Influential developers honored at Game Developers Choice Awards

Previously we reported that The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim won the Game of the Year at the Game Developers Choice Awards last week. The committee honored other games, such as Portal 2 and Battlefield 3, but a handful of developers and video game innovators were recognized, as well.

Warren Spector received the Lifetime Achievement Award for "indelible impact on the craft of game development and games as a whole." He's credited with helping to create System Shock and Deus Ex, among other accomplishments. He's played a leading role in the endeavor to redefine genres.

Dave Theurer won the Pioneer Award for developing "breakthrough technology, game concept, or gameplay design at a crucial juncture video game history." Theurer created Missile Command and Tempest, worked for Atari Games, and later designed the cutting-edge game I, Robot—the first commercial game to feature filled 3D polygon graphics and camera control options.

Ken Doroshow and Paul M. Smith shared the Ambassador Award for "the game industry advance to a better place, either through facilitating a better game community from within, or by reaching outside the industry to be an advocate for video games and help further our art." The two led the legal team that proved content-based restrictions on games to be unconstitutional, establishing First Amendments rights for those directly involved in the video games medium.