By and large, gaming award shows don’t matter at all. Most are voted upon either by gamers or critics and don’t ever feel that important. In contrast, the Game Developer Choice Awards always feel important as this is only the awards show where the nominees and winners are chosen by the industry itself.
In early 2014, GDC will play host to the 14th annual Game Developers Choice Awards. It’s a chance for the industry to recognize the very best that 2013 had to offer in game design, story, art, technical achievement and more. As you would expect, a lot of this year’s GDC Awards nominees are the AAA blockbusters that defined 2013, like Grand Theft Auto V and The Last of Us.
Interestingly enough, 2014 is another year in which indie titles are represented in a major way. The Fullbright Company’s Gone Home received a nomination for game of the year as well as nominations in four other categories. In fact, the only other games to receive as many nominations were Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us and Media Molecule’s Tearaway. While it’s been obvious to many who follow the industry, it should become more obvious this year to those who don’t that non-violent, thought provoking games like Gone Home can stand tall among the industry’s best.
Here’s the full list of categories and nominees:
Game of the Year
Gone Home (The Fullbright Company)
Grand Theft Auto V (Rockstar North/Rockstar Games)
The Last Of Us (Naughty Dog/Sony)
Super Mario 3D World (Nintendo EAD Tokyo/Nintendo)
Tomb Raider (Crystal Dynamics/Square Enix)
Innovation Award
DEVICE 6 (Simogo)
Gone Home (The Fullbright Company)
Papers, Please (Lucas Pope)
Tearaway (Media Molecule/Sony)
The Stanley Parable (Galactic Cafe)
Best Audio
BioShock Infinite (Irrational Games/2K Games)
Forza Motorsport 5 (Turn 10 Studios/Microsoft Games)
Grand Theft Auto V (Rockstar North/Rockstar Games)
Saints Row IV (Volition/Deep Silver)
Tearaway (Media Molecule/Sony)
Best Debut
Blue Manchu (Card Hunter)
The Fullbright Company (Gone Home)
Galactic Cafe (The Stanley Parable)
Squad (Kerbal Space Program)
Undead Labs (State Of Decay)
Best Downloadable Game
Brothers: A Tale Of Two Sons (Starbreeze/505 Games)
Gone Home (The Fullbright Company)
Papers, Please (Lucas Pope)
Resogun (Housemarque/Sony)
The Stanley Parable (Galactic Cafe)
Best Design
Grand Theft Auto V (Rockstar North/Rockstar Games)
The Last Of Us (Naughty Dog/Sony)
The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds (Nintendo EAD/Nintendo)
Super Mario 3D World (Nintendo EAD Tokyo/Nintendo)
Tomb Raider (Crystal Dynamics/Square Enix)
Best Handheld/Mobile Game
DEVICE 6 (Simogo)
Fire Emblem: Awakening (Intelligent Systems/Nintendo)
The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds (Nintendo EAD/Nintendo)
Ridiculous Fishing (Vlambeer)
Tearaway (Media Molecule/Sony)
Best Narrative
Brothers: A Tale Of Two Sons (Starbreeze/505 Games)
Gone Home (The Fullbright Company)
The Last Of Us (Naughty Dog/Sony)
Tomb Raider (Crystal Dynamics/Square Enix)
The Stanley Parable (Galactic Cafe)
Best Technology
Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag (Ubisoft Montreal/Ubisoft)
Grand Theft Auto V (Rockstar North/Rockstar Games)
The Last Of Us (Naughty Dog/Sony)
Killzone: Shadow Fall (Guerrilla Games/Sony)
Tearaway (Media Molecule/Sony)
Best Visual Arts
BioShock Infinite (Irrational Games/2K Games)
DmC (Ninja Theory/Capcom)
The Last Of Us (Naughty Dog/Sony)
Ni No Kuni: Wrath Of The White Witch (Level 5/Namco Bandai)
Tearaway (Media Molecule/Sony)
The 2014 Game Developers Choice Awards will take place during GDC on March 19 at 6:30 p.m. The event will last two hours.
Image via PlayStation/YouTube