The finalist list is in for the Game Developers Choice Awards with Okami and Oblivion neck-and-neck for most nominations. Each earned four, including for best game.

The GDCAs are selected by an international nomination process which allows any active member of the International Game Developers Association to submit any game from 2006 as a nominee.

"Yet again, we received thousands of nomination submissions from around the world, a fact that makes it an enormous honor just to be named as one of the five finalists from each category," said Jason Della Rocca, executive director of the IGDA. "Nobody knows what goes into game development better than the developers themselves, so we are excited to see who the community votes to receive each of these very competitive awards."

This year's award ceremony, which takes place on March 7 in the Esplanade Ballroom of the Moscone Center's South Hall, include entertainment by DJ Chris and Mega64.

Hit the jump for the full list of finalists. I think all of my choices made it, or nearly. Any mistakes? Brian Crecente

Best Game
Gears of War (Epic Games / Microsoft Game Studios)
- Cliff Bleszinski, Michael Capps, Rod Fergusson
Okami (Clover Studio / Capcom Entertainment)
- Atsushi Inaba, Hideki Kamiya
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Bethesda Game Studios / 2K Games/Bethesda
Softworks)
- Todd Howard
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Nintendo EAD / Nintendo)
- Eiji Aonuma, Satoru Iwata, Shigeru Miyamoto
Wii Sports (Nintendo)
- Satoru Iwata, Shigeru Miyamoto, Keizo Ohta, Takayuki Shimamura, Yoshiaki
Yamashita

Audio
Company of Heroes (Relic Entertainment / THQ)
- Crispin Hands, John Johnson, Jennifer Lewis, John Tennant
DEFCON: Everybody Dies (Introversion Software)
- Alistair Lindsay, Michael Maidment
Guitar Hero II (Harmonix Music Systems / RedOctane)
- Jeff Allen, Eric Brosius, Izzy Maxwell
Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Legend (Crystal Dynamics / Eidos Interactive)
- Troels Folmann, Karl Gallagher, Mike Peaslee, Gregg Stephens
LocoRoco (Sony Computer Entertainment)
- Kemmei Adachi, Tomonobu Kikuchi, Kouji Niikura, Nobuyuki Shimizu

Character Design
Final Fantasy XII (Square Enix)
- Hideo Minaba, Hiroshi Minagawa, Akihiko Yoshida
LocoRoco (Sony Computer Entertainment)
- Tsutomu Kouno, Keigo Tsuchiya
Okami (Clover Studio / Capcom Entertainment)
- Mari Shimazaki, Sawaki Takeyasu, Kenichirou Yoshimura
Rayman Raving Rabbids (Ubisoft Montpellier Studio / Ubisoft Entertainment)
- Michel Ancel, Charles Beirnaert, Hubert Chevillard, Florent Sacre
Viva Pinata (Rare / Microsoft Game Studios)
- Ryan Stevenson

Game Design
Bully (Rockstar Vancouver / Rockstar Games)
- Michael Skupa
Okami (Clover Studio / Capcom Entertainment)
- Hideki Kamiya
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Bethesda Game Studios / 2K Games/Bethesda Softworks)
- Todd Howard
Viva Pinata (Rare / Microsoft Game Studios)
- Justin Cook, Gregg Mayles
Wii Sports (Nintendo)
- Keizo Ohta, Takayuki Shimamura, Yoshiaki Yamashita

Technology
Company of Heroes (Relic Entertainment / THQ)
- Drew Dunlop, Shelby Hubick, David Swinerd, Ian Thomson
Dead Rising (Capcom Entertainment)
- Shinya Ikuta, Tomofumi Ishida, Yasuhide Sawada, Tomohiro Ueda
Gears of War (Epic Games / Microsoft Game Studios)
- Michael Capps, Ray Davis, Tim Sweeney, Daniel Vogel
Rockstar Games presents Table Tennis (Rockstar San Diego / Rockstar Games)
- Ted Carson, Eugene Foss, Wil Paredes, Steve Reed
Wii Sports (Nintendo)
- Takuhiro Dohta, Takeshi Miyamoto, Keizo Ohta, Kenta Sato

Visual Arts
Final Fantasy XII (Square Enix)
- Isamu Kamikokuryo, Hideo Minaba, Akihiko Yoshida
Gears of War (Epic Games / Microsoft Game Studios)
- Jerry O'Flaherty, Chris Perna
Okami (Clover Studio / Capcom Entertainment)
- Naoki Katakai, Kenichirou Yoshimura
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Bethesda Game Studios / 2K Games/Bethesda
Softworks)
- Matthew Carofano, Christiane Meister, Istvan Pely
Viva Pinata (Rare / Microsoft Game Studios)
- Ed Bryan, Ryan Stevenson

Writing
Bully (Rockstar Vancouver / Rockstar Games)
- Dan Houser, Jacob Krarup
Dreamfall: The Longest Journey (Funcom / Aspyr Media)
- Dag Scheve, Ragnar T rnquist
Sam & Max Episode 1: Culture Shock (Telltale Games / GameTap)
- Brendan Ferguson, Dave Grossman, Steve Purcell
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Bethesda Game Studios / 2K Games/Bethesda
Softworks)
- Ken Rolston
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Nintendo EAD / Nintendo)
- Kyogoku Aya, Nate Bihldorff, Mitsuhiro Takano

New Studio
Gastronaut Studios (Small Arms)
- Jacob Van Wingen, Don Wurster
Iron Lore Entertainment (Titan Quest)
- Paul Chieffo, Jeff Goodsill, Brian Sullivan
Naked Sky Entertainment (RoboBlitz)
- Joshua Glazer, Tian Mu, Sam Thibault
Ready At Dawn Studios (Daxter)
- Didier Malenfant, Andrea Pessino, Ru Weerasuriya
Wadjet Eye Games (The Shiva)
-Chris Femo, Dave Gilbert, Peter Gresser, Ian Schlaepfer

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