The Develop Awards 2018: All the winners!

Wow, what a night.

The Develop Awards 2018 certainly won’t be forgotten for a long time to come. While the country as a whole might have lost, we had 17 brilliant and deserving winners, plus two very, very special guests.

While England may have struggled to move up through the gears in the second half, the Develop Awards leapt into life in its own second period. The new streamlined format meant the winners came thick-and-fast, as our waistcoated host, “It seemed like a good idea three hours ago,” Ellie Gibson kept up the pace and lightened the mood.

The big winners, apart from Croatia, were Ninja Theory, winning four awards for Indie Studio (the judging period occurred before Microsoft’s acquisition), Studio of the Year, Music Design and Writing or Narrative Design; while Ubisoft Milan & Ubisoft Paris picked up two awards for Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle in the Animation and Visual Design categories.

Then we had two industry heavyweights being honoured. Jade Raymond received our inaugural Vanguard Award, while Shuhei Yoshida rounded the night off receiving his Develop Legend award.

A huge thank you to all of our sponsors, without whom this event wouldn’t have been possible: Aardvark Swift, Amiqus, Edge, Jagex, OPM, PTW, Rare, Universally Speaking and Xsolla. Plus a big thanks to our event partner Develop:Brighton and to our charity partner GamesAid.

Congratulations to all of our winners, voted for by the industry, on their awards.

STUDIO CATEGORY

Major Studio – supported by AMIQUS: Creative Assembly

Indie Studio – supported by Xsolla: Ninja Theory

New Studio – supported by JAGEX: Runner Duck Games

Studio of the Year – supported by EDGE: Ninja Theory

CREATIVE CATEGORY

Animation: Ubisoft Milan & Ubisoft Paris – Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle

Visual Design: Ubisoft Milan & Ubisoft Paris – Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle

Music Design: Ninja Theory – Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice

Sound Design – supported by POLE TO WIN: EA DICE – Star Wars Battlefront II

Writing or Narrative Design: Ninja Theory – Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice

Gameplay Innovation: Supermassive – Hidden Agenda

BUSINESS CATEGORY

Recruitment Agency: Amiqus

Publishing Hero: Team17

SERVICES CATEGORY

QA & Localisation: Testronic

Engine: Epic – Unreal

Creative Outsourcer (Audio): Soundcuts

Creative Outsourcer (Visual + Development): RealtimeUK

Technology Provider: Amazon – Amazon Web Services

Having heavily revamped the awards this year, we’re in a great place for next year’s event, and we’re looking forward to seeing you all in 2019. Have a great day at Develop:Brighton and a safe journey home.