8th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards

Honoring the Best Games of 2007

For photos, please browse our albums.

Lifetime Achievement Award

Sid Meier

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.

Pioneer Award

Ralph Baer

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.

Ambassador Award

Jason Della Rocca

The Ambassador Award honors an individual or individuals who have helped the game industry advance to a better place, either through facilitating a better game community from within, or by reaching outside the industry to be an advocate for video games and help further our art.

Game of the Year

Portal (Valve)
- Kim Swift, Erik Wolpaw

Finalists:

• BioShock (2K Boston / 2K Australia / 2K Games)
  - Ken Levine, Jon Chey, Alyssa Finley, Melissa Miller
• Call of Duty 4 (Infinity Ward / Activision)
  - Jason West, Grant Collier, Vince Zampella
• Rock Band (Harmonix Music Systems / MTV Games)
  - Alex Rigopulos, Greg LoPiccolo
• Super Mario Galaxy (Nintendo EAD / Nintendo)
  - Yoshiaki Koizumi

Innovation Award

Portal (Valve)
- Kim Swift, Erik Wolpaw

Finalists:

• Rock Band (Harmonix Music Systems / MTV Games)
  - Alex Rigopulos, Greg LoPiccolo
• Flow (thatgamecompany)
  - thatgamecompany
• Peggle (PopCap Games)
  - Sukhbir Sidhu, Brian Rothstein, Eric Tams, Walter Wilson
• Mass Effect (Bioware / Microsoft Game Studios)
  - Casey Hudson, Preston Watamaniuk

Best Audio

BioShock (2K Boston / 2K Australia / 2K Games)
- Eric Brosius, Pat Balthrop, Emily Ridgway, Justin Mullins

Finalists:

• Call of Duty 4 (Infinity Ward / Activision)
  - Jason West, Grant Collier, Vince Zampella
• Everyday Shooter (Queasy Games)
  - Jonathan Mak
• God of War II (Sony Santa Monica / Sony Computer Entertainment)
  - David Murrant, Clint Bajakian, Chuck Doud, Phil Kovats
• Mass Effect (Bioware / Microsoft Game Studios)
  - Steven Sim, Michael Kent, Jack Wall, Sam Hulick

Best Design

Portal (Valve)
- Kim Swift, Realm Lovejoy, Paul Graham

Finalists:

• BioShock (2K Boston / 2K Australia / 2K Games)
  - Paul Hellquist, Bill Gardner
• Call of Duty 4 (Infinity Ward / Activision)
  - Jason West, Grant Collier, Vince Zampella
• Mass Effect (Bioware / Microsoft Game Studios)
  - Casey Hudson, Preston Watamaniuk
• Super Mario Galaxy (Nintendo EAD / Nintendo)
  - Yoshiaki Koizumi

Best Technology

Crysis (Crytek / Electronic Arts)
- Cevat Yerli, Douglas Binks, Timur Davidenko, Martin Mittring

Finalists:

• Halo 3 (Bungie Studios / Microsoft Game Studios)
  - Chris Butcher, Hao Chen, Andrew Soloman, Ben Wallace
• Call of Duty 4 (Infinity Ward / Activision)
  - Jason West, Grant Collier, Vince Zampella
• Portal (Valve)
  - Garrett Rickey, Jeep Barnett, David Kircher
• Assassin's Creed (Ubisoft Montréal / Ubisoft)
  - Claude Langlais, Dominique Couture, Dominique Duvivier, Richard Dumas

Best Visual Art

BioShock (2K Boston / 2K Australia / 2K Games)
- Scott Sinclair, Shawn Robertson, Andrew James

Finalists:

• Assassin's Creed (Ubisoft Montréal / Ubisoft)
  - Raphael Lacoste, Nicolas Cantin, Thomas Giroux, and Team
• Team Fortress 2 (Valve)
  - Charles Brown, Jason Mitchell, Moby Franke, Ariel Diaz
• Crysis (Crytek DE / EA Games)
  - Michael Endres, Tiago Sousa, Christopher Evans, Hanno Hagedorn
• Uncharted: Drake's Fortune (Naughty Dog / Sony Computer Entertainment)
  - Evan Wells, Christophe Balestra

Best Writing

BioShock (2K Boston / 2K Australia / 2K Games)
- Ken Levine, Emily Ridgway, Joe McDonagh, Susan O'Connor

Finalists:

• Portal (Valve)
  - Erik Wolpaw
• God of War II (Sony Santa Monica / Sony Computer Entertainment)
  - Cory Barlog, James Barlog, Marianne Krawczyk
• Mass Effect (Bioware / Microsoft Game Studios)
  - Drew Karpyshyn, Mac Walters, Patrick Weekes, Chris L'Etoile
• Half-Life 2 Episode 2 (Valve)
  - Chet Faliszek, Marc Laidlaw

Best Downloadable Game

Flow (thatgamecompany / Sony Computer Entertainment)
- Kellee Santiago, Jenova Chen, Martin Middleton, Hao Cui, John Edwards, Nick Clark

Finalists:

• Pac-Man Championship Edition (Namco-Bandai Games)
  - Nobutaka Nakajima
• Everyday Shooter (Queasy Games / Sony Computer Entertainment)
  - Jonathan Mak
• Peggle (PopCap Games)
  - Sukhbir Sidhu, Brian Rothstein, Eric Tams, Walter Wilson
• Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords (Infinite Interactive / D3 Publisher)
  - Steve Fawkner, Janeen Fawkner

Best Handheld Game

The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (Nintendo / Nintendo)
- Eiji Aonuma

Finalists:

• Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords (Infinite Interactive / D3 Publisher)
  - Steve Fawkner, Janeen Fawkner
• Contra 4 (WayForward / Konami)
  - Chris Watson, Matt Bozon, Robert Koshak, Sean Velasco
• Phase (Harmonix Music Systems / MTV Games)
  - Kasson Crooker
• Peggle (for iPod) (PopCap Games)
  - Sukhbir Sidhu, Brian Rothstein, Matthew Lee Johnston, Dan Banay