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Organisers of the Games Developers Choice Awards have announced ahead of the ceremony that they’ll be awarding a lifetime achievement award to founder of Epic Games and the creator of Unreal, Tim Sweeney.

Sweeney is well known in the industry, firstly for founding the seminal shareware publisher Epic MegaGames in 1991, and its first title ZZT. Epic Megagames went on to release titles like Jazz Jackrabbit, Epic Pinball and Tyrian and was a dominant force in the shareware market in the pre-internet age.

Sweeney is also one of the main architects behind the first iteration of the Unreal Engine. This game engine was created for 1998’s Unreal, hence the name, but is now perhaps the thing Epic is most famed for, underpinning games in the Splinter Cell, Bioshock and Batman: Arkham franchises, along with many more.

Previous recipients of the award include Warren Spector, John Carmack, Ken Kutaragi, Sid Meier and Hideo Kojima, among others.

The award will be presented at the ceremony for the 17th Game Developers Choice Awards.