Winners will be announced on Wednesday 10 July during Develop:Brighton 2024
Entries for this year’s Develop:Star Awards are now open. Hosted during Develop:Brighton 2024, the awards will take place on Wednesday 10 July.
Entries can be submitted across 22 categories until 12pm on Wednesday 3 April. Further details on the submissions process are available here
“The Develop:Star Awards 2024 will see the game developer community come together to celebrate the success of outstanding games from the past 12 months and will recognise the talented companies and individuals that made them possible,” says Andy Lane, Managing Director at Tandem Events.
This year’s Develop:Star Awards will see the introduction of two new awards: Supporting Star and Best Creative Lead.
The Best Creative Lead focuses on recognising the achievements of an outstanding individual in a creative leadership position, within a game development team. Whilst Supporting Star award will recognise the work done by companies in law, accountancy, communications, banking or production that have helped developers thrive and achieve commercial success.
The qualifying period for all submissions is from 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024.
Further details are below for each of the 22 award categories now open for nominations:
- Best Visual Art
Recognising a game which demonstrates exceptional achievement in visual art and/or animation – across all genres and platforms. - Best Narrative
Rewarding a team who have far exceeded expectation in their storytelling to create an outstanding player experience, through innovative or ground-breaking writing – across all genres and platforms. - Best Game Design
This award recognises a team responsible for exceptional and creative game design via the use of controls, level design, pacing and mechanics – across all genres and platforms. - Best Audio
Rewarding a game that demonstrates distinction in the use of sound or music to improve player experience – across all genres and platforms. - Best Original IP
This award will recognise the creation of the best new intellectual property – across all genres and platforms. - Best Technical Innovation
The award which recognises technological innovation in the video game space. This could be a pioneering gameplay experience, a breakthrough new development technique, inventive hardware or anything showing true innovation across all genres and platforms. - Diversity Star
This award celebrates an individual who has shown a commitment to promoting diversity and inclusivity within the games industry.
- Marketing Star
Recognising a UK-based individual, in-house team or external agency that has shown outstanding achievement in promoting a game – including marketing, PR, influencer relations and community development. - Best QA and Localisation Provider
Recognising the organisation that has provided the highest quality of service and contributed the most to usability, testing and localisation within the game developer community. - Best Creative Provider
This award recognises the organisation that has provided exceptional audio assets (voice acting, music or sound effects) or visual assets (porting or creating sections of the game) for the game developer community. - Best Technology Provider
For this award we’ll be rewarding the organisation that has provided outstanding hardware and/or technological support for UK game developers. This could include third party engines, motion capture tools, dev kits or microprocessors. - Supporting Star
This award champions those companies that work with developers to share their understanding of the sector and have provided exceptional support to enable them to thrive and prosper. - Talent Development Star
Recognising an in-house team that has shown outstanding policies and initiatives, and produced impressive results in successfully recruiting, retaining and developing talent within their team. - Recruitment Star
Recognising an external organisation that has shown outstanding policies and initiatives, and produced impressive results in successfully recruiting new team members for development studios. - Best Mobile Game
This award will be given to the game that offers the best overall player experience on a mobile phone or tablet. - Sustainability Star
Recognising an individual, team or company that has put in place significant changes to the way their studio or company works to reduce impact and be more sustainable. - Tomorrow’s Star
The Tomorrow's Star award will recognise the achievements of new talent in the games industry. Nominees should be below senior management or director level. - Best Creative Lead
Recognising the achievements of an outstanding individual working as a Creative Director or equivalent creative leadership position within a game development team. - Publishing Star
Recognising an organisation that has shown outstanding support helping developers get their game published. This can include via funding, discoverability, research or anything else that helped secure a successful route to market for new games. - Best Game
Rewarding the game that stands out above all others in terms of gameplay, storytelling, art style, character development, creativity and overall player experience – across all genres and platforms. - Best Small Studio
This award will go to a studio with ten or fewer employees who’ve achieved exceptional critical and commercial success during the qualifying period. - Best Studio
This award celebrates any studio with five or more employees who’ve achieved exceptional critical and commercial success during the qualifying period.
The Develop:Star Awards 2023 saw PlayStation exclusive God of War Ragnarök pick up Best Game, Best Narrative and Best Audio. Roll7 was crowned Best Studio, while Dredge developer Black Salt Games won Best Small Studio. Sumo Digital were awarded the inaugural Talent Development Star, and a Special Recognition Award was given to Dr Jo Twist OBE.
In addition to the 22 categories the awards will be headlined by The Develop Star Award, which will once again honour outstanding achievements and contributions to the industry from and individual or studio.
Previous winners included last year’s recipient Guerilla Games, Team17’s founder and CEO Debbie Bestwick MBE, and Arkane Lyon Studio & Co-Creative Director Dinga Bakaba.
This year’s Develop:Star Award recipient will be announced in due course.
Submitted entries will be judged by a panel of industry experts, who will whittle them down into the final shortlists. These will be announced in the Spring ahead of an industry vote to determine the winners in each category.
For more information on The Develop:Star Awards and how to submit nominations, please visit: https://www.developconference.com/awards
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About The Develop:Star Awards
Taking place alongside the conference, the Develop:Star Awards recognise the very best of the game development community. The achievements of developers and success of great games and creativity will be celebrated across 22 categories, plus one ultimate ‘Develop Star’ honouring an extraordinary game developer or studio for outstanding achievements and contributions to the industry.
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About Develop:Brighton conference & expo
Develop:Brighton brings together the entire UK game dev industry to learn from each other, share ideas and experiences, network, and do business in a friendly and inclusive environment. The event also offers high quality conference sessions - from the industries brightest minds and talents - with practical takeaways that allow delegates to ‘skill-up’ and be inspired to make better games.
With a programme shaped to reflect attendees’ feedback and hot topics for game makers in 2024 (including AI generated content, discoverability & player acquisition, monetisation and narrative design) the Expo brings together some of the most innovative companies from every sector of games development. Guests can also keep up-to date with the latest dev tools/tech and get hands on with all the games on display.
Develop:Brighton offers three days of insight, inspiration, networking and fun on England’s south coast.
