Wed 7 Feb 2007
While I can claim to only personally knowing a few of them, here’s the best the game industry has to offer:
Akihiko Yoshida, Alistair Lindsay, Andrea Pessino, Atsushi Inaba, Brendan Ferguson, Brian Sullivan, Charles Beirnaert, Chris Perna, Christiane Meister, Cliff Bleszinski, Crispin Hands, Dag Scheve, Dan Houser, Daniel Vogel, Dave Gilbert, Dave Grossman, David Swinerd, Didier Malenfant, Don Wurster, Drew Dunlop, Ed Bryan, Eiji Aonuma, Eric Brosius, Eugene Foss, Florent Sacre, Gregg Mayles, Gregg Stephens, Hideki Kamiya, Hideo Minaba, Hiroshi Minagawa, Hubert Chevillard, Ian Thomson, Isamu Kamikokuryo, Istvan Pely, Izzy Maxwell, Jacob Krarup, Jacob Van Wingen, Jeff Allen, Jeff Goodsill, Jennifer Lewis, Jerry O’Flaherty, John Johnson, John Tennant, Joshua Glazer, Justin Cook, Karl Gallagher, Keigo Tsuchiya, Keizo Ohta, Kemmei Adachi, Ken Rolston, Kenichirou Yoshimura, Kenta Sato, Kouji Niikura, Kyogoku Aya, Mari Shimazaki, Matthew Carofano, Michael Capps, Michael Maidment, Michael Skupa, Michel Ancel, Mike Peaslee, Mitsuhiro Takano, Naoki Katakai, Nate Bihldorff, Nobuyuki Shimizu, Paul Chieffo, Ragnar Tørnquist, Ray Davis, Rod Fergusson, Ru Weerasuriya, Ryan Stevenson, Sam Thibault, Satoru Iwata, Sawaki Takeyasu, Shelby Hubick, Shigeru Miyamoto, Shinya Ikuta, Steve Purcell, Steve Reed, Takayuki Shimamura, Takeshi Miyamoto, Takuhiro Dohta, Ted Carson, Tian Mu, Tim Sweeney, Todd Howard, Tomofumi Ishida, Tomohiro Ueda, Tomonobu Kikuchi, Troels Folmann, Tsutomu Kouno, Wil Paredes, Yasuhide Sawada, Yoshiaki Yamashita
Those are the nearly 100 individuals attributed to the finalists of the 7th annual Game Developers Choice Awards, which were announced yesterday. Forget about the games for a moment, they are why we are here to celebrate!
The Choice Awards remains one of the very few industry awards that actually credits the specific people behind the games being nominated (ie, the designers for Game Design, the artists for Visual Arts, the programmers for Technology, etc). In fact, if a studio does not provide attributions they are disqualified and removed from the running…
During the ceremony at GDC in early March, I hope to get to know more of these awesome and deserving creators.
February 8th, 2007 at 1:33 pm
There is no Animation category for voting?
That SUCKS!!!!
At the time, I would have voted for games like “Psychonauts” or “Shadow of Colossus” for their merits in animation.
And yes, I am an animator, so being recognized for my, and my peers, work matters.
February 8th, 2007 at 1:53 pm
>> There is no Animation category for voting?
Animation falls under the large scope category of Visual Arts. Same like we don’t have a music composition category or AI programming category, etc. It all becomes way too granular - we’d have dozens of awards…
Not ideal, but we have to balance with the reality of putting on a ceremony that doesn’t last five hours ;)
Jason
February 12th, 2007 at 1:09 pm
[…] Over on Reality Panic (the blog run by Jason Della Rocca, IGDA’s Executive Director), you can find the “REAL Choice Awards Nominee List”: the actual developers behind the games nominated for the Choice Awards. […]
July 22nd, 2007 at 12:54 pm
[…] While the IGDA, with our focus on the advancing careers of game professionals, has made a point of providing credit where credit is due (eg, via mandatory attributions for the Game Developers Choice Awards, and our ongoing efforts to set crediting standards), we are not chasing celebrity status per se. […]