That’s right! We’re releasing a beta of LittleBigPlanet™ PS Vita for European and North American regions to sink their teeth into. We want you to take our lovely project and tear it to pieces! Play, Create and Share your way through this delicious chunk of our game and tell us what you think. We want our favourite testers (that’s you!), to help us make our wonderful adventure even betterer than it already is.

Head on over to LittleBigPlanet.com and follow the instructions there to sign up for a chance to participate.

Us lot at Double Eleven, and our cohorts at Tarsier Studios, are bubbling with excitement to see what you lovely community folk come up with during this Beta, so make sure you Create like you’ve never Created before. Show us the amazing things you can do with our new gadgets and gizmos!

“We were absolutely delighted to win the award. We pride ourselves on the technical abilities of our team, and achieving a result above leading pharmaceutical and web technology companies is a testament to our skillset across the wider industry” said Mark South, Chief of Operations.

The NE Business Awards, currently in their 13th year represent the region’s biggest and most prestigious business competition that highlights and rewards the success of the most outstanding firms over the last 12 months. Companies from all sectors were eligible to compete and as such Double Eleven faced strong competition for the Science and Technology honours, as the awards attracted over 280 entrants.

Kimberley Turner, FD said “Overall we are were absolutely delighted with our results at the annual awards. We walked away with Newcomer, Small Business and Science and Technology company of the year in Tees Valley, as well as Science and Technology company of the year for the entire region.”

“We were absolutely delighted at winning three separate awards, Lee and the others who began this company from his loft took a huge risk and got us to where we are today. In less than two short years we are a business with a sustainable competitive advantage in the industry. The business is led by a strong management team and powered by a highly technical development team giving us a unique position in the industry’s global value chain’” said Kimberley Turner, finance director of Double Eleven.

The NE Business Awards, currently in their 13th year represent the region’s biggest and most prestigious business competition that highlights and rewards the success of the most outstanding firms over the last 12 months. Companies from all sectors were eligible to compete and as such Double Eleven faced strong competition for the honours, as the awards attracted over 280 entrants.

Jason Fitzpatrick of Virgin Money, sponsors of the Newcomer of the Year award, said on the night: “Double Eleven delivers an exciting product that delights its customers in its quality and creative design. They have spotted their niche in the market, do things that are a bit different and believe in themselves. We wish them well for an exciting future.”

Prof Cliff Hardcastle, Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Teesside University who sponsored the Science & Technology award, said “It’s fantastic to see such a young and dynamic technology company – founded and led by a Teesside graduate – performing so well. This is testament to the fact that Tees Valley has the talent, the ideas and the people to deliver real business success.”

Stephen Catchpole, Tees valley Unlimited’s managing director said;

“Double Eleven are a shining example of the skill, ambition and ingenuity that we have right here in Tees Valley.

They have shown how it is possible to not only operate but excel in an international market and are promoting the very best of Teesside across the highly competitive digital sector.

“This recognition holds them up as leaders in their field and as true ambassadors for the area.”

Lee Hutchinson, CEO said “Given the state of the overall economy and the general shrinkage of the the UK games industry, these awards help ratify our niche in these challenging times.”

“We are all still on cloud nine, and are certainly looking forward to the regional finals.”

Double Eleven will now move on and compete again in the regional finals on April 26.

Founded by former lead Rockstar Leeds software engineers, Double Eleven is a white-hot technology led games development studio comprising of some of the most talented and forwarding thinking people in the industry. The company has a rich history of award winning, technically stunning titles behind the collective group.

“I am extremely proud of what we have achieved at the awards. Although we are a new company, myself along with our senior members of staff have been in this industry for several years and have experienced both ends. Collectively we have translated these experiences into a strong, adaptive and growing business. The awards last night were a testament to this effort,” said Lee Hutchinson, CEO of Double Eleven.

The Best New Business Awards was created to recognise successful new businesses in the Tees Valley.

The award for the 2011 overall winner was presented by Colin Brown I.F.A of Lighthouse Temple LTD. Colin commented “It’s not easy setting up a successful business in these challenging times so what all the entrants have achieved is to be loudly applauded. It was great to see such enthusiasm from Double Eleven when they won.

“The award are a showcase of just how well the region’s small businesses are doing – we’ve a lot to be proud of here. The awards have a history of recognising local companies that then go on to become successful regional, national and even global companies. I’m confident that will be repeated by Double Eleven.”

Lee went on to say, “There’s no magic formula to this, we do amazing things because we have amazing people and they have earned theses awards.”

CEO Lee Hutchinson, Kimberley Turner and Mark South show off awards

Rob Ware, having accepted a role as Technical Director, has been in the industry since 2002, working previously as a lead engineer at both Rare and Rockstar Leeds. Mark Bryant, previously from Rare joins our networking team.

Rob comments “The skills I hope to bring are a wide range of technological interests, programming experience over many disciplines, and a love of prototyping new technology. I can’t wait to see what we can all achieve together – the sky’s the limit!”

“People are the stars of our business, they create the value we offer. Finding new stars is ultimately about finding the right fit, for both sides. Rob and Mark bring an immense amount of ability and experience to the team, and we are delighted to have them on board.” Said Mark South, COO at Double Eleven.

Mark Bryant comments “I have moved to Double Eleven to help develop and be apart of a premier British game development company.”

Double Eleven is one of the UK’s brightest technical development studios, founded by former Rockstar Leeds lead-engineers. Currently, Double Eleven is developing the technology driving LittleBigPlanet on PS VITA.

“We are very proud of how far our business has developed in what is a relatively short space of time. More so, having this acknowledged by making three separate shortlists is a testament to the passion and energy we put into all areas of our business,” said Lee Hutchinson, CEO of Double Eleven.

The North East (England) Business Awards, currently in their 13th year are regarded as a benchmark of judging business performance. Companies from all sectors are eligible to compete.

Mark South, COO said “Alongside our highly talented teams sits an experienced and forward thinking group of managers. We know where we want to be, and constantly define what is needed to get there in light of what I believe will be a defining year for the industry. Just being shortlisted amongst businesses from all sectors is a massive mile marker for the distance we have travelled so far on this journey.”

The shortlist for each category consists of 3 companies or organisations. The winner of which will be crowned at the Teesside Business Awards on Thursday, 8 March 2012. Winners from the Teesside Awards, will go onto the regional finals.

Double Eleven are one of the brightest new UK development studios, having been formed by former Rockstar Leeds lead-engineers in 2010. Double Eleven were recently revealed as the architects behind the technology driving LittleBigPlanet on PS VITA at the recent E3 in Los Angeles.

Under the terms of the deal, Double Eleven will work on LittleBigPlanet but will also begin to develop new titles for Sony platforms.

“Double Eleven are one of the most exciting developers to emerge onto the development scene in recent years, their technical expertise makes them a great fit for LittleBigPlanet on PSVITA and we’ve very pleased with the progress the team have made on this hugely anticipated title,” explained Michael Denny, Senior Vice President, SCE Worldwide Studios Europe.

“For us to become strong partners with Sony at such a crucial stage in our own development underlines the unswerving commitment we have made to the quality of our production, said Lee Hutchinson, CEO at Double Eleven. It is a testament to the hard work of all the exceptional team here at Double Eleven and we’re delighted that this agreement will help our company grow and flourish, working on prestigious titles, on leading-edge platforms. The opportunity to work so closely with Sony is simply fantastic and we look forward to a truly exciting new phase in our own development, with the absolute intention to become a world-class studio.”

The exciting new studio based in the North-East of England, which boasts incredible talent & experience for a relatively new start-up, now has a staff count exceeding thirty.

Double11 was formed in 2010 by ex-Rockstar engineers Lee Hutchinson and Matt Shepcar and has gone from strength to strength in a whirlwind 12 months. Having had to be tight-lipped about their work for so long, both Lee and Matt are delighted that news regarding this prestigious project can now be revealed.

“It’s a fantastic achievement and a privilege for the studio to be working on a project such as LittleBigPlanet, particularly for such an exciting new platform. We’ve spent the best part of a year recruiting a crack squad of games development professionals and we’re delighted that we can finally announce it. It was really great to see such an enthusiastic response at the recent E3 and we are confident we’ll be able to do more so in the future.” – Lee Hutchinson, CEO, Double11.

Double11 are chiefly the technology architects on the project and are working closely with Sweden’s Tarsier Studios, who contributed significant content to the last two editions of LittleBigPlanet on the PS3.

Initial reaction from the E3 PS Vita demo has been extremely positive and Double11 are confident that they can achieve great things with Sony’s new platform.”

We can’t say too much about the project just yet, but expect to see more updates in the coming months.

Check out the E3 reveal trailer here:

Look out for a bunch of our lovely guys and gals during the event and come and join us for a drink on the last night; we’re sponsoring a drinks reception on the balcony at the end of the show.

We look forward to seeing you there!