LittleBigPlanet dominates Develop awards

LittleBigPlanet developer Media Molecule sweeps up at this year's Develop awards

Last night saw the annual Develop awards ceremony, in which over 500 games developers gathered in Brighton to honour and recognise each other's most creative games from the last year.

Media Molecule were the stars of the night, with the LittleBigPlanet devs scooping up five prizes for Best New IP, Visual Arts, Technical Achievement, Best New Studio and Best Independent Developer.

Rockstar and ex-Sony man Phil Harrison also picked up some of the highest profile awards, with Harrison honoured as 2009's 'Development Legend' , Rockstar Leeds winning Best Handheld Studio and Rockstar North picking up the gong for Best In-House Studio.

Britsoft stalwarts

Finally, Britsoft stalwarts Codemasters, developers of the superb racing games Colin McRae: DIRT and Race Driver: GRID, picked up the 2009 Grand Prix Award – given to the company felt by Develop magazine to have contributed the most to games in the last year.

"We are honoured to receive the Develop Grand Prix Award. It's a testament to the creativity, technical expertise and hard work from everyone at Codemasters," said Gavin Cheshire, VP Development, Codemasters.

"We've strengthened our business to take advantage of the changing landscape of games development. With DiRT, GRID and Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising we've turned long-standing IPs in to multi-award winning, reinvigorated and successful franchises. In the EGO Engine, we've created award-winning multi-genre, multi format technology. With FORMULA ONE we are creating new gaming benchmarks for the world's most exciting motor sport. We've grown our Studios operation, adding Guildford and Birmingham sites to our long-established Warwickshire facility. We have continued to attract the best people and they're creating brand new titles - the best is yet to come."