Nominees for Game Developers Choice Awards announced

Xboxic: "The 7th annual GDC Awards are due to be held on March 7th during the Game Developers Conference and with just a month left before the developers can have their say on what they think was the best of 2006, the list of nominees is up. What game do you think deserves to be nominated and for what? But more importantly, what games did actually make.

Best Game

• Gears of War (Epic Games / Microsoft Game Studios)
  - Cliff Bleszinski, Michael Capps, Rod Fergusson
• Ōkami (Clover Studio / Capcom Entertainment)
  - Atsushi Inaba, Hideki Kamiya
• The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Bethesda Game Studios / 2K Games/Bethesda Softworks)
  - Todd Howard
• The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Nintendo EAD / Nintendo)
  - Eiji Aonuma, Satoru Iwata, Shigeru Miyamoto
• Wii Sports (Nintendo)
  - Satoru Iwata, Shigeru Miyamoto, Keizo Ohta, Takayuki Shimamura, Yoshiaki Yamashita

Audio

• Company of Heroes (Relic Entertainment / THQ)
  - Crispin Hands, John Johnson, Jennifer Lewis, John Tennant
• DEFCON: Everybody Dies (Introversion Software)
  - Alistair Lindsay, Michael Maidment
• Guitar Hero II (Harmonix Music Systems / RedOctane)
  - Jeff Allen, Eric Brosius, Izzy Maxwell
• Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Legend (Crystal Dynamics / Eidos Interactive)
  - Troels Folmann, Karl Gallagher, Mike Peaslee, Gregg Stephens
• LocoRoco (Sony Computer Entertainment)
  - Kemmei Adachi, Tomonobu Kikuchi, Kouji Niikura, Nobuyuki Shimizu

Character Design

• Final Fantasy XII (Square Enix)
  - Hideo Minaba, Hiroshi Minagawa, Akihiko Yoshida
• LocoRoco (Sony Computer Entertainment)
  - Tsutomu Kouno, Keigo Tsuchiya
• Ōkami (Clover Studio / Capcom Entertainment)
  - Mari Shimazaki, Sawaki Takeyasu, Kenichirou Yoshimura
• Rayman Raving Rabbids (Ubisoft Montpellier Studio / Ubisoft Entertainment)
  - Michel Ancel, Charles Beirnaert, Hubert Chevillard, Florent Sacre
• Viva Piñata (Rare / Microsoft Game Studios)
  - Ryan Stevenson

Game Design

• Bully (Rockstar Vancouver / Rockstar Games)
  - Michael Skupa
• Ōkami (Clover Studio / Capcom Entertainment)
  - Hideki Kamiya
• The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Bethesda Game Studios / 2K Games/Bethesda Softworks)
  - Todd Howard
• Viva Piñata (Rare / Microsoft Game Studios)
  - Justin Cook, Gregg Mayles
• Wii Sports (Nintendo)
  - Keizo Ohta, Takayuki Shimamura, Yoshiaki Yamashita

Technology

• Company of Heroes (Relic Entertainment / THQ)
  - Drew Dunlop, Shelby Hubick, David Swinerd, Ian Thomson
• Dead Rising (Capcom Entertainment)
  - Shinya Ikuta, Tomofumi Ishida, Yasuhide Sawada, Tomohiro Ueda
• Gears of War (Epic Games / Microsoft Game Studios)
  - Michael Capps, Ray Davis, Tim Sweeney, Daniel Vogel
• Rockstar Games presents Table Tennis (Rockstar San Diego / Rockstar Games)
  - Ted Carson, Eugene Foss, Wil Paredes, Steve Reed
• Wii Sports (Nintendo)
  - Takuhiro Dohta, Takeshi Miyamoto, Keizo Ohta, Kenta Sato

Visual Arts

• Final Fantasy XII (Square Enix)
  - Isamu Kamikokuryo, Hideo Minaba, Akihiko Yoshida
• Gears of War (Epic Games / Microsoft Game Studios)
  - Jerry O’Flaherty, Chris Perna
• Ōkami (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

Writing

• Bully (Rockstar Vancouver / Rockstar Games)
  - Dan Houser, Jacob Krarup
• Dreamfall: The Longest Journey (Funcom / Aspyr Media)
  - Dag Scheve, Ragnar Tørnquist
• Sam & Max Episode 1: Culture Shock (Telltale Games / GameTap)
  - Brendan Ferguson, Dave Grossman, Steve Purcell
• The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Bethesda Game Studios / 2K Games/Bethesda Softworks)
  - Ken Rolston
• The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Nintendo EAD / Nintendo)
  - Kyogoku Aya, Nate Bihldorff, Mitsuhiro Takano

New Studio

• Gastronaut Studios (Small Arms)
  - Jacob Van Wingen, Don Wurster
• Iron Lore Entertainment (Titan Quest)
  - Paul Chieffo, Jeff Goodsill, Brian Sullivan
• Naked Sky Entertainment (RoboBlitz)
  - Joshua Glazer, Tian Mu, Sam Thibault
• Ready At Dawn Studios (Daxter)
  - Didier Malenfant, Andrea Pessino, Ru Weerasuriya
• Wadjet Eye Games (The Shiva)
  - Chris Femo, Dave Gilbert, Peter Gresser, Ian Schlaepfer

The voting process will being on Friday, February 9th and will continue for one week until Friday, February 16th when the votes will be counted. However, it won’t be until Wednesday, March 7th that the results will be announced at the Choice Awards Ceremony in San Francisco. I personally love trying to predict the outcome of award ceremonies and will be looking forward to the ceremony.