Develop Awards 2017: The Finalists

This years Develop Awards look set to be the biggest ever with OVER DOUBLE the nominations of last year. After much deliberation, we have magaged to compile a worthy list of finalists who we all hope to see at the Awards on July 12th at the Hilton Metropole Brighton.

Develop has evolved a great deal over the past twelve months and the awards are no exception, with the addition of five new categories. Thankfully you all did amazing work over the last twelve months and people were very keen to nominate for that work. Over 300 nominations were received this year and, whilst it has made it harder than ever to create this list of finalists, it’s been amazing to see the industry so critically successful. 

So we’ve INCREASED the number of finalists in cases where we just couldn’t leave some of the excellent work off the list.

There’s also a great representation of VR achievement in this years list with a lot of the newest and most impressive examples of the medium coming to the fore. There are also an amazing number of new games and studios that have made the list of finalists, really showing the growth in our industry and we’re proud to have them listed side by side with industry veterans and big developers. 

The support for the awards is as great as it has always been and this years awards are sponsored by an excellent group of companies. Our headline sponsor is Unreal Engine/Epic Games and our Charity partner is WarChild. Aardvark Swift, OPM, Amiqus, Gamescom, MoGI Group, Games London, Perforce, Testronic, PTW, Dolby, Ukie, and our event partner Develop:Brighton

If you want to to be involved with the awards then please contact Charles Gibbons – cgibbons@nbmedia.com.

If you would like to book a table or attend the event then please find all the information at https://www.nbmevents.uk/developawards/Book

CREATIVE ACHIEVEMENT

New Games IP

• Horizon Zero Dawn – Guerrilla Games 
• Overcooked – Ghost Town Games 
• Dawn of Titans – NaturalMotion
• Yooka-Laylee – Playtonic Games 
• Virginia – Variable State 
• Snake Pass – Sumo Digital
• Planet Coaster – Frontier
• Inside – Playdead
• Little Nightmares – Bandai Namco 
• Human Fall Flat – Curve Digital 

Animation (New for 2017)

• Horizon Zero Dawn – Guerrilla Games
• Blackwood Crossing – PaperSeven 
• Yooka-Laylee – Playtonic 
• Virginia – Variable State 
• Total War: Warhammer – Creative Assembly
• The Sexy Brutale – Cavalier Games 
• The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Blood and Wine – CD Projekt Red 
• Planet Coaster – Frontier 

Visual Design (New for 2017)

• Horizon Zero Dawn – Guerrilla Games
• Forza Horizon 3 – Playground Games 
• Halo Wars 2- Creative Assembly 
• Yooka-Laylee – Playtonic Games 
• Batman: Arkham VR – Rocksteady Studios 
• The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Blood and Wine – CD Projekt Red 
• Virginia – Variable State 
• Dawn of Titans – NaturalMotion

Music Design (New for 2017)

• Horizon Zero Dawn – Guerrilla Games
• Forza Horizon 3 – Playground Games 
• The Sexy Brutale – Cavalier Games 
• Virginia – Variable State 
• Planet Coaster – Frontier 
• Sniper Elite 4 – Rebellion 
• Hue – Fiddlesticks Games
• PlayStation VR Worlds – Sony Interactive Entertainment 
• Total War: Warhammer – Creative Assembly 
• Get Even – Bandai Namco

Sound Design (New for 2017)

• PlayStation VR Worlds – Sony Interactive Entertainment 
• Until Dawn: Rush of Blood – Supermassive Games 
• Forza Horizon 3 – Playground Games
• Halo Wars 2 – Creative Assembly
• Sniper Elite 4- Rebellion 
• Battlefield 1- EA DICE
• Stories Untold – No Code 
• Planet Coaster – Frontier 
• Batman: Arkham VR – Rocksteady Studios 

Best Writing (New for 2017)

• Horizon Zero Dawn – Guerrilla Games
• Torment: Tides of Numenera – inXile Entertainment
• Sunless Sea – Failbetter Games
• The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Blood and Wine – CD Projekt Red
• The Sexy Brutale – Cavalier Games
• Stories Untold – No Code
• The Bunker – Splendy Games
• Blackwood Crossing – PaperSeven
• Batman: Arkham VR – Rocksteady Games
• Get Even – Bandai Namco

Best Performance

• SIGNA (Inside) – Playdead 
• Anna Acton (Hue)- Fiddlesticks Games 
• Doug Cockle (The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Blood and Wine) – CD Projekt Red 
• Larry Fessenden (Until Dawn: Rush of Blood) – Supermassive Games 
• Jon McKellan (Stories Untold) – No Code 
• Adam Brown (The Bunker) – Splendy Games 
• Mark Hamill (Batman: Arkham VR) – Rocksteady Studios 
• John DiMaggio (LEGO Dimensions Adventure Time Level Pack) – TT Games
• Brian Blessed (Loco Dojo) – Make Real

Publishing Hero

• Team17
• 505 Games
• Curve Digital
• Sega Europe Ltd
• All 4 Games
• Kiss Ltd
• Wales Interactive
• Dovetail Games
• Devolver Digital 
• ID@Xbox

Micro/Start Up Studio

• Splendy Games
• Ghost Town Games
• Variable State
• Fiddlesticks Games
• No Code
• Ant Workshop

Independent Studio

• Supermassive Games
• Playground Games
• Playsport Games
• CD Projekt Red
• Playdead
• Sumo Digital
• Rebellion
• Frontier

In-House Studio

• NaturalMotion (Dawn of Titans)
• Creative Assembly
• Rocksteady Games
• Reflections, a Ubisoft Studio
• TT Games
• Guerrilla Games
• Team17
• Jagex
• Dovetail Games

New Studio

• Cavalier Games
• Ghost Town Games
• Variable State
• Playtonic Games
• Playsport Games
• Splendy Games
• Fiddlesticks Games

SPECIALIST CONTRIBUTION

Creative Outsourcer – Visual & Development

• Multiple projects – Axis Animation
• Lost (Amazon Lumbeyard) – Realtime UK
• Hybrid Wars (Wargaming WG Labs) – Flipbook
• Virginia – Pink Kong Studios
• Multiple projects – d3t

Design & Creativity Tool

• Popcorn FX – Persistant Studios 
• Dehumaniser – Krotos Ltd 
• WWise – Audiokinetic 
• GameMaker Studio – YoYo Games 
• Maya 2017 – Autodesk 

Tools Provider – Production

• Favro
• Perforce Software
• Persistant Studios
• Amazon Game Studios
• YoYo Games

Engine

• Amazon Lumberyard
• Guerrilla Games (Decima Engine)
• Epic Games (Unreal Engine)
• YoYo Games (Gamemaker Studio)
• Unity

Services

• Audiomotion Studios
• Flipbook
• Formosa Interactive
• GameDev Market
• d3t
• Player Research
• Red Kite Games

QA & Localisation

• Allcorrect
• Jinglebell Localization
• LocalizeDirect Ltd
• Lollipop Robot
• Testronic
• MoGi Group LTD
• Testology
• Universally Speaking
• VMC

Recruiter

• Aardvark Swift
• Amiqus
• Avatar Games
• CV Bay Ltd
• Datascope Recruitment
• OPM Response
• Skillsearch Games & Interactive

Creative Outsourcer – Audio

• Side UK – Battlefield 1 (EA Dice)
• Submersion Audio – Robo Recall (Epic Games)
• Nimrod – Horizon Zero Dawn (Guerrilla Games)
• Sounding Sweet – Forza Horizon 3 (Playground Games)
• 93 Steps – Ride 2 (Milestone)
• Soundcuts Ltd – Sunless Sea (Failbetter Games)
• Formosa Interactive – Multiple projects
• Sweet Justice Sound – Multiple projects

Technology Provider

• Allegorithmic
• Dimensional Imaging (DI4D™)
• Epic Games
• Multiplay
• OptiTrack
• Speech Graphics
• Spirit AI
• Tazman-Audio Ltd

Studio of the Year

• Supermassive Games
• Guerrilla Games
• Playground Games
• Sumo Digital
• Creative Assembly
• CD Projekt Red
• Team 17
• Rebellion

Development Legend

John and Brenda Romero