Develop Awards 2014: The finalists revealed

Competition for this year’s Develop Awards will be hotter than ever with well over 100 companies listed as finalists for the July event.

A total of 136 firms have been shortlisted for the 24 prizes available at the 2014 Develop Awards, encompassing games studios, tools providers, services firms, platform holders, publishers, composers, universities and more.

Among the finalists are 68 games studios, ranging from one-man indies to 100-plus strong teams, representing 14 different European countries.

There are also 46 acclaimed games shortlisted for their gameplay, visuals, audio, music, technical innovations and the creative talent behind them.

David Cage’s studio Quantic Dream leads the way this year with four nominations for its cinematic PS3 adventure Beyond: Two Souls. Close behind with three nominations each are Total War creator Creative Assembly, Tearaway dev Media Molecule and German powerhouse Crytek.

However, it’s the PlayStation empire that could take home more than ten awards, with Media Molecule’s trio of nominations adding to those of Guerrilla’s Killzone: Shadow Fall, SCE London Studios’ Diggs Nightcrawler and Wonderbook: Book of Potions, and virtual reality device Project Morpheus.

Similarly, Ubisoft could go home with four prizes thanks to nominations for the firm’s graduate programme, the composers of Assassin Creed IV’s multiplayer, Ubisoft Montpellier’s Rayman Legends and the ongoing work of Ubisoft Reflections.

There are six new categories this year, including the previously announced QA & Localisation, Talent Investment, Musical Composition and special award Studio of the Year, the winner of which will be announced on the night.

Due to the high number of nominations, we have also split the long-running Tools Provider award into two new prizes, Tools – Design & Creativity and Tools ­– Production, in order to better reward the great toolsets available to developers today.

Watch out for more information on the finalists in the run-up to the awards on July 9th, as well as the announcement of this year’s Develop Legend award.

DON’T FORGET TO BOOK YOUR PLACE

The Develop Awards 2014 will take place on the evening of Wednesday, July 9th, once again held at the Brighton Metropole Hotel. You can book a table or single seat online at www.developawards.com, or by contacting Kathryn.Humphrey@intentmedia.co.uk or calling 01992 535 647.

Alternatively, for more information on the sponsorship and partnership opportunities still available, contact Alex.Boucher@intentmedia.co.uk or call 01992 535 647.

Current Develop Awards partners include Platinum Partners Crytek and Deep Silver, Gold Partners Codemasters, Amiqus, Keywords International and UKIE and Table Gift Partner OPM Recruitment.

THE FINALISTS

THE CATEGORIES 2014

• New Games IP
• Use of a Licence or IP
• Visual Arts
• Audio Accomplishment
• Musical Composition
• Use of Narrative
• Publishing Hero
• Technical Innovation
• Tools – Design & Creativity
• Tools – Production
• Engine
• Services
• QA & Localisation
• Creative Contribution: Audio
• Creative Contribution: Visuals
• Recruiter
• Talent Investment
• Business Development
• Micro Studio
• Independent Studio
• In-House Studio
• New Studio

SPECIAL AWARD

• Studio of the Year
• Development Legend

New Games IP

• Beyond: Two Souls – Quantic Dream
• Brothers: Tale of Two Sons – Starbreeze Studios
• Clumsy Ninja – NaturalMotion
• Monument Valley – Ustwo
• Resogun – Sony xDev / Housemarque
• Rust – Facepunch Studios
• Starbound – Chucklefish Games
• Tearaway – Media Molecule

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Use of a Licence or IP

• Batman: Arkham Origins multiplayer – Splash Damage
• Disney Infinity: Pirates of the Caribbean – Studio Gobo
• Joe Dever’s Lone Wolf – Forge Reply
• LEGO Marvel Super Heroes – TT Games
• Metro: Last Light – 4A Games
• Moshi Monsters: Katsuma Unleashed – Sumo Digital
• Peppa Pig’s Holiday – Strawdog Studios
• Sherlock: The Network – The Project Factory 

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Visual Arts

• Beyond: Two Souls – Quantic Dream
• Grand Theft Auto V – Rockstar North
• Killzone: Shadow Fall – Guerrilla Games
• Tearaway – Media Molecule
• Tengami – Nyamyam
• The Dark Eye: Memoria – Daedelic Entertainment
• TxK – Llamasoft
• Ryse: Son of Rome – Crytek

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Audio Accomplishment

• Battlefield 4 – EA DICE
• Device 6 – Simogo
• Rayman Legends – Ubisoft Montpellier
• Resogun – Sony XDev / Housemarque
• Salvage – Mad Fellows
• Tearaway – Media Molecule
• Total War: Rome II – Creative Assembly
• Wonderbook: Book of Potions – SCE London Studio

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Musical Composition

• Brendan Ratliff, ‘Theme of Awesome’ – Fist of Awesome
• David Wise, ‘The Awakening’ – Tengami
• Jamie Hamshere, ‘Noise Pulse’ – TxK
• James Hannigan’s ‘Horizon’ – RuneScape 3
• Jesper Kyd’s ‘Welcome to Decay’ – State of Decay
• Jim Fowler’s ‘Diggsieland’ – Diggs Nightcrawler
• Joe Henson & Alexis Smith’s ‘Portobelo’ – Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag multiplayer
• Olivier Derivière, ‘Nilin the Memory Hunter’ – Remember Me

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Use of Narrative

• Beyond: Two Souls – Quantic Dream
• Broken Sword 5 – Revolution Software
• Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons – Starbreeze Studios
• Device 6 – Simogo
• Ether One – White Paper Games
• Foul Play – Mediatonic
• Pearl’s Peril – Wooga
• Sherlock: The Network – The Project Factory

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Publishing Hero

• 505 Games
• AppyNation
• Chillingo
• Curve Digital
• Kiss Ltd
• Microsoft
• Positech Games
• SCE Strategic Content

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Technical Innovation

• Kinect Sports Rivals’ Champion Scanning – Rare
• GameSparks cloud services – GameSparks
• DI4D head-mounted capture system – Dimensional Imaging
• Nvidia Shield – Nvidia
• Oculus Rift DK2 – Oculus VR
• PlayCanvas – PlayCanvas
• PowerVR Ray Tracing GPUs – Imagination Technologies
• Project Morpheus – Sony Computer Entertainment

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Tools – Design & Creativity

• Wwise – Audiokinetic
• Maya LT – Autodesk
• Enlighten – Geomerics
• Granite SDK – Graphine Software
• Umbra 3 Visibility Solution – Umbra Software
• Yebis 2 – Silicon Studio

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Tools – Production

• Hansoft 7.5 – Hansoft
• Marmalade Juice – Marmalade
• Perforce – Perforce
• Shotgun – Shotgun Software
• Simplygon – Donya Labs
• PS4 Developer Environment – SN Systems

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Engine

• CryEngine – Crytek
• GameMaker – YoYo Games
• Project Anarchy – Havok
• Unreal Engine 4 – Epic Games
• Unity Engine – Unity Technologies

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Services

• Audiomotion
• DeltaDNA
• Dimensional Imaging
• Engine Room Games
• Player Research
• Sperasoft
• Simplygon
• Vicon

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QA & Localisation

• Culturetranslate
• GameBench
• Keywords International
• LocalizeDirect
• Testology
• Testronic Labs
• Universally Speaking
• VMC

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Creative Contribution: Audio

• 93 Steps – War Thunder ‘Heroes’ trailer
• Walter Mair / Air Edel – Killzone: Mercenary soundtrack
• High Score Productions – War Thunder dialogue
• Pinewood Studios – Total War: Rome II
• Stafford Bawler – Monument Valley
• The Audio Guys – Forza Motorsport 5

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Creative Contribution: Visuals

• Atomhawk – Project Spark
• Axis Animation – Fable Legends trailer
• Cubic Motion – Ryse: Son of Rome
• Fireproof Studios – Killzone: Shadow Fall
• Faceware Technologies – Grand Theft Auto V
• Realtime UK – Smite trailer

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Recruiter

• Aardvark Swift
• Amiqus
• Avatar Games
• Creative Personnel
• CV Bay
• Datascope
• OPM Response
• Specialmove

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Talent Investment

• Creative Assembly
• Dare to be Digital, Abertay
• Jagex
• King
• National Film and Television School
• The Livingstone School
• Ubisoft Graduate Programme
• Wales Interactive

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Business Development

• Bossa Studios
• Eutechnyx
• Frontier Developments
• Keywords International
• nDreams
• Pitbull Studio
• Team17

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Micro Studio

• Chucklefish Games
• Guerrilla Tea
• Mudvark
• Positech Games
• Roll7
• Simon Roth
• Tom Francis
• Vlambeer

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Independent Studio

• 4A Games
• Bohemia Interactive
• Codemasters
• Crytek
• Facepunch Studios
• Quantic Dream
• Rebellion
• Wargaming

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In-House Studio

• Creative Assembly
• Media Molecule
• Press Play
• Rare
• RedLynx
• Rockstar North
• Sports Interactive
• Ubisoft Reflections

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New Studio

• Eight Pixels Square
• Force of Habit
• Formerdroid
• Grand Cru
• Modern Dream
• Scattered Entertainment
• Space Ape Games
• The Tiniest Shark

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SPECIAL AWARDS

Studio of the Year

The winner of this award will be chosen by the Develop team and announced on the night.

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Development Legend

The winner of this award will be chosen by the Develop team and announced soon.