Announcing the Develop Awards 2018 nominations shortlist

The nominations shortlist for the Develop Awards 2018 is now finalised and we’re very excited to reveal the full list. Congratulations to everyone who made it onto our streamlined list of 17 open categories for this year.

This year we’ve also tightened our entry requirements to focus on UK and European studios, games and creators, to highlight the incredible work that takes place in the region. We think you’ll agree that the lists below showcase the very best of Europe’s games development output over the last year.

We’re looking forward to seeing everyone in Brighton on Wednesday 11th July to find out the overall winners. With such a strong lineup, we don’t envy our judging panels.

On the night we’ll also be awarding two very special prizes to two true industry heroes – more on those soon. For more information on the awards, including table bookings, head over to Develop Awards 2018.

And the nominees are:

Studio Category

Major Studio
Creative Assembly
Jagex
Larian Studios
Rare
Rebellion
Splash Damage
TT Games
Ubisoft Milan and Ubisoft Paris

Indie Studio
EPOS
Fatshark
Freejam
Housemarque
Ninja Theory
Ovosonico
Runner Duck Games
ustwo Games

New Studio
Alex Rose Games
Near Light
Runner Duck Games
Sunfire Software

Studio of the Year
Creative Assembly
Larian Studios
Ninja Theory
Playdemic
Rare
Ubisoft Milan and Ubisoft Paris
ustwo Games

Creative Category

Animation
Creative Assembly – Total War: Warhammer II
Epic Games – Fortnite
Ninja Theory – Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice
Rare – Sea of Thieves
TT Games – LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 2
Ubisoft Milan and Ubisoft Paris – Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle

Visual Design
Bedtime Digital Games – Figment
Housemarque – Nex Machina
Ninja Theory – Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice
Rare – Sea of Thieves
Ubisoft Milan and Ubisoft Paris – Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle
ustwo Games – Monument Valley 2

Music Design
Creative Assembly – Total War: Warhammer II
Clever Beans and EPOS – Wipeout Omega
Housemarque – Nex Machina
Larian Studios – Divinity: Original Sin 2
Ninja Theory – Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice
Rare – Sea of Thieves
ustwo Games – Monument Valley 2

Sound Design
EA DICE – Star Wars Battlefront II
Ninja Theory – Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice
Rare Ltd – Sea of Thieves
Supermassive Games – The Inpatient
Sweet Justice Sound – Cuphead
ustwo games – Monument Valley 2
Wales Interactive – Don’t Knock Twice

Writing or Narrative Design
Bithell Games – Subsurface Circular
Failbetter Games – Sunless Skies
Larian Studios – Divinity: Original Sin 2
Nerial – Reigns: Her Majesty
Ninja Theory – Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice
Supermassive – Hidden Agenda
CtrlMovie – Late Shift

Gameplay Innovation
Climax Studios – ARise
Minit Team – Minit
Playdemic – Golf Clash
Rare – Sea of Thieves
Supermassive – Hidden Agenda
CtrlMovie – Late Shift
Wish Studios – That’s You!

Business Category

Recruitment Agency
Aardvark Swift
Amiqus
Avatar Games
Datascope Recruitment
OPM Response
Skillsearch Limited

Publishing Hero
Curve Digital
Iceberg Interactive
Merge Games
PlayStack
Team17
Wales Interactive

Services Category

QA & Localisation
Amber Studio
Jinglebell Localization
LocalizeDirect
Lollipop Robot
Player Research (a Keywords Studio)
Pole To Win
Testronic
Universally Speaking

Engine
Amazon – Lumberyard
Epic – Unreal Engine
King – Defold
Unity Technologies – Unity
YoYo – GameMaker Studio 2

Creative Outsourcer (Audio)
Nimrod
OMUK
PitStop Productions Ltd
Side
Soundcuts Ltd
Submersion Audio
Sweet Justice Sound
Todd Baker

Creative Outsourcer (Visual + Development)
Atomhawk
Cubic Motion
d3t Ltd
RealtimeUK
Red Kite Games
Talespinners
The TrailerFarm

Technology Provider
Amazon – Amazon Web Services
Audiomotion Studios
Graphine Software – Granite SDK
Improbable – SpatialOS
Multiplay
Perforce Software – Perforce
Speech Graphics – SGX
Tazman-Audio – Fabric