The 2010 Game Developers Choice Awards, the highest honors in video game development, will bestow John Carmack, the technological patriarch and co-founder of id Software, with the Lifetime Achievement Award for his contributions to the art and science of games.

The Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes the career and achievements of developers who have made an indelible impact on the craft of game development, as Carmack has done for his more than two decades of groundbreaking technical contributions, and his role establishing the first-person shooter genre with landmark titles like Doom and Quake.

The recipient is chosen by the elite Choice Awards Advisory Committee, which includes game industry notables such as Ben Cousins (EA DICE), Harvey Smith (Arkane), Raph Koster (Metaplace), John Vechey (PopCap), Ray Muzyka (BioWare), Clint Hocking (Ubisoft), and many others.

Former Game Developers Choice Lifetime Achievement Award recipients include Sid Meier, Shigeru Miyamoto, Will Wright - who will be presenting the award to Carmack at the ceremony on March 11, 2010 during Game Developers Conference 2010 in San Francisco - and other legendary game creators.

John Carmack and his team at id Software, the company he co-founded in 1991, pioneered real-time 3D graphics in game, setting the pace and the standard for other developers to follow. Carmack and his colleagues at id are credited with essentially creating the modern-day first-person shooter (FPS) genre with the PC game Wolfenstein 3D in 1992, and helping to popularize networked multiplayer gaming on PCs with the release of Doom in 1993.

id has gone on to create other major FPS and action game franchises such as Quake, and Carmack and id Software are currently in development of a number of projects, including the free-to-play, web-based title Quake Live, the upcoming new franchise RAGE, and Doom 4.

As a largely self-taught technology purist, Carmack has devoted himself to pushing the limits of hardware and software. He's helped to set the technical and gameplay standard for modern 3D gaming - and in the process, created some of the most popular video game franchises in history, which is why he's being honored by the Game Developers Choice Awards this year.

"It's no exaggeration to say that John Carmack and id Software have had a monumental influence on all modern 3D games, but especially the first-person shooter genre," says Meggan Scavio, Event Director of GDC. "John is one of the key figures in the history of video games, and we're delighted to be giving him the Lifetime Achievement award this year.”

Alongside this announcement, Awards organizers are delighted to reveal that Warren Spector will be hosting the Game Developers Choice Awards this year. Spector follows in the footsteps of previous much-loved figures who hosted past Awards such as Double Fine's Tim Schafer and Naughty Dog co-founder Jason Rubin.

Spector has been developing role-playing and computer games for over 20 years, working at seminal studios such as Origin Systems and Looking Glass Studios, where he produced System Shock. He later founded Ion Storm’s Austin studio and directed the development of its genre-bending, award-winning game Deus Ex. He then oversaw development of Deus Ex: Invisible War and Thief: Deadly Shadows. Spector founded Austin's Junction Point in 2005, and the now Disney-owned studio is working on the much awaited Wii title Disney Epic Mickey.

Presented by the Game Developers Conference (GDC) -- part of the UBM Techweb Game Group, as is this website -- this year's awards ceremony, held immediately following the Independent Games Festival Awards, will be hosted on Thursday, March 11, during GDC 2010 at San Francisco's Moscone Convention Center.

For further information about the Choice Awards, please visit the official Game Developers Choice Awards website. For further information about GDC and to register for attendance, with pre-show registration ending on March 4th, please visit the official Game Developers Conference website.

By Staff
February 22, 2010 09:45:00 AM PT