Develop Awards get Gamecity:Hamburg backing

Gamecity:Hamburg, the trade body representing studios in Germany’s second-largest city, has signed up as event partner for this year’s Develop Awards.

The Develop Industry Excellence Awards, to be held July 20th, will present 21 awards to the best few studios among some 100 nominees.

Over 550 games development professionals attended the Brighton event last year. To book your place at the 2011 awards contact Kathryn.Humphrey@intentmedia.co.uk.

An early bird discount, where you can save as much as 700 on table bookings, closes Wednesday June 15th.

The finalists have now been confirmed (see full list here), with 95 firms in total in the running. They hail from nine different countries, with 28 different games represented.

The overall finalists list is incredibly varied, with small indie teams, larger in-house studios, growing independents and format holders all out in full force.

Sony and Xbox have the most finalist slots, with their games and studios taking six nominations each.

In fact, the pair’s rival hardware – PlayStation Move and Kinect – go head-to-head in the technical innovation category. Key technology in both originated at the companies’ respective R&D centres in London and Cambridge.

Elsewhere Epic Games scores five nominations; three for Unreal Engine 3, and two for its Polish studio People Can Fly’s Bulletstorm.

Other companies with multiple nods include Rovio Mobile (creator of Angry Birds) with three nominations, and indie hit Minecraft and its creator Mojang Specifications scoring four nominations.

Over 150 outfits of all shapes and sizes – from one man micro studios up to 300+ sized teams – lobbied throughout April to be considered for the development sector’s most prestigious awards ceremony.

The Develop Industry Excellence Awards are the only awards designed to reward the creative, commercial and innovative work done by European studios and the firms that support them.

Now, our panel of 100 games development execs from around the world will vote on the winners.

But the victorious studios will only be named on the night of the ceremony itself, July 20th. The event takes place at the Hilton Metropole Hotel, Brighton.

Contact Kathryn.Humphrey@intentmedia.co.uk or call 01992 535 646 to attend.

The event is sponsored by Crytek (Platinum Sponsor), Amiqus (Gold sponsor), Supermassive Games (Gold Sponsors), Nova Scotia Business (Gold sponsor), Eurogamer (After-Party Partner), Imagination Studios (Drinks Reception Sponsor), OPM Jobs (Table Gift Partner) and Babel Media (Development Legend Award Partner).

More sponsorship opportunities are available – contact Alex.Boucher@intentmedia.co.uk.