"Thousands of developers voiced their picks during the Choice Awards' open nominations process," said Jason Della Rocca, Executive Director, IGDA. "The high prestige of these honors comes from the fact that fellow developers recognize each other's best work."

The nominees are:

Best Game

• Burnout 3: Takedown (Criterion Games / Electronic Arts) - Paul Glancey, Chris Roberts, Paul Ross, Fiona Sperry, Alex Ward
• Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (Rockstar North / Rockstar Games) - Leslie Benzies, Adam Fowler, Aaron Garbut, Sam Houser, Alexander Roger, Obbe Vermeij
• Half-Life 2 (Valve Software / Vivendi Universal Games) - Ken Birdwell, Gabe Newell, Jay Stelly
• Katamari Damacy (Namco) - Keita Takahashi
• World of Warcraft (Blizzard Entertainment) - Mark Kern, Mike Morhaime, Rob Pardo

New Studio

• Cryptic Studios (City of Heroes) - Michael Lewis
• Crytek (Far Cry) - Avni Yerli, Cevat Yerli, Faruk Yerli
• inXile entertainment (The Bard's Tale) - Brian Fargo, Matthew Findley
• Obsidian Entertainment (Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords) - Chris Avellone, Chris Jones, Darren Monahan, Chris Parker, Feargus Urquhart
• the Behemoth (Alien Hominid) - Tom Fulp, Brandon LaCava, Dan Paladin Audio
• Call of Duty: Finest Hour (Spark Unlimited / Activision) - Jack Grillo, Caleb Sweazy
• Doom 3 (id Software / Activision) - Christian Antkow, John Carmack, Tim Willits
• Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (Rockstar North / Rockstar Games) - Craig Conner, Allan Walker
• Halo 2 (Bungie Software / Microsoft Game Studios) - C Paul Johnson, Marty O'Donnell, Jay Weinland
• Katamari Damacy (Namco) - Yu Miyake

Character Design

• Half-Life 2 (Valve Software / Vivendi Universal Games) - Ted Backman, Dhabih Eng, Bill Fletcher, Bill Van Buren
• Katamari Damacy (Namco) - Keita Takahashi
• Prince Of Persia: Warrior Within (Ubisoft Montreal / Ubisoft Entertainment) - Nicolas Bouvier, Mickael Labat
• Sly 2: Band Of Thieves (Sucker Punch Productions / Sony Computer Entertainment America) - Travis Kotzebue, Dev Madan
• World of Warcraft (Blizzard Entertainment) - Brandon Idol, Chris Metzen

Game Design

• Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (Rockstar North / Rockstar Games) - Leslie Benzies, Adam Fowler, Aaron Garbut, Sam Houser, Alexander Roger, Obbe Vermeij
• Half-Life 2 (Valve Software / Vivendi Universal Games) - Gabe Newell, Jay Stelly
• Katamari Damacy (Namco) - Keita Takahashi
• Pikmin 2 (Nintendo) - Masamichi Abe, Hino Shigefumi
• World of Warcraft (Blizzard Entertainment) - Chris Metzen, Rob Pardo

Technology

• Burnout 3: Takedown (Criterion Games / Electronic Arts) - Alex Fry, Ciaran Rooney, Paul Ross, Hamish Young
• Doom 3 (id Software / Activision) - John Carmack, Robert Duffy, Jan Paul van Waveren
• EyeToy: AntiGrav (Harmonix Music Systems / Sony Computer Entertainment America) - Eran Egozy, Eric Malafeew
• Far Cry (Crytek / Ubisoft Entertainment) - Timur Davidenko, Vladimir Kajalin, Andrey Khonich, Anton Knyazyev, Cevat Yerli
• Half-Life 2 (Valve Software / Vivendi Universal Games) - Yahn Bernier, Brian Jacobson

Visual Arts

• Doom 3 (id Software / Activision) - Andy Chang, Seneca Menard, Kenneth Scott
• Half-Life 2 (Valve Software / Vivendi Universal Games) - Viktor Antonov, Randy Lundeen
• Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (Intelligent Systems / Nintendo) - Hiroyuki Hayashi, Chie Kawabe
• Prince Of Persia: Warrior Within (Ubisoft Montreal / Ubisoft Entertainment) - Mickael Labat, Patrick Limoges
• World of Warcraft (Blizzard Entertainment) - Sam Didier, William Petras, Justin Thavirat

Writing

• Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (Rockstar North / Rockstar Games) - Dan Houser, James Worrall
• Half-Life 2 (Valve Software / Vivendi Universal Games) - Marc Laidlaw
• Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude (High Voltage Software / Vivendi Universal Games) - Matt Entin, Ed Kuehnel, Eric Nofsinger
• Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (Intelligent Systems / Nintendo) - Nate Bihldorff, Ryota Kawade
• Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords (Obsidian Entertainment / LucasArts Entertainment) - Chris Avellone