SAN FRANCISCO – Epic Games’ Cliff Bleszinski, one of the visionaries behind the “Unreal” and “Gears of War” games, will host the 12th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards during the 2012 Game Developers Conference.
Pocketwatch Games’ Andy Schatz, creator of 2010 Independent Games Festival Grand Prize winner “Monaco” will return for his fourth stint as host of the Independent Games Festival awards, now celebrating its 14th edition. The two award ceremonies will take place on the evening of Wednesday, March 7th during GDC 2012.
The Independent Games Festival was established in 1998 by UBM TechWeb's Game Network to encourage the rise of independent game development and to recognize the best independent game titles. The 12th annual Game Developers Choice Awards recognizes the creativity, artistry and technical genius of leading industry professionals and games released in 2011.
As design director at Epic Games, Bleszinski has been a visionary behind the award-winning, multimillion-selling “Unreal” series, as well as “Gears of War,” which has become a billion-dollar franchise. “Gears of War” received top honors at the 2007 Game Developers Choice Awards, and was crowned the winner of the Best Game, Best Technology and Best Visual Arts categories. He continues to lend his creative expertise to Epic’s upcoming projects for PC, mobile and console titles.
Now a leader in the world of indie games, Schatz founded Pocketwatch Games in December 2004. The company released the ecological sim games “Venture Africa” (which was nominated for the Grand Prize in the 2006 IGF) and “Venture Arctic.” Schatz later developed the co-op stealth game “Monaco” which won the Seumas McNally Grand Prize and Excellence in Design awards in the 2010 IGF.
As is customary, this year’s Choice Awards is held immediately following the Independent Games Festival Awards, and for the third year running, those not attending GDC can watch both sets of awards show live online only via GameSpot.com.