3 (Bizarre Creations / Microsoft Game Studios)
  - Edmund Clay, Roger Perkins, Phil Teschner, Ian Wilson
• Shadow of the Colossus (Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.)
  - Jinji Horagai, Takuya Seki, Hajime Sugiyama, Masanobu Tanaka

And the award goes to...

Nintendogs (Nintendo EAD / Nintendo) - Tsutomo Kaneshige - again accepted by Nintendo's regional representative

Visual Arts Award

The Visual Arts award recognizes the overall excellence of visual art in a game - including, but not limited to, animation, modeling, art direction, textures, etc.

Nominees

• God of War (Sony Computer Entertainment America)
  - Steve Caterson, Terry Smith, Charlie Wen
• Project Gotham Racing 3 (Bizarre Creations / Microsoft Game Studios)
  - Gren Atherton, Julie McGurren, Peter Roe, Kiki Wolfkill
• Resident Evil 4 (Capcom Production Studio 4 / Capcom Entertainment)
  - Yusuke Hashimoto, Yoshiaki Hirabayashi, Yusuke Kan, Masaki Yamanaka
• Shadow of the Colossus (Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.)
  - Koji Hasegawa, Masanori Kajita, Hironobu Nakano, Fumito Ueda
• We Love Katamari (Namco Limited / Namco Hometek)
  - Keita Takahashi, Takeshi Ugajin

Shadow of the Colossus (Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.) - Koji Hasegawa, Masanori Kajita, Hironobu Nakano, Fumito Ueda

Community Contribution

The Community Contribution award embodies the goals of the IGDA and recognizes the significant contributions that an individual has made in building community, sharing knowledge, speaking on behalf of developers and/or contributing to the art form of game development. Chris Hecker, technology fellow, Maxis/Electronic Arts, will receive this year's honors for his work with progressive game design research.

Hecker has spent most of his time in the past years formulating solutions to game design and technical problems that raise questions about gameplay, visual arts and engineering. In addition to his research work, Hecker helps organize the annual Indie Game Jam and the Experimental Gameplay Workshop. Both special events test developers' skills in design and explore interactivity within the context of treating games as an art form.

"Chris bucks the natural human tendency to nod in agreement, and provides a much-needed jolt of disruptive but cogent innovation to the field of game design," said Jamil Moledina, director, Game Developers Conference. "Add his progressive outlook to the sheer volume of energy he pours into the Indie Game Jam and the Experimental Gameplay Workshop, and it's clear what a significant asset he is to the community."

Hecker has been on the advisory board for the Game Developers Conference for several years and is a regular speaker at the GDC, Siggraph as well as other conferences. He's also a contributor to Game Developer magazine where he previously wrote the technical column. Before joining Maxis, he was an independent game developer for eight years with his company definition six, inc. He is also on the board of the computer graphics research publication, The Journal of Graphic Tools.

Gabe Newell (Valve Software) presented the award	Chris Hecker gives his speech in time with a slideshow up on the big screen behind him, very well done. "Games are fucking awesome"

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.

"It is a high honor to be counted among the legends who are previous recipients of this award, such as Will Wright and Eugene Jarvis," said Garriott.

During his 20+ years as a programmer and video game designer, Garriott has received numerous awards including Computer Gaming World's "15 Most Influential Industry Players," Next Generation's "America's Elite," PC Gamer's "Game Gods," and PC Games' "Designer of the Year." Garriott, along with his brother, Robert, was also named "Entrepreneur of the Year" by Inc. magazine. Garriott was also recently chosen as the ninth inductee into the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences' Hall of Fame.

"Garriott almost single-handedly brought the role-playing game experience to glowing life," remarked Jamil Moledina, director of the Game Developers Conference. "Given his ongoing role in evolving the form to its current massively multiplayer online incarnation, we are proud to honor him for his lifetime achievement."

Son of Skylab and Spacelab astronaut Owen K. Garriott, Richard took an interest in computers at a young age. He began programming games in high school and produced his first published game, Akalabeth, at the age of 19. While attending the University of Texas at Austin, Garriott began developing one of the most successful, longest-running game series of all time: Ultima. Garriott and his brother formed Origin Systems, Inc. to begin publishing their own games, and the company was acquired by Electronic Arts (EA) in 1992. By 1999, Garriott resigned and in the following year, he returned to the industry with his new startup Destination Games in partnership with his brother and Starr Long, producer of Ultima Online. In 2001, Destination merged with NCsoft where Garriott currently acts as producer and designer of MMORPGs. His long-awaited current project, Tabula Rasa, is expected to launch sometime this year, and he will share his experiences creating the game at this year's GDC.

"Garriott's creative vision and ability to push questions of morality via his game designs has paved the way for other game creators to explore all aspects of the human condition," Jason Della Rocca, executive director, IGDA, said.

Recipients of the Lifetime Achievement award are selected by the Choice Awards Advisory Board, comprised of a diverse set of developers from across the globe. Past recipients of this award include: Eugene Jarvis, Mark Cerny, Gunpei Yokoi (posthumous), Yuji Naka and Will Wright.

Past recipient Eugene Jarvis takes us "back in time" to introduce a pioneer of the industry, who once sold games in plastics bags like "so much digital crack"
Richard Garriot, aka Lord British, takes the stage (no standing O, surprisingly - tho some people stood) and contributes his success to being at the right age "Since 19 I've been the oldest person in the industry"

Best Game Award

The Best Game award recognizes the overall best – as interpreted by developers - game released during the year 2005.

Nominees

• Animal Crossing: Wild World (Nintendo EAD / Nintendo)
  - Katsuya Eguchi, Hisashi Nogami, Takashi Tezuka, Kazumi Totaka
• God of War (Sony Computer Entertainment America)
  - David Jaffe, Shannon Studstill
• Guitar Hero (Harmonix Music Systems / RedOctane)
  - Rob Kay, Greg LoPiccolo, Alex Rigopulos
• Shadow of the Colossus (Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.)
  - Kenji Kaido, Yasuhide Kobayashi, Fumito Ueda
• The Movies (Lionhead Studios / Activision)
  - Gary Carr, Peter Molyneux, Mark Webley

And the award goes to...

Shadow of the Colossus (Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.) - Kenji Kaido, Yasuhide Kobayashi, Fumito Ueda

And that's a wrap...

Thanks for coming!