Over 100 game developers from across The North and beyond gathered for Game Republic’s 250th event (since 2008) the Unity x Game Republic exclusive with focused and info-packed sessions on Unity now and the future of Unity, publisher perspectives from PQube and a story of scale from Kinetic Games at the National Videogame Museum in Sheffield on 22nd April. The event formed part of the 2026 event programme being supported by Official Partners Red Kite Games, Xsolla and Double Eleven.
As well as talks, a small expo showcased some of the work being produced by Game Republic members including Antivenin Games, Gritstone Games, Admiral Egg, Huey Games, Virtuware and Otterweave Games Studio. Hosting the event at the National Videogame Museum meant that following the main talks, attendees could fully enjoy the games and displays alongside networking and getting help from Unity experts.
The Games Industry in The North
At the event Game Republic’s Development Director Dr Jackie Mulligan highlighted the work of Game Republic over the last 15 years, highlighting MD of Game Republic Jamie Sefton’s relentless passion for games to drive the network and how Sheffield had played a part in that journey when public funding ran out and Carl Cavers, Co-Founder and ex CEO of Sumo Digital offered support for Jamie to continue to run Game Republic. Since then the organisation had grown to represent over 2000 members and has run hundreds of events, trade missions, international meetings and provided support for thousands of developers, educators and service providers. Jackie added
“Game Republic is a collective that strengthens our games industry because it brings the whole North together creating a strong voice, a great story, an amazing ecosystem and a united front because games are made not in just one city, but in all cities and our towns and villages. In Game Republic we love to bring studios across the North and beyond The North together because we see and hear the benefit that brings to the industry. Success comes from the connections and collaborations.”
What’s new at Unity
At The event MC’d by Liz Mercuri and Dr Jackie Mulligan, Senior Unity engineers Olly Nicholson and Joe Robins brought the latest updates from Unity including a sweep of features since Unity 6. They highlighted new elements from 6.3 and showed future roadmaps across disciplines with insights for programmers, artists & designers and all developers. They also awarded a prize to the best questions in the Ask the Expert sessions that ran after the main talks.
Corrie Green, Senior Unity Advocate provided a live tech demo of the cutting-edge graphical advancements introduced in Unity 6 exploring innovative optimization techniques, enhanced rendering capabilities, and performance-boosting tools designed to create stunning visuals while maintaining efficiency.
The story of Phasmophobia and Unity
Alongside specialist talks on Unity, Kinetic Games shared their work on Unity creating Phasmophobia. Ben Lavender, Technical Director provided insightful tips for developers around scaling teams and technology in a talk entitled Indie at Scale: What Phasmophobia Teaches About Sustainable Unity Engineering.
What Game Publishers need
Andy Pearson from PQube delivered on his promise to demystify publishers with a presentation full of information about the steps and key requirements, the processes and pathways for game developers including recent examples of signings at events (including Game Republic events).
MD of Game Republic Jamie Sefton said “This event was so informative for game developers and it was great to see such a high attendance for this valuable information with so many experts on hand who not only shared what amazing things can be done with Unity now, but also what is coming. The talk by Ben provided really practical insights into scaling with the fascinating story of Phasmophobia – a global horror hit that has seen a solo developer turn to a 40 person studio and now publisher of games – brilliant to hear more about that. Andy Pearson’s talk provided such a clear set of steps for developers to consider when approaching publishers – which I am sure will be useful for our next events in particular GaMaYo where many developers are attending with 47 new games on show.”
Enjoy photos taken by Arminas Lietuvnikas a masters student from Manchester Metropolitan University studying for a Masters in Games Development
This event was FREE for Game Republic members (to find out more about joining the network click here)
For more information on Unity visit this link
To find out about events on the Great Northern Games Discord, GaMaYo and Game Republic events and webinars visit the events page.
If you are developing or supporting games in The North, you can join the Great Northern Games Discord here.
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