Develop Brighton 2021 saw the triumphant return of the Game Dev Heroes Award Ceremony IRL; a celebration of individual accolades and an amalgamation of talent, the event shone a light on the unsung heroes and often overlooked members of our industry.

Last night we crowned our 2021 Game Dev Heroes! It was an awesome night and we’d like to say a massive thank you to everyone who attended for making it such a great night!

Thank you to everyone who has helped make it happen this year, from the huge support we’ve received from our event partners at Splash Damage, Creative Assembly, Creative England, Square Enix, Etch Play, Aardvark Swift, Games Jobs Direct, Analog 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 600 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 2021 are:

Art + Animation Hero 2021

Laura Dilloway

Lead Environment Artist, Roll7

Game Design Hero 2021

Edd Coates

UI/UX Designer, Game UI Database

Sound Hero 2021

Chel Wong

Composer & Sound Designer

Programming Hero 2021

Chris Marlow

Principal Gameplay Engineer, Rare

QA Hero 2021

Steph McStea

Production Hero 2021

Katrina Garsten

Senior Live Producer, Turtle Rock Studios

Writing + Narrative Design Hero 2021

Khaya Ahmed

Writer, FRAG Games

Marketing + Community Hero 2021

Lisa Schaeffer

Community Manager, Netspeak Games

Unsung Hero 2021

Reese Wright

Senior Producer, Robot Teddy
Founder, Save Point Social

Leadership Hero 2021

Des Gayle

Game Director, Altered Gene

Progression Advocate 2021

Leon Killin

D&I Consultant, Balance Patch
EDI Manager, Sumo Group

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.

It’s time to reveal our judging team for 2021! As with previous years, our panel is a mix of previous GDH winners and industry experts who will be helping us to find the Game Dev Heroes for 2021!

View the full list here & read all about our 2021 judges

Huge thanks also to our partners at Splash Damage, Square Enix, Creative Assembly, Etch.Play, Creative England and the Creative UK Group, plus founding partners Aardvark Swift, Analog & Games Jobs Direct. We massively appreciate their support!

We’re very excited to reveal our judging team for 2020! As ever, the panel is an amalgam of games industry expertise, stocked with previous GDH winners and all-round good people who will be helping us to find the Game Dev Heroes for 2020!

Hey everyone,

By now you may have seen the news that the Develop:Brighton conference has been rescheduled to the 2nd – 4th November 2020 has been cancelled as a physical event and will now be moving to a digital event. As one of the conference’s unofficial fringe events, we’ve now confirmed new arrangements and will also be moving the date of the Game Dev Heroes awards.

Game Dev Heroes will now take place on Monday 2nd November 2020 at Komedia in Brighton.

Update : Game Dev Heroes will no longer be held as a physical event, and the winners will be revealed online, in the week commencing 12th October

What does this change mean for you, our potential attendees?

• Air conditioning is no longer A Key Issue Of Ongoing Concern.
• Comfy Autumn/Winter outfits are now in style.
• Warm drinks with cold pals instead of cold drinks with warm pals.

Further information about the event and its delightful contents will be made available later in the year.

It is also sensible to mention that we do not know what the outside world will hold for any of us seven months into the future. If we feel there is a need for further changes to our schedule, we will continue to keep you informed.

❤️🧡💛💚💜

Hey now, how does this affect the nominations!?

The nomination period for Game Dev Heroes 2020 has been extended until June 30th 2020.

You now have an extra two months to shout about your game dev heroes; the unsung heroes of the games industry who excel at what they do and have helped to inspire, lead and support those around them.

You can find out more about the award categories
and how to nominate your heroes over at gamedevheroes.co 

❤️🧡💛💚💜

Stay safe 💜

Dan