The nominees for the Develop:Star Awards 2025 announced, with Indiana Jones and the Great Circle receiving the most nominations including Best Game.
Bethesda Softworks’ action-adventure title received six nominations, followed by Coal Supper’s Thank Goodness You’re Here with five and Newfangled Games’ Paper Trail with four.
Thank Goodness You’re Here was also nominated for Best Game alongside Still Wakes The Deep and Astro Bot.
2025 hits Split Fiction and Atomfall were also nominated, with developers Hazelight Studios and Rebellion up for Best Studio.
Coal Supper and Animal Well’s one-person dev team Shared Memory were nominated for Best Small Studio. Animal Well also featured in a new category for this year – Best Marketing Campaign.
There are two more new categories for 2025 including Best EDI Initiative and Best In-Game Accessibility.
Remedy’s Sam Lake will be this year’s recipient of The Develop Star Award.
GamesIndustry.biz recently spoke to Lake about this news, which he described as “a huge honour”. Lake also received the award for Best Creative Lead at last year’s ceremony.
Winners will be selected by an industry vote which ends on Friday, May 30.
The Develop:Star Awards 2025 will take place on Wednesday, July 9, as part of Develop:Brighton. The ceremony will be held at the Brighton Dome.
Here are the full list of nominees for the Develop:Star Awards 2025:
Best Game
- Astro Bot
- Atomfall
- Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
- Split Fiction
- Still Wakes the Deep
- Thank Goodness You’re Here
Best Studio
- Facepunch Studios
- FuturLab
- Hazelight Studios
- Larian Studios
- Rebellion
- Team Asobi
- The Chinese Room
Best Small Studio
- Coal Supper
- Cyberwave
- Newfangled Games
- Polygon Treehouse
- Shared Memory
- Spilt Milk Studios
Publishing Star
- Curve Games
- Fireshine Games
- No More Robots
- Playstack
- Raw Fury
- Secret Mode
- Team17
Best Mobile Game
- A Little to the Left
- Maid of Sker
- Monument Valley 3
- Paper Trail
- PBJ – The Musical
- Sniper Elite 4
Best Game Design
- Astro Bot
- Expelled
- Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
- Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2
- Thank Goodness You’re Here
- Two Point Museum
Best Audio
- Astrobot
- Atomfall
- Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
- Monument Valley 3
- Tales of Kenzera: Zau
- Thank Goodness You’re Here
Best Visual Art
- Dungeons of Hinterberg
- Harold Halibut
- Neva
- Paper Trail
- Songs of Silence
- Still Wakes the Deep
Best Narrative
- Closer the Distance
- Expelled
- Final Fantasy 14: Dawntrail
- Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
- Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2
- Thank Goodness You’re Here
Best Original IP
- Paper Trail
- Stellar Blade
- Still Wakes the Deep
- Thank Goodness You’re Here
- Uncle Chop’s Rocket Shop
- Vampire Therapist
Best In-Game Accessibility
- Atomfall
- Mythwrecked: Ambrosia Island
- Paper Trail
- Sea of Thieves – custom text overlay
- Silent Hill 2
- Trash Goblin
Tomorrow’s Star
- Emma Marshall-Newson, Sumo Digital
- Francesca White, Behaviour Interactive
- Gurvinder Bisran, BOM
- Marco Ng, Otterweave Game Studio
- Melodie Showell, Side
- Summer Davies, Blast
- Valeriya Lakhtikova, Dovetail Games
Best Marketing Campaign
- Animal Well
- Dungeons of Hinterberg
- Futurlab – PowerWash Simulator
- Hitman World of Assassination
- Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
- Monument Valley 3
- PlanetPlay’s Make Green Moves
Best Technical Innovation
- Astro Bot
- Code Wizards Group
- Harold Halibut
- Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
- Lego Horizon Adventures
- Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2
Supporting Star
- Coutts
- GG Insurance Services
- Green Man Gaming
- PitStop Productions
- Room 8 Group
- Side
- Tanglewood Games
- Unreal Engine
Talent and Recruitment Star
- Aardvark Swift
- Amiqus
- Datascope Recruitment
- Playground Games Recruitment Team
- Skillsearch Limited
Best EDI Initiative
- Brainspark Games
- Ensemble (part of the London Games Festival)
- Limit Break Mentorship
- Out Making Games
- Playground Games
- Women in Games
GamesIndustry.biz is a media partner for Develop:Brighton 2025.