MCV/DEVELOP News, events, research and jobs from the games industry
The ninth annual Develop Industry Excellence Awards is just around the corner, with more than 90 studios competing for top honours at the July 20th event in Brighton.
In the run up to the big night, Develop is running a series of profiles of all the nominees in each category.
We start here with the finalists for New IP. To be eligible, a studio will need to be based in Europe and have built a new intellectual property since July 2010.
The final choices, chosen by Develop’s editorial team, are found below. The ultimate winner will be decided by a 100-person-strong judging panel of industry pros, and announced at the awards show on July 20th.
To watch the event live, email Kathryn.humprey@intentmedia.co.uk to book your seat.
NEW IP
Enslaved (Ninja Theory)
A beautiful, broken-down future America was the setting for Ninja Theory’s exceptionally well crafted post-apocalyptic adventure Enslaved. Co-written by in-vogue scribe Alex Garland and featuring Andy ‘Gollum’ Serkis, the game is a brilliant sci-fi reinterpretation of the classical Chinese story Journey to the West.
Kinect Sports (Rare)
The way in which the Microsoft motion sensing kit was so warmly welcomed by the international community was aided in no small part by Rare’s excellent Kinect Sports, a rare example of an exceptionally well designed and enjoyable game that falls within the difficult remit of being ‘fun for the whole family’.
Kinectimals (Frontier Developments)
The sheer cuteness of the boggle-eyed creatures populating Frontier’s wonderful Kinectimals is worthy of an award in itself, but the skill evident in crafting such a complete and engaging experience for the game’s audience lifted that cuteness and brought it easily onto the 2011 awards finalists list.
Bulletstorm (People Can Fly)
That FPS titles are dime-a-dozen in the modern industry should only reinforce the impressiveness of Bulletstorm’s appearance here tonight. People Can Fly has injected the genre with such loveable toilet humour and confident design ethics that the process of shooting waves of vile baddies is not only fun, but cool again.
Brink (Splash Damage)
Splash Damage’s ‘mingleplayer’ FPS Brink is an inventive and exciting presence this year. Attempting to mould the single, multi and online shooter experiences into one seamless sci-fi team-based shooter, it has shaken up the notion of what a triple-A title can be, and has rightly caught the attention of the entire industry.
