Schedule
Auditorium
Bellerby Studio
- 12:00Beyond the Beat: Exploring the Intersection of Music and Video Games
- 13:00Game Changers: Celebrating and Encouraging Diversity in the Games Industry
- 14:00Branching Cinematic Narrative
- 15:00Streaming Success: Strategies for Engaging Streamers & Creators
- 16:00Immersive Narratives: The Art of Interactive Storytelling
- 17:00 From Concept to Experience: Building VR Worlds & Gameplay
Glass Room
- 11:30Levelling Up: Empowering Talent through Upskilling
- 12:30Skill Swap: Harnessing transferable skills
- 13:30AI and the games industry
- 14:30Business basics: Key points for growing your game studio
- 15:30 Pitch Perfect: Strategies for successfully presenting your new game/studio
- 16:30 Playing 4 The Planet Alliance
Rock Room
Dance Room - The Audio Track
- 11:20Intro to The Audio Track
- 11:30Getting Into Game Audio
- 12:00Airwiggles - Introduction to an amazing free game audio resource
- 12:15Biggest Mistakes, Biggest Learnings
- 13:00Why Sound Design Works - deconstructing the creative process
- 14:00How to Design an Audio System
- 15:00The Future of Game Audio
Craig Duncan, Studio Head @ Rare
Meet Craig, our keynote speaker and 13-year veteran studio head of Rare Ltd! With over two decades of expertise in the gaming industry, he is one of the visionaries behind the success of the BAFTA-winning ‘Sea of Thieves’, turning gamers into modern-day pirates. Previously at Sumo Digital, Craig also had a major influence on the ‘Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing’ games as development director. Duncan's experience and dedication continue to shape the future of gaming, earning him acclaim as a driving force in the games industry.
Charity Joy, General Manager @ Criterion, EA
Over the past 15 years, Charity has been instrumental in starting successful businesses in gaming, healthcare, and even microbrewing. She’s worked alongside the world’s most innovative teams including Pixar, Lucasfilm, Disney Imagineering, Marvel, IBM, and Lenovo. She's also a keen comedienne - true story - which has lead us to thinking 'Is there anything Charity can't do?!' In her current role, as Studio GM of EA's Criterion, Charity oversees development at the studio, ensuring the successful execution of development, the strategic direction of Criterion, as well as leading and empowering the team to make the BEST experiences for their players. Charity has an encyclopaedia of Game Industry and Development knowledge, and we can't wait to hear the insight she has to share at the Festival!
Liz Prince, Head of Business @ Amiqus
Liz Prince is the leading director of Amiqus, the specialist recruitment agency for the video games industry providing professional candidates to companies across Europe and the UK. She is very well established with over 25 years of experience as a consultant, area manager and business manager putting together successful recruitment teams. Amiqus has won countless awards such as the Develop Games Industry Award for Recruitment Excellence 8 times, the TIGA award for Best Recruitment Agency across multiple years and the Mobile Games award in the recruitment category in 2018 and 2019. Also an ambassador of women in games, Liz Prince is the founder of the initiative ‘Putting the G into Gaming’ where she is a vocal and active supporter of promoting gender equality, diversity and inclusion in the games industry. She was a finalist in the Women in Games award category for Lifetime Achievement in 2022.
Beyond the Beat: Exploring the Intersection of Music and Video Games
Bellerby @ 12:00
Julie Weir, Director of Music for Nation @ Sony
Julie Weir is an influential figure in the music industry - responsible for signing Bring Me the Horizon amongst many others. She's currently Director of Music for Nation at Sony Music and has enjoyed a dynamic career that has spanned various facets of the entertainment industry. Julie has consistently championed innovation, creativity, and up and coming UK Rock and Metal bands.
Tom Puttick, Director @ Cedar Studios
Tom started out at an early age writing and performing his own music, while keeping up his keen interest in the gaming world. Tom's now managed to combine his two passions, with his extensive knowledge and library of games, he knows what works and what doesn't sound wise. If Tom's not composing new music, he'll probably be ruffling through our foley boxes creating some new sounds.
Phil French, Director @ Cedar Studios
Phil's a multi-instrumentalist who started out composing sync music that's been sold worldwide. From there Phil branched out to other aspects of audio, from on location recording to bespoke sound design and composition. As Phil is always playing some sort of instrument, his attention to detail in his compositions add a sense of realism that you just can't fake with MIDI samples.
Game Changers: Celebrating and Encouraging Diversity in the Games Industry
Bellerby @ 13:00
Naveen Yadav, QA Manager @ nDreams
Speaker bio coming soon!
Dom Shaw, EDI Coordinator @ Ukie
As the EDI Coordinator at Ukie, Dom's on a mission to champion diversity, positivity, and inclusion in the gaming world. From engaging conversations and providing advice to organizing activities and events, Dom's keen to support, collaborate, and be a helpful hand in any way he can! Originally stepping in at Ukie as maternity leave cover for the Office Manager, Dom found his role evolved during the remote-working era triggered by Covid-19. Balancing Office Manager his duties with a focus on staff wellbeing, he dove into impactful initiatives such as managing the #RaiseTheGame pledge. Recognizing the importance of EDI, Ukie fully embraced it and created the EDI Coordinator role for Dom to dive deeper into diversity and inclusion.
Lizzy Plant, Community Manager @ Glowmade
Lizzy is a true Games Industry powerhouse! She's made games, designed games, she's been a sound designer, a voice actor, a script writer, a community manager… and community management is what we find her doing right now, making beautiful social posts for Glowmade - coveted by many social media folks, including us! Lizzy is passionate about Glowmade and has made her mark on the G.G community, despite only being a GU dev for a short time. With her extensive experience in the industry, and extensive understanding of the developer landscape - Lizzy will offer valuable insight on this topic, and we're here for it!
Will Byles, CEO @ Dial M for Monkey
Will Byles has worn many hats in his career—from actor to producer, designer to animator, and even director in games, film, TV, and theatre. Back in 1998 he set up Aardman Animation's CG character animation department and later took the reins as Creative Director. Fast forward to 2010, and he joined Supermassive Games as the Executive Director, rocking the gaming world with the BAFTA-winning "Until Dawn." Now, he's the big cheese of Dial M for Monkey - his new solo venture. Guildford.Games tips its hat to Will Byles for his journey and influence in the games ind., and you won't want to miss his talk!
Courtney O'Connor, Brand Manager @ Supermassive Games
Courtney is Supermassive's fiercely-passionate Brand Manager, and that fierceness ensures that their brand vision is always considered and carried forward. Courtney started her career as Marketing Assistant at Outright Games - and probably had no idea that before long her working day would be less Peppa Pig and Paw Patrol and more jump scares and mind-bending horror... Courtney joins us at the Festival to share her experiences of working with Influencers, which is set to be fascinating whether you're from a game dev studio or looking to get into the influencer realm yourself!
Selina Clark, International Creator & Social Lead @ Criterion Games, EA
Selina has been working in tech for over a decade - focusing on client relationship building and maintaining with one eye on social media, a medium she's always enjoyed on a personal level. Her passion for people and social media lead her to her current role at EA, joining the company in 2019 as Community Engagement Manager and gradually working her way to International Creator and Social Lead - acting as the overseeing 'voice' of the studio, engaging with players and ensuring that they get regular updates from the studio. Her appearance at the Festival will add vital context and insight on how to work with content creators... and give great pointers for those wanting to become 'influencers' in the gaming world themselves!
Abby Reynolds, Junior Community Manager @ Two Point Studios
Abby is the unofficial face of Two Point Studios, looking after and catering to their community, carrying their voice into studio discussions, and heading up their weekly live streams (which are excellent, and you should all check them out!). In past experience Abby worked with university streamers, early on in their journey as creators. With projects aimed at building them a community space alongside levelling-up their streams. Community managers tread a delicate line - making sure the community has all the information and interaction they require, whilst also keeping key stakeholders within the studio aware of any community wins or grumbles. The role is a tough one - and that's before the addition of influencer management! Which is precisely what Abby is joining us to talk about - don't miss it!
Slogo, Content Creator
Josh - aka Slogo - is a youtuber/content creator with a follower count that matches his mammoth passion for video games! And we really mean it - his channel was one of the most-viewed gaming focused YouTube channels in 2020! His most popular videos include games such as Minecraft and Grand Theft Auto V, with a mix of real life, super entertaining challenge content too. His experience in content creation will come from a completely different angle from our other panellists - bringing insight from the *other* side of the screen, engaging with video games as a player rather than a developer. We're looking forward to hearing about how he believes studios and brands can best engage with creators like him!
Tom Heaton, Creative Director @ Supermassive Games
Tom Heaton can only be described as a veteran of the games industry, with a career spanning half a dozen studios and an impressive portfolio demonstrating a range of Direction on multiple levels of production, management, and design. Tom also excels at sharing his knowledge with the greater industry and the consumers alike, speaking at conferences, in interviews, and at the several awards shows he and his team at Supermassive have attended (to collect winnings for their celebrated productions). Tom has been at Supermassive Games for 15 years now, both witnessing and playing a large part in its rise to popularity as far back as the smash-hit Until Dawn. He holds the privilege of being a large voice on an even larger team but has shown through his track record that he deeply understands how to bring his team together to turn potential into success.
May Wong, Lead Designer @ INTERIOR/NIGHT
May believes in human connection via video games. Her career to date has seen her be instrumental in the BAFTA-nominated EyePet & Wonderbook titles whilst at Sony London Studio, as well as being the first employee to be hired at London based studio Interior/Night. I/N made waves with their debut title - As Dusk Falls - approaching the game playing experience from the player's as well as passive player's perspective, and wrapping both in a rich story with fully formed characters.
Isis Sousa, Art Director @ Supermassive Games
Isis is an aesthete, expert, and passionate member of the games industry if there ever were one. Largely self-taught and self-directed, her portfolio and career path shows off her immense creative talent for so many different skills: Graphic Design, Concept Art, Illustration, Art Direction, and more recently some upcoming Screenplay work. Isis understands the inherent connection story and environment have together, as explored in her previous work with the Scruffy Dog Creative Group designing digital environments with a varied team spanning timezones. This was a team led by Isis, and this combined with years of freelance work and even some time spent teaching has culminated in a position as Art Director at the award-winning Supermassive Games. Hits like the Dark Pictures Anthology, The Quarry, and of course Until Dawn have maintained the beating heart of the cinematic interactive gaming experience, and Isis Sousa is one of the many minds that comes together to create these iconic works.
Adrienne Law, Senior Writer @ Larian Studios
Adrienne has employed her skills of Management and Writing for over a decade now across a broad range of projects and sectors. Producing, Writing, Designing, and Directing are all skills wracked up over time that demonstrate just a single piece of the team that created one of the most award-winning games of all time (one that we are sure needs no naming). Though the team at Larian is enormous, Adrienne contributes massively outside of just her creative ability, for example recently speaking at the Rome Video Game Lab and proving her dedication to not just the industry here but across Europe as well. Writing jobs in the games industry are not particularly common, but the continued success of Larian shows how important these designers are alongside other teams, and Adrienne’s knowledge and experience is without a doubt a paramount opportunity to engage with.
Franciska Csongrady, Lead Narrative Designer @ Criterion
Franciska is a talented Narrative Designer and Writer who specialises in interactive dialogue - with experience spanning roles at Moon studios (working on Ori and the Will of the Wisps), Chucklefish, Aardman and her current role at Criterion. She's also been awarded a Forbes 30 Under 30. Franciska is passionate about using video games a unique vessel for storytelling and very much enjoys the challenge of weaving narrative into the game world itself as well as through player interactions in game. Her passion shines through in her work today, and we can't wait to hear from her at the Festival!
Richard Copperwaite, Principal Programmer @ nDreams
Richard has been working with VR for nearly a decade now, and has an extensive knowledge of just what virtual reality means for gamers of the present and future. He’s employed the technology at Breaking Fourth, London’s leading VR studio, where as their Lead VR Developer he heralded the release of several productions, curated a team of experts, and developed production devices tailored specifically to the platform. More recently, Richard has been a Principal Programmer on two of Guildford’s-own nDreams’ VR titles (Synapse and Fracked). He and his team have won awards for their work in VR and show no sign of slowing down, as nDreams has now become Europe’s largest game VR-dedicated development company. Richard and the team at nDreams have found ways of turning technology of the future into a modern-day commodity for you to experience, and they’re only getting better with every new release.
Alejandro Arque Gallado, Game Director @ Supermassive Games
Alejandro is Game Director at Supermassive Games, most recently heading up the Switchback VR team. He's a BAFTA member, and takes his involvement with BAFTA extremely seriously. Prior to joining the Guildford dev community, he was a Franchise Game Designer on Square Enix's extremely popular series - Life is Strange. Both LiS and the community surrounding it are still very close to Alejandro's heart as is the importance of using video games as a vessel for discussing important cultural and societal issues. As Game Director at Supermassive, Alejandro lead the Switchback VR team through development of the title - including on the job learning of all the features of the PSVR2 to ensure seamless integration with the game. Alejandro is a true champion of his team, of underrepresented members of the game dev landscape, and G.G - and we can't wait to hear his valuable input on his VR game experiences and learnings
Jake Nixon, Director @ HistoricVR
VR is still to many people a cutting-edge technology, but to forward-thinkers like Jake Nixon, it’s a tool already well within grasp of the average person, and one they should be expecting to see a lot in their lives in the very very near future. Jake is a person with a long career hands-on in the business world, and he’s employing these skills now at HistoricVR, a company that seeks to utilise the vast potential of VR technology to present items and worlds of the past to contemporary eyes. Many focus on the potential that virtual reality has to enhance the things we already see around us, or create new things for us to explore, but few are so practical as to understand just how valuable it is to see impressions of things that you could so rarely find in person. HistoricVR have only really just started, but they’ll be sure to be making the history books soon enough.
Malika Omarova, Junior Technical Artist @ nDreams
Malika started her career journey at Guildford's very own University of Surrey, and lucky for us she decided to stay in the area! Once she graduated from her Digital Media Arts course at UniS, she cut her teeth at as a freelance 3D artist before taking an Internship at King. From there, she joined the most excellent team at nDreams as Junior Tech Artist and has been up to her eyes in ectoplasm, whilst ensuring the streams don't cross (if you know, you know) on their much anticipated Ghostbusters: Rise of the Ghostlord VR title ever since. With a fresh approach to the games industry, and having jumped in at the deep end (not to mention cutting edge) of tech available to developers currently, Malika's insight on building VR worlds is set to be glittered with valuable insight!
Niki Head, People & Development Director @ Stellar Entertainment
An accomplished People and Development Director at Stellar Entertainment, Niki has dedicated a decade to honing her skills as a passionate HR professional. Her expertise spans across employee relations, learning and development, recruitment, and business strategies. Niki not only excels in the corporate realm but also champions diversity and inclusion in the games industry as a Women in Games Ambassador. Also a co-founder of Sororitas Ludens, she has helped establish a safe haven for women game developers in Guildford, fostering connections, knowledge-sharing, and fun!
John Stopforth, Head of Education @ Escape Technology
John has said that his ultimate goal is giving back to the industry that has supported him for nearly 30 years now, and this statement can only be considered false when looking at all the work he’s done pushing out of the industry into the technology world at large. His experience began as a Software Engineer and Game Artist moving on through to a phenomenal career path at Doncaster College where he proved his intricate knowledge of Animation, Art, and the Digital Industry at large it is built upon. More recently however, John has been leading an educational expansion from the soft/hardware reseller Escape Technology. The company takes pride in their consultation abilities and their efforts to welcome more talented voices into spaces that might have otherwise held up barriers against them. John elaborates on all of this and more on his podcast where he dispenses the knowledge and insight he’s gained for three years now and running.
Alan Dixon, Principal Consultant @ Amiqus
Alan is a seasoned recruitment expert in the games industry. Passionate about collaborating with creative minds and with over a decade of experience, Alan has seen the industry evolve - towards inclusivity and diversity, remote working and so much more. His advice to those looking to move into games? Build a portfolio, network persistently, and join him for first-hand insights at his panel—a must-attend for those looking to thrive in the ever-changing games industry!
Lien Cross, Early Careers Manager @ nDreams
Having started her career as an apprentice, Lien fully understands the importance of the many different pathways that can lead you to a career - which is why she couldn't be better placed to be instated at nDreams as Early Career Manager! Her mission - that she's 100% dedicated to achieving - is to build the nDreams academy with a view to bring a plethora of new talent, and future leaders, to the games industry.
Tara Bunker, Digital Content Creator @ Supermassive Games
Bringing possibly the most unconventional experience to the Guilford game dev community, Tara spent portions of her career handling communications for Surrey Police as well as the British American Football Association. Now settled at Supermassive Games as Digital Content Creator, Tara's career path makes it clear that content creation has always been a passion for her. She has the knowledge and know how to allow her to track and understand trends, whilst seamlessly weaving Supermassive's themes and tone into her work as she goes! Tara is one of the reasons SMGs social media is the go to for many social media managers - always on trend, always keeping it fresh!
Ahmed El-Badawi, Associate Producer @ Glowmade
Ahmed's career has been a varied one - having come from (in his words) "Corporate Science". Now an Associate Producer at AWS studio Glowmade, Ahmed would have realised pretty quickly that science (yes, we class game development as science) doesn't need to be corporate, and rather can be a carnival of colour, constant discovery and FUN! He supports the team daily, acting as their go between and ensuring his developers have everything they need to make the best games EVER! Ahmed will be joining us to discuss transferable skills, and how to find your career home in the games industry even if you have no prior experience... and we can't wait to hear all about it!
Daisy-May Hutton, Producer @ Glowmade
Daisy May-Hutton is a seasoned producer and project manager, with almost two years at Glowmade, she's been a mastermind behind production antics and making projects shine. As a speaker, Daisy's all about sharing her journey, from the creative chaos to the tech triumphs, inspiring others with her stories of making things happen.
Nick White, Intellectual Property (IP), Commercial and Digital Specialist @ CRS
Nick is an intellectual property (IP), commercial and digital specialist. He uses creative and long term thinking to help businesses identify, protect and maximise the value of their IP and data. Nick’s experience spans many areas including brand protection, e-commerce, broadcasting, esports, gaming, data protection, AI and blockchain, crypto assets and NFTs. Alongside his expertise in sports, as one of the firm’s key lifestyle lawyers, Nick works extensively across the entertainment, leisure, fashion and food and beverage industries.
Andrew Husband, CTO @ Hertizan
Andrew Husband has carved an impressive path through the software industry, co-founding two separate companies specialising in practical applications of AI machine-learning technology within a year of finishing his Master’s degree at Falmouth University. Andrew has an eye and mind for what it means to be using technology of the future right now, and Hertzian already has a proven track-record of increasing the quality of customer experience, community management, and product development over its decade-long existence. Simultaneously, the software within PlayerXP offers an astounding and outstanding level of information for the management of communities across multiple platforms of engagement. To many people, AI implementation is a very contemporary and ongoing conversation, but to Andrew and his team it’s something they’ve been using for a long time now and are primed to demonstrate how else it can be utilised too.
Professor Daming Shi, Professor of Intelligent Creative Technology @ UCA
Daming Shi can be described as no less than an expert in AI technologies. He currently serves as a Professor of Intelligent Creative Technology within UCA’s School of Games and Creative Technology. Beyond teaching students and supervising over a dozen PHDs, Daming has two decades of contributions to the field within publications he has worked on and for projects all across the world. He has been involved in the founding of multiple AI technology research groups and is a chair of the Intelligent Internet System for the IEEE SMC Society. He’s published in over 200 papers and recognised as a distinguished professor at multiple universities From Germany to Australia, South Korea and China. Daming demonstrates what dedication, talent, and initiative means within the field of AI.
Gareth Hill, Director @ BDO
Gareth is a Tax Director with over 15 years of experience in the sector - working with a broad range of clients including those from the creative sector. Gareth has experience in a wide range of tax matters and supports a great client portfolio to achieve their business goals and vision.
Phil Wildman, Associate Director @ GG Insurance
Phil has a huge range of experience deep and broad and is nearing 20 years of experience within the fields of Management, Business, and Insurance. He’s received dozens of endorsements over his long career and has been involved with insurance work on every level. Despite already working as an Associate Director for a leading medical insurance company, he is also the Founder of GG Insurance which works closely with the games industry from events to business management. Phil describes the team at GG as passionate, ready to answer questions, and ultimately a winning combination of by gamers and for gamers.
Neil Parmar, Account Director @ Escape Technologies
Neil, a game industry guru, keeps the game dev magic happening over at Escape Tech. As the Account Director, he's the maestro making sure clients get top-notch service in both workflow and pipelines. With a career cruising over two decades, Neil kicked things off at Freehand Limited, rocked as an Account Manager and then ascended to Company Director at Stac Media in '99. In 2002, he co-founded Bluegfx, and by 2015, he'd joined Escape Technology as Account Director. What Neil doesn't know about hardware, software and game development teams probably isn't worth knowing!
Pitch Perfect: Strategies for successfully presenting your new game/studio
Glass Room @ 15:30
Alyx Jones, Founder @ Silver Script Games
Alyx, an award winning luminary in the world of audio and dialogue design stands as the founder of Silver Script Games where her innovative approach to storytelling unfolds in the upcoming release, 'The Quiet Things'. With a rich background as the Post Production Lead at Liquid Violet, Alyx has left an visible mark on the games industry through her work to titles like ‘Lies of P’, ‘Borderlands 3’, the ‘Final Fantasy 7’ Remake, and ‘Elden Ring’ just to name a few. Mentors students at ThinkSpace Education music school, head writer for The Sound Architect and being showcased by BAFTA Breakthrough, it is but a small testament to her groundbreaking contributions to the world of interactive storytelling.
Chris Roberts, Creative Director @ Stellar Entertainment
Chris is a Creative Director and Game Designer at Stellar Entertainment - a Guildford studio responsible for porting games such as Sea of Solitude & now focusing on their very own AAA IP. Previously at Criterion, Chris played a pivotal role in creating some of the most acclaimed racing games including the ‘Burnout’ and ‘Need for Speed’ series. Beyond the world of racing however, Chris also worked up a spot of magic at EA with the development of the Harry Potter games.
Panel Host: Alex Avard, Project Manager @ Playing 4 the planet
Alex Avard has been fighting the good fight for over a decade. He holds a swirl of experience between international relations, local governance, feature writing, journalism, and most recently non-profit charity work. Despite such an impressive legacy, after seeing so much of the world and its powers Alex has come to understand the most pressing issue for this industry to approach is its relation with the climate crisis and the contributions it can, and must, make. As a Project Manager for a climate-orientated non-profit organisation he is extremely active in promoting movements and initiatives that seek to make change for the greater good. More than just that, Playing4ThePlanet is actively working with studios to help them make the changes that are needed in the industry at large right now. Between all this, he still passionately drives his own writing skill ever upwards, committed not just to the business of the industry, but to the art it makes as well.
Jane Campbell, Commercial Manager @ ustwo games
For years Jane has intertwined her Management and Commerce skills with her genuine passion and industry-focused insight into the relationship studios have with our climate. She’s been awarded both the Develop Sustainability Star and The Environmental Award at Develop conferences in the past for her continued dedication to the subject, and has been with several movements outside of Playing4ThePlanet before its conception and growth. Jane understands the reality of the standards that professional bodies need to have when approaching new projects and maintaining operations on existing ones. Where boundaries and obstacles existed in the past, Jane has proved on scales great and small that with the right kind of insight there is a path to be found that is both practical and eco-responsible. Even now at her current studio, they find time between collecting awards and creating fantastic games to keep us all conscious of the standards we need to keep to contribute in the right way.
Celia Zimmerman, Community Lead @ Sybo
Celia is the epitome of a strong voice and even stronger listener. She’s built up her experience in Community Management and Social Media for over a decade culminating most recently in a Community Lead position for the company responsible for one of the world’s most popular mobile games. More so than that, she recently featured at the first ever Women in Games Denmark event as panellist and has spoken many times at conferences about the work she does and its vital place in the industry. Though recently, she and the team at Sybo have collaborated with climate fund charity Milkywire to commit to the Playing4ThePlanet initiative and develop an industry-standard example for others to follow and iterate upon. Celia is well in touch with what gamers are talking about and already ahead of the curve implementing change that the industry needs.
Andy Bossom, Industry Engagement Lead @ UCA
Andrew Bossom is Industry Engagement Lead for Games & Creative Technology at the University for the Creative Arts, playing a pivotal role in developing and delivering key collaborative partnerships with the games industry both regionally and nationally. Andrew collaborates closely with the games industry to establish meaningful and sustainable partnerships that arise from real sector-need, drawing on UCA researcher expertise across areas including motion capture, virtual production, XR, AI, UX, EDI and interactive storytelling. Presently, Andy is leading the partnership project “Immersive Storytelling for Avatars in Realtime gaming: human data capture for AI-drive non-playable character engagement in games”, in collaboration with SKC Games Studio, funded by XR Stories. Additionally, Andrew engages in the development and co-authoring of live projects with companies including as Supermassive Games, SEGA Two Point, and Kwalee.
Stephen Mooney, Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing @ UoS
A poet, publisher, and Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Surrey, Stephen has been pursuing written art since the late 1980s. He holds a PhD in poetics, co-founded one of England’s largest small independent press companies, and has published several books in both poetry and prose. His specialisation is in blending his unique portfolio together to employ language skills across the board, but perhaps most impressively in his work relating to gaming. Between modules in the degree he teaches, the books he’s published, and his institution’s founding work with the Fames and Innovation Nexus project (to create more bridges between Higher Education and the UK Games industry), Stephen knows how to push the bill on the potential of the medium. An extremely creatively potent mind has evolved into an individual tapped-in to the games industry that holds both the insight and initiative to lead the way for his students and colleagues alike. He is currently working on intra-lingual translations of H.P. Lovecraft’s mythos poems, a series of Judge Dredd poems, and a collection of gamebook poems.
Steve Cuss, Founder @ Gameplan Consultancy
Steve Cuss, a multifaceted People and Process Expert, Game Maker, Author, Speaker, and Host of The Liberated Leadership Podcast, hails from Farnham. With over two decades of operational leadership, Steve has driven excellence and delivered exceptional results across diverse organizational settings. At Electronic Arts (EA), as Head of Studio Operations for Criterion, he executed studio strategy, evolved organizational and process design, and contributed to the critically acclaimed "Need For Speed Unbound." His tenure at Criterion also saw him lead the team to create the acclaimed "Battlefield V Firestorm," earning nominations for Best Places To Work Awards. Steve's journey includes senior roles at Criterion Games, contributing to projects like "Star Wars - Battlefront II" and "Star Wars Battlefront - Rogue One: X-Wing VR." His entrepreneurial spirit led him to co-own and direct Intelligent Games Ltd, collaborating with industry giants on franchises like Tiger Woods and FIFA.
Charity Joy, General Manager @ Criterion, EA
Over the past 15 years, Charity has been instrumental in starting successful businesses in gaming, healthcare, and even microbrewing. She’s worked alongside the world’s most innovative teams including Pixar, Lucasfilm, Disney Imagineering, Marvel, IBM, and Lenovo. She's also a keen comedienne - true story - which has lead us to thinking 'Is there anything Charity can't do?!' In her current role, as Studio GM of EA's Criterion, Charity oversees development at the studio, ensuring the successful execution of development, the strategic direction of Criterion, as well as leading and empowering the team to make the BEST experiences for their players. Charity has an encyclopaedia of Game Industry and Development knowledge, and we can't wait to hear the insight she has to share at the Festival!
Steve Cuss, Founder @ Gameplan Consultancy
Steve Cuss, a multifaceted People and Process Expert, Game Maker, Author, Speaker, and Host of The Liberated Leadership Podcast, hails from Farnham. With over two decades of operational leadership, Steve has driven excellence and delivered exceptional results across diverse organizational settings. At Electronic Arts (EA), as Head of Studio Operations for Criterion, he executed studio strategy, evolved organizational and process design, and contributed to the critically acclaimed "Need For Speed Unbound." His tenure at Criterion also saw him lead the team to create the acclaimed "Battlefield V Firestorm," earning nominations for Best Places To Work Awards. Steve's journey includes senior roles at Criterion Games, contributing to projects like "Star Wars - Battlefront II" and "Star Wars Battlefront - Rogue One: X-Wing VR." His entrepreneurial spirit led him to co-own and direct Intelligent Games Ltd, collaborating with industry giants on franchises like Tiger Woods and FIFA.
Isabel Aronja, Senior Development Director @ Criterion
Isabel Arjona is a seasoned Senior Development Director at Criterion Games (EA) and a dedicated Women in Games Ambassador based in Guildford. With over 3 years at Criterion Games, Isabel excels in talent and risk management across studio projects, budget management, and strategic planning. Her expertise extends to leading engagement efforts for AAA titles and overseeing processes with agile cross-functional teams. Prior roles include Development Manager at Electronic Arts (EA) and Producer at Axis Animation, where she managed various projects from pitch creation to final delivery. Isabel's core values of open communication and fostering creativity drive her passion for driving teams towards excellence
Public Funding for Scaling Up Your Game Studio After Your First Game: UK Global Screen Fund
Comedy Room @ 15:00
Panel Host: Chris Filip, International Business Development Manager @ BFI
Chris was appointed International Business Development Manager for the UK Global Screen Fund in October. Before joining the BFI, Chris worked with Creative England as Programme Manager for Creative Enterprise, managing the New Ideas Fund, and their games business support programmes - Foundations for Games and Games Scale Up - as part of their flagship business support and investment readiness programme, Creative Enterprise.
Phil Crabtree, Technical Director & Co-founder @ Kaizen Game Works
Speaker Bio coming soon!
Hussain Sheikn, Founder & Managing Director @ FunDay Studios
Speaker Bio coming soon!
ID@Xbox in 2024
Comedy Room @ 16:00
In his talk, Ben will give an overview of the Xbox ecosystem, ID@Xbox and the recently announced Developer Acceleration Program. He will also take a deep dive into the resources available to reach more gamers on the platform, including marketing opportunities and Game Pass. Ben will close out with some tips and best practices on how to pitch and work more closely with Xbox.
Presentation by: Ben Robinson, Regional Manager @ ID@Xbox
Ben has worked in the industry 15 years, with the past 12 spend proudly working on the Xbox team. In his current role as an ID@Xbox Regional Manager, he is working with partners across EMEA to bring their titles to the Xbox ecosystem and to maximise their success through programs and partnerships.
The Audio Track, presented by Supermassive Games
Insights on all things audio from renowned Guildford devs
Room Host: Barney Pratt, Senior Audio Director @ Supermassive Games
Award winning game audio director, passionate for player immersion through sound and music, Barney has worked in Guildford games for over 18 years drawing on previous experience in the music and film industries. With the team at Supermassive Games he has delivered 15 titles in a range of genres and platforms from cinematic to VR, combining technical and creative expertise.
Adele Cutting, Audio Director @ Soundcuts
Adele is a BAFTA-winning Audio Director and founder of Soundcuts. She’s been in the industry for 20 years with her career seeing her work on the Harry Potter franchise, The Quarry and Assassins Creed. She’s a fierce champion for women in games, talented, knowledgeable and one awesome storyteller.
Lewis Thompson, Sound Designer @ Soundcuts
Meet Lewis Thompson, an audio maestro steeped in the realms of game and film audio since 2017. Currently rocking the role of Sound Designer at Soundcuts, Lewis is the wizard behind creating stellar sound effects, composing soulful music, fine-tuning dialogue edits, and directing the VO magic. His toolkit includes the art of audio implementation with Wwise. At Soundcuts, the audio vibes know no bounds—they're the go-to audio wizards for everything from indie gems to massive AAA spectacles. Lewis ensures that whether it's a small indie game or a colossal project, the soundscape hits all the right notes, making sure they sound absolutely top-notch!
Sian Harris, Lead Sound Designer @ Fuse
Sian is Lead Sound Designer at Fuse Games. She holds a First Class Honours degree in Music and Sound Technology. With over a decade of experience, she excels in audio direction, sound design, team management, coaching, and teaching. Sian showcases leadership and a track record in crafting immersive audio for diverse gaming titles, including various Lego titles, the Battlefield and Battlefront franchises, Need For Speed and the Jedi games.
Richard Sauberlich, Lead Sound Designer @ Supermassive Games
Beginning his audio career in the music industry before making the jump into game audio, Richard has spent the last 5 years breathing life into the Dark Pictures universe at Supermassive Games with dynamic environmental systems and compelling sound design. Richard is particularly interested in all things spatial audio, and has way too many VR headsets.
Airwiggles - Introduction to an amazing free game audio resource
Dance Room @ 12:00
Lewis Thompson, Sound Designer @ Soundcuts
Meet Lewis Thompson, an audio maestro steeped in the realms of game and film audio since 2017. Currently rocking the role of Sound Designer at Soundcuts, Lewis is the wizard behind creating stellar sound effects, composing soulful music, fine-tuning dialogue edits, and directing the VO magic. His toolkit includes the art of audio implementation with Wwise. At Soundcuts, the audio vibes know no bounds—they're the go-to audio wizards for everything from indie gems to massive AAA spectacles. Lewis ensures that whether it's a small indie game or a colossal project, the soundscape hits all the right notes, making sure they sound absolutely top-notch!
Greg Lester, Sound Designer @ Soundcuts
Greg Lester is a sound designer/ composer specialising in interactive audio for video games at Soundcuts where he has been for the last 3 years. Having worked on projects for console, PC, mobile and VR, Greg has a couple of titles with his name on including The Quarry, As Dusk Falls, Swords of Gurrah and Super Bally Ball and Electric Ambulance. Greg is also extremely passionate about sharing knowledge - last year Greg launched Airwiggles, alongside Soundcuts collegue Lewis, a social hub designed for the audio community to connect and learn from each other. Find out more using the links below!
Tom Colvin, Head of Audio @ Media Molecule
Tom is the Head of Audio at Media Molecule. Tom’s 19-year game-audio career includes a long stint as the Audio Lead at Ninja Theory (releases include Heavenly Sword, Enslaved and DmC: Devil May Cry), and working with Microsoft’s Central Audio Service. He has also created the audio content for successful mobile titles, including Sir Benfro’s Brilliant Balloon (Apple featured Best Apps of 2012) and Total Snooker (globally recognised Android game). MM’s most recent release was Dreams, a platform for games which provides users with digital creativity across a wide range of opportunities including Art, Animation, Films and Music. Dreams has won numerous awards including a BAFTA for Technical Achievement. Growing up in the Spectrum 48k area, he programmed games in BASIC and played with tape machines whilst learning the guitar. Having played in numerous bands and creating lo-fi techno 4 track cassette machine and synth, Tom spent long nights in the studio trying to figure out how it all worked. Tom also loves food, cats, trying to play every stringed instrument and reading novels.
Greg Lester, Sound Designer @ Soundcuts
Greg Lester is a sound designer/ composer specialising in interactive audio for video games at Soundcuts where he has been for the last 3 years. Having worked on projects for console, PC, mobile and VR, Greg has a couple of titles with his name on including The Quarry, As Dusk Falls, Swords of Gurrah and Super Bally Ball and Electric Ambulance. Greg is also extremely passionate about sharing knowledge - last year Greg launched Airwiggles, alongside Soundcuts collegue Lewis, a social hub designed for the audio community to connect and learn from each other. Find out more using the links below!
Chris Goldsmith, Associate Project Audio Director @ Creative Assembly
Chris, a seasoned professional in the games industry, has been honing his craft for over a decade. His journey began in the vibrant heart of Soho, where he lent his audio expertise to a variety of films, TV dramas, and documentaries. His career path eventually led him to Supermassive Games, where he contributed to a diverse range of titles, including 'Until Dawn', 'Until Dawn: Rush of Blood', 'Hidden Agenda', and 'The Dark Pictures: Man of Medan'. In recent years, Chris has been instrumental in building the next generation of 'Total War' titles at Creative Assembly. He takes immense pride in assembling and leading audio teams that are as passionate and engaged as he is.
Tom Colvin, Head of Audio @ Media Molecule
Tom is the Head of Audio at Media Molecule. Tom’s 19-year game-audio career includes a long stint as the Audio Lead at Ninja Theory (releases include Heavenly Sword, Enslaved and DmC: Devil May Cry), and working with Microsoft’s Central Audio Service. He has also created the audio content for successful mobile titles, including Sir Benfro’s Brilliant Balloon (Apple featured Best Apps of 2012) and Total Snooker (globally recognised Android game). MM’s most recent release was Dreams, a platform for games which provides users with digital creativity across a wide range of opportunities including Art, Animation, Films and Music. Dreams has won numerous awards including a BAFTA for Technical Achievement. Growing up in the Spectrum 48k area, he programmed games in BASIC and played with tape machines whilst learning the guitar. Having played in numerous bands and creating lo-fi techno 4 track cassette machine and synth, Tom spent long nights in the studio trying to figure out how it all worked. Tom also loves food, cats, trying to play every stringed instrument and reading novels.
Sian Harris, Lead Sound Designer @ Fuse
Sian is Lead Sound Designer at Fuse Games. She holds a First Class Honours degree in Music and Sound Technology. With over a decade of experience, she excels in audio direction, sound design, team management, coaching, and teaching. Sian showcases leadership and a track record in crafting immersive audio for diverse gaming titles, including various Lego titles, the Battlefield and Battlefront franchises, Need For Speed and the Jedi games.
Adele Cutting, Audio Director @ Soundcuts
Adele is a BAFTA-winning Audio Director and founder of Soundcuts. She’s been in the industry for 20 years with her career seeing her work on the Harry Potter franchise, The Quarry and Assassins Creed. She’s a fierce champion for women in games, talented, knowledgeable and one awesome storyteller.
Chris Goldsmith, Associate Project Audio Director @ Creative Assembly
Chris, a seasoned professional in the games industry, has been honing his craft for over a decade. His journey began in the vibrant heart of Soho, where he lent his audio expertise to a variety of films, TV dramas, and documentaries. His career path eventually led him to Supermassive Games, where he contributed to a diverse range of titles, including 'Until Dawn', 'Until Dawn: Rush of Blood', 'Hidden Agenda', and 'The Dark Pictures: Man of Medan'. In recent years, Chris has been instrumental in building the next generation of 'Total War' titles at Creative Assembly. He takes immense pride in assembling and leading audio teams that are as passionate and engaged as he is.
Paul Weir, Audio Director @ Hello Games
Paul is an audio director, composer, sound designer and voice director with almost 30 years experience. Paul brings his obsession with great sound design to his work with Hello Games, where he's audio director for the MEGA hit No Man’s Sky and also composed and performed all of the music for The Last Campfire, no doubt he's working hard on the audio direction for Light No Fire too... Paul has extensive experience across the entire audio landscape and has worked on an array of impressive projects, deploying a broad range of skills from creative to technical, all all have enabled us to feel fully immersed in game world's that he's been instrumental (pardon the pun) in creating.
Jay Steen, Technical Director @ Sweetjtech
Jay is an audio programmer who has been working in game audio for twelve years, starting out at Guildford's own Criterion Games. While there he worked on the Need For Speed, Star Wars Battlefront and Battlefield franchises. In 2020, left Criterion to help build the audio team at Jumpship and ship their first game, Somerville, and since then has been building modular audio middleware for Unreal Engine 5 as the Tech Director of SweejTech (part of Sweet Justice Sound). When not programming audio, he can be found playing cinematic adventure games and team shooters, running, climbing and attempting to snowboard.
Nathaniel Daw, Audio Director @ Fuse
Nat is from Australia and moved to the UK about 12 years ago. He worked at Criterion for most of that time, initially as an Audio Programmer, and is now the Audio Director at Fuse Games. During that time he’s worked on many different games, including several Needs for Speed, Battlefields, Battlefronts, and Jedi games. He loves playing the Tuba, watching Ice Hockey, and buying too many vinyls.
Javier Zumer, Senior Technical Sound Desinger @ Supermassive Games
Coming from linear media sound design and mixing, Javier was always interested in game audio and started gathering experience on several indie titles. After jumping to games full time, he gravitated towards the technical, fuelled by the need to understand how things work under the hood. Bridging technical and artistic, Javi maintains and expands the many audio systems that make up the core of the audio DNA at Supermassive.
Andrej Smoljan, Lead Audio Designer @ Supermassive Games
Originally from Croatia but now residing in Guildford for the past 5 years, Andrej began his career in film. He transitioned from picture editing to sound editing and mixing, leading him to eventually find home in game audio. At Supermassive Games, Andrej has contributed to 5 games in the Dark Pictures series, helping deliver strong narrative sound design and pushing the development of audio technology with the goal of achieving cinematic quality audio through systemic approach. Andrej likes maps, boats, basketball, architecture, and multiplayer gaming.
Paul Weir, Audio Director @ Hello Games
Paul is an audio director, composer, sound designer and voice director with almost 30 years experience. Paul brings his obsession with great sound design to his work with Hello Games, where he's audio director for the MEGA hit No Man’s Sky and also composed and performed all of the music for The Last Campfire, no doubt he's working hard on the audio direction for Light No Fire too... Paul has extensive experience across the entire audio landscape and has worked on an array of impressive projects, deploying a broad range of skills from creative to technical, all all have enabled us to feel fully immersed in game world's that he's been instrumental (pardon the pun) in creating.
Jay Steen, Technical Director @ Sweetjtech
Jay is an audio programmer who has been working in game audio for twelve years, starting out at Guildford's own Criterion Games. While there he worked on the Need For Speed, Star Wars Battlefront and Battlefield franchises. In 2020, left Criterion to help build the audio team at Jumpship and ship their first game, Somerville, and since then has been building modular audio middleware for Unreal Engine 5 as the Tech Director of SweejTech (part of Sweet Justice Sound). When not programming audio, he can be found playing cinematic adventure games and team shooters, running, climbing and attempting to snowboard.
Nathaniel Daw, Audio Director @ Fuse
Nat is from Australia and moved to the UK about 12 years ago. He worked at Criterion for most of that time, initially as an Audio Programmer, and is now the Audio Director at Fuse Games. During that time he’s worked on many different games, including several Needs for Speed, Battlefields, Battlefronts, and Jedi games. He loves playing the Tuba, watching Ice Hockey, and buying too many vinyls.
Sian Harris, Lead Sound Designer @ Fuse
Sian is Lead Sound Designer at Fuse Games. She holds a First Class Honours degree in Music and Sound Technology. With over a decade of experience, she excels in audio direction, sound design, team management, coaching, and teaching. Sian showcases leadership and a track record in crafting immersive audio for diverse gaming titles, including various Lego titles, the Battlefield and Battlefront franchises, Need For Speed and the Jedi games.
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