6th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards

Honoring the Best Games of 2005

For photos, please browse our albums.

Lifetime Achievement Award

Richard Garriott

The Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes the career and achievements of a developer who has made an indelible impact on the craft of game development and games as a whole.

First Penguin Award

Will Crowther, Don Woods

The Pioneer Award (formerly known as the First Penguin Award) celebrates those individuals who developed a breakthrough technology, game concept, or gameplay design at a crucial juncture video game history - paving the way for the myriads who followed them.

Maverick Award

Mike Dornbrook, Eran Egozy, Greg LoPiccolo, Alex Rigopulo

Community Contribution Award

Chris Hecker

Best Audio

Guitar Hero (Harmonix Music Systems / RedOctane)
- Eric Brosius, Kasson Crooker

Finalists:

• Call of Duty 2 (Infinity Ward / Activision)
  - Mark Ganus
• Electroplankton (Nintendo)
  - Toshio Iwai, Koichi Kyuma, Yuichi Ozaki
• God of War (Sony Computer Entertainment America)
  - Brad Aldredge, Clint Bajakian, Chuck Doud, Dave Murrant
• Project Gotham Racing 3 (Bizarre Creations / Microsoft Game Studios)
  - Nick Bygrave, Guy Whitmore, Nick Wiswell

Best Character Design

Shadow of the Colossus (Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.)
- Atsuko Fukuyama, Hitoshi Niwa, Shunpei Suzuki, Fumito Ueda

Finalists:

• City of Villains (Cryptic Studios / NCsoft Corporation)
  - Ocala Bellows Kulig, Ryan Butts, Jay Doherty, Jeremy Mattson
• God of War (Sony Computer Entertainment America)
  - David Jaffe, Terry Smith, Charlie Wen
• Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath (Oddworld Inhabitants / Electronic Arts
  - Lorne Lanning, Rich McKain, Iain Morton, Raymond Swanland
• Psychonauts (Double Fine Productions / Majesco Entertainment Company)
  - Scott Campbell

Best Game Design

Shadow of the Colossus (Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.)
- Junichi Hosono, Fumito Ueda

Finalists:

• Animal Crossing: Wild World (Nintendo EAD / Nintendo)
  - Katsuya Eguchi, Hisashi Nogami, Takashi Tezuka, Kazumi Totaka
• God of War (Sony Computer Entertainment America)
  - David Jaffe
• Nintendogs (Nintendo EAD / Nintendo)
  - Tsutomu Kaneshige, Hideki Konno, Shigeru Miyamoto, Kiyoshi Mizuki
• Psychonauts (Double Fine Productions / Majesco Entertainment Company)
  - Erik Robson, Tim Schafer

Best Technology

Nintendogs (Nintendo EAD / Nintendo)
- Tsutomu Kaneshige

Finalists:

• Battlefield 2: Modern Combat (Digital Illusions / Electronic Arts)
  - Fred Gill, Mns Vestin
• Guitar Hero (Harmonix Music Systems / RedOctane)
  - Eran Egozy, Eric Malafeew, Phil Winston
• Project Gotham Racing 3 (Bizarre Creations / Microsoft Game Studios)
  - Edmund Clay, Roger Perkins, Phil Teschner, Ian Wilson
• Shadow of the Colossus (Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.)
  - Jinji Horagai, Takuya Seki, Hajime Sugiyama, Masanobu Tanaka

Best Visual Art

Shadow of the Colossus (Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.)
- Koji Hasegawa, Masanori Kajita, Hironobu Nakano, Fumito Ueda

Finalists:

• God of War (Sony Computer Entertainment America)
  - Steve Caterson, Terry Smith, Charlie Wen
• Project Gotham Racing 3 (Bizarre Creations / Microsoft Game Studios)
  - Gren Atherton, Julie McGurren, Peter Roe, Kiki Wolfkill
• Resident Evil 4 (Capcom Production Studio 4 / Capcom Entertainment)
  - Yusuke Hashimoto, Yoshiaki Hirabayashi, Yusuke Kan, Masaki Yamanaka
• We Love Katamari (Namco Limited / Namco Hometek)
  - Keita Takahashi, Takeshi Ugajin

Best Writing

Psychonauts (Double Fine Productions / Majesco Entertainment Company)
- Tim Schafer, Erik Wolpaw

Finalists:

• Freedom Force vs. The 3rd Reich (Irrational Games / Vivendi Universal Games)
  - Ken Levine
• God of War (Sony Computer Entertainment America)
  - David Jaffe, Marianne Krawcyzk, Alex Stein
• Indigo Prophecy (Quantic Dream / Atari)
  - David Cage
• Jade Empire (BioWare Corp. / Microsoft Game Studios)
  - Drew Karpyshyn, Brian Kindregan, Luke Kristjanson, Mike Laidlaw, Peter Thomas, Mac Walters

Best Game

Shadow of the Colossus (Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.)
- Kenji Kaido, Yasuhide Kobayashi, Fumito Ueda

Finalists:

• Animal Crossing: Wild World (Nintendo EAD / Nintendo)
  - Katsuya Eguchi, Hisashi Nogami, Takashi Tezuka, Kazumi Totaka
• God of War (Sony Computer Entertainment America)
  - David Jaffe, Shannon Studstill
• Guitar Hero (Harmonix Music Systems / RedOctane)
  - Rob Kay, Greg LoPiccolo, Alex Rigopulos
• The Movies (Lionhead Studios / Activision)
  - Gary Carr, Peter Molyneux, Mark Webley

Best New Studio

Double Fine Productions (Psychonauts)
- Caroline Esmurdoc, Tim Schafer

Finalists:

• ArenaNet (Guild Wars)
  - Mike O'Brien, Jeff Strain, Patrick Wyatt
• New Crayon Games (Bonnie's Bookstore)
  - Phil Steinmeyer
• TellTale Games (Bone: Out From Boneville)
  - David Bogan, Kevin Bruner, Dan Connors, Troy Molander
• Wideload Games (Stubbs the Zombie in Rebel Without a Pulse)
  - Alexander Seropian

Game Innovation Spotlights

Guitar Hero (Harmonix Music Systems / RedOctane)
- Greg LoPiccolo, Ryan Lesser

Nintendogs (Nintendo EAD / Nintendo)
- Tsutomu Kaneshige, Hideki Konno, Shigeru Miyamoto, Kiyoshi Mizuki

Shadow of the Colossus (Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.)
- Junichi Hosono, Fumito Ueda