The 2017 Game Developers Choice Awards

Ladies and gentlemen, we are pleased to begin the second half of our evening and welcome you to the 17th annual Game Developers Choice Awards. Please welcome the host of the evening, Tim Schaefer. Awesome. Hello Somebody left uh some poo on the stage down here. Do I have to explain that joke? Do I have to go get it? No. Okay. Thank you so much for having me back here to host the 2017 Game Developers Choice Awards. So, uh thank you. Yes. Uh uh did you like the first half of the evening? That's right. That's right. That's right. That's right. I said half. It's only half over. Sit down. Um wasn't Nina Freeman great? It's awesome. It's

awesome. Um, I hope you enjoy the IGF awards and their celebration of artistic expression and creative integrity cuz that's all over now. This is the choice awards snowflakes. Yeah. All we care about now is cold hard cash. Money, money, money. We don't play if it don't pay. Things are going to be totally different from now on. Instead of celebrating the independent spirit and creativity of games like Hyperllight Drifter and Stardew Valley and Inside, we're going to be at the Choice Awards C. We're here to applaud the commercial ambition and monetary success of games like Hyperllight Drifter and Stardew Valley and Inside. Okay, there uh there's uh some overlap, but trust me, there is a big difference. The sponsorship is really different. Some of them uh the uh graphic design is different,

right? And um you have to sleep with completely different people to win these awards. I um I'm uh I'm just kidding. It's it's always me. But listen, it's important that we maintain two separate awards. Mostly because there has to be an award that Fallout and Uncharted don't win. And also, I'm too old to host the other show. So, please don't worry. We are going to transition you gently out of the West Anderson part of the evening into the Bayhem, sorry, with our most indish best debut. The nominees in this category got everyone's attention with their very first game from their studio. Uh, which is no easy task when you consider that on Steam alone there were 4,000 games released last year. Since I walked on stage, 200 more have been released and 20 of them from this room. Five of them from Vlamir's

table. So, calm down developers. All right, we're over served. I I'm all fed up. But somehow these five newcomers have managed to rise above all of that and be nominated for this year's best debut. Best debut. Campo Santo nominated for firewatch. Jake Rodney. Sean [Music] [Applause] Van heart machine nominated for hyper light drifting. Alex Preston Bole Teddy Deanbach. Night School Studio nominated for action three. Sean Frankle, Adam Hines, Bryant Cammy, Heather

[Music] Gross. Concerned eight nominated for Stardew Valley. Eric [Music] Moroni Jewel nominated for Brian Gibson. Mark Flurry. And the best debut award goes to Campo Santo Firewatch.

This is very special because everyone is here except Ali basically, right? Like um why am I okay? Uh thank you so much. Yeah, I mean everyone on the stage took like a giant risk to make this game. Um, so it's pretty outlandish that this has happened, especially to win the dice roll of those like five games because those were all like those are the first efforts of all of those studios. That's crazy to me. Like every one of those games is superior. It's like just really amazing. So, um, what do you say now, guys? Like, thank you so much, I guess. Thank you. Uh, it's really amazing. Thank you. Thank you. [Music]

Tonight's first nominee for game of the year, Overwatch. Developed by Blizzard Entertainment. The Overwatch development team. was hoping you guys would applaud again. So, I left. They're telling us it's time uh to talk about best audio, but um I think it's a weird time in the show to do it. I told them if they want to make it really uh the show really accurate and true to game development, they should leave audio till the very end and not give it give it nearly enough

time. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. But they didn't listen to me. And apparently none of these developers did either because their audio was so good. He got nominated for this award. Best audio Battlefield 1 developed by EA DICE published by Electronic Arts. Ben Hayo Doom developed by ID Software published by Bethesda Softworks. The ID software [Music] team inside developed by Lego Martine Steve Anderson

Overwatch developed by Blizzard Entertainment activated the Overwatch Development team. One more for my highlight. Thunder developed by Brian Gibson, Mark Flurry. And the award for best audio goes to Inside.

[Music] Thanks a lot. Um, thanks to Play for creating this um, incredible game. And um, also want to thank very much the sound team that worked with me. Jagab Smith and Das Fos and also the performers at Cena who subjected themselves to all kind of physical violence and torture to make the sounds for this um blob thing and uh also and Corba for some additional recording. So thank you

Wait, hold up. It's time for the innovation award. You'll notice this is the only award without the word best in front of it. Uh it's not called best innovation and uh it's just the innovation award. Uh we're just not willing to take a side just yet. Um we'll admit these are innovations, but they're so ahead of their time only history will tell us if they're really good for society or not. sort of like splitting the atom or allowing blue hairs on me. It's risky. But when you're really innovating, you can't avoid avoid risk. Risk and innovation go hand in hand, especially when they're going down the stairs because innovation is afraid of stairs. If you're um if you're watching this on Twitch, I want to point out, you know, the audience is not Mike, so you might think, "Wow, when he makes a joke, they're really quiet." Um, I just want you to know at at home they're they're actually often booing. It's very loud. So, you're missing out on that. So, for better or for worse, here are the nominees for this year's

innovation award. Innovation Award inside developed by PlayDay. The inside development team. No Man's Sky developed by Hello Game. Shawn Murray. Firewatch. Developed by Campbell Santo. Published by Penny James Benson. Someone has written down what each other have been saying. That doesn't make any sense. Pokémon Go developed by Niantic, Edward Wu, Katso Namura, Dennis Wang.

[Music] The Witness developed by Techla. The Techla development team. And the innovation award goes to No Man's [Applause] Sky. All [Music] right. This lovely trophy going once.

It's made of uh Nickelodeon slime. It's beautiful. Nobody. Okay. I'm gonna just Headlander. I'm gonna give that to Headlander. Say that. Okay. No. Will I'm going accept this on the uh behalf of Hello Games and congratulations to them. And I'm going to walk off stage like I planned that whole thing. [Applause] The second nominee for game of the year, Dishonored 2, developed by Arcane Studios, published by Bethesda Softworks. The Arcane Studios team. How many of your own subjects are you ready to slaughter? We'll be face to face soon.

Delilah. Please welcome former ambassador award winner Chris Melisinos and co-founder of phenamina Robin Hickeyi phenomen. And we're gonna lean in here for the we're going to do this. Uh so the dawn of video games born from the collision of art and science found their initial spark in the computer labs of educational institutions like MIT, the University of Illinois and Essex University. Games like Space War, Zork, and whatever your favorite is. A lot of these were created by university students and researchers seeking to expand the role of computers in our world and using them as a platform for experimentation, engagement, and well, just for fun.

Education and computer science have been inextricably linked ever since. Many of us here tonight have fond memories of experiencing Apple 2os, Trash8s, and Spectrums in the schools of our youth, where we snuck in games of Space Invaders, Lunarlander, and Asteroids when our teachers weren't looking. And as computers became commonplace in society, their roles in education became more commonplace as well with games like The Oregon Trail, Carmen San Diego, Math Blaster being incorporated into classrooms and their designers working to marry compelling gameplay with educational benefit. Apart from the role that video games have played in education over the years, it was not until recently that formalized education in the art of creating video games has been adopted and supported in a broader sense from elementary schools all the way through universities. However, tonight's award recipient knew from his earliest days working in VR technologies all the way

back in 92 while attending the University of Washington that video games could have a remarkable and lasting positive impact on education and computer literacy. Over the years, Mark has had high positions at Google, Nintendo, Sony Computer Entertainment of America, where he oversaw thirdparty developer relations. During this time, he sought out every opportunity to help teach and educate game developers in using the platforms that he supported. Additionally, he was the creator and editor of the highly regarded Game Programming Gem series of books, which I'm sure adorned many of the shelves of you in the room tonight, and became the editor-inchief of Game Developer magazine. His longtime pursuit of using video games as a driving force in education found him leaving the video game industry and taking his passion and knowledge of games and their potential all the way to Washington DC.

In 2013, he was appointed to the position of senior adviser for digital media at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy started under President Barack Obama's tenure. Obama [Laughter] man, we miss you. It was here that he helped to inform and guide the administration in understanding how video games can be a positive force to improve education and engagement in around the world in civics, healthcare, STEM, and coding as a literacy. Under his direction, he created and coordinated and hosted the very first game jam ever held at the White House. This historic event, right, you can applaud for that. That's awesome. Please This historic event saw more than a hundred game developers from around the world gather in Washington and spent 48 hours creating more than 20 games that covered educational topics that ranged from understanding the election system

to evolution to the impact of global warming. Since leaving his post at the White House, Mark has continued to be an advocate of the power that video games have as an educational force. his membership in the board of directors of Games for Change, Seattle's Community Technology Advisory Board, and is creating and publishing the weekly and essential level up report, which brings together the greatest stories and links from across games, education, and technology. But most importantly, his efforts have forever changed the trajectory of video games in their role in government, civics, and education. So tonight, we celebrate Mark for his tireless and inspiring leadership, as a teacher and educator of video game developers, as an advocate for the power that video games possess to transform education, and for his lasting impact that help video games achieve a broader and deeper place in our world. And with that, the Game Developers Choice Awards would like to

welcome to the stage the recipient of this year's Ambassador Award and our great friend Mark Delora. [Music] [Applause] I think I need the [Applause] poo. People who knew me at the White House knew I was the guy with the big fat full-size Pikachu at my desk. So, this seems appropriate somehow. So, thanks Robin and thanks Chris my dear friends and thanks to you all and to GDC for this honor. I'm extremely

grateful to be recognized for representing this art form that I love so much. Uh allow me to in turn recognize and honor my fellow White House adviserss Constant Stein Cooler and Eric Martin who may be here. If you are, please stand up and wave your arms. I don't know if they're here or not. Okay. Okay. Well, the three of us worked in the Obama White House over the course of about 5 and a half years, passing the torch from one to the other to do games. Um, thank you guys for your passion for games, for being unreasonable and being relentless. We all were able to work with this amazing group of collaborators from government agencies that we called the Federal Games Guild. They did the hard work at the agencies of making games a tool useful for their own needs. Thank you FGers for your partnership and your ongoing work. Let me also, while I'm here, recognize the ESA, particularly Mike Gallagher and Eric Huey. The ESA represents the game industry to people in Washington DC on a day-to-day basis, and we don't hear enough about their hard work. Thank you guys for all that

you do for the game [Applause] industry. And most importantly to my wife Mary Beth. Without your support, your extreme patience, wisdom, and making sure I actually ate and slept, there's no way I could have done this work. So, thank you very much, sweetie. I love you. [Applause] These people, all of these people, they're they feel like a big family to me. And I've always been struck by the extent to which the game industry feels like a big family, right? There's this camaraderie among all of us due to our shared experiences, our shared passion for creating something fun, shared frustration at trying to ship a game on time, and shared joy when we discover a new game and we share it to our friends. I felt that same camaraderie no matter where the game developers are from. If it's San Francisco or Tokyo or Nairobi or even in Tyrron, we in the game

industry know that it takes an extraordinary combination of talents to create an extraordinary game. programmers, artists, designers, musicians, producers, business people. It's that diversity of skills, that creative clash of personalities and opinions and expertise that produces something truly magical. All voices are important. And having a diversity of perspectives in the industry yields diverse games. Think of great games like 1979 Revolution, That Dragon Cancer, We Are Chicago, Never Alone, and Paulo Perachini's great web games such as Unmanned. You've got to check those out if you haven't heard of them. Games like these are why I was interested to create the Game Programming Gems book series, hoping to lower the barriers to making games. They're why I wanted to run Game Developer magazine and they're why I was excited to join the White House, working for a president who always asked us to be our better selves, to be self-expressed and stand up for the rights of everyone to share their stories and their voices.

And of course that includes the voices of women, gay and transgender individuals, underrepresented minorities, veterans, the elderly, the homeless, and of course immigrants and refugees. All voices are important and helping raise up the voices of others is one of the most important things that we all can do because we believe games are capable of so much more. I mean, look at all of us. We we're highly trained in kind of an unusual skill, right? We make entertaining, engaging, and yes, educational digital experiences. But now with billions of people carrying a smartphone around in their pocket, that skill is extremely valuable. Yet so many of us are building our next shooter, our next 4X, our next match three, and those are great games. We love those games, right? Billions of people love those games bigly. Nobody loves them more than I do. It's true. But if we think that

games can be more, can do more, and have a broader impact, and we've seen some great examples of that, isn't it incumbent upon all of us in this room to drive that? If we don't stand up for the rights of others, we'll never hear their voices. And if we don't make games easier to build, we'll never see the amazing innovation of people using them in new ways. If we don't start by using our own voice, how can we possibly show others the way? We got to put our own hearts out there, our own passions out there, and take risks. These are difficult times for many. We have unique skills that we can use to help. And how are you using your superpowers making games to share with the world your perspective? How are you taking risks to use games in new ways? And how are you helping raise the voices of others? If you do that, you will change things. You will change the world through games. So please, we need your expertise. We need your voice. Start today. Thank you very

much. That was awesome, Mark. Great technology doesn't look the same in every game. Sometimes it's the high frame rate in a frantic shooter. Sometimes it's the vast procedurally generated galaxy or some seamless multiplayer experience. But sometimes it's a magical shirt that is somehow both tucked and untucked at the same time. Yeah, that's right. The half tuck is up for an award tonight. And rightly so. Yeah, I'm not letting this go, guys. Nathan Drake shirt is in two

places at once. It's a Schroinger's cat of shirts. It's a quantum jersey. A citizen of two Nathan nitans. A citizen of two nations sharing a common language of pants. What other game lets you go in and out of a character's pants? Don't answer that. Just send me a link. Let's check out the nominees for the best technology award. Best technology Battlefield 1 developed by VA DICE published by Electronic Arts. Vadar Nighting Doom developed by ID Software published by Bethesda Softworks. The ID software

team. No Man's Sky developed by Hello. Sean Murray. Overwatch. Developed by Blizzard Entertainment. The Overwatch development team. Uncharted 4: A developed by Naughty Dog, published by Semly Interactive Entertainment. The Naughty Dog team. And the award for best technology goes to Uncharted 4.

[Music] Well, thank you everyone for allowing us to bring you the half talk. Um, first off, obviously a great great uh thank you to the entire team. Uh, this is really all all theirs. Um, great shout out to uh Evan and Kristoff for allowing us to take crazy risks and uh and really pull together technology that we don't really think we can actually ship. Um, I actually actually want to thank all of you for inspiring us. All game

developers, big or small, you're the ones that keep pushing us every day. That's why we got into the industry. That's why we're here. Thank you. [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music]

O Jose be gang beyond. Heat. Heat. [Music] Oh, you got

me. Heat. Heat. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. No [ __ ] no.

[Music] [Applause] I would like to introduce a brand new category to the choice awards that for the first time ever we are going to be awarding best VR AR or as it will surely come to be known best VA RAR award very thrilling very exciting it's it's thrilling to be in the early days of VR here so many different platforms competing for hardware it's like the old days of VHS and Betamax and we don't know who's going to win uh but we know know that eventually the final decision will be made by the porn industry which um explains some of the titles of these nominees. Super super hot job

simulator. Yeah. Makes you think Pokemon. No, maybe that last one's only sexy to me. Uh before we uh roll this. Hold on. Let me I know it's motion sick. This is a solve problem. Just Okay, roll it. This is a rented tux. Best VR AR game. Fantastic contraption. Developed by Games and Radio. The Fantastic Contraption [Applause] team. Job Simulator. The 2050 archives. Developed by Alchemy Lab. Office. Alex Schwarz. Devin Ryan. This looks like it'll taste interesting. Pokémon Go. Developed by Niantic. Edward Woo. Katso Namura Dennis

Wang Rez Infinite developed by Monston and Resin Air published by Enhanced Skin. Tetssuya Mizubuchi, Osamo Cuadera, Tekashi Ishihara. Super Hot VR developed by Super Hot Team. Potter Iwaniki Cesarovka Tomas Kashmar. Okay. All right. It's true. Good VR doesn't make you sick. All right. Don't need that anymore. The best VR AR award goes to Job Simulator.

[Music] Heat up here. [Music] Oh my god. Holy crap. Uh, thank you so much everybody uh for this. Um, we have to thank all of the platforms that we launched on the 923 platforms that we launched on. uh all of the people back at home, the team, everyone behind me on the team, everyone back at home in the team, everyone in the back on the team. Uh amazing, amazing work that went into this uh from everybody. Uh oh my god. Uh

Devin, say something. Um when we set out to build Job Simulator, one of the big goals was to build a VR game that could be played by everyone. Um so this ward means a lot to us. Yes. Yes. Anyone else? Thank you. VR, thank you. [Music] Tonight's third nominee for game of the year, Firewatch, developed by Campo Santo, published by Pen Jake. would have done. Sean Vanam. Henry, I've been at this job for 13 years, and nothing like this has ever happened before. Maybe I'm just losing

my mind. I need you to feel safe out here. Well, I sure don't now. You will. I promise. Visuals matter obviously. I mean that's why they hire me to host these awards and that's why they put in my contract that I had to lose 50 lbs to host them. But you know what? Believe it or not, I didn't do it cuz I accept my body the way it is. And you know how I came into this body acceptance? By playing video games. That's right. I saw a character in a game that was important and powerful and it looked like me just the way I am. That game was Inside. Let's check out these nominees for best visual art. Best visual art inside developed by Clay

D. The inside development [Music] [Applause] team. Overwatch developed by Blizzard Entertainment. The Overwatch development [Music] team Firewatch developed by Campbell. Published by Jane E. J Rod Ali Moss. The Last Guardian developed by Japan Studio published by Sony Interactive Entertainment UA. [Music] Uncharted 4, a n developed by Naughty Dog, published by

Sony Interactive Entertainment, The Naughty Dog Team. And the best visual art award goes to Inside. [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music]

This is crazy. Um, this is for Morton and Jeremy and Merrick back home in Copenhagen. So, thank you [Applause] [Music] Please welcome former Lifetime Achievement Award winner and creator of Sim City, Will Wright. Good evening. I'm delighted to be presenting this year's Pioneer Award. It's a person I've known for over 30 years. Jordan and I first met Burbun

software back in the mid 80s and he started developing games when he was still in high school in Chapa, New York. He developed his first game while a student at Yale University, which became Keratka. And I remember the first time I saw Keratka, it just kind of blew me away. you know, he made a few little pixels on the screen kind of come to life and I winced every time this like little character got chopped up by saws and stuff like that, you know, but uh it was an amazing game and the fluid animation and cinematic storytelling of Kate Tekka made it an instant hit for Broadman Software back in 1984 when it was released. Later he took those same techniques and developed Prince of Persia released on the Apple 2 in 1989. uh again like an instant bestseller and these games have had a continuing influence on the action genre and they're just kind of amazing examples of kind of what you can do with limited resources on a computer. After that he

did his follow-up game in 1997, The Last Express, which to this day remains one of the most unique artistic and ambitious titles of narrative storytelling on a computer. After that, working with Ubisoft, Jordan developed Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, which later was developed into a Hollywood major motion picture and became a huge global FL franchise, selling over 20 million units. And today, Jordan is still working on writing and game projects. And I'd like you all to help me welcome Jordan to the stage to receive this year's Game Developers Choice Pioneer Award. [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause]

[Applause] Well, thank you. Thank you for this is a wonderful honor. It's uh it's been a real privilege to be a part of this incredible community for the last 30 years. I'd like to thank all the teams that I've been lucky enough to work with at Broerbund, at Smoking Car, at Ubisoft, and so many people whose work has inspired me and who I've learned from, many of you in this room. Creative work happens when a community creates the special conditions that support it. You know, I got started programming thanks to a few friends in high school who knew more about it than I did. And uh IBM's Thomas J. Watson Research Center that opened their doors and let a bunch of kids come in and use their computers after hours so we could learn from each other. You know, it's that generosity and sharing, you know, the same spirit in which Steve Waznjak built the Apple 2. You know, to me, that is the pioneer spirit and it's one of the things that I appreciate the most about this community. I felt it when I went to my

first GDC in 1989 in Sunnyville. I I know it was 1989 because I checked my journals. I felt it then and I feel it now in this room. You know, these are still the pioneer days. You know, as we struggle to create magic with uh our new state-of-the-art tools, which in a few years will seem as quaint and nostalgic as the Apple 2 mini assembler. You know, as we share our ideas and our passion for games in our community, which has become truly global and international, even when borders and political regimes separate us, we come together. You know, in the 80s, you know, those 8-bit days were also the days of the Cold War and the Iron Curtain and we bridged it with floppy discs. Today, we have the internet. You know, we're a community of pioneers. We're good at overcoming barriers. And uh I think you know the longer I do this more and more I think that games are valuable because our passion to play them and create them is

something that brings us together. So it's really been an honor to share this journey so far with all of you and I'm really excited for what we're going to create together in the next couple of decades. Thank you. [Music] Tonight's fourth nominee for game of the year, Uncharted 4: A Thief's End, developed by Naughty Dog, published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. The Naughty Da team. [Music] How did you uh find me anyway? Oh, you know, easy. Just follow the sound of gunfire.

Come on, get up. The darkness was slain as light poured lubiously into the room. Did it just pose from the spotlights or was it merely a conflation of angels hovering diagetically about the beuxed host as he stroed handsomely into the mison song? God damn, the audience said that's good writing. Did you hear all those adverbs? The host should definitely win the award for best narrative. But since he has selflessly declined in advance, I guess we should give it to one of these nominees. The audience said, "Best narrative, Firewatch, developed by Trump, published by Sean, Jake Rodkin, Als See what might be the best inside. Developed by Play Dead aren't

anything else. Do you see the triangle? [Music] The Last Guardian developed by Japan Studio published by Semi Interactive Entertainment. [Music] Fura Uncharted 4: A End Developed by Naughty Dog published by Semi Interactive Entertainment. The Naughty Dog Development teams and this year's winner for best narrative is

[Applause] Firewatch. Heat. Heat. [Applause] Thank you for this. Um Sean wanted me to talk. This is really I mean basically all him. Um I'm really really happy to have helped out. Um Firewatch was a total team effort. We really wanted to

make something uh human and real and that's really all we tried to do and thank you for letting us all be part of it. Rich and [ __ ] couldn't be here tonight but obviously that this wouldn't exist without them. So thank you very much Rich and [ __ ] as well. Hey Tim, some indie developers or something are here to see you. Look, we got Hey. Wow, Tim. Sweenie, so good to meet you. Unreal Engine 1, genius. Unreal Engine 2, even better. And then Unreal Engine 3. Don't even get

me started. Only to be followed up with Unreal Engine 4. Best one yet, by the way. We've got a new product right up your alley. It's going to blow your mind. Is it Unreal Engine 5? No. Hold all questions till the end of the pitch process. Shut up. Look at the screen. Heat. Heat. [Music] I'm not completely sold that that's running in real time. Can we get another game demo? Uh, another game? Yeah, I I do have that. It's in my car. So, hold

on one second. I will get that for you. Do not go anywhere. I got it on my uh external hard drive. He's got it. This demo is kind of like a a a GTA type thing. Hey. Hey. [ __ ] dude. What was that? Did I see the actual code for this? Oh, yeah. Tim Sweeney Todd, whatever. I'm going to I got the code. He's got He's got the code. He's got the code. Look at our code. What an honor. Oh, is that what you see? Oh, I don't even see the code anymore. I just see blad brunette redhead. That's awesome. Okay, forget it. Jeez, get into the nuts and bolts of it, why don't you, man? Fine. Show me another game. You caught it. We were saving our best example for last. Look at the

TV. We uh programmed this meeting. Oh [ __ ] What are you doing? [ __ ] Uh oh. Oh, Tim, your revenue is on the fly. This guy's good. All right, so budget. Let's talk money. How much you want to pay for this? I will pay you $20 to leave this office and never come back again. [Music] We'll take it. Hey, will you validate our parking? No. [Applause] There is no surefire way to get to a great design. No one way. There are many paths you can take. You can test your wits or maybe try to be sneaky about it. But we spent most of our budget on the combat path. So don't waste your time crawling through all those vents. You

might miss all the good stuff. Speaking of the good stuff, let's check out these nominees. Best design Dishonored 2 developed by Arcane Studios. Published by Bethesda Softworks. The Arcane Studios team. Doom. Developed by ID Software, published by Bethesda Softworks. The ID Software team. Inside developed by Play Dead, the inside development team Overwatch developed by Blizzard

Entertainment. The Overwatch development team. The Witness developed by Techla. The Techla development [Music] [Applause] [Music] team. And the award for best design goes to Overwatch. [Applause] Woo. Okay, that that feels pretty good.

That's like a play of the game and the 10 votes at the end, I think. Not that I've ever gotten that. Um, it is a tremendous honor uh to have been uh to to get this. Um, the other games that have come out this year, the nominees, I think I speak for everyone to say that we've spent hours and hours, probably too many hours playing them. So, it's a tremendous honor and we're extremely humbled. Um, I just wanted to say one thing about uh game design at Blizzard Entertainment and one of the great things about it is that uh game design is truly a team effort and in this case it is the effort of a very large team. Um, we could not, you know, make this happen. We couldn't have made Overwatch without the support of amazing artists, sound designers, engineers, quality assurance producers, and even more. Um, all of whom have these amazing design sensibilities that help us do our job. So, uh, thank you to all of you for for everything you've done and, uh, thank you.

And now our fifth and final nominee for game of the year, Inside developed by Play Dead, the Inside development [Music] team. [Music] Our next category is best mobile and handheld game. Two of the nominated games are Pokémon, which mean Pokemon might split the vote. Could be very bad for them. I mean, maybe Shuckle could do a power split, but not to level 45. Am I right? My highly paid consultant told me that millennials would love that joke. And now I see why Hillary fired them. So, let's check out the nominees.

Best mobile handheld game, Clash Royale. Developed by Supercell, Stefan. Pokémon Go developed by Niantic. Edward Woo, Tatso Namura, Dennis [Music] Wang. Pokemon Sun and Pokemon Moon. Developed by Game Published by Nintendo. The Pokemon Sun and Pokemon Moon 2. Reigns developed by published by devel. The reigns

team. Super Mario Run. Developed by Nintendo DPD, published by Nintendo. The Super Mario Run game. [Music] And the best mobile and handheld game winner is Pokemon Go. [Applause] [Music]

[Music] Wow. Hello. It's a lot of people here. Um, I want to say uh thank you to our Pokémon Go players and fans and to our Ingress players and fans who have supported us. Woohoo. Who get up and go every day. Thank you so much. We at Niantic, we appreciate it so much. And uh thank you to our fellow colleagues at Niantic and Pokemon Company. Um my phone keeps falling asleep. Sorry. And um for all their dedication and hard work. And thank you to all who voted um standing in this room with so much incredible talent. It's really an honor and a humbling experience to be here. So, thank you all very much. [Applause] [Music] She's the best.

Please welcome to the stage previous Lifetime Achievement Award winner and CTO of Oculus, John Carmarmac. Okay. So, you can get a lifetime achievement award for making a lot of great games or for developing important technologies or for building a great company that has an impact on the entire industry. Now, clearly Tim Sweeney has done all of the above. So, this is a really easy call to make here. Now, by the logic of video games, Tim and I should be arch rivals destined to meet somewhere in the Champion League and do battle in virtual reality with functional weapons. I remember when Unreal came out, I was very impressed and I legitimately

thought that it pushed the state-of-the-art forward. And I considered whether I could use this competition as extra motivation for my work, whether I should be like, I'll crush your MMX assembly language with my OpenGL accelerated rendering. And I tried it on for a little while, but it really didn't suit me. I would much rather admire the work of an esteemed peer. And there's been a lot to admire over the years from taking game engine development and licensing really seriously, building great tools and a great developer community around them, caring about code quality, and then opening it all up for the entire world to see, not to mention all the great games along the way, and to do it all with integrity and even humility. I'm very happy to be here to present this award uh to Tim Sweeney. Welld deserved. So Tim, come on [Applause]

out. All right. Well, thanks guys. Thanks a lot. And thanks a lot, Daniel. You know, this this really means a lot coming from you. Your work has been a constant source of inspiration from the C commander Keen days and onward. And I have to admit after Doom came out, I actually quit programming for a year because I thought I could not possibly uh figure out how to do that sort of wizardry. But you know, then Michael A. Rash started writing his articles about texture mapping and figured maybe I could figure this out. And um yeah, that was the birth of the Unreal

Engine. But being both a game developer and an engine provider, I've had the chance to work with a lot of you here in this room. I'm really grateful for the help and the confidence um you've placed in me and in Epic Games over the years. You know, compared to 1991, computers are now like a million times faster and the industry is orders of magnitude larger. But the same opportunities that existed back then exist now for indies. Um, and new indies are successfully releasing games all the time. It's really awesome to see this uh industry legacy continuing. You know, recently you might have heard me speak up about the dangers of platforms closing down and the walled gardens getting ever increasingly higher walls. I think we should all be unafraid to say what we think about these things and to fight the good fight together so that all developers in the future have the same opportunity that I had back when I started Epic Games in 1991. [Applause]

You know, I think this is really just the beginning. I think the next 10 years of game development are going to see more innovation and more excitement than any time in the past. and look forward to continuing to be a part of it. So, thanks to all of you and thanks to the many people of Epic at Epic Games who have worked so hard to accomplish great things together. Thanks, John. [Music] We talked a lot last this last year about the sheer number of celebrities who passed away. All the great artists we lost, people who were mourned around the world, but they were some equally brilliant folks last year who we lost. People who even though they weren't as well known to the world at large here in the games industry, they meant a lot to us. Maybe we worked side by side with

them or maybe we never met them, but their work made our work possible. We love them and we miss them. So, let's take a moment to be grateful to them and remember them and be grateful for all they gave us. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat.

Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] Okay, show of hands. Who voted in this year's audience award category? Great. You're responsible for

this next one. Put your hands down now. Raise your hand if you had no idea there was an audience award. Right. Okay. Participate there. It's on the web page. It's okay. Ask someone who had their hand up before and next year you can vote twice. For now, let's see who your smarter friend voted for. Do I just Should I just read it now? That's right. There's no nominees. That's crazy. Why would that happen? Good thing I practicing my deep knee bends. And the winner of the audience award is Battlefield 1.

So this was obviously unex expected since I had my hand up just before not knowing that this thing even was a thing. Um, but obviously this is amazing and uh u we were all very confused and very surprised and very happy about this. Um, so thank you for the one person who voted. It seems like we owe you a great deal of thanks and we hope that you will vote next year again and tell all your friends to do the same thing. So, thank you. [Applause] [Music]

Holy cow. It is now time to recognize the best game of last of last year. And you know why? Cuz everything else about last year sucked. That's right. Video games were the only thing about 2016 that didn't completely blow. So, if you're back hurts, congratulations game developers. That's because you were carrying the hopes and dreams of your the entire world on your shoulders. So, of all the 4,000 reasons not to hate last year, here are the five nominated for game of the year. Game of the Year, Dishonored 2.

Firewatching. I promise inside [Applause] Overwatch Uncharted 4 at this end. [Music] Ladies and gentlemen, the 2017 winner of the game developers choice award for game of the year is I feel like I'm obligated to say La La Land right here, but I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to do it. La La Land. Okay, get that out of the way. The

actual game of the year is Overwatch. Wow. Awesome. Wow. Uh, thank you very much. Uh, uh, on behalf of the entire Overwatch team and Blizzard family, um,

I'd like to accept this award. Um, this is such a amazing art team, development team at Overwatch. um their dedication, hard work, the even the team's attitude, um their spirit really reflects the Overwatch positivity, which is so personally I could feel it. Um, a special thanks to just the overall Blizzard uh team uh in Irvine, the entire Blizzard company where everyone really pitched in uh to help this game uh happen. And to all our partners and families, thank you very much. Um, also uh special shout out to the Overwatch community for being so supportive and inspiring for the team. So, thank you very much. Thank you.

[Music] Woo! You know that time of the night when the host puts the poo in the bucket? It's time to go home. I don't I don't even know what that means. Um, that is our show everybody. Thank you so much. I had a great time hosting. Congratulations to all the winners and all the nominees. Big thanks to Megan and Simon and the crew backstage and on the board and everyone who helps put this show together. And let's have a special hand for the amazing CAS who volunteer their time and keep GDC moving. Back to the host. Uh, it's been an honor to be your host. Thank you for coming and good night. [Applause] [Music]