Epic Games Design Director Cliff Bleszinski, better known as Cliffy B to the gaming Internet, will host the upcoming 12th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards to be held as part of the 2012 Game Developers Conference. The awards ceremony will begin at 6:30 PM on March 7, 2012 (streaming live on GameSpot) and recognize the “creativity, artistry, and technical genius” of commercial games released during 2011. Bleszinski's own Gears of War was honored at the 2007 Game Developers Choice Awards, winning in the Best Game, Best Technology, and Best Visual Arts categories. Even before working with Epic Games, Cliffy B won acclaim for shipping his first commercial game, Jazz Jackrabbit, before graduating high school. Previous Game Developers Choice Awards hosts include gaming development luminaries like Tim Schafer and Warren Spector.

The Game Developers Choice Awards will be held immediately after the 14thAnnual Independent Games Festival Awards, which will be hosted for the fourth time by Andy Schatz of Pocketwatch Games. Schatz won the Independent Games Festival Grand Prize in 2010 for the top-down co-op stealth game Monaco. The Independent Games Festival Awards were founded in 1998 by UBM TechWeb's Game Network to help foster independent game development and recognize the best independently developed titles.

SOURCE: Epic's Bleszinski, Monaco's Schatz to host GDC, IGF Awards [Press release]