Tim Sweeney earns the Game Developers Choice Lifetime Achievement Award
Sweeney is the founder of Epic Games and creator of the Unreal Engine.
Epic Games founder and CEO Tim Sweeney will be honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 17th annual Game Developers Choice Awards. Sweeney's first game, ZZT, led to "an explosion of user-created worlds," GDC said in the announcement of his award, thanks to its built-in scripting capabilities, which enabled players to create virtually unlimited new stories and worlds.
Epic experienced continued success throughout the '90s with games like Tyrian, Epic Pinball, and Jazz Jackrabbit, but it was the release of Unreal in 1998 that really pushed it into the big-time. Unreal itself wasn't a huge hit, but it gave the world the Unreal Engine, "the underpinning for a slew of acclaimed games," which has evolved over the years into its current, free iteration, Unreal Engine 4. "The engine is now being adapted by non-game development teams across the automotive, aviation, architecture, VR/AR, complex data visualization and film sectors," the award announcement says.
Sweeney will take his place beside previous Lifetime Achievement Award winners including Todd Howard, Sid Meier, John Carmack, and Peter Molyneux on March 1, during the Game Developers Choice Awards ceremony. The event, hosted by Double Fine Productions chief Tim Schafer, will be livestreamed on Twitch, beginning at 6:30 pm PT.
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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.
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