DEVELOP AWARDS: Perry to receive Legend honour

Earthworm Jim creator and Gaikai visionary David Perry is to be honoured with the Development Legend award at the July 11th Develop Industry Excellence Awards.

Perry will receive the award for the impact he has made on the games industry during his three decades in the business. Having previously created over 100 titles across 29 platforms, he also formed Shiny Entertainment, which he later sold to Atari.

Perry worked on numerous major console games, before directing his attentions to the online space. Most recently he has led cloud streaming service Gaikai. Perry began developing commercial games as a teenager, and is consistently positioned as one of the most influential forces in the industry.

"A truly progressive developer who started coding games as a kid in the UK, David’s career has touched every topic and theme of the business that matters: coding, design, publishing, distribution, licensing, creating original content, working with brands, free-to-play, online gaming, writing, cloud gaming and supporting students," said Develop and MCV editor-in-chief Michael French.

"Over the last 30 years he’s had multiple number one hits in his career, and the games and services he has devised or worked on have set the bar for many that followed. We look forward to welcoming him on stage this July to collect his much-deserved honour."

"I’m incredibly flattered by this award," said Perry in response. "I’m from Great Britain and have incredible respect for the people that have been recognised in previous years. My mother is going to be blown away; she thought she was buying me that first Sinclair ZX81 to do homework on."

Perry, who began developing commercial games as a teenager, is one of the longest serving members of the Game Developer’s Conference Advisory Board, and is a popular speaker at events and universities across the globe including TED and MIT.

Now in their tenth year, the Develop Industry Excellence Awards will once again take place in Brighton at the Hilton Metropole Hotel, on the evening of July 11th.

20 awards are up for grabs for studios across Europe. This year we also introduce two new awards categories: Narrative Design and Use of Online. To book tickets contact Kathryn.Humphrey@intentmedia.co.uk.
www.developawards.com