Game Republic partnered with Develop: Brighton again this year from Tuesday 8th – Thursday 10th July – and it proved to be the buzziest, busiest and sunniest conference there since the pandemic, with thousands of games industry descending on the seaside location at the Hilton Metropole for meetings, talks, roundtables, beach drinks events, awards, parties and more.
Develop: Brighton had some stellar talks including subjects of games publishing, audio, funding and mental health, as well as guest interviews with the likes of Sam Lake from Remedy (Alan Wake II). Dr Jackie Mulligan from Game Republic was involved in several roundtables and panels for the Education Summit at Develop with James Butcher from Epic, Marcia Deakin from NextGen Skills Academy, Jay Shin of Arrogant Pixel and Kish Hirani and Dr Gina Jackson OBE from Skillfull / Pitchify on the Tuesday discussing better ways for industry and academic collaboration, graduate industry-readiness, the funding of further and higher education, talent pipelines and more. The day’s new edu track was expertly curated by Laurence Oldham of Frontier Developments plc, Thomas Cole of University of Greenwich.
Plus there was a packed Develop expo from Wednesday including some GR members such as the University of York’s IGGI (Intelligent Games and Games Intelligence) initiative, Kudos QA and Rebellion, and games company Key Compass Games exhibited The Void Between at the Develop Indie Showcase. Upstairs, an even more-packed Meet@Develop area saw back-to-back 30-minute meetings for hundreds of attendees over the three days.
Away from the conference were dozens of smaller events, including the GamesIndustry.biz Party, a Scottish Game Developer Association meet-up, an Irish games industry get-together and a superb Brilliant Indie Treasures event with 50 indie games to play including many by GR developers such as Maximalist (Wyrd Waters), Miami Avalon (Ascend), Otterweave Studios (Emitime), Brazen Gameplay (UrbX Warriors) and Retroburn (Positron).
Game Republic also held its own event, our Publisher Breakfast, with special guest Wizards of the Coast discussing licensing its IP and publishing games, as well as 35 GR members and other guests such as ID@Xbox, and a stellar selection of bacon (and veggie) butties, pastries, coffee and juice. The event was an additional bonus event for Game Republic members thanks to our Official Partners Red Kite Games, Barclays Games and Creative and Xsolla.
The general mood of the conference was positive – publishers are looking for games to be signed for 2026/2027, with budgets ranging from £100K to £500K and upwards of £2m depending on the publisher/platform-holder, and there are many more opportunities for co-development and Work For Hire. It’s still tough in the games industry but we had some very encouraging chats with games companies from our region discussing more projects being signed, large contracts being secured and investment rounds happening.
2025 was also the final Develop: Brighton for conference director Ali Fearnley, who is moving onto new projects after 18 years. Ali has been instrumental (along with MD of Tandem Events, Andy Lane) for growing the event and establishing Develop: Brighton as a must-attend for UK developers – “the Glastonbury of games”. Game Republic has enjoyed working with Ali over the years and partnering on the event – and we wish her all the best in her future endeavours! Roll on 2026 for the next Develop: Brighton and our main advice? Get your hotel booked early…
