GDC Nominations Are In

It's almost that time of year again, folks. San Fransisco's Game Developers' Conference (GDC) is just a few months away and its 10th annual Game Developers' Choice Awards have their nominees.

Remember, these are being put forward from the perspective of actual game developers, so their criteria may be different than your own as a player.

The nominees:

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Originally Posted by Kotaku

Best Game Design

Batman: Arkham Asylum (Rocksteady)
Assassin's Creed 2 (Ubisoft Montreal)
Flower (thatgamecompany)
Uncharted 2 (Naughty Dog)
Plants Vs. Zombies (PopCap)

Best Visual Art

Borderlands (Gearbox Software)
Uncharted 2 (Naughty Dog)
Assassin's Creed II (Ubisoft Montreal)
Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Infinity Ward)
Flower (thatgamecompany)

Best Technology

Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Infinity Ward)
Red Faction: Guerrilla (Volition)
Uncharted 2 (Naughty Dog)
Killzone 2 (Guerrilla Games)
Assassin's Creed II (Ubisoft Montreal)

Best Writing

Brutal Legend (Double Fine)
Batman: Arkham Asylum (Rocksteady Studios)
Dragon Age: Origins (BioWare)
Uncharted 2 (Naughty Dog)
Halo 3: ODST (Bungie)

Best Audio

Uncharted 2 (Naughty Dog)
Dragon Age: Origins (BioWare)
Rock Band: The Beatles (Harmonix)
Flower (thatgamecompany)
Brutal Legend (Double Fine Productions)

Innovation

Scribblenauts (5th Cell)
Flower (thatgamecompany)
Uncharted 2 (Naughty Dog)
Plants Vs. Zombies (PopCap)
Demon's Souls (From Software)

Best Debut

The Maw (Twisted Pixel)
League Of Legends (Riot Games)
Spider: The Secret Of Bryce Manor (Tiger Style)
Torchlight (Runic Games)
Zeno Clash (ACE Team)

Best Downloadable Game

Plants Vs. Zombies (PopCap)
Trials HD (RedLynx)
PixelJunk Shooter (Q Games)
Shadow Complex (Chair Entertainment)
Flower (thatgamecompany)

Best New Social/Online Game

Restaurant City (Playfish)
Farmville (Zynga)
Dungeon Fighter Online (Neople/Nexon)
Free Realms (Sony Online Entertainment San Diego)
Bejeweled Blitz (PopCap)

Best Handheld Game

Scribblenauts (5th Cell)
Flight Control (Firemint)
Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars (Rockstar Leeds/Rockstar North)
Spider: The Secret Of Bryce Manor (Tiger Style)
Legend Of Zelda: Spirit Tracks (Nintendo EAD)

Game Of The Year

Uncharted 2 (Naughty Dog)
Dragon Age: Origins (BioWare)
Batman: Arkham Asylum (Rocksteady Studios)
Demon's Souls (From Software)
Assassin's Creed II (Ubisoft Montreal)

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What are your thoughts on the nominees? Do you agree with the list? Disagree? What would you change and why?

Don't feel too bad if your favourite wasn't nominated. The DICE Summit awards are still on the horizon too.

Source

All I really have to say is Demon's Souls Game of the Year O_o Awesome! I can't believe it actually made it, but I'm glad to see some acknowledge for the game. It's sad it won't win, but still From Software should be proud the game is getting such strong praise.

And wow Uncharted 2 is everywhere. ^^;

Uncharted 2 was a brilliant game. It deserves to be everywhere ^_^;.


Scribblenauts making the list is also rather impressive since after the first few levels it becomes ridiculously hard. It was inovative though, too bad I couldn't have been the first to use that idea >.>

FarmVille being nominated for 'best new online game' may be taking things a little far. It's true that it's incredibly popular but it isn't that entertaining and is a bit of a popularity contest with the gifting system.

Also I'm not really sure that 'Rock Band: The Beatles' should be allowed in the audio category seeing as the audio wasn't specifically made for the game, I feel that an award for that should be based upon the games' composers.

Keep in mind that some things are nominated for reasons that would only mean something for developers. Rock Band Beatles, for example, is nominated because of what went on behind the scenes to get the music to work the way it does. It's a lot more than simply adding an MP3 file to a moving picture. One has to balance the instruments, make sure that a missed note affects the song correctly, get the harmonies right, etc. etc. The music itself isn't being judged, it's the overall audio usage and implementation.

Another example would be Uncharted 2's inclusion in the category of innovation. From a player standpoint, the gameplay, albiet being amazing, is hardly innovative enough to warrant the nomination. But from a design standpoint, the methods they used to promote better acting, their methods of creating playable action set pieces and, most of all, their physics engine for the train level that put moving objects on top of other moving objects; these are likely what gave them the nomination.

Don't get me wrong Jin. I'm not saying Uncharted doesn't deserve all of the nominations that it is getting. Not being a part of the company that made the game I can't say I know the reasons. It is just looking at it and seeing it listed so many times you can't help but almost laugh like it is some strange joke or something.

And I'm not really saying that Demon's Souls should be the Game of the Year. The game is pretty niche all things said and Uncharted is definitely a lot more mainstream and broad for an audience. Even I'm interested in playing it and its a third person shooter adventure action game or something. One just can't help but wonder if games will get over look due to the massive wave that is Uncharted 2.

I can smile content to know that a JRPG made it to the nomination, even though it's really hard to call it one. At this point you can only call it that because it was made in Japan since it doesn't follow any of the traditions that most would classify as JRPG.

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Originally Posted by Andro

Don't get me wrong Jin. I'm not saying Uncharted doesn't deserve all of the nominations that it is getting.

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Why was that addressed at me? I wasn't saying you were saying that. :huh?:

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And I'm not really saying that Demon's Souls should be the Game of the Year.

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Demon's Souls actually did win Gamespot's game of the year award, if I remember correctly.

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One just can't help but wonder if games will get over look due to the massive wave that is Uncharted 2.

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It's inevitable that some things will get overlooked, but the GDC panel is usually pretty good for giving everything its due. Hype wagons don't usually taint developers the same way they taint consumers. Even if that's the case though, being nominated at all is a pretty solid acknowledgment.

Dragon Age better win best writing because that game is amazing IMO. It's a shame my comp can't run it anymore.

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Originally Posted by Loaf

Dragon Age better win best writing because that game is amazing IMO. It's a shame my comp can't run it anymore.

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Sorry, chief, but it'll be a crying shame if Uncharted 2 doesn't win best writing. If it only wins one category, that's the one it should win.

Fair enough, sorry for the assumption.

Gamespot huh? I didn't know, that's pretty nice.

I certainly will give GDC more credit on being fair, but everyone is still human beings and a lot of times awards are often popularity contests more than anything. I'd like to hope for that not to be the case, but it happens.

Though I realized that Call of Duty barely made any nominations. It is rather interesting to see.

Plus it is good see Red Faction: Guerrilla make the technology nomination. I wonder how happy the guys at Volition are over that. They spent so long on that tech it is nice to see the acknowledgment there. I hope they can win, but I used to work for Volition so I can't help being a little bias. It is pretty cool tech though.