The International Game Developers Association (IGDA) has announced the recipients of the 2nd Annual Game Developers Choice Awards, game development's highest honors. The awards were presented Thursday, March 21, 2002 during a ceremony at the San Jose Civic Auditorium as part of this year's annual Game Developers Conference (GDC). The celebration honored innovation as well as technical and artistic achievement in interactive entertainment. GRAND THEFT AUTO III won three awards including Game of the Year and Bohemia Interactive Studio, creators of the game OPERATION FLASHPOINT was named Rookie Studio of the Year. In addition to the Awards, three special honors, selected by the Game Developers Choice Awards advisory board, were presented at the awards ceremony. A Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Yuji Naka, president and CEO of Sega's SONICTEAM, for the innovative and award-winning work he has produced during his career, including the creation of SEGA mascot, Sonic The Hedgehog. The First Penguin Award was given to Hubert Chardot, for his work on ALONE IN THE DARK, a game that started the "survival-horror" genre and Jeff Lander received the IGDA Award for Community Contribution for his writings on game development, community building efforts and student outreach.

The 2nd Annual Game Developers Choice Awards recipients are:



Game of the Year



GRAND THEFT AUTO III (DMA Design/Rockstar Games)



Rookie Studio of the Year



Bohemia Interactive Studio for OPERATION FLASHPOINT



Original Game Character of the Year


Daxter from JAK & DAXTER: THE PRECURSOR LEGACY



Excellence in Audio


Marty O'Donnell & team for sound effects in HALO: COMBAT EVOLVED



Excellence in Game Design



GTA3 team for game play in GRAND THEFT AUTO III



Excellence in Level Design



Fumito Ueda & team for level design in ICO



Excellence in Programming




Richard Evans for artificial intelligence in BLACK & WHITE



Excellence in Visual Arts



Fumito Ueda & team for art direction in ICO



Game Innovation Spotlights



BLACK & WHITE (Lionhead Studios)

GRAND THEFT AUTO III (DMA Design)

ICO (Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc.)

MAJESTIC (Electronic Arts)

REZ (United Game Artists)