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TT Games, Frontier Developments, Criterion Games, Ninja Theory, Wargaming and Naughty Dog will headline this year’s Yorkshire Games Festival, event organisers have announced.
Returning to Bradford’s National Science and Media Museum for its second year this November, the five-day event will celebrate games culture and introduce a new generation to the science and art of game development. Talks include presentations from Destiny 2 writer Martin Korda, TT Games’ head of design Arthur Parsons, Ninja Theory’s Dominic Matthew, Wargaming’s director of special projects Tracy Spaight and Frontier’s Louise McLennan and Sebastian Hickey, as well as former Naughty Dog VFX artist Iki Ikram.
Composer David Wise will also be in attendance, plus Overcooked’s Oli De-Vine and Phil Duncan, Criterion’s James Svensson and Kieran Crimmins, and Gang Beast creators James and Michael Brown. A full line-up is available on the festival’s website.
What’s more, this year’s event will introduce a dedicated ‘School’s Day’ on the first day of the festival (Wednesday November 8th) to expand the festival to KS2 and KS3 students looking to learn about how to make industry-leading games. The day will include lessons on coding and story-telling.
There will also be a dedicated Business and Video Games workshop for newcomers to the industry, as well as a networking event. That’s all in addition to the ‘Let’s Play’ weekend designed for families and gamers of all ages.
"There are scores of brilliant games events all across the UK, across Europe even, but we want to take a different approach with the Yorkshire Games Festival,” festival director Kathryn Penny said.
“Across the five days, we’ll be bringing some of the industry’s brightest and best to Bradford to discuss frankly what they’ve learned from being behind some of the most creative and successful titles out there. In the midst of all this will be the next generation – the games industry’s future stars, lapping up that expertise and that knowledge for the years ahead.”
Tickets are available now, with prices for speaker events starting from £35.
