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."
THE WINNERS IN FULL:
CREATIVITY
Best New IP
LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule)
Best Use of a Licence
Lego Batman (Traveller's Tales)
Visual Arts
LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule)
Audio Accomplishment
Fable II (Lionhead)
Publishing Hero
Apple
TECHNOLOGY & SERVICES
Technical Innovation
LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule)
Best Tools Provider
Autodesk
Best Engine
Unreal Engine 3 (Epic Games)
Recruitment Company
Amiqus
Services
Audiomotion
Creative Outsourcing
Side & Sidelines
STUDIOS
Best New Studio
Media Molecule
Best Handheld Games Studio
Rockstar Leeds
Business Development
Playfish
Best Independent Developer
Media Molecule
Best In-House Team
Rockstar North
SPECIAL RECOGNITION
Development Legend
Phil Harrison
Lifetime Achievement Award
Jacqui Lyons
Grand Prix
Codemasters
Via Develop
