Amy Pejic, Director of Studio Operations at Criterion Games

Amy Pejic is the Director of Operations at Criterion Games, part of EA’s Battlefield Studios. She partners closely with studio and franchise leadership to shape how teams are structured, supported, and empowered to do their best work. Prior to this, she was the Executive Producer on Fable at Playground Games, a Production Director on Gears of War and the Chief of Staff at The Coalition Studio, as well as a Development Director at Electronic Arts where she shipped titles in franchises like UFC, NHL, Def Jam, and Skate. With a background spanning studio operations and game production, Amy focuses on creating clarity in complex environments by aligning people, process, and purpose across large, multi-site organizations. She is particularly passionate about sustainable ways of working, leadership effectiveness, and building environments where creativity and accountability can coexist. Amy is known for her practical, people-first approach to operations and her belief that great games are built by teams who feel trusted, supported, and challenged.

Jo Koehler, Executive Producer at Two Point Studios

Jo Koehler is Executive Producer at Two Point Studios. She’s been at the studio since the beginning and has worked across all three released Two Point titles. Starting her games career in 2008, Jo has held roles at Kuju, EA and Playsport Games, building deep experience in production and operations. She loves the organised chaos of game development, leads with passion (lots of passion), and keeps teams moving and organised when it matters most.

Barry Meade, Director at Fireproof Games

Chris Roberts, Chief Creative Officer at Stellar Entertainment

Chris is a Game Designer and Creative Director and is best known for his work at Criterion Games, Electronic Arts, Three Fields Entertainment, and now Stellar Entertainment. During his time at Criterion Games, he was instrumental in creating some of the most popular racing games of all time, including Burnout and Need for Speed. Throughout his career, Roberts has demonstrated a deep passion for creating games that are engaging, innovative, and memorable.

Peter Molyneux, Creative Director at 22cans

James Brooksby, Chief Executive Officer at Absolutely Games

Samantha Béart, Voice Actor

Samantha is a classically trained actor known for their work on stage and in video games. Stage includes Dungeons & Dragons: The Twenty-Sided Tavern (Off-Broadway), The Call of Cthulu (UK Tour), and as Random in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Originated on BBC Radio 4, UK national theatre tours). Games include: Darth Nul in Star Wars: The Old Republic, Cider in Absolum, Alisa in Cabernet, Player Character in Demon's Souls, Gina in The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles and Oracle in Tron: Catalyst. Samantha is also a BAFTA nominee, a D.I.C.E. awards finalist, and a GANG winner for their performance as Karlach in the seminal Baldur’s Gate 3. As Thomasina in The Excavation of Hob’s Barrow they were awarded a BAFTA Breakthrough - the first actor to enter the initiative on a video game. Their next announced project is as the leading role of One in Fading Echo, a desert punk action-adventure RPG. Additionally, Samantha is the creator and host of It Takes A Village, a talk show on YouTube. The series is a celebration of the people who make games, with themes of collaboration, co-advocacy and community. Samantha is a frequent world-traveller but hangs their hat in the UK.

Rich Keeble, Voice Actor

In video games Rich is known for voicing Monoco (as well as other characters including Francois, Mask Keeper, Simon & Trashcan man) in CLAIR OBSCUR: EXPEDITION 33, for which he was longlisted for a BAFTA. Other notable roles include Fenrico in WUTHERING WAVES, Avar in DUET NIGHT ABYSS, Frank Fairburne in STRANGE BRIGADE. Other game credits include SPLIT FICTION, KING OF MEAT, TITAN QUEST II, TOTAL WAR: WARHAMMER, WARHAMMER: VERMINTIDE 2, and NEW WORLD: AETERNUM. On TV he is known for playing Brian in Jilly Cooper’s RIVALS on DIsney+ and Hulu, Trevor in Bridget Christie’s acclaimed Channel 4 sitcom, THE CHANGE, and Mr Arnold in GOOD OMENS on Amazon. Other TV credits include GHOSTS (BBC1), TRYING (Apple TV), THE BEAKER GIRLS (CBBC), CASUALTY (BBC1), KAOS (Netflix), STONEHOUSE (ITV1), MURDER THEY HOPE (GOLD), DOCTORS (BBC1), MEET THE RICHARDSONS (Dave), and three different characters in NOT GOING OUT (BBC1). He has also voiced countless television and radio commercials, as well as audiobooks including the 2021 Audie Award finalist THE GUEST LIST, the 2024 Earphone Award winning WE MUST NOT THINK OF OURSELVES and the recent authorised biography PAUL WELLER: DANCING THROUGH THE FIRE.

Jessica Saunders, Director at Salix Games

Salix Games was founded by Jessica Saunders. Before launching her own studio, she worked as a sound designer, contracting for various AAA studios and working on titles such as Batman: Arkham Knight, Fable: Heroes and Kinect Sports Rivals. Jessica was the first person in game audio to receive a BAFTA Breakthrough Brit in 2015, shortly after her work at Rocksteady. Using industry connections and friends made throughout her career, Jessica has brought in talent from around the globe to work with Salix Games and create an array of exciting and innovative projects.

Marc Silk, Voice Actor

Marc Silk is a British voice actor, known for his stellar work across video games and film. Marc Silk is the voice of Good and Evil (and 30 other characters!) in Lionhead’s Black & White as well as the infamous Two Point Radio DJs: Ricky Hawthorn, Sir Nigel Bickleworth and Harrison Wolff!
Marc is also known as the voice of Johnny Bravo for Cartoon Network UK and Bob the Builder for US & Canada. Additionally, Silk’s vocal work shines in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, Medievil 2, Overlord, Hogs of War and many more.

Will Byles, Director at Dial M for Monkey

Georgina Howlett, Puffin Community Manager at Penguin Random House

Andy Gray, Head of Communications at Rebellion

With over 20 years of PR experience, mainly in the video games industry, Andy leads the communications team at Rebellion having previously worked for Codemasters. He has worked on a number of well-known franchises including Formula One, DiRT, Sniper Elite and most recently Atomfall. Founded in 1992, Rebellion is one of the world’s most successful independent video games studios. Its flagship Sniper Elite series is renowned for its authentic stealth and sniping gameplay with more than 20 million players worldwide. The company also owns and publishes 2000 AD, which is synonymous with the absolute finest in British comic book art. Rebellion operates across books, comics, TV, and film and its latest movie Rogue Trooper is due to release later this year.

Lewis Brown, Lead Recruiter at Criterion Games

Lewis Brown is the Lead Recruiter at Criterion Games, shaping the teams behind Battlefield and contributing to EA’s talent strategy for nearly a decade. During his time at EA, Lewis has helped build world-class teams across multiple studios and franchises—from action and racing to innovative new IP—working closely with leaders to match top talent with ambitious projects. Known for his people-first mindset, he champions inclusive hiring, thoughtful candidate experiences, and authentic industry storytelling. Outside of his day-to-day work, Lewis is a regular voice in games recruitment, sharing insights on careers, culture, and breaking into AAA development.

Tim Browning, Talent Acquisition at Supermassive Games

With 12 years’ experience recruiting across gaming, tech and fast-scaling sectors, Tim has lead recruitment at Supermassive Games for more than 3 years. He’s a fierce advocate for the games industry and the people who make games, helping Supermassive find the right talent to continue making the award-winning titles players have become accustomed to.

Luke Finley-Maxwell, Lead Game Designer at Two Point Studios

Leif Bayliss, Community Manager at Two Point Studios

Twitch Partner turned Community Manager, Leif has been involved with the UK gaming community since 2017. Armed with their love of bizarre internet culture, they’ve recently brought their passion for content creation, player advocacy, and creative collaboration to Two Point Studios.

BigFuzzyYak, Content Creator

BigFuzzyYak is a full-time Content Creator and has recently become a Twitch Partner. Specialising in Gaming, Tech, Beauty and F1, her versatility knows no bounds. She is also an accomplished presenter/host, panel guest and judge.

Luke Hardwick, EU/UK Creator Relations Lead for The Sims at Electronic Arts

With over seven years of experience across social media, community, and influencer/creator relations in video games and television, Luke Hardwick is currently the EU Creator Relations Lead on The Sims. He is passionate about building authentic, creative, player-first communities, with a strong focus on player experience and supporting up-and-coming gaming creators. Luke previously worked at Media Molecule (PlayStation Studios), at the BBC, and has freelanced across indie games space. His work was recently nominated in the TikTok Awards 2025, and he’s nominated for the “Rising Star” award at the Guildford Game Awards 2026.

Ben Board, Head of Unreal Engine Games Business

Ben joined the games industry in 1997 in Guildford, as a coder at legendary Bullfrog Productions and later as a lead on Fable 1 at Lionhead, then moved into production in Australia, before starting Microsoft's Xbox developer relations team in Europe. Missing the making-games lols he later returned to dev, running the live development of mobile hit CSR Racing at BossAlien, before making an absolutely disastrous mobile game for Hutch. Ben moved to Epic Games in 2017 and now leads the Unreal Engine games business in Europe, helping wonderful Unreal Engine developers to succeed.

Sam Swain, CEO at Apparance Studios

Sam is a well-established builder of level editors, tools technology, and game systems. His career spans working on several million selling franchises such as Fable, No Man’s Sky, and Gloomhaven. The last ten years he’s been building his magnum opus “Apparance”, a run-time, fully interactive, visually authored, procedural generation tool-set, for building complex proc-gen marvels in Unreal and Unity.

Ava Oppenheimer, Founder at TryIto

Founder of TryIto, ex-Synthesia. She builds real world physics into machine learning systems for next generation cloth simulation, combining expertise in ML, volumetric capture, and simulation research for solutions across games and digital fashion.

Ed Perkins, Consultant for the games industry

Ed joined the industry 16 years ago, starting out at as an associate producer at Codemasters right here in Guildford. Over the following years he moved through PC, console and mobile across both development and publishing, working on a range of IPs from Moshi Monsters and Clumsy Ninja through to [REDACTED] Park and Tomb Raider, as well as being a passionate advocate for DEI. Along the way he's worked for amazing teams of all kinds, from single digit start-ups to global powerhouses, and regardless of team size he'll always be the only one who actually likes sparkling water.

Rachel Menzies, VP Bespoke Sync Services at BMG

Rachel Menzies is an experienced music professional with 16+ years in the Music Industry.Progressing quickly early on in her career, while at West One Music, she successfully lead their sales strategy, driving unprecedented growth and profitability. In 2020, Rachel assumed the position of VP, Bespoke Services at BMG. In this role, she curates an exceptional talent roster (featuring the likes of Mick Jagger, Karen O, Kylie Minogue, Biig Piig, Chemical Brothers, Bat For Lashes, John Grant, The Prodigy, Shygirl and many more), fostering collaborations between brands and composers/producers. Her expertise in delivering tailor-made, bespoke musical compositions has further enhanced BMG's reputation as a premier provider of exceptional creative solutions for media clients.

James Marshall, Senior Music Supervisor at PlayStation

James Marshall is Senior Music Supervisor at Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe as part of the PlayStation Creative Arts team, working on first party games, global ad campaigns, soundtrack releases and live performances. From composed music to curated licensed songs, he works closely with creative teams, composers and artists to fully realise the musical vision for a project. He lead music supervision on key titles such as LEGO Horizon Adventures, the 2024 version of Until Dawn and Sackboy: A Big Adventure (nominated for the BAFTA Game Award for Best Music in 2020). He has also contributed music supervision to titles such as Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, Astro Bot and Gran Turismo 7. James also oversees the release of game soundtracks in physical and digital formats, including Returnal, Horizon Forbidden West and other titles from SIE’s European catalogue.

Bartosz Piekarski, Lead Sound Designer at Omeda Studios

Bartosz Piekarski is a lead sound designer and audio artist with 15 years of experience shaping game audio across multiple European studios, from indie titles to AAA productions. He has worked on over 25 games, collaborating with diverse teams to push sonic identity, immersion, and quality. His work has been recognised with the Sennheiser Music Production Award and, as part of the wider team at TT Games, a BAFTA Children’s Game Award for LEGO Dimensions. He brings a strong creative voice, a practical production mindset, and a passion for delivering bold, high-quality game audio.

Félix Rebaud Sauer (Founding Composer / Mix Engineer) & Alex Cameron Ward (Founding Composer / Producer) at Thunderdrum

Thunderdrum is a London-based composer and music production team co-founded by Alexander Cameron Ward, Félix Rebaud-Sauer, and Hugo Brijs, created to facilitate artist partnerships in the making of bespoke music for games, film, and campaigns. Within the wider composer team, Alex & Félix operate as close creative partners, leading on composition, production, and mix across a range of major projects. Their work includes a soundtrack album on Assassin’s Creed: Shadows and a multitude of original songs within the Fortnite ecosystem, including the recent collaboration with The Simpsons. Thunderdrum’s work has earned industry recognition, including a BAFTA nomination, an Oscar shortlist, and accolades at the Cannes Lions.

Jessica Saunders, Director at Salic Games

Salix Games was founded by Jessica Saunders. Before launching her own studio, she worked as a sound designer, contracting for various AAA studios and working on titles such as Batman: Arkham Knight, Fable: Heroes and Kinect Sports Rivals. Jessica was the first person in game audio to receive a BAFTA Breakthrough Brit in 2015, shortly after her work at Rocksteady. Using industry connections and friends made throughout her career, Jessica has brought in talent from around the globe to work with Salix Games and create an array of exciting and innovative projects.

Leon Hijazi-Killin, People Practice and Strategic Consultant at Balance Patch

Leon (he/him) is an award winning expert on strategic people practices with 15+ years experience and has worked with over 50 games studios since joining the games industry from higher education and videogame retail. Previously Head of Strategic Inclusion at Sumo, he is currently People Practice & Strategic Consultant and Founder of Balance Patch where he provides clients with a range of services including inclusive people practice, critical risk assessment for games content and communications, and wellbeing coordinator for games actors and creatives dealing with difficult, sensitive topics. Leon is an active participant in several games industry level-up initiatives, including Code Coven’s CIC Advisory Board, UK Games Industry Slack Admin team member, Limit Break Mentorship mentor, and former member of the Ukie EDI Committee, Writers’ Guild of Great Britain Games Committee, and Out Making Games Leadership alumni.

Samantha Béart, Voice Actor

Samantha is a classically trained actor known for their work on stage and in video games. Stage includes Dungeons & Dragons: The Twenty-Sided Tavern (Off-Broadway), The Call of Cthulu (UK Tour), and as Random in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Originated on BBC Radio 4, UK national theatre tours). Games include: Darth Nul in Star Wars: The Old Republic, Cider in Absolum, Alisa in Cabernet, Player Character in Demon's Souls, Gina in The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles and Oracle in Tron: Catalyst. Samantha is also a BAFTA nominee, a D.I.C.E. awards finalist, and a GANG winner for their performance as Karlach in the seminal Baldur’s Gate 3. As Thomasina in The Excavation of Hob’s Barrow they were awarded a BAFTA Breakthrough - the first actor to enter the initiative on a video game. Their next announced project is as the leading role of One in Fading Echo, a desert punk action-adventure RPG. Additionally, Samantha is the creator and host of It Takes A Village, a talk show on YouTube. The series is a celebration of the people who make games, with themes of collaboration, co-advocacy and community. Samantha is a frequent world-traveller but hangs their hat in the UK.

Navid Madanian, Technical Artst at Supermassive Games

Navid Madanian is a Technical Artist with close to a decade of experience working with Unreal engine of which five years being a full time developer working in the video game industry, currently working at Supermassive Games. Originally trained as a physicist, Navid Madanian earned a Master of Science in Physics in 2015 before transitioning into game development. Driven by a passion for interactive technology, he spent several years self-studying and working as a freelance Unreal Engine generalist, developing a strong foundation in real-time graphics and technical workflows. Their background in physics enabled them to create advanced real-time simulations, helping them move into their first full-time Technical Artist role. For the past three years at Supermassive Games, Navid Madanian has continued to grow as a TA, contributing technical expertise to deliver high-quality, real-time experiences.

Karol Szpura aka Rensei, VFX and Technical Artst at Fireproof Games

Shomair Hanuk, Technical Artist

JoAnn Sproule, Training and Engagement Manager at Ygam

JoAnn Sproule is the Training and Engagement Manager for the Gaming and Esports programme at Ygam, the UK’s leading charity dedicated to preventing gaming and gambling harms among young people through education, training, and research. A lifelong gamer, former streamer, and passionate esports enthusiast, JoAnn brings deep personal insight and industry knowledge to her role. She designs and delivers dynamic workshops for young gamers, parents, and professionals, championing a balanced, positive relationship with gaming while equipping audiences with vital, up-to-date guidance on the digital risks facing the gaming generation. As Ygam’s Designated Safeguarding Lead, JoAnn drives best practice in safeguarding across the organisation, ensuring robust support and safety for all. Her blend of lived experience and safeguarding expertise ensures that Ygam’s Gaming and Esports programme continually fosters a safe, healthy, and enjoyable environment for the next generation of gamers and esports talent.

Kit Harrison, Voice Actor and Special Effect Ambassador

Kit is an actor heard in games like Genshin Impact, Dying Light and Shadowverse, and was once murdered in the mountains by the cast of Baldur's Gate III. (He got better.) A staunch advocate for the wellbeing of both actors and gamers, he can always be found fighting the good fight, petting his cat Dreadnought, and usually both.

Jess Molloy, Accessibility Specialist and QA Coordinator at Glowmade

Lewis Thompson, Audio Lead at Soundcuts

Lewis is an audio designer and composer with a few other strings to his bow! Lewis has worked in game and film audio since 2017, and his current role is an Audio Lead at Soundcuts. His work includes creating sound effects, composing music, dialogue editing, audio implementation, and occasionally making an overly-detailed spreadsheet. Lewis has worked on over 100 projects, from small indie games to huge AAA projects, and always tries to make sure they sound the absolute best that they can!

HOST: Barney Pratt, Senior Audio Director at 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.

Benni Bennett, Junior Sound Designer at Soundcuts

Benni is a British-Japanese junior sound designer working in games since joining Soundcuts in 2025. She began her career in music composition/audio post before pursuing her passion for games and interactive sound. As an avid gamer, Benni is excited by the whole process of making games and enjoys exploring diverse genres, artistic styles, and audio implementation, and how they shape a player’s experience. When not sound designing, she can often be found on a climbing wall, playing survival horror games or jamming out on various Japanese instruments!

Mia Sugunasingha, Music Composer at Moonbug Entertainment

Mia is a Composer and Audio Editor based in Guildford, with experience across Games, Film, Podcasts, and more. Early on in her career, she built her portfolio by working on game jams and gained recognition as one of Into Games' IG50 2024 winners in the Audio category. In 2025, she launched the ‘Middleware With Mia’ initiative through her role as Audio Moderator for Into Games, with the aim to build a welcoming community for those learning middleware. She also lends her time hosting online audio meetups, now based at Airwiggles. She has just landed her first full-time Composer role at Moonbug Entertainment.

Abel Quintana, Games Audio Lead at The Academy of Contemporary Music

Rose Evans, Audio Designer at Studio Gobo

Paul Weir, Audio Director at Hello Games

I'm an audio director, composer, sound designer and voice director working in games, generative sound design, video production and radio and have worked on over 70 games. For the past thirteen years I've been Hello Games' audio director, working on the multi-award winning procedural space game, No Man's Sky, The Last Campfire and the upcoming Light No Fire. On No Man's Sky I'm responsible for all of the sound design, additional music, audio tools development and overall creative audio direction across many platforms.

Daan Hendriks, Audio Director at The Chinese Room

HOST: Paul Weir, Audio Director at Hello Games

I'm an audio director, composer, sound designer and voice director working in games, generative sound design, video production and radio and have worked on over 70 games. For the past thirteen years I've been Hello Games' audio director, working on the multi-award winning procedural space game, No Man's Sky, The Last Campfire and the upcoming Light No Fire. On No Man's Sky I'm responsible for all of the sound design, additional music, audio tools development and overall creative audio direction across many platforms.

Kenny Vaughan, Head of Music and Gaming Partnerships at Feel For Music

Although he’s a lifelong gamer, Kenny has spent a majority of his career in the music industry. From humble beginnings at the indie record label Naim Records based in Salisbury, Kenny worked with artists such as Sons of Kemet, Neil Cowley Trio, and eventually ran the mercury-nominated campaign for Eska’s Debut S/T album in 2015. Seeking new challenges and broader horizons, Kenny joined Sony Music Entertainment, working with the licensing team and optimising products and strategy to ensure the artists and labels are happy with top-tier products and partners. In late 2023, Kenny connected the dots between his music experience and gaming passion to create the Substack newsletter Between Music & Gaming. This newsletter explores case studies, future predictions, and practical tips for artists and repertoire owners looking to optimise success in the gaming space. Inspired by the in-depth discussions from his Substack, Kenny joined Feel For Music in 2025 as Head Of Music & Gaming Partnerships. Feel For Music is an award-winning music supervision company specializing in composing and licensing for video games, with work spanning titles such as Life Is Strange, Dead Island 2, and 007: First Light.

Mark Choi, Freelance Composer, Orchestrator and Pianist

Mark is an Ivor Novello-nominated composer, focused primarily on video games, and a member of the 2025 BAFTA Breakthrough UK cohort. Since 2015, he's also served as Resident Composer of Whole Hog Theatre, drawing from Japanese source material to create innovative anime-to-stage productions. Additionally, Mark is a session pianist and founding musician of Sonaris Ensemble, a video game chamber quintet that has performed at the Golden Joystick Awards and the London Games Festival. He is represented by The Composerworks.

Tom Quillfeldt, Production Manager and A&R at Laced Records

Thomas (Tom) has worked in the music industry for 15+ years, predominantly in social media, marketing and PR. For nearly 10 years he's helped Laced Records grow into one of the largest video game music record labels in the world, working on over 300 physical and digital releases. Laced specialises in premium vinyl releases, and has released music from franchises big and small including The Legend of Zelda, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Pokémon, Halo, Street Fighter, Monster Hunter, Resident Evil, Metal Gear Solid and DOOM.

Ed Williams, Creative Director and Senior Agent at The Composerworks

Ed Williams is Creative Director & Senior Agent at The Composerworks, an agency representing film, TV & video game composers. At The Composerworks, he works with composers in all aspects of their careers, seeing each project through from inception to execution, leading on negotiation and promotion for their compositional work and commissions. He also heads up The Composerworks’ session management, record label and production music services. In 2023, Ed established the video game division, signing exceptional composers with extensive experience scoring for video games, which has led to securing AAA projects and root The Composerworks into the gaming world.

James Elsey, Music Composer at James Elsey Music

James Elsey is a London-based Composer and BAFTA Connect Member with a passion for video games and interactive music. He has experience in AAA, Mobile and Indie on titles such as Evil Dead: The Game, Beyond Hanwell, Beatstar and Chrome Valley Customs. James also composed the main theme for Fully Ramblomatic, the successor to the legendary video game review show Zero Punctuation with Yahtzee Croshaw. Prior to that working with the team at The Escapist on their feature length Documentaries and covering beloved Franchises such as; Divinity: Original Sin, Insurgency, Darkest Dungeon, Eve: Online and Spiritfarer.

HOST: Greg Lester, Senior Sound Designer at Soundcuts

I'm a creative audio professional with a specialisation in sound design for video games with a huge passion for learning, teaching and building community. I'm best known for co-founding the audio community platform Airwiggles, creating content on Game Audio Learning and writing The Pocket Mentor for Game Audio.

Criterion's Audio Team

Gaetan Lourmiere, Audio Director at Criterion Games Gaetan Lourmiere is Criterion Games’ Audio Director, beginning his audio career over a decade ago in linear media, working on everything Audio, from boom operator to studio engineer. Since transitioning to video games, he has managed teams and worked as both a Sound Designer and Technical Sound Designer across multiple EA franchises, including Madden, Need for Speed and Star Wars, currently focusing on all things Battlefield Audio. Jim Shacklock, Senior Voice Over Designer at Criterion Games Jim Shacklock is a Senior Voice Over Designer at Criterion, after working for almost a decade at Creative Assembly working on the Total War franchise he has joined Criterion Games, bringing his technical and creative expertise into the Battlefield franchise. Mike Clarke, Experienced Sound Designer at Criterion Games Mike Clarke is an experienced sound designer who's worked on games like Star Citizen, Elite Dangerous and Warhammer AOS: Realms of Ruin.