2016 Game Developers Choice Awards nominees announced

The nominees for the 2016 Game Developers Choice Awards have been announced, with Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt leading the pack with four nominations each. Other noteworthy PC games up for awards include Star Wars Battlefront, Fallout 4, and even a couple of indie games you may have heard of.

GDC Awards nominations are open to “any video game that was released and made publicly available to customers during the 2015 calendar year, irrespective of platform or delivery medium.” And while Her Story and Undertale don't have the budget or massive player base of games like MGS5 or Fallout 4, they each received multiple nominations for their “novel approach to game design”: Best Handheld/Mobile, Best Narrative, and Innovation Award for Her Story, and Best Narrative, Best Debut, and Innovation Award for Undertale.

They're far from the only indie games in the running for awards. Ark: Survival Evolved, Ori and the Blind Forest, Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes, Rocket League, and many others are in there too. Rocket League, in fact, is up for the Game of the Year gong, alongside heavy-hitters Fallout 4, The Witcher 3, Metal Gear Solid V, and Bloodborne. The Witcher 3 is also up for Best Visual Art, Best Narrative, and Best Technology, while MGS5 has nominations for Best Audio, Best Design, and Best Technology.

The 16th annual Game Developers Choice Awards show will take place on March 16, and will be livestreamed on Twitch.

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.