Category: Tandem Events

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Develop:Brighton 2019 Conference Schedule Released

It’s now getting into the season of big events with the Game Developers Conference (GDC) out the way, F8 2019 concluding yesterday, Google I/O next week and the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) next month to name a few. There are also plenty of smaller, more focused events dotted around the calendar, one of which is the annual Develop:Brighton conference in the UK which has just published its full schedule.

Develop:Brighton

The annual three-day conference and expo is set to feature more than 100 speakers who will be hosting talks, Q&As and roundtable discussions. Speakers will be covering a wide range of topics focused on eight tracks – Art, Design, Indie, Audio, Evolve, Business, Discoverability and Coding.

The speaker line-up includes the following talks:

  • Keynote: Rebellion – The Path to Independence
    • Chris Kingsley and Jason Kingsley – Rebellion
  • Body Positivity in Character Design
    • Loukia Kyriakidou – Freelance Artist
  • A First Look: The Xbox Accessibility Guidelines
    • Brannon Zahand – Microsoft
  • Fun, Safety, Profit: Year 1 of a Successful Indie Studio
    • Lottie Bevan – Weather Factory
  • Show Them the Money: An Agent & Developers Q&A
    • Derek Douglas, Creative Artists Agency (CAA) & AJ Grand-Strutton – Dlala
  • Elegance vs Intricacy – When Your Design Is Too Good to Have Depth
    • Tim Fletcher – Jagex
  • Pushing the Boundaries for PlayStation VR: Sony London Studio’s Journey to Blood & Truth
    • Stuart Whyte – Sony London Studio
  • Code Ahoy – Finding Hidden Treasure In Creating Your Own Audio Systems
    • Jon Vincent, Jamie Hughes, Katie Tarrant & Guillaume Muller – Rare
  • Next Gen VR – What Developers Need to Know
    • Andrew Ayre Alvaro Barúa – ZeroLight 
  • Accessibility and the Importance of Including the Disabled in the Development Process
    • Felicia Prehn – Nopia Oy

Develop Brighton

Alongside all the talks, Develop:Brighton 2019 will also include the Indie Showcase Competition where budding studios have the opportunity to show off their videogames not published by a third party, with the deadline being 20th May. And then there is the new Develop: Star Awards, celebrating the best videogames and talent from the last 12 months.

Registrations are now live with interested visitors able to save 20% on a conference pass with the Early Bird rate if bought on or before Wednesday, 5th June. Develop:Brighton runs from Tuesday 9th to Thursday 11th July 2019 at the Hilton Brighton Metropole. For further updates, keep reading VRFocus.

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The First Round of Talks Announced for Develop:Brighton 2019

The annual Develop:Brighton conference will be returning to the city this July, with organiser Tandem Events announcing today the first selection of speakers to take part. 

Develop:Brighton

The sessions will cover a range of topics that are important to videogame development, such as inclusivity, early access, machine learning and augmented reality (AR), with representatives from Microsoft, Bioware, Riot Games, Eidos Montreal, Jagex and Ubisoft taking part.

“We’re thrilled to reveal the first round of speakers heading to Develop:Brighton in July,” said Andy Lane, managing director of Tandem Events in a statement. “Each year we’re fortunate to attract some of the most creative minds in the industry, and this year is no different – we’ve got a great line up of fascinating talks that developers will be keen to attend.”

The talks confirmed today are:

Art:

  • Secret Recipes for Great Art: Diversity, Familiarity and Trends – Jack Gilson, Rovio
  • Art Pipelines in Hold The World – Laura Dodds, Dream Reality Interactive

Audio:

  • Keynote – Game Audio Culture: The Big Picture – Rob Bridgett, Eidos Montreal
  • The Sound of Anthem – Cody Behiel & Eric Vervaet, EA Bioware

Business:

  • Help! Games Under Attack! – Dr Jo Twist, Ukie
  • The Big Why: How to Present Ideas and Get Buy-In – Leanne Loombe, Riot Games

Coding:

  • Achieving deeper player interaction with large-scale worlds – Chris Jenner, Ubisoft Reflections
  • MMObile: Bringing Old School RuneScape to Smartphones – Christopher Knowles, Jagex

Design:

  • Beyond Bandersnatch – Designing for Interactive Narrative and Live Action – Jack Attridge, Flavourworks
  • Elegance vs Intricacy – When Your Design is Too Good to Have Depth – Tim Fletcher, Jagex

Discoverability:

  • Everything We Did to Chart on Steam – Hannah Flynn, Failbetter Games
  • Early Access: The Why and the How – Ollie Purkiss, Wonderstruck

Evolve:

  • ArtyFax: An Augmented Reality Game Designed for and Created by Children – Richard Vahrman, LocoMatrix
  • Interactive Machine Learning for Game Controls Customisation and More Expressive Interactions – Carlos Gonzalez Diaz, University of York and Goldsmiths University of London

Indie:

  • Successful Crowdfunding: A Kickstarter Post-Mortem – Cari Watterton, Puny Astronaut
  • Fun, Safety, Profit: Year 1 of a Successful Indie Studio – Lottie Bevan, Weather Factory

Develop:Brighton 2018

Further sessions are due to be announced as the event draws near. For those interested in attending registrations are now live, you can save up to 35 percent on a three-day Super Early Bird pass (normally £915) for £585 bought on or before 3rd April. Other passes are available for shorter durations or for students and academics. The annual Develop:Brighton event is a three-day conference and expo running from Tuesday 9th to Thursday 11th July 2019 at the Hilton Brighton Metropole. For further updates, keep reading VRFocus.

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Learn About the Latest Advances in VR and AR technology at Develop:VR

It’s been an incredible year for virtual reality (VR) with amazing experiences coming to headsets, discounts galore, new devices and technologies being revealed, and more events either featuring or being dedicated to immersive entertainment. But 2017 isn’t over yet, and for those keen on learning more about VR in all its forms Tandem Events will be holding its second Develop:VR event next month in London, UK.

If you’ve not been following VRFocus’ regular updates about Develop:VR it’s the sister event to Develop: Brighton, designed as a way for content creators – or really anyone interested in VR – to come together, share ideas, network and learn from one another.

Stuart whyte Headshot

Naturally there’s going to be a broad range of speakers and topics being discussed over the course of the one day conference, with Stuart Whyte, director of VR product development for Sony London Studios delivering a keynote presentation entitled, ‘Taking VR to the Next Level – A Case Study in AAA Games Development’. Also on the roster of speakers are: Andrew Willans, CCP Games; Faviana Vangelius, SVRVIVE; Anna Hollinrake, Climax Studios; Brynley Gibson, Kuju; Pete Daukintis, Microsoft; Martin de Ronde, Force Field VR; Dan Sheridan, nDreams, and many more.

Alongside the conference there will be several exhibitors demonstrating the latest VR technology, with Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), Hammerhead VR, Make Real, Focal Point VR and Beloudest, Paw Print Games, Psytec Games, Novatech and Zerolight all confirmed.

The expo will also feature an Indie Zone showcasing some of the latest titles. These will include The Circle by Manos Agianniotakis; Korix by StellarVR; Tin Hearts by Rogue Sun; Ctrl by Breaking Fourth and Pierhead Arcade by Mechabit to name a few.

Develop:VR will return on 9th November 2017, held at London’s Olympia. Tickets are still available at the standard rate of £294.00 GBP inc VAT, giving access to all the conference sessions and a free lunch. Or if you just want to go to the expo and networking events, passes are completely free to register for (no free lunch though).

As ever, keep reading VRFocus for the latest updates on both the Develop:VR and Develop: Brighton conferences from Tandem Events.

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Develop:VR Returning to London in November

A couple of weeks ago Tandem Events held its annual Develop: Brighton event seeing record numbers attend. While the conference does cover virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) technology the organisers also have a more focused one-day event called Develop:VR which had its debut event last November in London, UK. Now Tandem Events has announced the return of the conference, again being held in London in November.

As before, Develop:VR will be focused on the new commercial opportunities that VR and AR present for today’s videogame developers, with the 2017 expo seeing Sony Interactive Entertainment as the headline sponsor.

PlayStation VR Group shot

Michael Denny, SVP WorldWide Studios, Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe, said in a statement: “Following on from the success of last year’s event, Develop VR promises to be an essential addition to the industry events calendar. As our PSVR ecosystem pushes at the boundaries of VR, with award winning experiences like the Joshua Bell immersive video project and exciting new games like Farpoint, having an event like this is vital to spread ideas, knowledge and best practice to ensure that, across the creative industries, we can truly deliver on the exceptional promise of VR to our consumers.”

“We are delighted to announce the return of Develop:VR at its new home,” said Andy Lane, managing director of Tandem Events. “Every day we’re learning more about what is possible with VR and AR technology. This is a fast growing sector both inside and outside the games industry and we believe Develop:VR is a destination for developers to learn from and network with those who are making waves in the space. I’d also like to thank Sony Interactive Entertainment for their support of the event as a headline sponsor.”

Develop:VR will return on 9th November 2017, held at London’s Olympia. Speaker submissions for Develop:VR 2017 are now open and prospective speakers have until 23rd August to submit proposals.

This month’s Develop: Brighton saw 2,171 attendees over the three days, the most in its 12-year history, with a 7.5 per cent year on year increase, Tandem Events reported.

VRFocus will continue it’s coverage of Develop:VR and Develop: Brighton, reporting back with the latest updates.

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Develop:Brighton Unveils Indie Showcase Shortlist 2017

The popular Develop:Brighton conference will be returning for another year next month and today organiser, Tandem Events, has announced the shortlisted videogames which will be part of the seventh Indie Showcase, four of which are virtual reality (VR) titles.

Those selected are:

  • Loco Dojo (Oculus Rift) by Make Real
  • SVRVIVE: The Deus Helix (HTC Vive) by SVRVIVE Studios
  • ARCA (Gear VR) by Dream Reality Interactive
  • Tin Hearts (Oculus Rift) by Rogue Sun
  • Rocket Rumble (Android) by Small Jelly
  • Abandon Ship (PC) by Fireblade Software
  • Space Krieg (PC) by We Heart Dragons
  • Dead End Job (PC) by Ant Workshop
  • From Light (PC) by Faffinabout

SVRVIVE screenshot

Loco Dojo is a multiplayer board game in which players have to compete across 16 mini-games to make it into the Grand Temple and win. VRFocus reviewed the title a short while ago, giving it 4 stars, saying: ‘those who do decide to take the plunge will be richly rewarded with a videogame that is highly enjoyable to play and will keep them coming back for more.’

SVRVIVE: The Deus Helix is a puzzle adventure game, inspired by classics such as Myst and Riven, while Tin Hearts from Rogue Sun is all about building elaborate Rube-Goldberg machines to help a battalion of magical clockwork toy soldiers escape a series of Victorian rooms. The last VR title on the list is  Dream Reality Interactive’s physics platformer ARCA, with players piloting the ‘ARCA Sphere’ through a world of shifting platforms and abstract architecture.

“Every year we’re blown away by the standard of submissions for the Indie Showcase and this year was no exception,” commented Adam Green, chairman of the selection panel in a statement. “We had over 120 games submitted this year, which is the highest number yet. Selecting the finalists from such an incredible range of diverse titles was as challenging as it was inspiring. Be sure to swing by the Indie Showcase and check them out!”

Managing director of Tandem Events, Andy Lane, added: “It’s been seven years since we launched the Indie Showcase, and the creativity displayed by all the indie developers that submit never ceases to amaze me. It’s fantastic to have Unity on board as sponsors for another year. Everyone involved is excited to see the industry reaction when they have hands-on opportunity at Develop:Brighton in a few weeks.”

All the titles will be playable at the Expo and on Thursday 13 July the overall Indie Showcase winner as chosen by the judging panel and the People’s Choice winner, as voted for by delegates through the Develop:Brighton website, will be announced.

Develop:Brighton, is a conference, expo and networking event taking place from Tuesday 11th to Thursday 13th July 2017 at the Hilton Metropole in Brighton.

For any further updates on the event, keep reading VRFocus.