Epic founder Tim Sweeney to receive GDC Lifetime Achievement Award

Every year, Game Developers Conference recognizes an industry luminary, by bestowing a Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2017, the recipient is Tim Sweeney, founder of Epic Games.

Sweeney will collect the honor at the 17th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards which takes place during GDC at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. Sweeney founded Epic MegaGames in 1991 as a shareware publisher. His first release was the much-admired ZZT, which allowed users to create their own worlds.

Epic went on to release titles such as Jazz Jackrabbit, Unreal, Gears of War, Infinity Blade and the Unreal Engine, which Sweeney has steered for the past 18 years. It is the basis for many hit games including the Bioshock series, Warner Bros. Batman series, Ark: Survival Evolved, Street Fighter 5, Final Fantasy 7 Remake and XCOM 2.

Previous recipients of the Lifetime Achievement Award include Shigeru Miyamoto, John Carmack, Hideo Kojima, Sid Meier and Ken Kutaragi. GDC 2017 takes place Feb. 27 to Mar. 3.

Be sure to read Polygon’s in-depth special feature on Epic, including extensive interviews with Sweeney.