The games Little Big Planet and Fallout 3 were the clear winners at the recent The Game Developers Choice awards ceremony, held last week in San Francisco. Other winners included God of War, Dead Space and World of Goo with Lifetime Achievement Award going to Metal Gear Solid pioneer Hideo Kojima.

The Game Developers Choice, or GDC Awards, are held every year and are voted on by game professionals from all over the world. They highlight some of the titles that people working in the industry feel are worthy of praise.

Little Big Planet (Media Molecule) managed to scoop four awards at the ceremony including Best Game Design, Best Technology, Best Debut Game and the Innovation Award. Fallout 3 (Bethesda Softworks) was the other big winner, picking up the much coveted Game of the Year award and the award for Best Writing. Both games are outstanding releases and it is no surprise to see them acknowledged for their creativity and quality.

The rest of the awards included Best Handheld Game which went to God of War: Chains of Olympus (Ready at Dawn), Best Audio which went to Dead Space (EA Redwood Shores), Best Downloadable Game which went to the bizarre World of Goo (2D Boy) and Best Visual Arts which was picked up Prince of Persia (Ubisoft Montreal).

A few of the big nominees missed out on awards altogether including Left 4 Dead (Valve Software), Far Cry 2 (Ubisoft Montreal), Spore (Maxis), Grand Theft Auto IV (Rockstar North) and Metal Gear Solid IV (Kojima Productions).

There was also a Lifetime Achievement Award for Hideo Kojima, the creator of the Metal Gear Solid series and long time developer with Capcom. The Pioneer Award went to Alex Rigopulos and Eran Egozy, the creators of the Guitar Hero franchise. Finally the Ambassador Award went to Tommy Tallarico, a musician and composer of video game music for over 250 titles.

Full list of winners

2008 Best Game Design
LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule)

2008 Best Visual Art
Prince of Persia (Ubisoft Montreal)

2008 Best Technology
LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule)

2008 Best Writing
Fallout 3 (Bethesda Game Studios)

2008 Best Audio
Dead Space (EA Redwood Shores)

2008 Best Debut
LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule)

2008 Innovation
LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule)

2008 Best Handheld Game
God Of War: Chains Of Olympus (Ready At Dawn Studios)

2008 Best Downloadable Game
World Of Goo (2D Boy)

2008 Game of the Year
Fallout 3 (Bethesda Game Studios)

Full list of nominees

Game of the Year
Fable II (Lionhead Studios)
LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule)
Fallout 3 (Bethesda Game Studios)
Left 4 Dead (Valve Software)
Grand Theft Auto IV (Rockstar North)

Best Writing
Far Cry 2 (Ubisoft Montreal)
Braid (Number None)
Fallout 3 (Bethesda Game Studios)
Grand Theft Auto IV (Rockstar North)
Metal Gear Solid 4 (Kojima Productions)

Best Game Design
Far Cry 2 (Ubisoft Montreal)
Braid (Number None)
Fallout 3 (Bethesda Game Studios)
Left 4 Dead (Valve Software)
LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule)

Best Technology
SPORE (Maxis)
Grand Theft Auto IV (Rockstar North)
Left 4 Dead (Valve Software)
LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule)
Gears of War 2 (Epic Games)

Best Visual Arts
Fallout 3 (Bethesda Game Studios)
Metal Gear Solid 4 (Kojima Productions)
Prince of Persia (Ubisoft Montreal)
LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule)
Gears of War 2 (Epic Games)

Best Debut Game
Braid (Number None)
Sins of a Solar Empire (Ironclad Games)
LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule)
World of Goo (2D Boy)
Soul Bubbles (Mekensleep)

Innovation Award
SPORE (Maxis)
World Of Goo (2D Boy)
Boom Blox (EA Los Angeles)
Braid (Number None)
LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule)

Best Handheld Game
Advance Wars: Days Of Ruin (Intelligent Systems)
God Of War: Chains Of Olympus (Ready At Dawn Studios)
Echochrome (SCE Japan)
Patapon (Pyramid/SCE Japan)
The World Ends With You (Jupiter/Square Enix)

Best Audio
Dead Space (EA Redwood Shores)
LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule)
Metal Gear Solid 4 (Kojima Productions)
Left 4 Dead (Valve Software)
Gears of War 2 (Epic Games)

Best Downloadable Game
Castle Crashers (The Behemoth)
Braid (Number None)
World Of Goo (2D Boy)
N+ (Metanet/Slick Entertainment)
PixelJunk Eden (Q-Games)