The largest conference and expo for the video game industry in the United Kingdom, the Develop:Brighton conference, just wrapped up today, July 16th. During D:B, they hold the Develop:Star Awards, an award show meant to recognize games and talents in the industry that distinguished themselves during the past year. This year’s D:S Awards were held on July 15th, meaning that the categories, their nominees, and the award winners have been announced and shortlisted.
The biggest winner of the evening was Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, not only being a nominee in multiple categories, but winning three awards for Best Audio, Best Narrative, and, most importantly, Best Game of 2026. Other games from indie developers were also recognized during the award show, with Blue Prince (Dogubomb Games) winning Best Game Design, PEAK (Aggro Crab Studios) winning Best Original IP, and Dispatch (AdHoc Studios) winning Best Marketing Campaign, an uncommon category to be recognized. More high-budget games were also recognized, like Ghost of Yotei (Sucker Punch Productions) winning Best Visual Art and DOOM: The Dark Ages (id Software) winning Best In-Game Accessibility.
Aside from games, some companies and individuals were given awards during the event. For example, Frontier Developments won the award for Best Studio, with the company’s commercial success and continued investment into development teams being cited as reasons for the award. Sony Interactive Entertainment was also recognized with the Publishing Star award, given for their support of in-house titles and third-party releases like Ghost of Yotei and Death Stranding 2: On the Beach.
When looking at the whole list of award winners, UK companies performed quite well. Aside from Frontier Developments, UK developers and organizations like IO Interactive, Jagex, Into Games, and Dead Nice Studio were all recognized during the show as well. The next Develop:Star Awards is set to take place next year, during Develop:Brighton 2027.
Here is a full list of award winners:
| Award | Winner |
|---|---|
| Best Game | Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 |
| Best Visual Art | Ghost of Yōtei |
| Best Narrative | Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 |
| Best Game Design | Blue Prince |
| Best Audio | Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 |
| Best Original IP | PEAK |
| Best In-Game Accessibility | DOOM: The Dark Ages |
| Best Marketing Campaign | Dispatch |
| Best EDI Initiative | Into Games – Boost |
| Supporting Star | Dead Nice Studio |
| Talent & Recruitment Star | IO Interactive – Talent Recruitment Team |
| Publishing Star | Sony Interactive Entertainment |
| Tomorrow’s Star | Nicole Gregory (Jagex) |
| Best Studio | Frontier Developments |