11th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards

Honoring the Best Games of 2010

For photos, please browse our albums.

Lifetime Achievement Award

Peter Molyneux

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

Yu Suzuki

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

Tim Brengle and Ian MacKenzie

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

Red Dead Redemption (Rockstar San Diego)

Finalists:

• Mass Effect 2 (BioWare)
• Call of Duty: Black Ops (Treyarch)
• Limbo (Playdead)
• Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood (Ubisoft Montréal)

Best Writing

Mass Effect 2 (BioWare)

Finalists:

• Red Dead Redemption (Rockstar San Diego)
• Heavy Rain (Quantic Dream)
• Costume Quest (Double Fine)
• Fallout: New Vegas (Obsidian)

Best Design

Red Dead Redemption (Rockstar San Diego)

Finalists:

• Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Nintendo)
• Mass Effect 2 (BioWare)
• Limbo (Playdead)
• God of War III (SCE Santa Monica)

Best Technology

Red Dead Redemption (Rockstar San Diego)

Finalists:

• Starcraft II (Blizzard)
• Heavy Rain (Quantic Dream)
• Mass Effect 2 (BioWare)
• God of War III (SCE Santa Monica)

Best Visual Arts

Limbo (Playdead / Arnt Jensen, Morten Bramsen)

Finalists:

• God of War III (SCE Santa Monica)
• Call of Duty: Black Ops (Treyarch)
• Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood (Ubisoft Montréal)
• Red Dead Redemption (Rockstar San Diego)

Best Debut

Minecraft (Mojang / Markus Persson)

Finalists:

• Limbo (Playdead)
• Darksiders (Vigil Games)
• Monday Night Combat (Uber Entertainment)
• Super Meat Boy (Team Meat)

Innovation Award

Minecraft (Mojang / Markus Persson)

Finalists:

• Heavy Rain (Quantic Dream)
• Kirby's Epic Yarn (Good-Feel & HAL Laboratory)
• Limbo (Playdead)
• Dance Central (Harmonix)

Best Handheld Game

Cut the Rope (ZeptoLab / Semyon Voinov, Efim Voinov)

Finalists:

• God of War: Ghost of Sparta (Ready At Dawn / SCE Santa Monica)
• Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker (Kojima Productions)
• Game Dev Story (Kairosoft)
• Dragon Quest IX (Level 5)

Best Audio

Red Dead Redemption (Rockstar San Diego)

Finalists:

• Limbo (Playdead)
• Halo: Reach (Bungie)
• Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (DICE)
• Mass Effect 2 (BioWare)

Best Downloadable Game

Minecraft (Mojang / Markus Persson)

Finalists:

• Costume Quest (Double Fine)
• Limbo (Playdead)
• Super Meat Boy (Team Meat)
• Monday Night Combat (Uber Entertainment)

Best New Social/Online Game

Since last year's ceremony, the Game Developers Choice Awards added a sister Game Developers Conference Online Awards ceremony focused around the rise of online games, paired with Austin's GDC Online conference last October. Highlights from the show, which crowned Riot Games' League of Legends as Best New Online Game and CCP's EVE Online as Best Live Game, will be shown during the main Choice Awards ceremony.