GDC Awards: The Results

GDC 2006: During the day, high profile keynotes from industry luminaries like Satoru Iwata and Will Wright dominate GDC 2006. After the sun sets here in San Jose, there was only one place to be: the Game Developers Choice Awards.

The event was utterly dominated by Shadow of the Colossus (PS2) which picked up five gongs including Game of the Year.

In fact, the eleven major awards were shared amongst just four games, with consoles dominating over the PC. Cutesey-woots 'em-up Nintendogs for the handheld Nintendo DS won an Innovation Honour and Best Technology, while the PlayStation 2's Carlos Santana simulator Guitar Hero won an Innovation Honour and Best Audio.

The only PC game to be recognised in the main awards was Psychonauts, which is also available for PS2 and Xbox. Developer Double Fine Productions won Best New Studio, and the game itself won Best Writing. Everything else was hoovered up by SCE's Shadow of the Colossus, which won:

• Innovation Honour
• Best Game Design
• Best Character Design
• Best Visual Arts, and
• Game of the Year

You can read the full list, including the other nominees in each category that missed out on an award, on the GDCA website.

Also held last night were the Independent Games Festival Awards. Darwinia took the US$20,000 Seamus McNally Grand Prize but a number of Mods were also recognised:

Half-Life 2 Mod: Dystopia
Doom 3 Mod: Last Man Standing Co-Op
Neverwinter Nights Mod: Rose of Eternity - Chapter One
Unreal Tournament 2004 Mod: Path of Vengeance

If you own any of these games, it might be worth dusting off the DVDs and giving these mods a try.

Disagree with the results? Post your winners in our News Discussion forum.