Develop Awards Nominees Announced

SPOnG loves the Develop Conference in Brighton. What better excuse to spend a couple of days messing around by the seaside with the cream of the world’s creative gaming talent. So it’s nice to see the just-announced list of nominees for the Develop Industry Excellence Awards (last years awards pictured right and below) to be held on Wednesday July 25th 2007 at the Hilton Metropole, Brighton

Newcomers Realtime Worlds (Crackdown) lead the pack with seven nominations, the most ever for one developer in the event’s five-year history - nominated in the New Console/PC IP; Visual Arts; Audio Accomplishment, Best Use of Online, Innovation; New UK/European Studio and Independent Developer categories.

Evolution Studios (MotorStorm), Rare (Viva Pinata), SCEE Studio Liverpool (Formula One Championship Edition) and Introversion (Defcon) also boast three nominations each.

The awards are voted for by a panel of 100 industry experts or “industry cognoscenti” as the press release so royally dubs them and is sponsored by Codemasters, NCsoft and Nvidia. Here’s the full list of nominations:

CATEGORY: Creativity

New console/PC IP
Just Cause (Avalanche)
Crackdown (Realtime Worlds)
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. (GSC Game World)
Viva Pinata (Rare)
MotorStorm (Evolution, SCEE External Development)
Red Steel (Ubisoft France)

New handheld/mobile IP
Crush (Zoe Mode)
Zendoku (Zoonami)
B-Boy (FreeStyleGames, SCEE External Development)
Galaxy on Fire (Fishlabs)
Thrillville (Frontier)

Best Use of a Licence
Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy (Traveller’s Tales)
Burger King games (Blitz games)
The Fast and the Furious (Eutechnyx)
Who Wants to be a Millionaire (Climax)
Pirates of the Caribbean (Eurocom)

Visual Arts
Rare (Viva Pinata)
Realtime Worlds (Crackdown)
Evolution (MotorStorm)
SCEE Studio Liverpool (F1 Championship Edition)
Ubisoft France (Montpelier) (Rayman Raving Rabbids)

Audio Accomplishment
Eidos Hungary (Battlestations Midway)
Creative Assembly (Medieval II Total War)
Freestyle Games (B-Boy)
Introversion (Defcon)
Realtime Worlds (Crackdown)
Deadline Games (Chili Con Carnage)

Publishing hero
Codemasters
Microsoft
Sony
Eidos
Sega


CATEGORY: Technology and Services
[b]
Best Use of Online[/b]
Introversion (Defcon)
Realtime Worlds (Crackdown)
Eden Studios (Test Drive Unlimited)
SCEE Studio Liverpool (F1 Championship Edition)
Opera (Wii/DS web browser Nintendo)

Innovation
SCEE Technology Group (SCE MultiStream audio engine)
Sumo Digital/Sheffield Hallam University (Super Rub-a-Dub water simulation)
Realtime Worlds (Crackdown)
Ideaworks3D (Airplay middleware)

Tools provider
Kynogon
Havok
Autodesk
Epic Games
Perforce
NaturalMotion

Services & outsourcing
Babel
Side UK
Audiomotion
Air Studios
Escape Studios
Image Metrics

Recruitment company
Day One
Amiqus
OPM
Prospero
Datascope
Specialmove

[b]
CATEGORY: Studios[/b]

New UK/European Studio
FreeStyle Games
Avalanche
Shadow Light Games
Realtime Worlds
Zoonami
Cohort Studios

Handheld/mobile games studio
Exient
Rebellion
Distinctive Developments
Rockstar Leeds
Rockpool Games
Full Fat
[b]
Business development[/b]
Blitz
Relentless
Instinct
Kuju
Rebellion
EA UK

In-house developer
Rockstar Leeds
SCEE Studio Liverpool
Ubisoft France
Rare
EA DICE

Independent Developer
Relentless
Traveller’s Tales
Evolution
Introversion
Sumo Digital
Realtime Worlds

[b]
SPECIAL INDUSTRY RECOGNITION AWARDS[/b]

[b]Development Legend

Grand Prix[/b]

Winners for these awards to be announced on the night.