MUMBAI: The Writers Guild of America, West (WGAW) and the Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE) have announced nominations for the Guilds’ inaugural Videogame Writing Award, honoring outstanding achievement in videogame writing during 2007.

The nominees for Videogame Writing are Crash of the Titans, written by Christopher Mitchell, Sierra Entertainment; Dead Head Fred, written by Dave Ellis and Adam Cogan, D3 Publisher; The Simpsons Game, with lead writer Matt Selman, written by Tim Long and Matt Warburton, dialogue by Jeff Poliquin, Electronic Arts; The Witcher, lead story designer Artur Ganszyniec, dialogue Sebastian Stepien, additional dialogue Marcin Blacha, writers Sande Chen and Anne Toole, Atari; World In Conflict, story design Christofer Emgard, story consultant Larry Bond, script consultant Ed Zuckerman, Sierra Entertainment.

Developed by the WGA and spearheaded by the Guild’s New Media Caucus to encourage storytelling excellence in videogames, improve the status of writers, and foster uniform standards within the gaming industry, the WGA’s inaugural Videogame Writing Award spotlights quality work by videogame writers, raising their profiles, and validating their contributions to this rapidly maturing medium.

The award honors the best qualifying script from a videogame published in the previous year. To be eligible for entry, games must have been released between 1 December, 2006 and 30 November, 2007.

The 2008 Writers Guild Awards winners in all categories will be announced on 9 February.