Game Developers Choice Awards is part of the Informa Tech Division of Informa PLC

This site is operated by a business or businesses owned by Informa PLC and all copyright resides with them. Informa PLC's registered office is 5 Howick Place, London SW1P 1WG. Registered in England and Wales. Number 8860726.

The Best Visual Arts Award recognizes the overall excellence of visual art in a game - including, but not limited to, animation, modeling, art direction, textures, etc.

12th annual Game Developers Choice Awards (2012)

Recipient

  • Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception (Naughty Dog)
    - Naughty Dog Team

Nominees

  • Rayman Origins (Ubisoft Montpellier)
  • The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (Bethesda Game Studios)
  • El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron (Ignition Japan)
  • Battlefield 3 (DICE)

11th annual Game Developers Choice Awards (2011)

Recipient

  • Limbo (Playdead)
    - Arnt Jensen, Morten Bramsen

Nominees

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

10th annual Game Developers Choice Awards (2010)

Recipient

  • Uncharted 2 (Naughty Dog)
    - Robh Ruppel, Erick Pangilinan

Nominees

  • Borderlands (Gearbox Software)
    - Brian Martel, Jenn Wildes, Brian Cozzens, Tim Wilson
  • Assassin's Creed II (Ubisoft Montreal)
    - Mohamed Gambouz
  • Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Infinity Ward)
    - Richard Kriegler
  • Flower (thatgamecompany)
    - Jenova Chen, Matt Nava, Hao Cui

9th annual Game Developers Choice Awards (2009)

Recipient

  • Prince of Persia (Ubisoft Montreal)
    - Mickael Labat

Nominees

  • Fallout 3 (Bethesda Game Studios)
  • Metal Gear Solid 4 (Kojima Productions)
  • LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule)
  • Gears of War 2 (Epic Games)

8th annual Game Developers Choice Awards (2008)

Recipient

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

Nominees

  • Assassin's Creed (Ubisoft Montreal / 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

7th annual Game Developers Choice Awards (2007)

Recipient

  • Gears of War (Epic Games / Microsoft Game Studios)
    - Jerry O'Flaherty, Chris Perna

Nominees

  • Final Fantasy XII (Square Enix)
    - Isamu Kamikokuryo, Hideo Minaba, Akihiko Yoshida
  • Okami (Clover Studio / Capcom Entertainment)
    - Naoki Katakai, Kenichirou Yoshimura
  • The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Bethesda Game Studios / 2K Games/Bethesda Softworks)
    - Matthew Carofano, Christiane Meister, Istvan Pely
  • Viva Piñata (Rare / Microsoft Game Studios)
    - Ed Bryan, Ryan Stevenson

6th annual Game Developers Choice Awards (2006)

Recipient

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

Nominees

  • 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

5th annual Game Developers Choice Awards (2005)

Recipient

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

Nominees

  • Doom 3 (id Software / Activision)
    - Andy Chang, Seneca Menard, Kenneth Scott
  • Half-Life 2 (Valve Software / Vivendi Universal Games)
    - Viktor Antonov, Randy Lundeen
  • Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (Intelligent Systems / Nintendo)
    - Hiroyuki Hayashi, Chie Kawabe
  • Prince Of Persia: Warrior Within (Ubisoft Montreal / Ubisoft Entertainment)
    - Mickael Labat, Patrick Limoges

4th annual Game Developers Choice Awards (2004)

Recipient

  • Masanao Arimoto, Yoshiki Haruhana, and Satoru Takizawa for art direction in THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: THE WIND WAKER

Nominees

  • Mickael Labat, Raphael Lacoste, Celine Tellier and team for art direction in PRINCE OF PERSIA: THE SANDS OF TIME
  • Akira Yamaoka for art direction in SILENT HILL 3
  • Eric Kohler and team for art direction in TRON 2.0
  • Atsushi Inaba, Hideki Kamiya and team for art direction in VIEWTIFUL JOE

3rd annual Game Developers Choice Awards (2003)

Recipient

  • Tetsuya Nomura for art direction in KINGDOM HEARTS

Nominees

  • Jonathan Chey, Ken Levine and Team for art direction in FREEDOM FORCE
  • Hokyo Lim, Suzanne Kaufman, Dev Madan, Augie Pagan and Karin Yamagiwa for art direction in SLY COOPER AND THE THIEVIUS RACCOONUS
  • Nicolas Cantin, Frdrick Gagn and Benoit Sokal for art direction in SYBERIA
  • Jay Beard, Erik Medina, Jeff Merghart , Dan Mueller and Tim Neveu for animation in THE MARK OF KRI

2nd annual Game Developers Choice Awards (2002)

Recipient

  • Fumito Ueda & team for art direction in ICO

Nominees

  • Greg Griffith, Bill Harper, John Kim, Jordan Pitchon, Bob Rafei, Josh Scherr & Rob Titus for animation in JAK & DAXTER: THE PRECURSOR LEGACY
  • Kazunori Yamauchi & team for modeling in GRAN TURISMO 3 A-SPEC
  • Lorne Lanning & Farzad Varahramyan for art direction in ODDWORLD: MUNCH'S ODDYSEE
  • Tetsuya Mizuguchi, Jun Kabayashi & team for art direction in REZ

1st annual Game Developers Choice Awards (2001)

Recipient

  • Ryuta Ueda & Kazuki Hosokawa for art direction in JET GRIND RADIO

Nominees

  • American McGee for art direction in AMERICAN MCGEE'S ALICE
  • Tomonobu Itagaki, Hiroaki Matsui & team for animation in DEAD OR ALIVE 2
  • Joby Otero for art direction in SACRIFICE
  • Insomniac art team for art direction in SPYRO: YEAR OF THE DRAGON