CD Projekt Red and Sam Barlow storm 2016 Develop Awards

The developers behind The Witcher III: Wild Hunt and Her Story have emerged as this year’s big winners at The Develop Awards.

Following a voting process by more than 90 influential industry figures, Polish studio CD Projekt Red took home four gongs tonight with The Witcher III earning the team prizes for Use of a Licence or IP and Visual Arts. The developer itself also won Independent Studio and the special Studio of the Year award, which is chosen by the Develop team.

Work on The Witcher III also spelled victory for D3T, which won Creative Outsourcer: Visual & Development for its work on the game’s PS4 port, and Side, which won Creative Outsourcer: Audio.

Sam Barlow, meanwhile, earned accolades for New Games IP – PC/Console, Use of Narrative and Micro Studio.

Other winners include Space Ape Games, The Chinese Room, Devolver Digital, Unreal Engine 4, Rocksteady, Triangular Pixels – and, of course, Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima received the biggest honour of the night: Development Legend.

The triumphant developers and service firms were handed their awards during tonight’s awards ceremony at the Hilton Brighton Metropole in front of hundreds of fellow games makers and industry representatives.

A huge thanks to all our partners this year: CV Bay, MoGi Group, Amiqus, Epic Games, Unity, Sumo Digital, Crytek, Perforce, Games London, UKIE, King, OPM, Keywords Studios, Nordeus, Aardvark Swift and Develop: Brighton.

You can find the full list of winners below: 

CREATIVITY 

New Games IP – PC/Console

Her Story – Sam Barlow 

New Games IP – Mobile

Rival Kingdoms – Space Ape Games 

Use of a Licence or IP

The Witcher III: Wild Hunt – CD Projekt Red 

Visual Arts

The Witcher III: Wild Hunt – CD Projekt Red 

Audio Accomplishment

Everybody’s Gone To The Rapture – The Chinese Room 

Use of Narrative

Her Story – Sam Barlow

TECH & SERVICES 

Design & Creativity Tool

Wwise – Audiokinetic 

Production Tool

Perforce – Perforce Software 

Engine

Unreal Engine 4 – Epic Games 

Services

Player Research 

QA & Localisation

Testology

Creative Outsourcer: Visual & Development

D3T – The Witcher III (PS4) 

Creative Outsourcer: Audio

Side – The Witcher III 

Recruiter

Amiqus 

STUDIOS 

Publishing Hero

Devolver Digital 

Micro Studio

Sam Barlow 

Independent Studio

CD Projekt Red 

In-House Studio

Rocksteady 

New Studio

Triangular Pixels 

SPECIAL AWARDS

Studio of the Year

CD Projekt Red

Development Legend

Hideo Kojima