Part of GDC, the Game Developers Choice Awards were handed out in San Francisco last night. These are the only videogame awards that are bestowed upon developers by developers. Gears of War received the most acclaim with three awards, while Okami and Wii Sports each received two. The internet “toy” Line Rider, scheduled to slide onto the Wii and DS this year, also took home an award for Innovation.

For composing the music to hundreds of games since the early 80s, including Maniac Mansion and LOOM, George “The Fat Man” Sanger received a special award for ‘community contribution.’ I must also admit that Gears of War was something extra and these awards are probably well deserved.

The full list:

Best Game - Gears of War (Epic Games / Microsoft Game Studios)
- Cliff Bleszinski, Michael Capps, Rod Fergusson

Audio - Guitar Hero II (Harmonix Music Systems / RedOctane)
- Jeff Allen, Eric Brosius, Izzy Maxwell

Character Design - Okami (Clover Studio / Capcom Entertainment)
- Mari Shimazaki, Sawaki Takeyasu, Kenichirou Yoshimura

Game Design - Wii Sports (Nintendo)
- Keizo Ohta, Takayuki Shimamura, Yoshiaki Yamashita

Technology - Gears of War (Epic Games / Microsoft Game Studios)
- Michael Capps, Ray Davis, Tim Sweeney, Daniel Vogel

Visual Arts - Gears of War (Epic Games / Microsoft Game Studios)
- Jerry O’Flaherty, Chris Perna

Writing - The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Nintendo)
- Kyogoku Aya, Nate Bihldorff, Mitsuhiro Takano

New Studio - Iron Lore Entertainment (Titan Quest)
- Paul Chieffo, Jeff Goodsill, Brian Sullivan