game-developers-choice-awards posts

We were not happy when we learned that Double Fine's next game, the long-in-development music-themed action game Brutal Legend, would not be released for the PC. However, Double Fine's web site still creates the occasional fun Flash based mini-game. This week, the site has a new game designed to give you the chance to help Tim Schafer.

No you won't be helping the legendary game designer with creating new games but you could help him find material for this week's Game Developers Choice Awards. Schafer is hosting the awards on Wednesday night at this year's Game Developers Conference and this simple graphical Flash adventure game will give you a way to asist in gathering stuff needed for him to host the awards. Which is fine and all . . . but, still can't we get Brutal Legend to the PC.

The cable TV network G4 has moved somewhat away from its all games format in recent years but it still generates a ton of game related content. That will continue with the announcement this week that the network will broadcast the ninth annual Game Developers Choice Awards.

The awards themselves will be given out this coming Wednesday during the Game Developers Conference in San Fransisco but G4 will wait until April 10 to actually show the awards ceremony on its network. Yep, that's over two weeks away from the actual ceremony. Hey, at least it will be hosted by TIM FREAKIN' SCHAFER. That's something.

The Game Developers Choice Awards are the last major industry awards honoring games made in the previous year. Today Think Services (via their Gamasutra web site) announced the nominees for the 2009 edition of the awards. The winners will be announced during the Game Developers Conference in late March.

Among the multiple nominees are Fallout 3 and Left 4 Dead with four nods each. Spore, World of Goo and Far Cry 2 also got more than one nomination in the awards. You can check out the full list after the jump:

It's the final major set of game awards for titles released in 2008 and today the Game Developers Choice Awards announced that game design legend Tim "Freakin'" Schafer will be the host of the awards ceremonies. The event will be held in San Fransisco during the Game Developers Conference on March 25.

The event's organizers also announced the winners of a couple of the awards in advance today. Harmonix founders Alex Rigopulos and Eran Egozy will receive the Pioneer Award for their work in making the music-rhythm game popular with their titles Guitar Hero and Rock Band. Additionally, the Ambassador Award, given to a game developer who has tried to improve the industry, will be given to Tommy Tallarico who, among other things, helped launch the video game music concert series Video Games Live.

There have been two major industry-based award competitions in the video/PC game industry. One has been the Interactive Achievement Awards which were organized by the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences. These awards are given out at the annual D.I.C.E. Summit but many have been critical that only publishers that are paid members of the AIAS could submit games to be nominated.

The other major industry awards have been the Game Developers Choice Awards. These awards, which have no such restrictions, were for several years voted on by members of the International Game Developers Association (IGDA) and are presented at the annual Game Developers Conference. However as of this year's GDC, the awards ceremony are fully owned by GDC's parent company Think Services with no involvement with the IGDA.

Today it was announced that IGDA members would be able to vote for games in the Interactive Achievement Awards alongside AIAS members. IGDA members hey can also nominate games, even those of none-AIAS members, in the crafts awards categories. The 2009 awards ceremony will once again be held at the D.I.C.E. Summit in Las Vegas on Feb. 18.