Media Molecule's LittleBigPlanet has garnered seven nominations from the ninth annual Game Developers Choice Awards, leading a highly competitive stable of games from the past year.

Released in 2008, the PS3-exclusive received accolades for its technical and design achievements, as well as innovations in facilitating user-generated content. It's one of five games up for Game of the Year.

LittleBigPlanet also leads nominations for the upcoming Interactive Achievement Awards, with 10 nominations.

Think Services, organizers of the Game Developers Conference, which is hosting the awards, also said that Number None's acclaimed Xbox 360 game Braid followed closely behind LittleBigPlanet with five nominations, an accomplishment for an independently-developed title with limited resources.

Other notable nominees are Bethesda's Fallout 3 and Valve's Left 4 Dead, which both earned four nominations each. Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto IV received three nominations. Lionhead's Fable 2 is also up for Game of the Year.

Winners will be announced on Wednesday, March 25 during the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. Double Fine's Tim Schafer will host the awards ceremony.

GDC director Meggan Scavio said in a statement, "The awards given out at the Game Developers Choice Awards are more than just trophies; they are recognition of great work by the developer community.

"The open peer-based selection process ensures that the people with the final say are the people who work within the craft of game development..."

The list of nominees is below:

Best Game Design
Far Cry 2 (Ubisoft Montreal)
Braid (Number None)
Fallout 3 (Bethesda Game Studios)
Left 4 Dead (Valve Software)
LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule)

Best Visual Art
Fallout 3 (Bethesda Game Studios)
Metal Gear Solid 4 (Kojima Productions)
Prince Of Persia (Ubisoft Montreal)
LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule)
Gears Of War 2 (Epic Games)

Best Technology
Spore (Maxis)
Grand Theft Auto IV (Rockstar North)
Left 4 Dead (Valve Software)
LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule)
Gears Of War 2 (Epic Games)

Best Writing
Far Cry 2 (Ubisoft Montreal)
Braid (Number None)
Fallout 3 (Bethesda Game Studios)
Grand Theft Auto IV (Rockstar North)
Metal Gear Solid 4 (Kojima Productions)

Best Audio
Dead Space (EA Redwood Shores)
LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule)
Metal Gear Solid 4 (Kojima Productions)
Left 4 Dead (Valve Software)
Gears Of War 2 (Epic Games)

Best Debut
Braid (Number None)
Sins Of A Solar Empire (Ironclad Games)
LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule)
World Of Goo (2D Boy)
Soul Bubbles (Mekensleep)

Innovation
Spore (Maxis)
World Of Goo (2D Boy)
Boom Blox (EA Los Angeles)
Braid (Number None)
LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule)

Best Handheld
Patapon (Pyramid/SCE Japan)
Advance Wars: Days Of Ruin (Intelligent Systems)
God Of War: Chains Of Olympus (Ready At Dawn Studios)
Echochrome (SCE Japan)
The World Ends With You (Jupiter/Square Enix)

Best Downloadable Game
Castle Crashers (The Behemoth)
Braid (Number None)
World Of Goo (2D Boy)
N+ (Metanet/Slick Entertainment)
Pixeljunk Eden (Q-Games)

Game of the Year
Fable 2 (Lionhead Studios)
LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule)
Fallout 3 (Bethesda Game Studios)
Left 4 Dead (Valve Software)
Grand Theft Auto IV (Rockstar North)