John Carmack to receive industry gong

Commander Keen, no doubt rushing to the 2010 GDC award ceremony

The organisers of the 2010 Game Developer’s Conference announced yesterday that John Carmack will be presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2010 Game Developers Choice Awards.

Carmack was the co-founder of iD Software and if you’re anything like me you’ll have been playing his games since you first sat in front of a PC.  His first big title was the Commander Keen series but it was Wolfenstein 3D and the Doom series that shot him and iD to prominence.

Carmack and former partner-in-crime John Romero are generally acknowledged as the fathers of the first person shooter genre, a title they confirmed when they knocked out a little game called Quake that wasn’t the least bit revolutionary or anything but people seemed to like it regardless.

The award will be presented in San Fransisco on March 11.  Previous recipients include the guy behind Civilization, the guy behind Mario, Donkey Kong and Zelda and the guy behind Sim City and The Sims.  So, y’know, a bunch of lightweights that nobody’s ever heard of.  Winners are chosen by a panel of gaming industry experts including representatives from EA, Bioware and Ubisoft.

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