Tandem Events, organisers of Develop:Brighton and The Develop:Star Awards, have announced indie developer Wushu Studios as the keynote speakers for Develop:North, taking place on Thursday 14 November at The Spine in Liverpool.
Hosted by Wushu’s key leadership team, Alan McDermott, Jo Daly, and Nigel Kershaw, the keynote will explore how the studio strives to shape the future of development through a people-first approach, and a positive company culture. The founders will also discuss how leadership is being reimagined in the studio, the value and challenges of collaboration post-COVID, and the benefits and pitfalls of co-development.
Alan McDermott has been in games for over 20 years, overseeing audio direction on games like MotorStorm and Driveclub before moving to Game Direction in one of PlayStation’s prototype divisions. Jo Daly started her career as a Texture Artist in the mid 90s, spanning a career across both Game Development and Academia across the North-West of England. Nigel Kershaw began his career in game design in the late 80s, working with numerous Northern studios on games like Broken Sword – and MotorStorm!
"To be delivering the keynote session at a Develop conference is an honour, but to be doing so in Wushu’s home city is incredibly exciting," said Wushu Studios' Jo Daly. "After a busy year, we can’t wait to share our insights and see all the friendly faces - familiar and new - that make up the UK's bustling northern game dev communities.
Wushu Studios are a Liverpool-based developer who have supported various titles externally with new features as well as developing entire games. They’ve worked with some of the most critically acclaimed IPs and studios in the industry including Larian Studios’ Baldur’s Gate 3, Sumo Digital, Mediatonic, and Playground Games.
"We’re delighted to be able to bring a company that works out of Liverpool as our keynote speakers for the first Develop North” said Tandem Events Managing Director Andy Lane. “They’ll share the breadth of their knowledge on fostering a forward-thinking dev studio and the importance of a positive, people-focused work environment”
Tandem have today shared the timetable for the conference programme, with more sessions to be announced soon. The timetable currently includes representatives from Epic Games, mayamada, Lucid Games, Remedy Entertainment, Guillotine, and Spilt Milk Studios. Not yet announced are sessions for the Indie track, which specifically addresses issues faced by smaller devs, and will be revealed soon.
The Develop:North 2024 sessions so far are:
Audio
Alan Wake 2: Audio Systems in a Game of Two Halves
Joshua Bell, Remedy Entertainment
Gulli Gunnarsson, Remedy Entertainment
Tips and Tricks from a Music Supervisor to Navigate Music Licensing in Games
Irma de Wind, Independent Music Supervisor
Art
The Relationship Between Environment Art and Concept Art in a Game Production
Alex Beddows, That’s No Moon
Staying Current as an Artist: Nanite and Lumen in Unreal Engine
Filipe Strazzeri, d3t
It’s Not How It looks, It’s How It feels
Murray Somerwolff, Patattie Games
Business
EULA and Moolah: Unreal Royalties Explained
Ben Board, Epic Games
Running a Studio in Turbulent Times
Host: Dr Jackie Mulligan, Game Republic
Nina Roussakoff, Lovewish
Andrew Crawshaw, Thunkd
Stuart Dinsey, Curve
Des Gayle, Altered Gene
When and How Best to Lean into External Partners
Claire Bromley, Criterion Studios
Build Better Games, Faster, Cheaper and Easier with Scrum
Daniel Susser, Embodied Agility
Coding
Building Efficient Custom Tools in Unity to Improve Team Collaboration
Amy Elliott, Sumo Digital
Godot: A Professional Perspective
Claire Blackshaw, Flammable Penguins Games
Tech Learnings from Five Years of Apex Legends
Fred Gill, Antidote Gamers
Design
Don’t Forget the Story: The Power of Video Game Narratives
Nigel Twumasi, mayamada
Let’s Make More Punk Games!
Robin Perera, Indie Developer
Viewfinding: From Mechanic to Game
Matt Stark, Sad Owl Studios
Discoverability
Trash Goblin - Turning Someone Else’s Trash into Treasure with Kickstarter
Andrew Smith, Spilt Milk Studios
DIY: Building the Best Influencer Relations Campaign for Any Game, Yourself
Jake Kulkowski, Guillotine
Conference passes are available for purchase and you can secure your place at the Early Bird rate of £250 + VAT until Thursday 10 October. Micro Indies and Student Early Bird rates are also available for £120 + VAT.
For more details on passes, visit the Develop website:
https://www.developconference.com/north/event-info/passes-prices/
Develop:North will run over one day and will include a keynote and 28 sessions across seven tracks: Art, Audio, Business, Coding, Design, Discoverability, and Indie. The conference will have a networking event kicking off from 6pm. Delegates will also get free access to the sessions online following the event.
For the latest on speaker announcements, the Develop:Star Awards, and everything Develop:North visit: https://www.developconference.com/north/ and follow @DevelopConf on X/Twitter.
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About Develop:Conference
Develop brings together the entire UK game dev industry to learn from each other, share ideas and experiences, network, and do business in a friendly and inclusive environment. The event also offers high quality conference sessions - from the industries brightest minds and talents - with practical takeaways that allow delegates to ‘skill-up’ and be inspired to make better games.
Develop:North offers a day of insight, inspiration, networking and fun in Northern England.
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