Epic Games design director Cliff Bleszinski will host the Game Developers Choice Awards during GDC in March, organisers have announced. GDC also plays host to the Independent Games Festival (IGF) Awards, which will be hosted for a fourth year by Andy Schatz, developer of former IGF Grand Prize winner Monaco. More >
The Writers Guild Of America has announced the six videogames shortlisted for its annual award to the best-written videogame of the year. Ed Stern is nominated for his work on Splash Damage's multiplayer shooter Brink, as is Naughty Dog's Amy Hennig for her Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception script. Also nominated are Assassin's Creed: Revelations, Batman: Arkham City, and Mortal Kombat. More >
Away from the slew of new announcements and trailers for next year, Saturday's Spike Video Game Awards did live up to their name by recognising the best 2011 had to offer. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim was named game of the year and best RPG, with its developer Bethesda Softworks winning studio of the year. More >
Apple has named Andreas Illiger's one-button iOS game Tiny Wings as the iPhone game of the year. Runners-up were NimbleBit's life-stealing time management sim Tiny Tower, and physics puzzler To-Fu 2. The Chillingo-published Contre Jour was named best iPad game, ahead of Shadowgun and Gesundheit HD. More >
A pair of US high school students were yesterday awarded a $100,000 college scholarship for using Kinect to analyse human walking patterns in a project that could ultimately be used in the design of prosthetics for amputees. Ziyuan Liu and Cassee Cain, seniors at Oak Ridge High School in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, won the Team Prize at the Siemens Competition, an annual awards ceremony designed to promote the study of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). More >
German game developer Keen Games has won a Deloitte Fast 500 award, ranking it among the fastest-growing technology companies in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The Frankfurt studio has now been recognised by Deloitte twice in 2011; earlier this month it won a Deloitte Fast 50 award for being one of the fastest-growing tech companies in Germany with a growth rank of 600 per cent. More >
Size Five Games' educational title Privates was among the winners at the BAFTA Children's Awards in London last night. Privates, a sex-education shoot-'em-up developed for Channel 4, won the Learning Secondary award. Lego Pirates Of The Caribbean won the Videogame award, beating Kirby's Epic Yarn, LittleBigPlanet 2 and Pokemon Black & White. More >
Veteran developer Ste Pickford has decried the British Academy Of Film And Television Arts' (BAFTA) Videogame Awards, saying the excessive fees charged to those submitting their games for consideration prevents indie developers from receiving the recognition they deserve. Together with brother John, Pickford has developed over 80 games, including the likes of beloved SNES platformer Plok!, turn-based strategy title Naked War, and most recently iOS game Magnetic Billiards: Blueprint, in a career spanning the best part of thirty years. In an opinion piece for Spong, Pickford praises iOS word game Quarrel for winning a Scottish BAFTA, but laments the way the awards are structured south of the border. More >
The British Academy Of Film And Television Arts (BAFTA) has announced the nominees for the 2011 BAFTA Young Game Designers competition. Now in its second year, the competition invites teams of 11 to 16 year olds to prove their potential as game creators in association with EA, Nesta and Abertay University. A jury including representatives from Nesta, Criterion and BAFTA itself whittled down a shortlist of ten teams to the final three. More >
Ed Logg, part of Atari's coin-op division in the 1970s and 1980s who was lead developer on Gauntlet, will be given the Pioneer Award by the Academy Of Interactive Arts And Sciences (AIAS) . Logg was also co-designer of Centipede and Asteroids, and will be presented with the award by Mark Cerny, a consultant who worked alongside Logg at Atari, at a Las Vegas ceremony in February. More >
US channel Spike TV will unveil a a new game from BioWare and the return of Alan Wake during its Video Game Awards (VGAs) next month. In a blog post, Spike says BioWare will also announce the formation of a new studio. An "all-new adventure" starring Alan Wake is also promised, with Xbox Live mouthpiece Major Nelson since confirming Wake's return will be a digital release; little surprise given that back in May developer Remedy told us: "The sooner we go digital as an industry, the better." More >
Minecraft has won the GameCity Prize 2011, becoming the first-ever recipient of the award at the annual Nottingham festival. Swedish developer Mojang's beloved indie sandbox was given the award - which recognises artistic, rather than financial success - at a ceremony on Saturday. It was selected by a panel including South Bank Centre artistic director Jude Kelly OBE, musician Nitin Sawhney and Labour MP Tom Watson. More >
Given award for third time in five years at last night's London ceremony.
13A total of 568 games have been submitted for consideration in the Independent Games Festival (IGF) Main Competition, setting a new record with a 45 per cent increase on last year's figure. As Gamasutra notes, mobile game submissions - which have their own category for the first time this year - have almost doubled year on year. More >
UK trade association TIGA last night won two of the Chartered Management Institute's (CMI) Leadership And Management Awards. The trade body was named Outstanding Organisation 2011, with CEO Dr Richard Wilson winning the Outstanding Leader award. A total of 41 finalists including IBM and multinational energy company Centrica were nominated across 12 categories. More >
The British Academy Of Film, Television And The Arts (BAFTA) has announced the nominees for its Children's Awards ahead of next month's ceremony. In the running for the Videogame Award are charming Wii platformer Kirby's Epic Yarn, Lego Pirates Of The Caribbean, Media Molecule's PS3 sequel LittleBigPlanet 2, and DS RPGs Pokémon Black & White. More >
Portal 2 gets Ultimate Game of the Year, while Minecraft, Black Ops and Skyrim also win at the public-voted game awards.
11Mojang's world-building game Minecraft and Trion Worlds' MMORPG Rift each won two awards at the second annual GDC Online Game Developers Online Choice Awards in Austin, Texas. Minecraft scooped Best Live Game and Best Community Relations, while Rift left with Best Online Technology and was named the Best New Online Game. Sony Online Entertainment's MMORPG Everquest was honoured for 12 years of uninterrupted service and inducted into the Hall Of Fame. More >
Upcoming Xbox Live Arcade platformer Fez was last night named Best In Show at the IndieCade 2011 festival in California. Polytron's game also won the award for story/world design, Joystiq reports. PlayStation Move music title Johann Sebastian Joust also took home two gongs, for best technology and impact on the community. More >
The British Academy Of Film And Television Arts (BAFTA) has announced that it is to expand its annual videogame awards this year with the creation of four new categories. This year's British Academy Videogame Awards will, for the first time, include awards for Debut Game, Online Browser Game, Online Multiplayer Game, and Performer. More >