| D.I.C.E. Award for Outstanding Achievement in Game Design | |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Presented by | Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences |
| First award | 1998 |
| Currently held by | Astro Bot |
| Website | www |
The D.I.C.E. Award for Outstanding Achievement in Game Design is an award presented annually by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences during the D.I.C.E. Awards. This award is "presented to the title that most effectively combines interactive and non-interactive elements to create a cohesive gameplay experience. Outstanding design is exemplified by balanced system design, cohesive mechanics that relate to overall aesthetic direction, level layout, challenge flow, progression elements, interface design, and social game mechanics. This award recognizes the Lead Designer or Design Director in architecting all elements into a unified design". [1] Creative/technical Academy members with expertise as a game designer or producer are qualified to vote for this award. [2]
The award's most recent winner is Astro Bot , developed by Team Asobi and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment.
It was originally presented as Outstanding Achievement in Interactive Design; it was later renamed Outstanding Achievement in Game Design at the 3rd Annual Interactive Achievement Awards. [3] [4] [5] A separate award category was offered at the 2010 awards ceremony for Outstanding Achievement in Portable Game Design, presented to the title that makes "the most compelling contribution to the unique opportunities and challenges of portable, mobile and networked game play". [6] This award would not be presented at the ceremonies between 2011 and 2014; however, the category would be offered again in 2015, and had been offered every year since.
More than half of the finalists for the Game Design category were also finalists for Game of the Year. However, only ten winners for Game Design ended up winning Game of the Year:
The winners for Game Design that were not finalists for Game of the Year [a] were:
The Game of the Year winners that were not finalists for Game Design (excluding winners during years when the Game Design category was not offered) were:
2001 and 2008 [b] were the only years that all finalists for Game Design were finalists for Game of the Year.
In 2009, the PlayStation Portable release of LittleBigPlanet and Scribblenauts were finalists for Portable Game of the Year in addition to Outstanding Achievement in Portable Game Design; Scribblenauts would be the winner for both awards. Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story received a nomination for Outstanding Achievement in Game Design while also nominated for "Portable Game of the Year".
Two virtual reality games were nominated for Outstanding Achievement in Game Design: I Expect You to Die and Half-Life: Alyx .
| Indicates the winner |
The Outstanding Achievement in Game Design category was not offered at the awards ceremonies from 2011 to 2014.
Nintendo is the most nominated developer in this category, and the only developer to have won more than once; Nintendo has also published the most winners, with Sony publishing the most nominees. Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment has published both winners in 2010 for Game Design and Portable Game Design. In addition, Warner Bros. technically has published back-to-back winners, but the 4-year gap has existed in which the award has not been offered between wins.
| Developer | Nominations | Wins |
|---|---|---|
| Nintendo EAD/SPD/EPD | 14 | 5 |
| Valve | 4 | 1 |
| Blizzard Entertainment | 3 | 1 |
| Harmonix | 3 | 1 |
| Santa Monica Studio | 3 | 1 |
| FromSoftware | 2 | 1 |
| DMA Design/Rockstar North | 2 | 1 |
| Ubisoft Montreal | 2 | 1 |
| Naughty Dog | 4 | 0 |
| Bethesda Game Studios | 3 | 0 |
| Japan Studio | 3 | 0 |
| Insomniac Games | 3 | 0 |
| BioWare | 2 | 0 |
| Double Fine Productions | 2 | 0 |
| Infinity Ward | 2 | 0 |
| Lionhead Studios | 2 | 0 |
| Neversoft | 2 | 0 |
| Ubi Pictures/Ubisoft Montpellier | 2 | 0 |
| Publisher | Nominations | Wins |
|---|---|---|
| Nintendo | 19 | 6 |
| Sony Computer/Interactive Entertainment | 22 | 3 |
| Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment | 3 | 3 |
| Electronic Arts | 8 | 2 |
| Namco/Bandai Namco Entertainment | 2 | 2 |
| Ubisoft | 4 | 1 |
| Valve | 4 | 1 |
| Rockstar Games | 2 | 1 |
| Activision | 5 | 0 |
| Microsoft Game Studios | 5 | 0 |
| Bethesda Softworks | 4 | 0 |
| Annapurna Interactive | 3 | 0 |
| 2K Games | 2 | 0 |
| Devolver Digital | 2 | 0 |
| Sega | 2 | 0 |
| Vivendi Universal Games | 2 | 0 |
The Legend of Zelda franchise is the most nominated franchise in this category, and is the only franchise to have won more than once.
| Franchises | Nominations | Wins |
|---|---|---|
| The Legend of Zelda | 6 | 3 |
| God of War | 3 | 1 |
| Grand Theft Auto | 2 | 1 |
| Mario | 4 | 0 |
| Half-Life | 3 | 0 |
| Marvel [d] | 3 | 0 |
| Call of Duty | 2 | 0 |
| Fable | 2 | 0 |
| Fallout | 2 | 0 |
| Marvel's Spider-Man | 2 | 0 |
| Tony Hawk's | 2 | 0 |
| Uncharted | 2 | 0 |
| Warcraft | 2 | 0 |