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[Articalys]

Congratulations to the winners! Watch GameSpot's archive of both awards shows here:
Independent Games Festival Awards
Game Developers Choice Awards

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

http://www.igf.com/

The IGF Awards will take place on Wednesday, March 7, 2012, at the Game Developers Conference, with thousands watching the awards presentation before the Game Developers Choice Awards are presented. In its 14th year, the IGF has given away hundreds of thousands of dollars in prizes and major recognition to innovative and independently created video games from all over the world.

Seumas McNally Grand Prize
----------------------------------
Dear Esther (thechineseroom)
Fez (Polytron)
Frozen Synapse (Mode 7 Games)
Johann Sebastian Joust (Die Gute Fabrik)
Spelunky (Mossmouth)

Excellence In Visual Art
----------------------------------
Botanicula (Amanita Design)
Dear Esther (thechineseroom)
Lume (State of Play Games)
Mirage (Mario von Rickenbach)
Wonderputt (Damp Gnat)

Technical Excellence
----------------------------------
Antichamber (Demruth)
Fez (Polytron)
Prom Week (Expressive Intelligence Studio)
Realm of the Mad God (Wild Shadow Studios & Spry Fox)
Spelunky (Mossmouth)

Excellence In Design
----------------------------------
Atom Zombie Smasher (Blendo Games)
English Country Tune (Stephen Lavelle)
Frozen Synapse (Mode 7 Games)
Gunpoint (Tom Francis, John Roberts and Fabian van Dommelen)
Spelunky (Mossmouth)

Excellence in Audio
----------------------------------
Botanicula (Amanita Design)
Dear Esther (thechineseroom)
Pugs Luv Beats (Lucky Frame)
To the Moon (Freebird Games)
Waking Mars (Tiger Style)

Best Mobile Game
----------------------------------
ASYNC Corp. (Powerhead Games)
Beat Sneak Bandit (Simogo)
Faraway (Steph Thirion)
Ridiculous Fishing (Vlambeer)
Waking Mars (Tiger Style)

Nuovo Award Finalists
----------------------------------
At a Distance (Terry Cavanagh)
Dear Esther (thechineseroom)
Fingle (Game Oven Studios)
GIRP (Bennett Foddy)
Johann Sebastian Joust (Die Gute Fabrik)
Proteus (Ed Key and David Kanaga)
Storyteller (Daniel Benmergui)
WAY (Carnegie Mellon University, Entertainment Technology Center)

(The Nuovo Award is a special award honoring 'abstract, shortform, and unconventional game development' of all kinds)


Student Showcase Finalists
----------------------------------
The Bridge (Case Western Reserve University)
Dust (Art Institute of Phoenix)
The Floor Is Jelly (Kansas City Art Institute)
Nous (DigiPen Institute of Technology)
One and One Story (Liceo scientifico G. B.)
Pixi (DigiPen Institute of Technology - Singapore)
The Snowfield (Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab)
WAY (Carnegie Mellon University, Entertainment Technology Center)

Audience Award
----------------------------------
Frozen Synapse (Mode 7 Games)



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



And the main event:

http://www.gamechoiceawards.com/

Hosted by Epic Games' Cliff Bleszinski

The Game Developers Choice Awards are the premier accolades for peer-recognition in the digital games industry, celebrating creativity, artistry and technological genius. Industry professionals from around the world nominate for the awards, free of charge, ensuring that the recipients reflect the community's opinions.

Awards in thirteen categories will be given at a ceremony produced by the Game Developers Conference (GDC) and presented by Gamasutra.com and Game Developer Magazine, on Wednesday, March 7, 2012 at GDC. The gala event, held in conjunction with the Independent Games Festival, will be hosted in San Francisco's Moscone Convention Center.

Best Game Design
----------------------------------
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (Bethesda Game Studios)
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (Nintendo)
Portal 2 (Valve)
Batman: Arkham City (Rocksteady Studios)
Dark Souls (From Software)

Innovation
----------------------------------
Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure (Toys For Bob)
Portal 2 (Valve)
Bastion (Supergiant Games)
Johann Sebastian Joust (Die Gute Fabrik)
L.A. Noire (Team Bondi)

Best Technology
----------------------------------
Battlefield 3 (DICE)
L.A. Noire (Team Bondi)
Crysis 2 (Crytek Frankfurt/UK)
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (Bethesda Game Studios)
Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception (Naughty Dog)

Best Handheld/Mobile Game
----------------------------------
Tiny Tower (NimbleBit)
Super Mario 3D Land (Nintendo)
Jetpack Joyride (Halfbrick)
Infinity Blade II (Chair Entertainment)
Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP (Capy Games/Superbrothers)

Best Audio
----------------------------------
Bastion (Supergiant Games)
LittleBigPlanet 2 (Media Molecule)
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (Bethesda Game Studios)
Dead Space 2 (Visceral Games)
Portal 2 (Valve)

Best Downloadable Game
----------------------------------
Stacking (Double Fine)
From Dust (Ubisoft Montpellier)
Bastion (Supergiant Games)
Outland (Housemarque)
Frozen Synapse (Mode 7)

Best Narrative
----------------------------------
Portal 2 (Valve)
The Witcher 2 (CD Projekt RED)
Bastion (Supergiant Games)
Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception (Naughty Dog)
Saints Row: The Third (Volition)

Best Debut
----------------------------------
Supergiant Games (Bastion)
Team Bondi (L.A. Noire)
Re-Logic (Terraria)
BioWare Austin (Star Wars: The Old Republic)
Eidos Montreal (Deus Ex: Human Revolution)

Best Visual Arts
----------------------------------
Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception (Naughty Dog)
Rayman Origins (Ubisoft Montpellier)
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (Bethesda Game Studios)
El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron (Ignition Japan)
Battlefield 3 (DICE)

Game of the Year
----------------------------------
Batman: Arkham City (Rocksteady Studios)
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (Bethesda Game Studios)
Portal 2 (Valve)
Deus Ex: Human Revolution (Eidos Montreal)
Dark Souls (From Software)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Special Award Recipients:

Lifetime Achievement Award:
Warren Spector

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, and Warren Spector, who has earned a sterling reputation as an innovator able to merge the deep gameplay elements of multiple genres, stands as a shining example of those principles.

Pioneer Award:
Dave Theurer

The Pioneer 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. This year's Pioneer Award will be given to Dave Theurer, one of Atari Inc.'s legendary arcade game designers from the 1980s. Theurer created classic titles such as Missile Command, Tempest, and I, Robot which helped create modern game genres and define the early days of gaming.

Ambassador Award:
Ken Doroshow and Paul M. Smith

The Ambassador Award will celebrate Ken Doroshow and Paul M. Smith, the First Amendment lawyers in the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case Brown, et al., v. Entertainment Merchants Association, et al., for their support and their fight for game developer rights. The Ambassador Award recognizes 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 advocates for video games to help further the art form.

 

[Wario64]

Will watch.

 

[Articalys]

Alright, sorry for the title time confusion. The IGF awards have just begun.

 

[bozeman]

YOU get a Blackberry! And YOU get a Blackberry!

 

[GK86]

YOU get a Blackberry! And YOU get a Blackberry!

Poor souls.

 

[GodfatherX]

predicting a Skyrim sweep

 

[Articalys]

The Carnegie Mellon team won the Student Showcase! Yes!

 

[Zoramon089]

Why are those 2 asians holding hands...

 

[Anth0ny]

Come on Dark Souls.

 

[jett]

stream died?

 

[GK86]

I had to stop watching. Gamespot streams have never played friendly with my connection.

 

[Wario64]

Stream is fucked need mirror

 

[Articalys]

stream died?

Looks like it... sorry guys.

 

[SketchTheArtist]

Hope Eidos Montreal gets the award for Best Debut. Totally deserves it!

 

[Articalys]

NEW MIRROR
http://www.twitch.tv/gamespot

Antichamber won Technical Excellence, by the way. And unfortunately we missed part of a Mega64 skit.

 

[Wario64]

Gamespot fail again.

 

[Zoramon089]

NEW MIRROR
http://www.twitch.tv/gamespot

Antichamber won Technical Excellence, by the way. And unfortunately we missed part of a Mega64 skit.

This stream also died...

 

[Sn4ke_911]

stream died?

works fine for me.

 

[Zia]

Beat Sneak Bandit!!

 

[Vulcano's assistant]

Frozen Synapse woohoo!

 

[jett]

ted woolsey lives!

and he's at microsoft. uh ok.

 

[kassatsu]

So jelly at XBLA right now.

 

[Articalys]

According to the Gamespot rep in the chat: "man, this internet here is ***."

Ooh, Notch is there to announce the IGF Grand Prize winner.

 

[Dead Prince]

Is Fez out yet?

 

[jett]

Is Fez out yet?

nope

 

[angelfly]

Shitstorm commence!

 

[JABEE]

Was that a shot at Phil Fish? The game coming out in 2035?

 

[BlazingDarkness]

Lol, Fez

 

[Articalys]

GDC Awards are now beginning!

 

[Yamibito]

I'm so glad Fez won- hopefully people will forget about the whole japanese games sucking thing now and just play his game when it finally comes out, it looks blissfully cool and I think it's a shame he's getting so much flak for such a silly little quick comment.

 

[milesdm]

Happy Fez won. Luv ya Phil.

 

[mollipen]

I'm so glad Fez won- hopefully people will forget about the whole japanese games sucking thing now and just play his game when it finally comes out, it looks blissfully cool and I think it's a shame he's getting so much flak for such a silly little quick comment.

Screw him, and screw his game. Love how a game that STILL isn't out won that award. That's pretty hot.

 

[Professor Fog]

Fez is still awesome.

 

[JABEE]

He's got paper

 

[Zoramon089]

Tim is awesome

 

[Vulcano's assistant]

I love Tim so much

 

[Yamibito]

Screw him, and screw his game. Love how a game that STILL isn't out won that award. That's pretty hot.

It's finished though and the judges have played the finished version.

 

[JABEE]

Superbrother was great

 

[stupei]

Seeing it in the audio category reminded me: hope Dead Space 2 wins for lighting. Its use of light and shadow is really incredible and awesomely moody.

 

[Dead Prince]

i like the pose for picture. reminds me of high school graduation. should do it for all award winners.

 

[Sn4ke_911]

what the hell GAF, we are still on page 1?

 

[Goldmund]

I'm so glad Fez won- hopefully people will forget about the whole japanese games sucking thing now and just play his game when it finally comes out, it looks blissfully cool and I think it's a shame he's getting so much flak for such a silly little quick comment.

I think it's a shame he's not being universally shunned after he drew attention to his venomous character. I don't think his game should be entirely disregarded because of it, of course, just qualified.

 

[Articalys]

Hell yeah, Supergiant Games!

 

[JABEE]

Greg Kasavin

 

[SketchTheArtist]

what the hell GAF, we are still on page 1?

An actual game awards show and GAF doesn't care. Tsk tsk tsk.

 

[milesdm]

Screw him, and screw his game. Love how a game that STILL isn't out won that award. That's pretty hot.

Game's been finished since around November last year -- and the six months before that was tweaking as a result of playtesting at events. If I'm correct, it was denied cert. the first time round back then because Microsoft thought the cutscenes could trigger off epilepsy. So, eh.

An actual game awards show and GAF doesn't care. Tsk tsk tsk.

Yeah... :-(

 

[Makoto]

An actual game awards show and GAF doesn't care. Tsk tsk tsk.

Not enough teasers (a la Spike VG Awards).

 

[ipitydatfu]

portal 2 is having a field day

 

[milesdm]

Portal 2 is gonna sweep this, yeah.

 

[stupei]

Great to see Supergiant Games. Well deserved.

And I can't be the only one who cringed at Team Bondi's nomination for best debut, right?

Edit: Shit, great list of nominees for best narrative. (Well, except Uncharted 3, in my personal opinion, but that's at least partially because the rest of the list is really strong.)