Who are we | Our objectives | Your committee | History | Contributors
Who are guildford.games?
Guildford.Games is a grass roots, community initiative from a team of people actively involved in the Guildford games industry.
The formal Guildford.Games Limited organisation was established in 2022 to facilitate our ambitious aims to support the industry in the area. It is a non-profit-making entity with all funds raised from sponsorship or other activities being invested back into our initiatives.
Registered address:
Guildford.Games Ltd
One London Square
Cross Lanes
Guildford
GU1 1UN
Our Objectives
Community
Connecting GU devs to each other - with a view to enabling knowledge sharing and facilitating external talks & seminars on topics relevant to the games industry. Reaching out to the wider Guildford business & personal community raise awareness of the significant local gaming industry presence in the town.
Diversity and Inclusion
Helping to build a diverse and inclusive community including providing details of initiatives and education on D&I.
Spotlight
Creating a platform to shine a light on the wealth of game talent in Guildford, giving the developers centre stage.
Attract Talent
Inspiring developers and prospective developers/companies to Guildford. Helping to build a pipeline of talent by engaging with young people and students to highlight the career opportunities in the gaming sector.
Attract Investment
Encouraging investment in the Guildford gaming industry.
Document
Creating a central hub for Guildford games industry news and updates, and in doing so document the gaming history of the town via a living timeline.
Celebrate
Using the Guildford.Games Festival and Awards to celebrate all things Guildford Games!
Your Committee
Jason Lord
Jason has been a games industry professional for 30 years, deeply rooted in the Guildford Games scene. He had a long career at EA before founding local creative agency Liquid Crimson, creative partner for many of the UK's best games studios.
Lauran Carter
Lauran is Head of Comms at Liquid Crimson and has led community, social & communications for games studios in Guildford and beyond as part of a career that started in 2009. She is also an accomplished presenter, interviewer and influencer liaison.
Sam Collins
Sam brings a long history in games alongside his role as Commercial Manager at the highly influential UK trade body, UKIE.
Nick Hurley
Nick is Head of the Employment Group at Charles Russell Speechlys and has been a passionate advocate for the gaming community for over 20 years having been a founding member of G3 in the Guildford Games Hub, prior to helping found Guildford Games. Nick has advised and acted for many clients in the Games sector in both non-contentious and contentious legal matters and cases.
Our History
The Guildford game-dev community has existed for decades, long before the formalisation of the Guildford.Games organisation. Guildford.Games Ltd builds on the momentum established by both members of the committee and passionate community contributors and organisations across the region.
Whilst commercial games activity can be retraced on the Guildford Games Timeline page, here is a brief summary of some of the preceding (and current) community initiatives and individual contributors that have helped lay the foundations of such a strong and active geographical games hub:
One of the first larger-scale events in recent Guildford games industry history is G3 Futures. Started in 2015 G3 was a conference that ran for four years and was organised as a collaboration between Charles Russell Speechlys, Ukie and the University of Surrey. All of these organisations are still involved with Guildford.Games either directly or through regular support of our events.
As a continuation of this initiative Sam Read, was appointed as Games Industry Partnerships Manager at the University of Surrey and subsequently as Games sector specialist for Enterpise M3. During this tenure Sam was instrumental in the formation of the Guildford.Games organisation that exists today. From enabling the creation of the website and much of the associated assets and content, support for the first ever Guildford.Games festival and assistance with the huge success that has been the Guildford.Games Steam sale - Sam was one of the original founders and continues to be a valued supporter of Guildford.Games.
Fellow founders of Guildford.Games, Dan Thomas and Jason Lord have been long-time collaborators on a quarterly networking event, Guildford Gamedev Drinks, held at Guildford Town centre favourite venue, Pews bar. This event regularly sees over 200 local games professionals meeting up to socialise and network and is always a fantastic event that continues now under the Guildford.Games initiative.
Discussion between Sam Read, Dan Thomas, Jason Lord and Sam Collins from Ukie led to the first Guildford.Games festival in 2019 and the subsequent recent formation of Guildford.Games limited. With support from Charles Russell Speechlys, Rebecca Burford was appointed as a co-founder member of the organisation and alongside significant contributions Lauran Carter has also been appointed.
Contributors
Beyond the above committee and history, there are many other individuals who have contributed to the ongoing success of Guildford.Games including local studio leaders and team members who show up to our events and support our initiatives. The following individuals are worthy of special mention thanks to their contributions:
- Alyx Jones - Co-founder of Guildford Game Audio, Co-organiser of several Guildford Game Jams.
- Dan Thomas - Co-founder and former committee member of Guildford.Games
- Gary Burchell - Organiser Guildford.Games Steam sale
- Greg Lester - Organiser of Audio Meet-ups
- Hugh Wybourne - Event volunteer and website content contributor
- Lewis Thompson - Organiser of Audio Meet-ups
- Lia Haikali - Video editing via Liquid Crimson
- Liam de Valmency - Co-organiser Guildford Game Jams
- Linda Clinker - Video editing via Liquid Crimson
- Lucy Vincent - Website content contributor
- Milan Brinker - Copywriting for website + research on festival speakers
- Rebecca Burford - Former committee member and legal advisor
- Rich Franke - Set up G.G Facebook group, created G.G Logo.
- Toni Atanasova - extensive communications and website content support.
Please send suggestions for additions to this list or suggested history changes to hello@guildford.games