Did you know that there were awards given out for game middleware software? Yep, we didn't know that either. However, Game Developer magazine has just announced the winners of their Front Line Awards that honor the software that game developers use to make their game titles.

This year the awards named the Unreal Engine to their hall of fame. Epic Games' game graphics engine has gone through three major incarnations and has been used for hundreds of games and applications over the years. Here is the complete list of award winners:

Hall of Fame: Unreal Engine/Epic Games

Art Tool: Photoshop CS3/Adobe

Audio Tool: FMOD/Firelight Technologies Pty, Ltd

Middleware: Havok Physics/Havok

Engine: Torque Game Engine Advanced 1.7.1/GarageGames

Programming Tool: Visual Studio 2008/ Microsoft

Book: "The Art of Game Design' by Jesse Schell/ Elsevier