Day 2 at Develop in Brighton saw a full day of packed sessions and lots of networking at the Hilton. The day kicked off with an insightful keynote panel which drew crowds so that other rooms were used to broadcast the content in a session Guerilla: To New Horizons which included fascinating anecdotes and tips from Angie Smets, Playstation Studios, Jan-Bart van Beek, Guerilla, Michiel van der Leeuw, Guerilla and Sam Loveridge Games Radar.
Indie game developers were treated to a brilliant talk by Brynmor Richards of Super Rare Games at midday which started with some axe throwing that was wonderfully entwined with a useful guide into pre-announcement to post launch of indie games. Brynmor’s talk was full of useful tips including only sharing 30% of games content online and letting audiences and user-generated content take the rest and the important of capturing content throughout the process.
Mid-afternoon Women in Games networking took place with cakes and fizz. The event is just one of many put on by this network that supports and advocates for women in games enhancing diversity in the industry
Throughout the day, the expo was busy and Game Republic members with stands included XR Games, Double Eleven, IGGI and Rebellion. Attendees could also pick up a copy of MCV/Develop which featured a roundtable with companies from Yorkshire and The North – online version here.
Develop Star Awards kicked off the early evening events with Team17 winning the Star Award for Publishing and Sumo Group winning the Star Award for Talent Development. Fantastic achievements! And on Day 1, Game Dev Heroes awarded Bruce Slater, Founder of Radical Forge Leadership Hero award and Nina Cliff from Sumo Group as Business Development Hero and she is also featured in our Northern Lights interviews this month too.
In the evening Game Republic attended the Keywords Summer Soiree at the Tempest Inn and later the Games Industry.biz party on a blustery but packed Brighton Palace Pier. As always Develop has been an excellent conference and networking event, the busiest for years. A massive congratulations to the organisers of the event – Tandem Events. The last day promises to be a fantastic end to a really useful three days and will be topped off by our favourite event of the year hosted by Simon Barratt of Cooperative Innovations that raises funds for SpecialEffect.
