The nominees for the 2012 Game Developers Choice awards have been announced. The awards, which will be held at March’s Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, are one (if not the) most prestigious awards ceremonies in gaming. They occur the same night and location as the Independent Games Festival (IGF) awards.
Both Bethesda’s Skyrim and Valve’s Portal 2 (best known as Kotaku‘s game of the year) received a bunch of nominations. In something of a surprise, XBLA downloadable darling Bastion grabbed an equal number of nominations. This is why I love the GDC awards!
We can only hope that Mr. Tim Schafer will be there again, and that he will once more make a series of meme-worthy facial expressions.
The full list of nominees is as follows:
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 (FromSoftware)
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 (FromSoftware)
I like that its not all AAA games getting the nominations. Its good that games like Skylanders, Witcher 2, El Shaddai, Rayman are all getting nods. Even if they don't win, its good that they are getting the recognition for their hard work
welcome to the GDCA, where only the games that actually deserve it get nominated. Honestly, I'm really glad that Bastion is right up there with the AAA nominees.
im surprised from dust is on the list for best download that was a very poor game that butchered a very good idea. should have been replaced by Terraria which has so much content.
Ahhhh nothing for COD, that's what I like to see :D
You mean there are OTHER games than CoD....Mind blown!
+1. That's what nominations are all about. Ignore those milking titles.
Activision got $2.55 billion net revenue in Q4 2011..... who cares about awards.
I'm not a fanboy, just saying. I don't think the COD team are too worried about not getting nominations while they sleep on a pile of money.
WTF is "Best Downloadable Game"? Even skyrim is "downloadable" on Steam...
Is this purely for games without a retail release?
There has to be a better name for the category...
Whine whine, jeez who cares?
Skyrim... Really? If that wins any awards the developers are morally obliged to forward them straight onto Piranha Bytes.
Worse Troll ever...........
I always think that Bethesda could do with stealing some things from Piranha Bytes, but so far I don't think they have.
I love both studios!
"Best Game Design
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (Bethesda Game Studios)"
Surely this is a joke, right? Bethesda didn't even test the damn thing, let alone patch it. You know your game is designed well when you can't patch it on consoles and the gamers have to make their own bug fixes on the PC version.
Why is saints row up for best narrative instead of LA Noire? clearly that has to be a mistake