Develop Awards finalists announced

The finalists for the 2009 Develop Industry Excellence Awards have been unveiled – and it’s Rockstar and Media Molecule that are leading the pack.

Rockstar Leeds and Rockstar North are together nominated for a whopping six awards for their work on GTA: Chinatown Wars and GTAIV: The Lost and Damned respectively. And, after a stunning debut year with the release of the critically-acclaimed LittleBigPlanet, Guildford-based Media Molecule is close behind with a massive five nominations.

The line-up of nominees – listed in full below – is the most diverse yet, encompassing a record-breaking 70 companies. It recognises the ever-diversifying nature of the games industry and the continually-emerging new ways to play: one-man iPhone developers mix with the biggest triple-A studios like Lionhead, while social gaming stars such as Playfish rub shoulders with Crytek and Traveller’s Tales.

The Develop Industry Excellence Awards are the only peer-voted awards ceremony that focuses on the achievements of the UK and European game development industry. Over 100 judges will soon be asked to give select the winners, which will then be announced on the night itself in a lavish ceremony.

The awards take place on July 15th at the Hilton Metropole in Brighton, and will be hosted by 8 out of 10 Cats star Jason Mansford – one of the UK’s top stand-up acts.

To book your place, contact Jodie Holdway at Jodie.Holdway@bhpr.co.uk or on 01462 5456780.

The Develop Awards are kindly sponsored by Black Rock (Event Partner), Partnertrans (Exclusive Drinks Reception Partner), Babel (Development Legend Award Sponsor), Crytek (Event Partner) and Bethesda Softworks (Studio Category Sponsor).

Those nominees in full:

CREATIVITY

Best New IP
LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule)
Mirror’s Edge (EA DICE)
Pure (Black Rock Studio)
Zen Bound (Secret Exit)
You’re in the Movies (Zoe Mode)
Burn Zombie Burn! (Doublesix)

Best Use of a Licence
Lego Batman (Traveller’s Tales)
The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena (Starbreeze Studios)
Outrun Online Arcade (Sumo Digital)
Beijing 2008 – The Official Video Game of the Olympic Games (Eurocom)
House of the Dead: Overkill (Headstrong Games)
Hasbro Family Game Night (EA BrightLight)

Visual Arts
LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule)
Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars (Rockstar Leeds)
Killzone 2 (Guerrilla)
Xbox 360 Avatars (Rare)
PlayStation Home (London Studio)
Pure (Black Rock Studio)

Audio Accomplishment
Fable II (Lionhead)
Mirror’s Edge (EA DICE)
You’re in the Movies (Zoe Mode)
House of the Dead: Overkill (Headstrong Games)
GTAIV: The Lost and Damned (Rockstar North)
Empire Total War (The Creative Assembly)

Publishing Hero
Apple
Sega
Direct2Drive
Codemasters
Ngmoco
Valve

TECHNOLOGY & SERVICES

Technical Innovation
LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule)
Killzone 2 (Guerilla)
Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars (Rockstar Leeds)
Fable II (Lionhead)
PlayStation Home (London Studio)
Football Manager Live (Sports Interactive)

Best Tools Provider
Autodesk
Havok
Audiokinetic
Hansoft
Perforce
Scaleform
Quazal

Best Engine
Unreal Engine 3 (Epic Games)
Gamebryo (Emergent Game Technologies)
BlitzTech (Blitz Games Studios)
Unity (Unity Technologies)
Vision Engine (Trinigy)
PhyreEngine (SCEE R&D)

Recruitment Company
Aardvark Swift
Datascope
OPM
Amiqus
Natural Selection
Specialmove

Services
Testology
Babel
Universally Speaking
Partnertrans
Testronic Labs
Audiomotion
Centroid

Creative Outsourcing
High Score Productions
Axis Animation
Outsource Media UK
Side & Sidelines
Richard Jacques Studios
Nimrod
Pitstop Productions

STUDIOS

Best New Studio
Media Molecule
nDreams
Hand Circus
Proper Games
Playfish
Crytek Budapest

Best Handheld Games Studio
Rockstar Leeds
Exient
Curve
Traveller’s Tales Fusion
Secret Exit

Business Development
Revolution
Gimme5Games
Monumental
Playfish
Crytek
Blitz Games Studios

Best Independent Developer
Media Molecule
Sumo Digital
Crytek
Asobo
Starbreeze Studio
Jagex

Best In-House Team
Lionhead
Sports Interactive
Black Rock Studio
EA DICE
Rockstar North
Rockstar Leeds

Development Legend

Grand Prix