Game development stars honoured in Brighton

18 different companies claimed key accolades at the Develop Industry Excellence Awards this week.

Winners hailed from across Europe – and indeed around the world as the Development Legend was handed to the co-founders of Epic Games. 

The full list of winners can be found below.

Supercell, the Finnish studio responsible for multi-million-dollars-a-day iOS cash cow Clash of Clans was the only company to take two of the peer-voted prizes home, for New IP and then the nod for Independent studio.

Epic Games’s Unreal Engine took the Engine prize voted for by developers while the Legend prize, chosen by the Develop team, was handed to leaders Tim Sweeney and Mark Rein.

Elsewhere the majority of the awards went to UK studios after a strong year for games businesses in all forms – independent, online/social, mobile and console – with wins for Peter Molyneux’s 22 Cans, Sony London Studio, Fireproof Games and Boss Alien. Plus Candy Crush Saga firm King was honoured for Business Development.

Two projects that used crowdfunding won top prizes too: Thomas Was alone (Use of Narrative) and Oculus Rift (Technical Innovation). Kickstarter itself was awarded Publishing Hero.

DEVELOP AWARDS: THE WINNERS

NEW IP

Clash of Clans – Supercell

USE OF A LICENCE OR IP

Angry Birds Star Wars – Rovio

VISUAL ARTS

Crysis 3 – Crytek

AUDIO ACCOMPLISHMENT 

Wonderbook: Book of Spells – London Studio

USE OF NARRATIVE

Thomas Was Alone – Mike Bithell

PUBLISHING HERO

Kickstarter UK 

ONLINE INNOVATION 

Curiosity – 22Cans

TECHNICAL INNOVATION 

Oculus Rift – Oculus VR

TOOLS PROVIDER

Unity Technologies

ENGINE

Unreal Engine – Epic Games

SERVICES

Audiomotion

CREATIVE CONTRIBUTION – VISUALS

Realtime UK – Wargaming trailers

CREATIVE CONTRIBUTION – AUDIO

Side – Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch

RECRUITER

Amiqus

MICRO STUDIO

Fireproof Games

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

King

INDEPENDENT STUDIO

Supercell

IN-HOUSE STUDIO

Boss Alien

NEW STUDIO

Playground Games

DEVELOPMENT LEGENDS

Tim Sweeney & Mark Rein, Epic Games

Event partners include Platinum Partners Crytek, Deep Silver and Microsoft, Gold Partners Testronic, Amiqus, UKIE, Perforce Software, Sumo Digital and Pitbull Studio, Drinks Reception Partner NaturalMotion Games, Table Gift Partner OPM Recruitment, Event Partners Nova Scotia Business Inc and Playmob, and Award Partner ARM.