The International Game Developers Association (IGDA) has announced the nominees for its upcoming Game Developers Choice Awards, which will be held next month during the Game Developers Conference in San Jose, Calif. The nominees were chosen by IGDA members and other game developers. They represent countries from around the world, and they represent games that have been published on a variety of platforms, including the PC and several console platforms. The complete list of nominees is posted below.

　　Game Developers Choice Awards Nominees:

　　Rookie Studio Award

　　Counter-Strike team (Counter-Strike)

　　Free Radical Design (TimeSplitters)

　　Massive Entertainment (Ground Control)

　　Nihilistic Software (Vampire: The Masquerade - Redemption)

　　Planet Moon Studios (Giants: Citizen Kabuto)

　　IGDA Award for Community Contribution

　　Chris Crawford

　　John Carmack

　　Michael Abrash

　　Robert Huebner

　　Warren Spector

　　Original Game Character of the Year

　　Cate Archer (No One Lives Forever)

　　Kabuto (Giants: Citizen Kabuto)

　　Ulala (Space Channel 5)

　　Seaman (Seaman)

　　Tamale Loco (Tamale Loco @ shockwave.com)

　　Excellence in Audio

　　Michael Sweet - BliX (music)

　　Jason Hayes, Andrea Pessino, Glen Stafford, and Matt Uelmen - Diablo II (composition)

　　Fumitaka Shibata - Samba De Amigo (music)

　　Naofumi Hataya and Kenichi Tokoi - Space Channel 5 (music)

　　Kaemal Amarasingham and Eric Brosius - Thief II: The Metal Age (sound effects)

　　Excellence in Game Design

　　Harvey Smith and Warren Spector - Deus Ex (game design)

　　Sean Clark and Michael Stemmle - Escape from Monkey Island (puzzles)

　　Shigeru Miyamoto and Eiji Aonuma - The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask (gameplay)

　　Ragnar Tornquist - The Longest Journey (story)

　　Neversoft team - Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 (gameplay)

　　Excellence in Level Design

　　American McGee, Jim Molinets, and team - American McGee's Alice

　　NOLF level design team - No One Lives Forever

　　Michel Ancel and team - Rayman 2: The Great Escape

　　SSX level design team - SSX

　　Christopher Foster, Tom Odell, and team - Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force

　　Excellence in Programming

　　Yu Suzuki and team - F355 Challenge (physics)

　　Scott Guest and Andy Astor - Giants: Citizen Kabuto (graphics)

　　Visual Concepts dev team - NFL 2K1 (networking)

　　Martin Brownlow - Sacrifice (graphics)

　　Sims programming team - The Sims (AI)

　　Excellence in Visual Arts

　　American McGee - American McGee's Alice (art direction)

　　Tomonobu Itagaki, Hiroaki Matsui, and team - Dead or Alive 2 (animation)

　　Ryuta Ueda and Kazuki Hosokawa - Jet Grind Radio (art direction)

　　Joby Otero - Sacrifice (art direction)

　　Insomniac art team - Spyro: Year of the Dragon (art direction)

　　Game of the Year

　　Deus Ex (Ion Storm Austin)

　　Jet Grind Radio (Smilebit)

　　No One Lives Forever (Monolith)

　　Shenmue (Sega AM2)

　　The Sims (Maxis)

　　Game Spotlight Awards

　　American McGee's Alice (Rogue/EA)

　　Counter-Strike (Counter-Strike team)

　　Crazy Taxi (Sega AM3)

　　Deus Ex (Ion Storm Austin)

　　Jet Grind Radio (Smilebit)

　　The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask (Nintendo)

　　NFL 2K1 (Visual Concepts)

　　No One Lives Forever (Monolith)

　　Sacrifice (Shiny)

　　Samba De Amigo (Sega Sonic Team)

　　Seaman (Vivarium)

　　Shenmue (Sega AM2)

　　SSX (EA Canada)

　　The Sims (Maxis)

　　Virtua Tennis (Sega)

　　Lifetime Achievement Award (Winner to be announced at awards ceremony)

　　The First Penguin Award (Winner to be announced at awards ceremony)

　　For more information about the IGDA and the Game Developers Choice Awards, visit the official IGDA Web site. Also, if you haven't already seen them, be sure to take a look at GameSpot's Best and Worst of 2000 awards, and the GameSpot Readers' Choice awards.