Legendary video game industry figures Mabel Addis and John Romero are to be honoured at this year’s Game Developers Choice Awards.
Addis is recognised as the first female game designer and, having passed away in 2004, will posthumously receive the Pioneer Award which honours breakthrough in business, tech, and game design milestones.
Back in 1964, Addis lead design on The Sumerian Game which included innovative features including game updates, narrative experiences, and early versions of what would become cutscenes.
This year’s Lifetime Achievement Award will then be granted to Romero, who’s perhaps most famous for his work on genre defining games including Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, and Quake. Romero has published more than 100 games, however, and is widely considered to be one of the world’s top game designers.
“This year, the Game Developers Choice Awards will recognize two of the most impactful game development talents in history, Mabel Addis and John Romero,” said director of event production for media and entertainment at Informa Tech Stephenie Hawkins.
“The Game Developers Choice Awards are proud to honour two artists with wildly divergent career trajectories, who worked decades apart but shared a creative passion and ingenuity that would help define entire game genres for decades.”
The awards will take place on March 22 at the Game Developers Conference, where the Independent Games Festival Awards will also be announced.
Elden Ring, God of War: Ragnarok, Stray, and Pentiment are also leading the nominations for the various video game categories at the Game Developers Choice Awards, as voted for by developers.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer and acting UK news editor. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.