Skip to main content

Braben Celebrates Legendary Status.

Develop honours David Braben with industry Legend Award.

5th September 2005. Cambridge, UK. David Braben, founder of one of the UK's leading independent game development studio's Frontier, scooped the prestigious Development Legend Award at the Develop Industry Excellence Awards.

In his 23 years in the industry Braben's contributions include early successes like Elite, Zarch, Virus, Frontier - all acclaimed as masterpieces of game design and programming; more recently extending the worldwide success of the RollerCoaster Tycoon® series with Chris Sawyer (also a shareholder in Frontier); creating the innovative Dog's Life on PS2 and forming a successful collaborative partnership with the UK's leading animation studio Aardman Animations to bring the much-loved multiple Oscar® winning characters of Wallace & Gromit to life in videogames, both in their 2003 outing in "Project Zoo", and the much anticipated "Curse of the Were-Rabbit" game, to be launched early next month by Konami. Braben continues to innovate both creatively and technically and is expected to soon reveal new and exciting plans for the forthcoming next generation consoles, i.e. Xbox 360, PS3 and Revolution.

David Braben commented, "It was a great honour to receive this award, and many thanks to all those that voted, and to Develop for running the awards. The award is as much for all those unseen people at Frontier and at Marjacq who have worked hard for many years to make this possible, for which I am lucky enough to take this credit. It was surprising how many people in the industry have approached me over the years with tales of how games like Elite and Frontier, have changed their lives, from missed exams to bringing them into the games industry. Long may it continue!"

Owain Bennallack, Editor of Develop added, "As someone who once lost a summer to Elite - but gained a passion in return - it was an honour to see David Braben up on stage to receive a much-deserved Developer Legend award, having just edged ahead of his two excellent fellow nominees. In an industry where burnout is commonplace and too many pioneers fall by the wayside, it's fantastic to see these illustrious veterans continuing to play such a major role today."

The event, at Kensington's Royal Garden Hotel, was attended by 350 members of the development community and was hosted by TV and radio broadcaster Krishnan Guru Murthy.

All media enquiries please contact: Alison Beasley, Lincoln Beasley PR

T: 01608 645756 M: 07966 449130 E: Alison@lincolnbeasley.co.uk

Further information on Frontier including details of current vacancies and how to apply directly can be found on Frontier's web-site, www.frontier.co.uk.

About Frontier

Bafta nominated Frontier is based in Cambridge, UK and is one of the games industry's leading independent developers, having built upon the innovative creations of founder David Braben, co-author of the seminal 'Elite'. Frontier work with a number of top publishers and is currently developing for PlayStation2, GameCube, Xbox, PC, and mobile platforms such as Pocket PC and Nokia Series 60 phones. Additionally, Frontier is developing stunning leading edge proprietary technology for the next generation of games consoles.

Frontier has a proven reputation for original game design and commercial success, and aims to revolutionise perceptions of what gaming is all about by using innovative technical and artistic approaches on all leading-edge gaming platforms. It received three BAFTA nominations and various awards for its recent console games "Dog's Life" and "Wallace & Gromit in Project Zoo", and scored a Christmas 2004 No.1 position in the USA with its RollerCoaster Tycoon® 3 PC, which has also been the recipient of various awards and a prestigious Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences nomination.

More information on Frontier can be found at www.frontier.co.uk

Read this next

GamesIndustry.biz avatar
GamesIndustry International is the world's leading games industry website, incorporating GamesIndustry.biz and IndustryGamers.com.