There was a point where we considered not having a Game Dev Heroes this year. I’m very glad we were able to go ahead. For many people, ourselves included, it’s really helped to celebrate the positivity and work that’s kind of just holding everything together. It has been an honour and a pleasure to read through all of this year’s nominations, seeing the warmth, love and appreciation you have for the work of your peers and colleagues across the games industry.
Thank you to everyone who has helped make it happen this year, from the huge support we’ve received from our event partners at Creative Assembly, No Brakes Games, EPOS, Etch Play, Aardvark Swift, Games Jobs Direct, the tireless work from our team of judges, and of course the several hundred of you that sent in nominations for your game dev heroes.
We received almost 700 nominations this year and creating the final shortlists was no easy task, let alone choosing the winners. There are a huge amount of talented and valued people working across the games industry, far more than appear in just our list, so it’s a privilege that we can bring more attention to many of those people behind the games we all love.
With so many nominations this year, the shortlists this year were packed with amazing people, genuinely causing a lot of tough decisions for our judges. For many of the categories it was close right up to the final votes.
And so… the winners of Game Dev Heroes 2020 are:
Art + Animation Hero 2020
Loukia Kyriakidou
Artist & Character Designer
Game Design Hero 2020
Fawzi Mesmar
Head of Design, EA DICE
Sound Hero 2020
Jade Leamcharaskul
Composer & Sound Designer
Programming Hero 2020
Laure De Mey
Programmer at ustwo Games
QA Hero 2020
Holly Gordon
Associate Producer, Rocksteady Studios
Production Hero 2020
Sally Morgan-Moore
Producer, No Brakes Games
Writing + Narrative Design Hero 2020
Olivia Wood
Writer, Narrative Designer & Editor, Failbetter Games
Marketing + Community Hero 2020
Oliver Hindle
Community Director, Mediatonic
Unsung Hero 2020
Ian Hamilton
Accessibility Consultant
Leadership Hero 2020
Richard Semmens
Technical Director, Rare Ltd
Progression Advocate 2020
Marina Díez
CEO, 3ofCups Games
Outstanding Contribution
Craig Duncan
Studio Head, Rare Ltd
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.