Gears of War takes best game at GDCA, Aquaria wins IGF best game prize
At tonight's Game Developers Choice Awards, Epic Games' Gears of War took home three awards: best technology, visual arts, and the coveted Game of the Year award. On the independent side of things, Bit Blot's Aquaria won the Seumas McNally Grand Prize from the Independent Games Festival.
Okami picked up a win in one of the four categories it was nominated in (take that, AIAS). Unfortunately, Loco Roco did not pick up any awards despite two nominations (character design and audio). Independent game Everyday Shooter won two awards and a distribution deal from GameTap.
View the full list winners and nominees from both events below.
Game Developers Choice Awards
New studio
Gastronaut, Small Arms
Naked Sky Ent, Roboblitz
Iron Lore, Titan Quest
Ready at Dawn, Daxter
Wadjet Eye, the Shiva
Writing award:
Bully
Dreamfall: The longest Journey
Sam & Max episode 1: Culture Shock
Oblivion
Twilight Princess
Game design
Bully
Okami
Oblivion
Viva Pinata
Wii Sports
Audio
Company of Heros
Defcon
Guitar Hero II
Tomb Raider Legend
Loco Roco
Character design
FF XII
Loco Roco
Okami
Rayman Raving Rabbids
Viva Pinata
Best technology
Company of Heroes
Dead Rising
Gears of War
Table Tennis
Wii Sports
Visual Arts
FFXII
Gears of War
Okami
Oblivion
Viva Pinata
Best game
Okami
Oblivion
Gears of War
Twilight Princess
Wii Sports
Community :George "The Fat" Man
Lifetime Achievement Award: Shigeru Miyamoto
Maverick Award: Greg Costikyan.
Best mod:
Darkness over Daggorford (NVN)
Spawns of Deflebub (UT2004)
Eternal Silence (HL2)
Weekday Warrior (HL2)
Student showcase:
Base Invaders: Digipen
Invalid Tangram: Guildhall at SMU
Opera Slinger: Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy
Gelatin Joe: Digipen
And Yet it Moves: Tu Wien
Rooms: Sungkyunkwan University
Toblo: Digipen
Euclidean Crisis: Stanford
Ball of Bastards: Koln International
The Blob: Hogeschool van de Kunsten, Utrecht
Excellence in Audio
Aquaria
Bone: The Great Cow Race
Everyday Shooter
Fizzball
Racing pitch
Excellence in Visuals
Aquaria
Golf?
Samorost 2
Castle Crashers
Roboblitz
Game Design Innovation
Aquaria
Everyday Shooter
Armadillo Run
Toblo
Toribash
Tech Excellence
Arcane Legions
Armada Online
Bang! Howdy
Blast Miner
Band of Bugs
Web Browser game
Bible Islands
Gamma Bros.
Samorost 2
Seumas McNally
Aquaria
Armadillo Run
Bang! Howdy
Roboblitz
Everyday Shooter
GameTap distribution deals: Blast Miner, Roboblitz, Everyday Shooter
Audience Award: Castle Crashers