The 26th Game Developers Choice Awards at the 2026 GDC Festival of Gaming has unveiled the recipients of this year's prestigious special awards. Don Daglow, Emmy® Award-winning game designer with over half a century in the industry, is this year's Lifetime Achievement Award recipient. Rebecca Ann Heineman, groundbreaking developer and one of the first professional video game players, will posthumously receive the 2026 Ambassador Award.
Don Daglow is an Emmy® Award winning game designer with a 55-year career covering over 100 games. His passion was born as a playwriting major at Pomona College, programming text games on mainframe computers. Daglow has worked on every generation of video game consoles, starting as one of the five original Intellivision game programmers (and Atari rivals) at Mattel in 1980.
His pioneering titles include the first interactive baseball game (BASBAL, 1971); the first chatbot to surpass Eliza (Ecala,1972); the first RPG on a non-classroom computer (Dungeon, 1976); the first console God Game, City Builder, and RTS (Utopia, 1981); the first video game to use multiple camera angles (World Series Major League Baseball (1983); and the first MMORPG to use graphics instead of text (Neverwinter Nights, 1991-1997, AOL). He also served as executive producer on hit franchises like Carmen Sandiego, EA Sports, Lord of the Rings, Prince of Persia, Sim City (distribution), and Star Wars.
Previous recipients of the Lifetime Achievement Award include last year's honoree Sam Lake, writer and director behind the Alan Wake series; game soundtrack composer Yoko Shimomura; game designer John Romero; writer and director Amy Hennig; and Epic Games founder and CEO Tim Sweeney.
Rebecca Ann Heineman (1963–2025) was a trailblazing figure in the video game industry, celebrated as one of the first professional video game players and a pioneering developer. In 1980, she made history by winning the first National Space Invaders Championship, becoming the inaugural U.S. video game tournament champion. This victory launched a 45-year career during which she contributed to over 250 games, including classics like The Bard's Tale III, Dragon Wars, Wolfenstein 3D, and Doom (3DO).
Rebecca co-founded Interplay Productions, helping create beloved franchises like The Bard’s Tale, and later founded Contraband Entertainment, contributing to acclaimed titles such as Myth III, Baldur’s Gate II, and Icewind Dale. She also led programming projects for major companies like Electronic Arts, Amazon, and Sony.
A passionate advocate for diversity and inclusion, Rebecca was a prominent transgender advocate whose contributions and commitment to representation cemented her legacy as a visionary in gaming history.
The Ambassador Award is awarded to individuals who elevate video games and the industry as a whole to a better place. Previous recipients include award-winning creative director Fawzi Mesmar, accessibility advocate Steven Spohn, and former Global Game Jam executive director Kate Edwards.
Winners will be announced at this year’s GDCA ceremony, held on Thursday, March 12, during the GDC Festival of Gaming in San Francisco. This year’s GDCA ceremony will take place the night after the 28th annual Independent Games Festival (IGF) awards ceremony, held on Wednesday, March 11.
Both ceremonies are open to all GDC Festival of Gaming passholders and streamed for free on the official GDC Twitch channel. The GDC Festival of Gaming, a global gathering for the full game-making ecosystem, will be held at San Francisco’s Moscone Center from March 9-13, 2026.