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Develop:Brighton 2021 announces keynote fireside chat

Wednesday 21 July: Organisers Tandem Events are delighted to announce that Insomniac Games president and founder Ted Price will be join Develop:Brighton 2021 for a keynote fireside chat.

Insomniac has been creating best-selling games for over 27 years including Spyro the Dragon, the long-running Ratchet & Clank series and Marvel’s Spider-Man. More recently Insomniac has released Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales and Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart for the PS5.

Ted Price will answer questions about Insomniac’s approach to game development in an increasingly unpredictable world, sharing lessons learned over the studio’s decades-long history of making blockbuster titles.

Ted joins fellow keynote speakers Debbie Bestwick MBE, founder-CEO of award-winning developer and independent games label Team17, and Lorne Lanning and Bennie Terry III from Oddworld Inhabitants.

Develop:Brighton returns as a live event to the Hilton Brighton Metropole from Tuesday 26 to Thursday 28 October 2021.

A range of passes for the conference are now on sale, available at a special Super Early Bird rate of 30% off until midnight tonight. 

In addition to announcing Develop:Brighton’s latest keynote, Tandem Events is also happy to announce the next round of speakers. More than 60 speakers have now been announced across nine tracks, covering everything from business and indie development to coding and audio design.

The conference programme can be viewed here: https://www.developconference.com/whats-on/2021-conference-programme

Further additions to this year’s programme will be announced in the coming weeks.

Speakers at Develop:Brighton 2021 include representatives from Ubisoft, Konami, SEGA, Improbable, Rebellion, Splash Damage, Creative Assembly, Polystream, Atomhawk and more. A selection of these sessions is detailed below.

·       Art: Building Dynamic Environments for the Dungeons of Gloomhaven
Sam Swain, Apparance Studios

·       Art: Dynamic & Different: Real-time Look Development for Stylized Games

Nick Carver, Freelance Concept Artist

·       Audio: Behind the Split Screen Sound of It Takes Two: A Story About CO-LA-BO-RA-TION

Anne-Sophie Mongeau and Philip Eriksson, Hazelight Studios

·       Audio: 3D Audio in Games: What, Where, Why and How?
Cal Armstrong, SIE PlayStation’s Audio R&D Team

·       Business: Understanding Your Game's DNA
Richard Jones, Konami Digital Entertainment

·       Business: Selling Your Game Studio: Insights From the Sale of Hutch to MTG Group
Shaun Rutland, Hutch. Interview by David Amor

·       Coding: How to Get More Out of Your Code Reviews
Joe Kilner, Polystream

·       Coding: A Practical Perspective on Training Reinforcement Learning Bots
Alexandre Borghi, WildMeta

·       Design: Pandemic-Proof Play: Adapting Local Multiplayer Games for Post-Covid Socialising
Jo Haslam, Snap Finger Click

·       Design: It's Dangerous to Go Alone: Xbox's Tools to Help You Make Accessible Games
Tara Voelker, Xbox

·       Discoverability: How Much Does This Even Cost? Using Analytics Tools to Measure ROI on Consoles & PC
Kat Welsford, Square Enix

·       Discoverability: Noise vs Momentum – Driving Desire for Your Game
Ravi Vijh, Bastion

·       Indie: Being Boring: How Less Innovation Made Overboard! a Hit
Jon Ingold, inkle

·       Indie: Is Working with a Publisher Worth it?
Julia Kenny, SEGA

·       Mobile: How to Build Amazing Mobile Games with Rapid User Testing

Kim Kohatsu, PickFu

·       Mobile: The Resurgence of Social Gaming in Mobile - Social 2.0    
Kalle Ballantyne, GameRefinery 

·       Roundtable: Being Identified as an Individual
Reema Ishaque, Splash Damage

·       Roundtables: Raise Your Game: How to Make Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Central to Your Games Business
Emma Russell, Jagex

Now in its 16th year, Develop:Brighton promises the same inspiring and fun-filled three days by the sea. The game dev community will enjoy insightful keynotes given by the best in the business, diverse roundtables and sessions offering practical advice and inspiration to help game makers make better games.

The conference offers nine tracks – Design, Coding, Art, Mobile, Business, Discoverability, Roundtables, Indie and Audio.

Develop:Brighton will also see the return of much anticipated networking opportunities, from the formal meeting planner - Meet@Develop - to the many afterhours social events including the Develop:Star Awards on the Wednesday evening.

The Indie Showcase will also return to find the hottest new indie games, for the first time since 2019. More details on how to enter the competition will be announced soon. 

For those unable to travel to Brighton, a digital pass is also available.

For the latest on tickets, speaker announcements and The Develop:Star Awards 2021, visit: www.developconference.com and follow @DevelopConf on Twitter.

Ukie members can receive 10% discount with code: PCAEXZ

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About Develop:Brighton conference & expo

The Develop:Brighton conference is where the European developer community comes together to learn from each other and share experiences, be inspired by world renowned experts and gurus, get up-to-date with the latest development tools and techniques, make new contacts and catch up with old ones.

With a programme that is shaped by some of the industry's key figures, the conference touches all levels of the development community from the largest studios to the smallest indies; from development directors to programmers.

About The Develop:Star Awards

Taking place alongside the conference, the new Develop:Star Awards will recognise the very best of the game development community. The achievements of developers and success of great games and creativity will be celebrated across 18 categories, including one ultimate ‘Develop Star’. This award will honour an extraordinary game developer for outstanding achievement and contribution to the industry.

Twitter: @developconf

LinkedIn: Develop-Brighton

Facebook: developconference