Press release -
Develop:Star Awards 2025 Winners Announced
Wednesday 9 July: The winners of the Develop:Star Awards 2025, hosted at the Brighton Dome last night during Develop:Brighton, have been revealed.
The Develop:Star Awards, sponsored by Unreal Engine, saw winners crowned in 17 categories before this year’s Develop Star Award recipient, Remedy Entertainment’s Sam Lake, was celebrated for his contributions to the video game industry.
It was a big night for Coal Supper, with Thank Goodness You’re Here! taking home Best Original IP, Best Narrative, and the coveted Best Game award. Meanwhile Team ASOBI won two awards for Astro Bot: Best Game Design and Best Technical Innovation.
Elsewhere, Atomfall developer Rebellion won Best Studio and the brand-new Best In-Game Accessibility. Best Small Studio went to Spilt Milk Studios, and Publishing Star went to Balatro publisher Playstack.
The brand-new Best EDI Initiative category was won by Limit Break Mentorship, with the other new award this year, Best Marketing Campaign, won by Futurlab for PowerWash Simulator.
ustwo games took home Best Mobile Game for Monument Valley 3, while MachineGames won Best Audio for Indiana Jones and the Great Circle.
The full list of winners is below:
- Best Game Design: Astro Bot | Team ASOBI | Sony Interactive Entertainment
- Best Original IP: Thank Goodness You’re Here! | Coal Supper | Panic Inc.
- Best Visual Art: Still Wakes the Deep | The Chinese Room | Secret Mode
- Best Audio: Indiana Jones and the Great Circle | MachineGames | Bethesda Softworks
- Best Technical Innovation: Astro Bot | Team ASOBI | Sony Interactive Entertainment
- Best Narrative: Thank Goodness You’re Here! | Coal Supper | Panic Inc.
- Supporting Star: Unreal Engine
- Best EDI Initiative: Limit Break Mentorship
- Best Marketing Campaign: PowerWash Simulator | FuturLab
- Talent & Recruitment Star: Playground Games
- Best In-Game Accessibility: Atomfall | Rebellion | Rebellion
- Tomorrow’s Star: Valeriya Lakhtikova | Dovetail Games
- Publishing Star: Playstack
- Best Mobile Game: Monument Valley 3 | ustwo games | Netflix Games, ustwo games
- Best Game: Thank Goodness You’re Here! | Coal Supper | Panic Inc.
- Best Small Studio: Spilt Milk Studios
- Best Studio: Rebellion
- The Develop Star Award: Sam Lake | Remedy Entertainment
“The Develop:Star Awards give much deserved recognition to the amazing people behind the best games released in the last year,” said Andy Lane, Tandem Events Managing Director.
“The Develop Star Awards ceremony isn’t just an evening for us to gather and celebrate the nominees, it’s a place to celebrate the games industry as a whole. We’d love to thank everyone involved, our sponsors, everyone in attendance, the nominees, winners, and all those who helped make this event possible.”
The finalists in each competitive category were selected by an expert panel of judges, with the winners decided by an industry vote open to previous Develop:Brighton delegates.
The Develop:Star Awards 2025 were supported by headline sponsor Unreal Engine, drinks reception sponsor Hangar13, and individual award sponsors Amiqus and GamesIndustry.biz.
The Develop:Star Awards will return next year on Wednesday 15 July during Develop:Brighton 2026, which will be taking place on 14-16 July.
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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 17 categories, plus one ‘Develop Star’ honouring an extraordinary game developer or studio for outstanding achievements and contributions to the industry.
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 this year’s conference will cover all the hot topics for game makers in 2025. 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.
X: @developconf
BlueSky: developconference.com
LinkedIn: Develop:Brighton
Instagram: developbrighton
TikTok: @developconf
