Develop

Every July, Develop hosts the biggest night on the games industry calendar with over 500 people attending representing companies from around the world.

This year's Develop Awards take place on Wednesday July 30th. Entering its sixth year, the event is still the only completely peer-voted event rewarding the achievements of European games developers.

For 2008, we've added a brand new award recognising the achievements in the games development and education field, and also a Technical Innovation prize that acknowledges the market's continued advancement in technological competency, be that in tools, design or online.

Elsewhere, the highly contested prizes for best independent developer, best in-house developer, best tools provider and publishing hero are once again up for grabs. After debuting last year, the Visual Arts and Audio Accomplishment awards also return. And then, of course, there's the Grand Prix, which singles out the overall best achievement by a company working in Europe's booming games development field.

2007's key winners included Realtime Worlds, Kuju's Zoe Mode, Havok and Rockstar Leeds. Sony Computer Entertainment Europe took home the Grand Prix.

To lobby for a nomination (see full list of awards below), send us details of the achievements made by your studio or company in the past 12 months and which awards you want to be considered for. Mail the details through to Michael.French@intentmedia.co.uk.

The deadline for lobbying is May 15th and finalists will be announced in June.

(Please note: To be eligible, studios must be based in Europe, or at least have an office in the territory if a publisher/service/tools company. And when it comes to game releases listed in the Creativity category the eligibility period is June 1st, 2007 to May 31st 2008 - so your game has to have been released somewhere in the world between those dates.)

In 2007, over 500 games industry execs from around the world attended the event. If you'd like a ticket or table at the 2008 ceremony or are interested in our sponsorship opportunities, email Jodie.Holdway@bhpr.co.uk or call her on +44 (0)1462 456780.