2005 Game Developer's Choice Award Winners

Quite a ceremony. The winners this year were all extremely deserving and a lot of good games received their due respect. While commentary and images from the ceremony will be available here on Slashdot later today, read on for a look at the list of winners. Best Game -
Half-Life 2 (Valve Software / Vivendi Universal Games)
Ken Birdwell, Gabe Newell, Jay Stelly

Innovation -
Donkey Konga (Namco / Nintendo)
Hiroshi Igarashi, Hiroyuki Onoda

Innovation -
I Love Bees (4orty2wo Entertainment / Microsoft Game Studios)
Elan Lee

Innovation -
Katamari Damacy (Namco)
Keita Takahashi

New Studio -
Crytek (Far Cry)
Avni Yerli, Cevat Yerli, Faruk Yerli

Audio -
Halo 2 (Bungie Software / Microsoft Game Studios)
C Paul Johnson, Marty O'Donnell, Jay Weinland

Character Design -
Half-Life 2 (Valve Software / Vivendi Universal Games)
Ted Backman, Dhabih Eng, Bill Fletcher, Bill Van Buren

Game Design -
Katamari Damacy (Namco)
Keita Takahashi

Technology -
Half-Life 2 (Valve Software / Vivendi Universal Games)
Yahn Bernier, Brian Jacobson

Visual Arts -
World of Warcraft (Blizzard Entertainment)
Sam Didier, William Petras, Justin Thavirat

Writing -
Half-Life 2 (Valve Software / Vivendi Universal Games)
Marc Laidlaw

Community Contribution - Shari Graner Ray
First Penguin - Richard Bartle
Lifetime Achievement Award - Eugene Jarvis

Comments

Bonus Prize

[Ford Prefect]

... And the Prefect Award for Awesome goes to Darwinia, by Introversion Software.

Bought a copy yesterday, and have been really enjoying it. It's a bit glitchy and buggy, but I've been grinning almost constantly while playing it - they've definitely managed to nail that elusive 'fun' concept, for me at least.

I'd describe it as a cross between Cannon Fodder, Lemmings and an early Command and Conquer, all overseen by a god-like figure blatantly inspired by Sir Clive Sinclair. The Darwinians themselves are probably my favourite game characters in ages - I get really emotional when they get munched by a Virus...

Re:Bonus Prize

[Spankophile]

Are you a total fucking shill for that game or what? Do you work for the company? You keep posting about it.

Slightly strange choices

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm a little surprised by a couple of the choices on the list. The games mentioned are all pretty worthy games, but I'm not sure the order here is "right" (in as far as something so subjective can ever be right).

The writing award for HL2 strikes me as particularly odd. HL2 was a good game, but I found the writing distinctly disappointing. The plot felt tired and lazy (and lacked a proper ending) and the dialogue was cheesy in the extreme. I kind of see Valve's point about not wanting to have cutscenes where the player doesn't control the character, but ultimately, I don't think this is worth the credibility hit you take from having a main character who goes through the game entirely mute (particularly where said character is apparently supposed to be both an academic and a charismatic resistance leader). Quite frankly, Doom 3 had a better plot, which isn't saying much. If I had to make a pick for writing, I'd probably go for KOTOR 2 (this came out in 2004 in the States, didn't it?).

World of Warcraft as the pick for visual arts also seems a bit of a strange choice. The game has some strengths, but quite frankly, its visuals seem pretty dire after the first hour or so, when you realise that they consist of extremely low-detail models and a few fancy lighting effects. I know MMORPGs are never visual powerhouses, but quite frankly, the two-year-old FFXI looks better. Doom 3 and Farcry are the only real contenders on the PC I can think of for this category. The Japanese release of Gran Turismo 4 (December 04) should have put it in the running on the console side, while Burnout 3 and Halo 2 were also visually stunning in both technical and aesthetic senses.

On the plus side, it's nice to see Crytek being recognised as best new studio. Farcry wasn't perfect, but it's still damned impressive on its own merits, even if it hadn't been Crytek's debut game.

Re:Slightly strange choices

[syphoon]

I think the writing award for HL2 was entirely deserved. The HL2 writing and storyboarding was very much done respecting the rule of "Show, don't tell". Most of the HL2 story isn't told in dialogue. It isn't forced upon the player via cut-scenes. This is tremendously important in a first person perspective, because suddenly switching into a cut-scene (ala Doom 3) is a great way of breaking player immersion and the illusion that you are Gordon Freeman.

Yes the Mossman betrayal was foreseeable from the E3 demo more than a year before the game was even released. Yes there were lots of tired dialogue and plot chunks. But this was true for the original Half-Life. HL2 won the award because the story in a game is far greater than just the plot and dialogue. In an interactive environment, how you tell it makes all the difference in the world.

Re:Slightly strange choices

[Mukaikubo]

I'd make the argument for Vampire: Bloodlines having the best writing/plot of all the 2004 games. Buggier than a roach motel after the nukes go off, but tanj if that plot didn't have me fighting through all the gamebreaking plot thingies to see what happened next.

Re:Slightly strange choices

[inkless1]

"Show, don't tell" is instructive of not explaining your situation overtly, not avoiding the story entirely like Half-Life 2 does.

While HL2 had excellent immersion and set scenes, it's story was completely lacking. There's never any depth into Gordon's missing time, you get the background of the war from a stupid bulletin board, and virtually no character undergoes any kind of change.

Yes, they did great on the how - but great stories are based on the what. HL2 was all style and no substance. There's no depth to the combine, no real explanation of it's formation, no understanding of the "city" system. It's a pretty surface, but once you scratch it - there's nothing underneath.

But I've rambled on this before...

Re:Slightly strange choices

[illumina us]

This is perhaps because HL2 is a connecting piece between HL1 and perhaps the 3rd installment. Why would people question Gordon's missing time? They thought he was lost after the Black Mesa incident.

Of course no one talks about the war or anything like that. I mean c'mon these people are supressed. They feel as if they say something wrong they will be shot or sent to Nova Prospekt. Moreover, it wasn't really much of a war. More like a hostile take over. If I remember right it didn't last more than a few days.

I don't see how you say no character changes. If you are referring to HL and HL2 characters then they indeed do change. In fact it's difficult to perceive characters even existing in HL compared to the depth of characters in HL2.

Re:Slightly strange choices

[LincolnQ]

I totally agree that Crytek deserves their prize. For the rest of the choices (besides community contribution), I feel like they didn't try very hard. :) Half-Life 2 was pretty good but I don't think it deserved all that it got, and I like hearing about lesser games rather than the ones pushed hard. Katamari Damacy is cool, too, and perhaps that deserved game design, but again it seems like an obvious choice (people talk about it all the time in how it's so quirky and unique).

Anyway, this list isn't very exciting because it doesn't make me go "ooh, I have to try that" -- I've played everything here.