Big night at Develop Awards

Over 500 games development execs saw 15 different winners walk home with a Develop Award last night.

The full-house ceremony in Brighton honoured the best companies working in or serving the European games development sector over the last 12 months.

Media Molecule took him five prizes – for Best New IP, Visual Arts, Technical Achievement, Best New Studio and Best Independent Developer.

Phil Harrison, who signed the studio’s LittleBigPlanet during his tenure at Sony as its head of studios, took home the Development Legend prize in acknowledgement of his contributions to the industry through a career of 20 years and counting.

Another big winners on the night was Rockstar, whose Leeds team won Best Handheld Studio while its North studio took home Best In-House Studio.

Retired agent Jacqui Lyons was also given a special Lifetime Achievement Award for representing top developers since the 1980s via her company Marjacq.

Codemasters, meanwhile, took home the Grand Prix in celebration of almost 25 years at the heart of British games development and major growth in recent years.

Other winners included Playfish, Lionhead, Autodesk, Amiqus, Side & Sidelines, Audiomotion, Traveller’s Tales and Epic Games.

Click here to see the full list of winners.

The Awards are presented with the kind support of our sponsors: Black Rock (Event Partner), Partnertrans (Exclusive Drinks Reception Partner), Babel (Development Legend Award Sponsor), Crytek (Event Partner) and Bethesda Softworks (Studio Category Sponsor).