The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS) is a non-profit group with membership made up of developers, artists, and other professional in the video game industry.
The show features not only awards but also several video game announcements and other entertainment, such as a live orchestra.
Each year the panel selects a number of global video game magazines and website to participate in the voting process.
There is also a 10% contribution for each category from online fan voting, held in the weeks prior to the ceremony.
Recent years have also introduced an Audience award, with games nominated and voted on by attendees of the GDC.
The Golden Joystick Awards were established by a number of video game magazines in 1983 to hold an open public voting for winners in each category.
A smaller committee of about fifteen members then create a shortlist of nominees for each category, including honorable mentions.
These nominees are then expected to present at booth space for the IGF during the GDC event, with the developers given discounts for attending the conference.
At the event, 18 awards were given out, chosen by votes from 1,200 members of the Académie des Arts et Techniques du Jeu Vidéo.
The Annie Awards, managed by the non-profit group ASIFA-Hollywood, celebrate achievement in animation.
Any developer from these countries can submit a game for consideration, with winners selected by a panel of judges of ATOM members.
The GLAAD Media Awards are given to works and people that have helped to positively present LGBTQ issues.
The Satellite Awards are given by the International Press Academy made up from members from entertainment journalism to recognize the best works in film and television.
The annual South by Southwest (SXSW) event in Austin, Texas celebrates several forms of art across concurrent conferences arranged around film, music, and other media.
Developers and publishers can submit their games that had been released in final retail or online form in the prior year to the SXSW event organizers.
Some websites, like IGN, subdivide their awards by video game genre, whereas others, like Giant Bomb, focus more on individual writers' "Top 10" lists.
While initially a panel-select set of awards, the show transitioned to become part of Adam Sessler's X-Play show in 2006, transitioning to a fan-voted event, before it was ultimately folded into X-Play's year-end awards.
The show, until 2013, was broadcast on the Spike TV network with host Geoff Keighley, who had helped to establish the framework of the awards.
An advisory panel of twenty video game journalists made the nominees and selection of the winner for each show.
It was started in 2005 with support from Sony to award public-voted video game characters and individuals, with the winners getting a star embedded in the floor.
In 2006, Sony sold off the Metreon, and no further updates were made to the Walk of Game, and which was ultimately torn out in 2012.