Shacknews Document

Game Developers Choice Awards

2007 Nominees (winners in bold)

Innovation Award (awarded to all nominees)

• Line Rider (Boštjan Cadež)
  • Boštjan Cadež
• Okami (Clover Studio, Capcom) (accepted by Capcom representative on behalf of team)
  • Atsushi Inaba, Hideki Kamiya
• Wii Sports (Nintendo) (accepted by Shigeru Miyamoto on behalf of team: "You'll hear a lot tomorrow; I'll spare you tonight.")
  • Keizo Ohta, Takayuki Shimamura, Yoshiaki Yamashita

New Studio

• Gastronaut Studios (Small Arms)
  • Jacob Van Wingen, Don Wurster
• Iron Lore Entertainment (Titan Quest)
  • Paul Chieffo, Jeff Goodsill, Brian Sullivan
• Naked Sky Entertainment (RoboBlitz)
  • Joshua Glazer, Tian Mu, Sam Thibault
• Ready At Dawn Studios (Daxter)
  • Didier Malenfant, Andrea Pessino, Ru Weerasuriya
• Wadjet Eye Games (The Shivah)
  • Dave Gilbert

Best Writing (Schafer: "Writing for games is like trying to feed a pill to a cat.")

• Bully (Rockstar Vancouver / Rockstar Games)
  • Dan Houser, Jacob Krarup
• Dreamfall: The Longest Journey (Funcom / Aspyr Media)
  • Dag Scheve, Ragnar Tørnquist
• Sam & Max Episode 1: Culture Shock (Telltale Games / GameTap)
  • Brendan Ferguson, Dave Grossman, Steve Purcell
• The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Bethesda Game Studios / 2K Games/Bethesda Softworks)
  • Ken Rolston
• The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Nintendo EAD / Nintendo) (accepted by Eiji Aonuma on behalf of team)
  • Kyogoku Aya, Nate Bihldorff, Mitsuhiro Takano

Best Game Design (Schafer: "These five nominees probably got into game design for the same reason I did: to get laid.")

• Bully (Rockstar Vancouver / Rockstar Games)
  • Michael Skupa
• Okami (Clover Studio / Capcom Entertainment)
  • Hideki Kamiya
• The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Bethesda Game Studios / 2K Games/Bethesda Softworks)
  • Todd Howard
• Viva Pinata (Rare / Microsoft Game Studios)
  • Justin Cook, Gregg Mayles
• Wii Sports (Nintendo) (accepted by Shigeru Miyamoto on behalf of team)
  • Keizo Ohta, Takayuki Shimamura, Yoshiaki Yamashita

Maverick Award (presented by Eric Zimmerman: "Love him or hate him--and I know you all do--Greg continues to speak out and talk about what we love about games.")

• Greg Costikyan ("Software is an enormously plastic medium, and so are games. If we can imagine it, we can make it happen. Let us begin.")

Best Audio

• Company of Heroes (Relic Entertainment / THQ)
  • Crispin Hands, John Johnson, Jennifer Lewis, John Tennant
• DEFCON: Everybody Dies (Introversion Software)
  • Alistair Lindsay, Michael Maidment
• Guitar Hero II (Harmonix Music Systems / RedOctane)
  • Jeff Allen, Eric Brosius, Izzy Maxwell
• Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Legend (Crystal Dynamics / Eidos Interactive)
  • Troels Folmann, Karl Gallagher, Mike Peaslee, Gregg Stephens
• LocoRoco (Sony Computer Entertainment)
  • Kemmei Adachi, Tomonobu Kikuchi, Kouji Niikura, Nobuyuki Shimizu

Best Character Design

• Final Fantasy XII (Square Enix)
  • Hideo Minaba, Hiroshi Minagawa, Akihiko Yoshida
• LocoRoco (Sony Computer Entertainment)
  • Tsutomu Kouno, Keigo Tsuchiya
• Okami (Clover Studio / Capcom Entertainment) (accepted by Capcom representative on behalf of team)
  • Mari Shimazaki, Sawaki Takeyasu, Kenichirou Yoshimura
• Rayman Raving Rabbids (Ubisoft Montpellier Studio / Ubisoft Entertainment)
  • Michel Ancel, Charles Beirnaert, Hubert Chevillard, Florent Sacre
• Viva Pinata (Rare / Microsoft Game Studios)
  • Ryan Stevenson

First Penguin Award (presented by founders of PopCap Games)

• Alexey Pajitnov (inspired standing ovation before uttering a word; "Thank you very, very much.")

Best Technology

• Company of Heroes (Relic Entertainment / THQ)
  • Drew Dunlop, Shelby Hubick, David Swinerd, Ian Thomson
• Dead Rising (Capcom Entertainment)
  • Shinya Ikuta, Tomofumi Ishida, Yasuhide Sawada, Tomohiro Ueda
• Gears of War (Epic Games / Microsoft Game Studios) ("We're actually thinking of licensing this technology; we think there's a lot of potential in that.")
  • Michael Capps, Ray Davis, Tim Sweeney, Daniel Vogel
• Rockstar Games presents Table Tennis (Rockstar San Diego / Rockstar Games)
  • Ted Carson, Eugene Foss, Wil Paredes, Steve Reed
• Wii Sports (Nintendo)
  • Takuhiro Dohta, Takeshi Miyamoto, Keizo Ohta, Kenta Sato

Best Visual Arts (Schafer: "...and speaking of outsourcing, here are the nominees for Best Visual Arts")

• Final Fantasy XII (Square Enix)
  • Isamu Kamikokuryo, Hideo Minaba, Akihiko Yoshida
• Gears of War (Epic Games / Microsoft Game Studios)
  • Jerry O'Flaherty, Chris Perna
• Okami (Clover Studio / Capcom Entertainment)
  • Naoki Katakai, Kenichirou Yoshimura
• The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Bethesda Game Studios / 2K Games/Bethesda Softworks)
  • Matthew Carofano, Christiane Meister, Istvan Pely
• Viva Pinata (Rare / Microsoft Game Studios)
  • Ed Bryan, Ryan Stevenson

Community Contribution Award (presented by Graeme Devine)

• George "The Fat Man" Sanger

Lifetime Achievement Award (presented by Richard Garriott)

• Shigeru Miyamoto (inspired immediate standing ovation; "I think it's great that I've been able to do this so long, and I've done a lot of embarrassing things over the years" [after seeing photo montage]; "I personally feel very young, and I expect to keep doing this for a very long time.")

Game of the Year (presented by Richard Garriott)

• Gears of War (Epic Games / Microsoft Game Studios) (CliffyB: "Holy shit. ... Thank you also to Shigeru Miyamoto for inspiring me to do what I do every day.")
  • Cliff Bleszinski, Michael Capps, Rod Fergusson
• Okami (Clover Studio / Capcom Entertainment)
  • Atsushi Inaba, Hideki Kamiya
• The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Bethesda Game Studios / 2K Games/Bethesda Softworks)
  • Todd Howard
• The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Nintendo EAD / Nintendo)
  • Eiji Aonuma, Satoru Iwata, Shigeru Miyamoto
• Wii Sports (Nintendo)
  • Satoru Iwata, Shigeru Miyamoto, Keizo Ohta, Takayuki Shimamura, Yoshiaki Yamashita

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