Shadow of Mordor Takes Home Game of The Year at GDC

Ustwo’s Monument Valley took home three of the GDC’s nine awards.

Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor has taken home the coveted Game of The Year prize at this year’s Game Developer’s Choice Awards. The 15th annual award ceremony was held tonight in San Francisco as part of this year’s Game Developers Conference, and as well as Shadow of Mordor taking the top prize, newcomer Ustwo’s Monument Valley took home three of the GDC’s nine awards. The full list of categories and their winners are as follows:

Game of the Year:

• Bayonetta 2 (Platinum Games/Nintendo)
• Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor (Monolith Productions/Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment)
• Destiny (Bungie/Activision)
• Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft (Blizzard)
• Alien: Isolation (Creative Assembly/Sega)

Innovation Award:

• Monument Valley (Ustwo)
• Bounden (Game Oven)
• Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor (Monolith Productions/Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment)
• This War of Mine (11 bit studios)
• The Vanishing of Ethan Carter (The Astronauts)

Best Debut:

• Stoic Studio (The Banner Saga)
• Yacht Club Games (Shovel Knight)
• Respawn Entertainment (Titanfall)
• The Astronauts (The Vanishing of Ethan Carter)
• Upper One Games (Never Alone)

Best Design:

• Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft (Blizzard)
• Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor (Monolith Productions/Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment)
• Shovel Knight (Yacht Club Games)
• Dragon Age: Inquisition (BioWare/Electronic Arts)
• Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker (Nintendo EAD Tokyo and 1-Up Studio/Nintendo)

Best Handheld/Mobile Game:

• Monument Valley (Ustwo)
• Threes! (Sirvo)
• Super Smash Bros. 3DS (Sora Ltd. and BANDAI NAMCO/Nintendo)
• Hearthstone (Blizzard)
• 80 Days (Inkle Studios)

Best Visual Art:

• Monument Valley (Ustwo)
• Hohokum (Honeyslug and Sony Santa Monica/Sony)
• Child of Light (Ubisoft Montreal/Ubisoft)
• Bayonetta 2 (Platinum Games/Nintendo)
• Alien: Isolation (Creative Assembly/Sega)

Best Narrative:

• Kentucky Route Zero: Episode 3 (Cardboard Computer)
• 80 Days (Inkle Studios)
• This War of Mine (11 bit studios)
• Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor (Monolith Productions/Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment)
• The Vanishing of Ethan Carter (The Astronauts)

Best Audio:

• Alien: Isolation (Creative Assembly/Sega)
• Hohokum (Honeyslug/Sony)
• Destiny (Bungie/Activision)
• Transistor (Supergiant Games)
• The Vanishing of Ethan Carter (The Astronauts)

Best Technology:

• Destiny (Bungie/Activision)
• Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor (Monolith Productions/Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment)
• Wolfenstein: The New Order (MachineGames/Bethesda)
• Elite: Dangerous (Frontier Developments)
• Far Cry 4 (Ubisoft Montreal/Ubisoft)

What do you guys think of their decisions? Going from our own reader’s choice awards, you guys put Dragon Age: Inquisition over Shadow of Mordor, a sentiment that I can agree with.

However, I only play the games, I don’t make them, and from a game developer standpoint, I’m sure things look quite different.