Develop:Brighton 2023 has announced its first speakers

Tandem Events has announced the first speakers for the 2023 Develop:Brighton conference, including an assortment of industry experts from companies like Creative Assembly, Hi-Rez Studios, Splash Damage, Sumo Digital and Ubisoft Reflections.

The 2023 Develop:Brighton conference will take place between July 11 – 13, 2023 at the Hilton Brighton Metropole, and its talks will cover every discipline in the industry. It will also feature the Develop:Brighton Expo and Indie Showcase competition, as well as provide access to a free Indie BootCamp and roundtable discussions that should provide ample networking opportunities for those that attend them.

“Develop:Brighton 2023 will once again feature the game dev community’s best and brightest delivering high-quality, high-value talks, firesides and roundtable discussions, offering valuable insights to delegates no matter their level of expertise,” said Tandem Events’ Managing Director Andy Lane. 

“This year’s conference and expo will be better than ever following extensive refurbishments to the Hilton, with an enlarged expo back in its traditional location which will allow better air flow and movement throughout. In addition, we’ve expanded the ever-popular Meet@Develop meeting area. We’re very excited to welcome these speakers to Brighton, and the game dev community as a whole.” 

Some of the topics from the first batch of Develop:Brighton 2023 sessions to be announced include:

Art:

• The 3D Character Art Workshop by Shayleen Hulbert, Freelance Artist
• The Innards of F.L.E.S.H: Dead Island 2’s Gore System Dissected by Dan Evans-Lawes and Aaron Ridge, Deep Silver Dambuster Studios
• Style, Trends, Immersion and Abstraction – Developing UI Art Direction by Leanne Bayley, Atomhawk Advance 

Audio:

• I Know What You Did Last Somerville by Matteo Cerquone, Jumpship and Jay Steen, SweejTech
• A Daily Practice – Safeguarding Your Audio Team’s Mental Health & Wellbeing by Steve Brown, Sonorous
• Presenting an Authentic F1 Audio Experience: Insight into an Asset Heavy Cross Disciplinary Pipeline by Will Augar, Tim Bartlett and Andy Hair, Frontier Developments

Business:

• Farming Simulator Production Pipeline by Ken Burgess, GIANTS Software 
• AI in Art and Marketing Pipelines – How We Integrated AI to Create Reliable Commercial Returns by Kosala Ubayasekara, W.R.K.S Games
• Middle Management: Congrats! You Are a Middle Manager! Now what? by Marc Espinola Berestein, Sumo Digital

Coding:

• Sustainable Coding with a Mental Health Mindset by Geraldo Filipe Garcês do Nascimento, Lively – A Keywords Studio
• Cloud Native Development Level Up for Smaller Teams by Yoyu Li, Infinite Whys
• 20 Years of Total War Engineering by Guy Davidson, Creative Assembly

Design:

• How to End the World: A Post-mortem of RuneScape 3’s 2022 Season Finale by Diana Flindt, Splash Damage 
• In The Room: Running and Participating in Modern Writers’ Rooms by Paula Rogers and Amy-Leigh Shaw, Sweet Baby Inc. 
• Challenges in Creating a Completely New IP by Josh and Mike Grier, Ember Lab

Discoverability: 

• Mastering Discoverability: How to Attract and Nurture Your Game’s Audience by Federica Nocerino, Freelancer Marketer for Gaming & Tech 
• TikTok Game Dev: The Eldritch Horror – How to Create Powerful Content by Oliver William Walker, ZA/UM
• Spreading an Indie Game on Social Media from Announcement to Release & Beyond by Brynmor Harmon Richards, Super Rare Games

Mobile:

• The Desire Path: Our Journey from Perpetual Pivots to Record Retention by Jade Ostle, Trailmix
• How to Successfully Kill a Mobile Game by Allan Stowe, Outfit7
• The End of Small Studios: A Pocket Burger Post Mortem by Mitchell Smallman

Indie Bootcamp (Free):

• Tips for Successful Game Development in Unity by James Stone, Unity
• How to Avoid a Bad Steam Score? by Agnė Vitkutė, G.Round
• They’re Just Not That Indie You: Five Mistakes Devs Make When Pitching to Press by Rachel Macpherson, Neonhive

Roundtables (Free):

• Are Your Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Initiatives Helping or Hurting? by Anita Sarkeesian, Feminist Frequency
• Where is Your Safe Space Within the Games Industry? by Benn Wiebe, Safe in our World
• Overcoming the Imposter Syndrome by Estelle Bailly, Hi-Rez Studios

If you’d like to secure a ticket for the event, you can do that at a Super Early Bird price rate until April 6, 2023. It’s worth noting that Develop:Brighton Expo passes are free as usual, and will let visitors go to the Indie Bootcamp, roundtables and more. If you definitely can’t make it to the conference in person, you can also still buy a digital pass, which will provide you with the ability to view livestream sessions and take part in some online networking. 

You can find complete pricing information for the show here to choose the pass that is most right for you, and don’t forget to use code ZLECKS as an MCV/DEVELOP reader for an additional 10% off. 

Also, if you’d like to nominate someone for the Develop:Star Awards that will take place on the Wednesday evening of Develop:Brighton, you can still do that here until March 31, 2023.