The winners of Game Dev Heroes 2019

It’s only been a year but it feels like we’ve come a very long way from that tiny awards event taking place in a small room above a pub. Last night we saw hundreds of people coming together to recognise and celebrate the work of their peers and colleagues across the games industry.
Thank you to everyone who has helped make it such a success this year, from the huge support we’ve received from our event partners, the tireless work from our team of judges, and of course the many hundreds of you that sent in nominations for your game dev heroes.
We were massively impressed with both the strength and number of nominations this year, and creating the final shortlists was no easy task. There are so many talented and valued people working behind the scenes in games, and it’s been a genuine pleasure to hold something like Game Dev Heroes, where we can bring more attention to the people behind the games we all love.
Everyone who was nominated is a winner here, but paradoxically we also have to narrow that down to our 11 category winners. The shortlists this year were packed with amazing people, genuinely causing a lot of tough decisions for our judges. Go and read through those shortlists. These are some of the greatest people working in games right now.
And so… the winners of Game Dev Heroes 2019 are:
Art + Animation Hero 2019
Amy Pearson
Lead/Senior Artist, Mediatonic
Game Design Hero 2019
Shelley Preston
Senior Designer, Rare
Sound Hero 2019
David Garcia Diaz
Audio Lead, Ninja Theory
Programming Hero 2019
Alex Darby
QA Hero 2019
Abby Flores
QA Technician, UsTwo Games
Production Hero 2019
Caoimhe Roddy
Writing + Narrative Design Hero 2019
Jon Ingold
Narrative Director / Co-Founder, Inkle
Marketing + Community Hero 2019
Hannah Flynn
Communications Director, Failbetter Games
Unsung Hero 2019
Annie Clare
Studio Coordinator, PlayStation London Studio
Leadership Hero 2019
Lily Zhu
Art Lead, Splash Damage
Progression Advocate 2019
Chella Ramanan
Outstanding Contribution
Tara Saunders
Director of Studio Operations, PlayStation London Studio
Thank you and congratulations to everyone, from all of us at Game Dev Heroes. We’ll be looking at our winners in more depth soon, showing you just why they mean so much to people, and why they have truly deserved their awards.