July has been and gone (and now so has August – we’ve got a bit of a backlog of news to get through!), although you wouldn’t know it from the weather, and that means that so has Develop. The Develop Conference in Brighton is definitely one of the highlights of the year for the UK scene, where we all decamp to that quintessentially British of locations, the Victorian-era seaside, for strolls on the promenade, fish and chips by the beach and possibly the most content-packed conference the UK has to offer.
With more concurrent tracks than you can shake a stick at, and a who’s who of the UK industry packed into a very small area on the Brighton seafront, Develop likes to style itself as the UK’s answer to GDC, and as ridiculous as that may sound, it manages to generate an atmosphere quite reminiscent of San Francisco in March. And in that spirit, we felt that would would a major conference like this be without some sort of IGDA event going on on the fringe?
Wednesday is the heavy night, with multiple parties and the Develop Awards taking place. As a result, Thursday morning has a much later start than the other days, which gave us the perfect opportunity to offer something we’re very good at here in Scotland – an artery clogging hangover cure and networking event. And so, the IGDA Scotland Develop Breakfast took place, with developers from around the UK and beyond wandering along, in some cases much the worse for wear, to hang out, get a nice cooked breakfast and talk about game development. An absolutely great time was had by all, with a delicous breakfast bringing us back from the brink, and providing us the energy required to seize the day!
We are indebted to our excellent sponsors who made this possible by funding the event and providing breakfast for all the attendees.
Sponsors:
Storybricks is an out-of-the-box Artificial Intelligence solution for game developers. Populate your game world with lifelike entities driven by complex goals, moods and emotions. With our engine you can simply define a character’s personality and motivations. Watch them act autonomously, forming complex relationships with the player and among themselves. They will even remember past interactions and adapt their behaviour accordingly.
Glasgow Caledonian University is a distinctive, inclusive and forward-looking university that is committed to its social mission to promote the common good. The video games industry continues to grow every year with constant advances made in the field of Video Games Technology. Subsequently, the software is always evolving in order to push the limits of this technology and produce more and more advanced computer gaming experiences for the increasingly sophisticated gamer. Study the creation of computer games software in state-of-the-art facilities. You will utilise the most up-do-date tools of the industry to learn the many different skills involved in the creation of cutting edge games software
Blazing Griffin is a semi-virtual game development studio based in Edinburgh, Scotland. We’re an indie studio, small and mighty; right now we’re a handful of full-time members plus a few freelancers. We’re developing multiple original IPs for various digital distribution platforms; at the moment we’re focusing on mobile (iOS and Android) but the goal is to expand onto the PC as well. Our first game, Distant Star, is available now on the App Store.
We are also grateful to the venue, Cafe CoHo, for their excellent hospitality.
We hope to see you all at Develop next year.
