Rockstar North win big at Develop Awards

Games development stars from around the UK and Europe descended upon Brighton tonight to honour the winners of this year’s Develop Industry Excellence Awards.

More than 175 companies attended the event – the biggest attendance yet for these awards.The expanded array of 25 prizes went to 20 different companies, with Rockstar North the big winners of the night.

The Grand Theft Auto developer took home the special Studio of the Year prize – one of five new categories – as well as Visual Arts and In-House Studio. There was an extra gong for the seminal GTA V, with Faceware Technologies bagging the award for Creative Contribution: Visuals thanks to its work on Rockstar’s epic.

The full list of winners can be seen below.

Sony also fared well, with the platform holder and its studios picking up two awards – Publishing Hero and New IP (for Media Molecule’s Tearaway) – as well as the Development Legend award for PS4 lead architect Mark Cerny, as announced earlier in the summer.

There were also a few surprises on the night, most notably the special Services to Video Games prize, which was awarded to Lynne Kilpatrick for her hard work in pushing for the UK video games tax credits.

Other winners included Oculus VR, EA DICE, TT Games, Unity, Team17, Vlambeer, Space Ape Games and Abertay University’s Dare to be Digital.

DEVELOP AWARDS 2014: THE WINNERS

NEW GAMES IP

Tearaway – Media Molecule

USE OF A LICENCE OR IP

LEGO Marvel Super Heroes – TT Games

VISUAL ARTS

Grand Theft Auto V – Rockstar North

AUDIO ACCOMPLISHMENT

Battlefield 4 – EA DICE

MUSICAL COMPOSITION

‘Noise Pulse’ (from TxK) – Jamie Hamshere

USE OF NARRATIVE

Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons – Starbreeze Studios

PUBLISHING HERO

SCE Strategic Content

TECHNICAL INNOVATION

Oculus Rift DK2 – Oculus VR

TOOLS – DESIGN & CREATIVITY

Maya LT – Autodesk

TOOLS – PRODUCTION

Perforce – Perforce Software

ENGINE

Unity Engine – Unity Technologies

SERVICE

Player Research

QA & LOCALISATION

Testology

CREATIVE CONTRIBUTION: AUDIO

Stafford Bawler – Monument Valley

CREATIVE CONTRIBUTION: VISUALS

Faceware Technologies – Grand Theft Auto V

RECRUITER

OPM Response

TALENT INVESTMENT

Dare To Be Digital – Abertay University

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

Team17

MICRO STUDIO

Vlambeer

INDEPENDENT STUDIO

Bohemia Interactive

IN-HOUSE STUDIO

Rockstar North

NEW STUDIO

Space Ape Games

SPECIAL AWARDS

STUDIO OF THE YEAR

Rockstar North

DEVELOPMENT LEGEND

Mark Cerny

SERVICES TO VIDEO GAMES

Lynne Kilpatrick

A big thanks to our event partners: Crytek and Deep Silver (Platinum Partners); Perforce, Unity, Amiqus, Ukie, Keywords, Codemasters, King and Cubic Motion (Gold Partners); Unreal Technologies (Drinks Reception Partner); Wales Interactive, InnoGames, Universally Speaking and Tandem Events (Event Partners); and OPM Recruitment (Table Gift Partner).