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Organizers have revealed the nominees for the 17th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards, the premier accolades for peer recognition celebrating the industry’s top games, studios and developers. Tim Schafer, founder of Double Fine Productions, will return as host of the awards show for his sixth time, having previously hosted the Choice Awards in 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013 and 2015.
Winners in all fourteen categories, including the new Best VR/AR Game category, will be honored at the Game Developers Choice Awards ceremony, taking place on Wednesday, March 1st, 2017 at 6:30pm at the San Francisco Moscone Center during the 2017 Game Developers Conference in conjunction with the Independent Games Festival Awards (IGF). The ceremonies are available to attend for all GDC 2017 pass-holders and will be livestreamed on the GDC’s official Twitch channel at www.twitch.tv/gdc .
Leading the pack with six nominations is Inside, a 2D puzzle-platformer adventure developed and published by Playdead, an independent developer based in Denmark. Inside is Playdead’s follow-up to its critically acclaimed debut, Limbo which received top accolades from the IGF in 2010 and again at the Choice Awards in 2011. Inside is a finalist for Best Audio, Best Design, the Innovation Award, Best Narrative, Best Visual Art and Game of the Year.
Also making an impressive showing with five nods each are Blizzard Entertainment’s team-based multiplayer first-person shooter Overwatch and Campo Santo’s debut title Firewatch, a first-person mystery adventure. Blizzard was nominated for Best Audio, Best Design, Best Technology, Best Visual Art and Game of the Year for Overwatch, while Campo Santo received nods for Best Debut, the Innovation Award, Best Narrative, Best Visual Art and Game of the Year for Firewatch.
The field for Game of the Year is rounded out by Naughty Dog/Sony Interactive Entertainment’s Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, which also picked up nominations in Best Technology, Best Narrative and Best Visual Art, and Arkane Studios/Bethesda Softworks’ Dishonored 2, also a nominee for Best Design.
Additional titles with multiple nominations are id Software and Bethesda Softworks’ first-person shooter IP reboot DOOM (three nominations); Niantic’s free-to-play, location-based augmented reality game Pokémon Go (three nominations); EA DICE/Electronic Arts’ World War I inspired first-person shooter Battlefield 1 (two nominations); JAPAN Studio/Sony Interactive Entertainment’s long-awaited single player action-adventure The Last Guardian (two nominations); Hello Games’ open universe and action-adventure survival game No Man’s Sky (two nominations); Night School Studio’s narrative and dialogue-driven supernatural mystery graphic-adventure title Oxenfree (two nominations); Drool’s fast-paced “rhythm violence” game Thumper (two nominations); and Thekla’s 3D game set in an open-world filled with natural and man-made puzzles, The Witness (two nominations).
To reflect the creativity, artistry and technological genius within the video game development community, industry professionals from around the world nominate for the awards, free of charge. Any video game that was released and made publicly available during the 2016 calendar year, irrespective of platform or delivery medium, is eligible for nomination for the 2017 Game Developers Choice Awards. Both nominees and winners are selected by the Game Developers Choice Awards-specific International Choice Awards Network (ICAN), which is an invitation-only organization, comprised of leading game creators from all parts of the industry.
The complete list of nominees, including honorable mentions, for the 17th annual Game Developers Choice Awards is as follows:
BEST AUDIO
Battlefield 1 (EA DICE / Electronic Arts)
Thumper (Drool)
DOOM (id Software / Bethesda Softworks)
Inside (Playdead)
Overwatch (Blizzard Entertainment)
Honorable Mentions: Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End (Naughty Dog / Sony Interactive Entertainment), Rez Infinite(Monstars / Enhance Games), Hyper Light Drifter (Heart Machine), Firewatch (Campo Santo / Panic), Dishonored 2 (Arkane Studios / Bethesda Softworks), The Last Guardian (JAPAN Studio / Sony Interactive Entertainment), Titanfall 2 (Respawn Entertainment / Electronic Arts)
BEST DEBUT
Heart Machine (Hyper Light Drifter)
Campo Santo (Firewatch)
ConcernedApe (Stardew Valley)
Drool (Thumper)
Night School Studio (Oxenfree)
Honorable Mentions: SUPERHOT Team (SUPERHOT), Numinous Games (That Dragon, Cancer), Giant Squid Studios (Abzu), Ghost Town Games (Overcooked), iNK Stories (1979 Revolution: Black Friday)
BEST DESIGN
Overwatch (Blizzard Entertainment)
Dishonored 2 (Arkane Studios / Bethesda Softworks)
The Witness (Thekla)
Inside (Playdead)
DOOM (id Software / Bethesda Softworks)
Honorable Mentions: Titanfall 2 (Respawn Entertainment / Electronic Arts), Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End (Naughty Dog / Sony Interactive Entertainment), Dark Souls III (From Software / Bandai Namco Entertainment), Firewatch(Campo Santo / Panic), Hitman (IO Interactive / Square Enix)
BEST MOBILE/HANDHELD GAME
Super Mario Run (Nintendo EPD / Nintendo)
Clash Royale (Supercell)
Pokémon Go (Niantic)
Reigns (Nerial / Devolver Digital)
Pokémon Sun/Moon (Game Freak / The Pokémon Company)
Honorable Mentions: Mini Metro (Dinosaur Polo Club), Severed (DrinkBox Studios), Deus Ex: Go (Square Enix Montreal / Square Enix), Fire Emblem Fates (Intelligent Systems and Nintendo SPD / Nintendo), Imbroglio (Michael Brough), Swap Sword (AP Thomson and Diego Garcia)
INNOVATION AWARD
The Witness (Thekla)
Inside (Playdead)
No Man’s Sky (Hello Games)
Firewatch (Campo Santo / Panic)
Pokemon Go (Niantic)
Honorable Mentions: That Dragon, Cancer (Numinous Games), The Last Guardian (JAPAN Studio / Sony Interactive Entertainment), SUPERHOT (SUPERHOT Team), Thumper (Drool), Quadrilateral Cowboy (Blendo Games)
BEST NARRATIVE
The Last Guardian (JAPAN Studio / Sony Interactive Entertainment)
Oxenfree (Night School Studio)
Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End (Naughty Dog / Sony Interactive Entertainment)
Inside (Playdead)
Firewatch (Campo Santo / Panic)
Honorable Mentions: That Dragon, Cancer (Numinous Games), Dishonored 2 (Arkane Studios / Bethesda Softworks), The Witcher 3: Blood & Wine (CD Projekt RED / CD Projekt), Kentucky Route Zero – Act IV (Cardboard Computer), Mafia III (Hangar 13 / 2K Games)
BEST TECHNOLOGY
Battlefield 1 (EA DICE / Electronic Arts)
No Man’s Sky (Hello Games)
Overwatch (Blizzard Entertainment)
DOOM (id Software / Bethesda Softworks)
Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End (Naughty Dog / Sony Interactive Entertainment)
Honorable Mentions: Inside (Playdead), Pokemon Go (Niantic), The Last Guardian (JAPAN Studio / Sony Interactive Entertainment), Dishonored 2 (Arkane Studios / Bethesda Softworks), The Witness (Thekla)
BEST VISUAL ART
Firewatch (Campo Santo / Panic)
The Last Guardian (JAPAN Studio / Sony Interactive Entertainment)
Overwatch (Blizzard Entertainment)
Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End (Naughty Dog / Sony Interactive Entertainment)
Inside (Playdead)
Honorable Mentions: The Witness (Thekla), Battlefield 1 (EA DICE / Electronic Arts), Abzu (Giant Squid Studios), Thumper (Drool), DOOM (id Software / Bethesda Softworks)
BEST VR/AR GAME
Rez Infinite (Monstars / Enhance Games)
Superhot VR (SUPERHOT Team)
Job Simulator: The 2050 Archives (Owlchemy Labs)
Pokémon Go (Niantic)
Fantastic Contraption (Radial Games / Northway Games)
Honorable Mentions: Thumper (Drool), Superhypercube (Kokoromi / Polytron Corporation), Batman Arkham VR (Rocksteady Studios / Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment), Space Pirate Trainer (I-Illusions), The Lab (Valve)
GAME OF THE YEAR
Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End (Naughty Dog / Sony Interactive Entertainment)
Overwatch (Blizzard Entertainment)
Inside (Playdead)
Dishonored 2 (Arkane Studios / Bethesda Softworks)
Firewatch (Campo Santo / Panic)
Honorable Mentions: DOOM (id Software / Bethesda Softworks), The Witness (Thekla), Battlefield 1 (EA DICE / Electronic Arts), The Last Guardian (JAPAN Studio / Sony Interactive Entertainment), Titanfall 2 (Respawn Entertainment / Electronic Arts)
Each year, the Game Developers Choice Awards also recognize three individuals with the following Special Awards categories: Pioneer, Ambassador and Lifetime Achievement. The recipients of the special awards will be announced in the near future. The Audience Award category, which will be open to all Choice Award finalists, will open for online voting in late January.
