John Carmack, id Software’s genius, won this year’s Game Developers Choice Awards Lifetime Achievement Award.

The programming mind behind Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, and Quake is set to receive his award on March 11th.

“It’s no exaggeration to say that John Carmack and id Software have had a monumental influence on all modern 3D games, but especially the first-person shooter genre,” said GDC boss Meggan Scavio in a statement.

“John is one of the key figures in the history of video games, and we’re delighted to be giving him the Lifetime Achievement award this year.”

Previous winners of the award include Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto and Sims creator Will Wright.

Today’s a Miyamoto kind of day, isn’t it? Alongside the new Nintendo hardware announcement at the Japan Media Arts Festival, Shigeru Miyamoto clued listeners in on his inspiration behind Super Mario Galaxy–a hamster in a ball.

He revealed that he was taking care of a hamster during the development of the game and believed that putting Mario on a spherical world in a 3D environment would allow even inexperienced players to run freely and not get lost, while still providing a rich gaming environment to players.

Seems like such a banal thing to draw inspiration from, huh? I guess that’s why Nintendo doesn’t want Miyamoto divulging his hobbies–other people could start stealing his brilliance!

Shigeru Miyamoto has recently confirmed that Nintendo is working on some new hardware.

Speaking at the Annual Japan Media Arts Festival, Miyamoto revealed the company was working on something new, though no specifics mere mentioned. Miyamoto also mentioned he himself is working on a new motion-based game that will use the Wii Motion Plus.

There have been rumours speculating new Wii hardware for a while now, and the words “Wii HD” have been thrown around a lot. Satoru Iwata also suggested a motion sensing DS not too long ago.

Anybody want to guess what it could be?

During Nintendo’s latest financial briefing Mr. Shigeru Miyamoto revealed during a Q&A portion that the next Zelda will not only have “gorgeuous graphics”, but that the team is doing their best to be as creative and possible.

“On developing the recent Zelda for DS, I found out that one of Zelda’s core appeals is its uniqueness,” he said. “Of course we are preparing gorgeous graphics for the sake of users’ anticipation for a grand role-playing adventure [on Wii].

“But what I believe is very important is the realistic, actual feeling players have experienced themselves; the feeling to have really been on an adventure, to have explored the unknown terrains, to have solved the puzzle through trial and errors, to have themselves grown through various experiences!

“In that sense, a personal sense of creativity is becoming important among us. We have assembled one of the most creative team for the recent Zelda for DS, and we want to be as creative as possible for upcoming Wii Zelda.”

To me that sounds pretty sweet. I can’t wait to see what the guys at Nintendo come up with for the new Zelda.

Gaming godfather Shigeru Miyamoto says the next version of the Legend of Zelda series will make use of the Wii MotionPlus add-on. This is to provide more realistic sword combat and targeting.

“In this (instalment of the series), we’re using MotionPlus to make you feel much more like you’re actually fighting while holding a sword in your hand,” the Zelda creator said at a recent Q&A session in Tokyo.

MotionPlus will be used to target things on the screen instead of using the Wii’s infrared sensor. “In the previous game, you aimed at things by pointing at the screen, but this time we’ll use MotionPlus to create a much more convenient targeting system and a more pleasurable playing experience.”

Miyamoto himself admitted during E3 that he was hoping to make the new Zelda MotionPlus exclusive, and so far it looks like he’ll be getting his wish.

Those looking forward to a radically different Zelda game for the next Wii title in the franchise, along the lines of the Wind Waker major graphical shift, are going to be sorely disappointed.

The only information we have about the next Wii Zelda game so far is this Zelda concept art from E3 2009, earlier this month.

“I don’t think it’s going to be that radically different,” Shigeru Miyamoto told Nintendo Power in their latest issue.

So there you have it, straight from the man himself.

A survey held by the Develop Conference has found that Shigeru Miyamoto is regarded as the hero of the game development community. No surprise there, really.

The Develop Conference is an annual event drawing in developers from throughout Europe for what is essentially to devs what E3 is for press – a pile of speeches and information on emerging tools, tech and troubles, as well as some contact making and chin-wagging.

It sounds like a small event, but when you consider that such heavy hitters as Ubisoft, Little Big Planet developers Media Molecule, Crytek UK and Lionhead Studios are making an appearance you realise how much of a big deal this is for the developer community.

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Developer Hideo Kojima will be receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award during the 2009 Game Developer’s Choice Awards at GDC.

Previous winners include Sid Meier, Shigeru Miyamoto, Richard Garriott and Will Wright.

“For years, Hideo Kojima’s contributions to game development have broken new ground and inspired the community to think about creating games in never-before-imagined ways,” said Meggan Scavio, event director of GDC.

“From giving birth to the stealth action game genre to showing game makers how to interact with their players by breaking the ‘fourth wall,’ Kojima’s achievements make him an obvious choice for an award.”

Kojima will also be holding a keynote speech at GDC, titled “Solid Game Design: Making the ‘Impossible’ Possible”:

Sega has officially confirmed “Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games”. Though methinks it should be “Winter Olympic Games”.

The game will be released late 2009 for Wii and DS, and is being developed at Sega Japan” under the guidance of Shigeru Miyamoto”.

The Wii version will use the Balance Board for certain events.

“We are extremely happy to again team up with Nintendo and ISM on what promises to be another global success,” said Sega’s western boss, Naoya Tsurumi.

“Sonic will partner with Mario once more beneath the spotlight of the legendary Olympic Games. Together they will face new athletic challenges that will provide gamers with more of the exciting experiences unique to this series.”

Full press release, as well as a debut trailer, after the break.

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Nintendo has recently filed a patent application in the US for an in-game assistant that, well, assists you through tougher parts of levels.

Main man Shigeru Miyamoto is behind the idea, with the basic premise being to help those who aren’t as used to, or as good at, gaming as those who’ve been playing games for several years.

“In some of these games, a volume of the story or the scenario is too large, and therefore a lot of time is needed for clearing the game,” reads the patent application.

“Further, in some cases, various puzzles are set in the scenario… However, there is a problem that these puzzles and the like are too difficult, and therefore the game may be stuck halfway, and the game may not be cleared to the end.”

“As means for solving the problem, disclosed is a game control method for lowering the difficulty level of a game by presenting, while the game is being played, a hint for allowing the game to be continued.”

A lot of  gamers has been put off by this idea, saying most games are easy enough as it is. What they fail to realise is that this is a completely optional feature, for those keen on a little aid now and again.

Last year at the Nite to Unite for Kids charity fundraiser, Ken Kutaragi, the “father of the PlayStation”, was named the Champion Honoree. This year, world-renowned Nintendo game designer Shigeru Miyamoto will be recieveing the Champion Award.

Miyamoto joined Nintendo in 1977 as a staff artist, and created many of Nintendo’s iconic characters, such as Mario and Zelda, as well as being credited for masterminding the creation of the Wii and games such as Wii Sports and Wii Fit.

The event will be taking place on October 22nd, at the Westin St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco. Big names in the industry, such as THQ president and CEO Brian Farrell, Disney Interactive Studios executive VP and general manager Graham Hopper, and Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiell, among others, will be present.

Tickets for the event run $500, with the proceeds being donated to numerous children’s charities across the United States. In the ten years the events has taken place, it has raised more than $11 million, as well as honoring icons such as LucasArts’ George Lucas, EA’s Bing Gordon, and Nintendo’s Howard Lincoln.