CEDEC is Japan’s premier game development conference, and it has today shared the nominees for its annual awards across five categories. The event will take place in Yokohama from August 26 to 28. Registered members can vote for their selections (note that the site requires a login and is in Japanese).

Even if you’re not a part of the Japanese game development industry, the list of nominees provides a window into what matters to developers in the region — still a powerhouse of console development, even as it has become a huge market for mobile games.

The categories are interpreted broadly, with a wide variety of entries for each one. You’ll find links to either external sites or Gamasutra articles to lend context where necessary.

Engineering

AMD’s Mantle API development team

Shinra Technologies development team

Microsoft Visual Studio development team

Sega’s Edel Sand development team

Tri-Ace’s Yoshiharu Gotanda, for pioneering work in realtime graphics

Visual Arts

Seiichiro Shizumu for his work with Ninchiro holograms

Arc System Works’ Guilty Gear Xrd: Sign development team for its anime-style 3D graphics

Parasyte visual effects production team

Mojang, the Minecraft development team

Q-Games, the The Tomorrow Children development team

Game Design

Square Enix’s Naoki Yoshida for Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward

Sega’s Sangokushi Taisen development team

The Nekoatsume development team

Liica’s Q development team

Square Enix’s Schoolgirl Strikers development team

Sound

Square Enix’s Final Fantasy XIV development and sound teams

Sora and Nintendo’s Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and Super Smash Bros. for 3DS music, sound, and development teams

IGDA Japan’s Audio SIG

Yo-Kai Watch series sound team

Capcom’s in-house audio team, Cap’stone

Network/Online

Google’s Niantic Labs, for Ingress

Bandai Namco’s Akihiko Moriguchi and others

DeployGate’s Yuki Fujisaki

Twitch development team

Qiita development team