The recipients will be announced at a ceremony on March 6, 2003, during the Game Developers Conference (GDC), March 4-8 in San Jose, Calif. Produced by the Gama Network, the GDC is the largest annual event exclusively for game development professionals. Nominations were free and open to all professional game developers, regardless of membership or affiliation, so that nominees reflect the international development community's opinions.Competing for Game of the Year are BATTLEFIELD 1942 (Digital Illusions), GRAND THEFT AUTO: VICE CITY (Rockstar North), METROID PRIME (Retro Studios), NEVERWINTER NIGHTS (BioWare Corp.) and TOM CLANCY'S SPLINTER CELL (Ubi Soft Montreal).Original Game Character of the Year will be a contest between Blinx from BLINX THE TIME SWEEPER, Ratchet from RATCHET AND CLANK, Rau from THE MARK OF KRI, Sam Fischer from TOM CLANCY'S SPLINTER CELL and Sly Cooper from SLY COOPER AND THE THIEVIUS RACCOONUS.
The other nominees are:ROOKIE STUDIO OF THE YEARArkane Studios for ARX FATALISDay 1 Studios for MECHASSAULTGas Powered Games for DUNGEON SIEGE Pipeworks Software for GODZILLA: DESTROY ALL MONSTERS MELEE Retro Studios for METROID PRIME
EXCELLENCE IN AUDIOGTA team for sound design in GRAND THEFT AUTO: VICE CITYRich Briggs, Latch Brothers, Takayuki Kawagoe, Noah Musler, Hideki Naganuma and Fumitaka Shibata for sound design in JET SET RADIO FUTUREEA Sound Studio for sound effects in MEDAL OF HONOR: ALLIED ASSAULTMetroid team for sound effects in METROID PRIMEAndrew Boyd, Chris Hegstrom and Robb Mills for composition in THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE TWO TOWERS
EXCELLENCE IN GAME DESIGNRomain de Waubert de Genlis for game design in BATTLEFIELD 1942GTA team for game design in GRAND THEFT AUTO: VICE CITYMetroid team for game design in METROID PRIMESatoru Iwata, Yoshiaki Koizumi, Shigeru Miyamoto, Takashi Tezuka and Kenta Usui for game design in SUPER MARIO SUNSHINESplinter Cell team leaders for game design in TOM CLANCY'S SPLINTER CELL
EXCELLENCE IN LEVEL DESIGNMetroid team for level design in METROID PRIMEBrian Allgeier, Mark Cerny, Lesley Mathieson and Colin Munson for level design in RATCHET & CLANKBrendan McNamara, Chun Wah Kong and the SCEE design team for level design in THE GETAWAYFrancois Pelland and the Splinter Cell team for level design in TOM CLANCY'S SPLINTER CELLPancho Eekels, Dave Ewing and James Schmalz for level design in UNREAL TOURNAMENT 2003
EXCELLENCE IN PROGRAMMINGMike Biddlecombe, Scott Bilas, Bartosz Kijanka, James Loe, Eric Tams and Chad Queen for programming in DUNGEON SIEGEMetroid team for programming in METROID PRIMEMark Brockington, Scott Greig, Jason Knipe, Don Moar and Don Yakielashek for network programming in NEVERWINTER NIGHTSAntoine Dodens and Splinter Cell team for graphics programming in TOM CLANCY'S SPLINTER CELLWarCraft III team for programming in WARCRAFT III: REIGN OF CHAOS
EXCELLENCE IN VISUAL ARTSJonathan Chey, Ken Levine and Freedom Force team for art direction in FREEDOM FORCEShinji Hashimoto and Tetsuya Nomura for art direction in KINGDOM HEARTSHokyo Lim, Suzanne Kaufman, Dev Madan, Augie Pagan and Karin Yamagiwa for art direction in SLY COOPER AND THE THIEVIUS RACCOONUSNicolas Cantin, Frederick Gagne and Benoit Sokal for art direction in SYBERIAJay Beard, Erik Medina, Jeff Merghart , Dan Mueller and Tim Neveu for animation in THE MARK OF KRI
EXCELLENCE IN WRITINGDenis Dyack and Ken McCulloch for writing in ETERNAL DARKNESS: SANITY'S REQUIEMGTA team for writing in GRAND THEFT AUTO: VICE CITYLukas Kure and Dan Vavra for writing in MAFIA: THE CITY OF LOST HEAVENCraig Hubbard and No One Lives Forever team for writing in NO ONE LIVES FOREVER 2: A SPY IN H.A.R.M.S. WAYClint Hocking and JT Petty for writing in TOM CLANCY'S SPLINTER CELL
An advisory committee from the IGDA will select the recipients of the Lifetime Achievement Award, First Penguin Award and the IGDA Award for Community Contribution. Developers Choice Noms Announced. The International Game Developers
