Develop:North 2024: First Speakers Announced & Super Early Bird Passes on Sale Now

Thursday 12 September, 2024: Tandem Events, organisers of Develop:Brighton and The Develop:Star Awards, have announced the first set of speakers for Develop:North, taking place Thursday 14 November at The Spine in Liverpool.

The first set of Develop:North speakers includes representatives from Sumo Digital, Remedy Entertainment, Sad Owl Studios, Game Republic and Criterion Studios. More speakers are yet to be announced.

The UK’s biggest game developer conference is coming to Liverpool and will bring something for everyone. Attendees can expect seven tracks covering almost every discipline, as well as a keynote and post-conference networking. The tracks are: Art, Audio, Business, Coding, Design, Discoverability, and Indie.

“Develop:North 2024 offers a comprehensive conference programme which will explore some of the key areas of UK game development, whilst providing a focal point for the hugely talented dev community in the North.” said Tandem Events Managing Director Andy Lane. “This is an exciting step in bringing the highly-regarded Develop conference further afield, this time to an award-winning venue in Liverpool, The Spine.”

Amongst the speakers announced so far are Lovewish’s Nina Roussakoff who joins Dr Jackie Mulligan from Game Republic as one of the panelists in Running a Studio in Turbulent Times. Attendees can also look forward to Tips and Tricks from a Music Supervisor to Navigate Music Licensing in Games from renowned music supervisor, Irma de Wind.

“The first wave of talks we’re announcing today covers a wide range of topics across fields, disciplines and platforms that we know our delegates want to hear about. These range from character art to developing new IP, from diversity in game narratives to TikTok, with plenty more to be announced in due course,” Lane added.

Conference passes are available now. Secure your place at the Super 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/

The first Develop:North 2024 sessions to be announced include:

Art

The Relationship Between Environment Art and Concept Art in a Game Production
Alex Beddows, Expert Environment Artist / That’s No Moon

It’s Not How It looks, It’s How It feels
Murray Somerwolff, Somerwolff Games

Audio

Alan Wake 2: Audio Systems in a Game of Two Halves
Joshua Bell, Project Lead Audio Designer / Remedy Entertainment
Gulli Gunnarsson, Senior Sound Designer / Remedy Entertainment

Tips and Tricks from a Music Supervisor to Navigate Music Licensing in Games
Irma de Wind, Music Supervisor / Founder / De Wind Music

Business

When and How Best to Lean into External Partners
Claire Bromley, Maps Producer / Criterion Studios

Build Better Games, Faster, Cheaper and Easier with Scrum
Daniel Susser, Embodied Agility

Running a Studio in Turbulent Times
Dr Jackie Mulligan, Development Director, Game Republic
Nina Roussakoff, Founder, Lovewish

Coding

Building Efficient Custom Tools in Unity to Improve Team Collaboration
Amy Elliott, Junior Programmer / Sumo Digital

Design

Viewfinding: From Mechanic to Game
Matt Stark, Game Director / Sad Owl Studios

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 also 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 Twitter.