As noted previously, I had a busy week of action planned for my trip to the UK. While the main purpose of the trip was to participate in the Develop conference in Brighton, I did sneak up to Middlesbrough for the Women in Games conference taking place right before.

WiG was a well organized small scale conference. There were about 80 attendees, mostly women, leading to a surreal game industry moment when I was sitting at a table eating lunch with seven women… The conference content had a primarily academic slant and covered stuff like gendered behavior in online games, initiatives to get girls gaming and looking at games as tools for teaching abstract programming concepts. Fun stuff. I ran a panel on quality of life challenges with a handful local professionals - admittedly a more industry oriented topic of discussion. A key takeaway was a pointer to the hilarious sadly-not-far-from-the-truth Saturday Night Live spoof commercial for “Chess for Girls!“

While in Middlesbrough, I also had the chance to catch up with Dave Sharp, an old industry buddy of mine. What he’s been cooking up with the Digital City initiative seems truly inspiring! If only other regional governments were so supportive…

Arriving in Brighton, I was immediately struck by the young/hip vibe of the city - and the smell of the beach/water/seagulls. Brighton really was a perfect choice to host a conference for harried developers to escape to for a few days. And, things got off to a boisterous start with Mark Rein’s infamous inflammatory opening keynote speech. I must coyly admit that I’m the one you called him out as a dinosaur - sorry Mark :) But, I don’t feel so bad after Phil Harrison, during the closing panel, said he utterly disagreed with everything Mark said and that he was a failure as a keynote speaker (who should have been inspiring the audience instead)… Anyway.

The conference was jammed with content. The healthy crowd of approx 500 developers were barely able to fill up all the rooms. A good problem to have. Andy Eades’s “Ferrari” talk on the quality of life at Relentless Software was particularly inspiring (despite the gaping jaws of most attendees (”I that really possible?”)). Also, the “fresh ideas to borrow” and “opinion jam” sessions were fun and informative twists on the usual lecture format. Mizuguchi san’s lecture was almost devoid of any practical takeaway, but provided great insight into how one of the industry’s visionaries is inspired by everyday things and human interactions.

Overall a great, albeit hectic, trip to the UK. And, here are some pics of the action…


Deb Tillet (Breakaway Games) gave the opening keynote at WiG


Is it a wonder that the only guy-based design workshop team came up with an idea of pirates and blowing things up…


Women from various Nordic countries discuss local initiatives and programs to support girl/women gamers.


WiG conference organizer Gabrielle Kent (U. of Teesside) gives a welcoming speech during the conference dinner.


Kirsten Kearney (aka UK Frag Doll Kitt) gave an inspiring speech on her views of being a female gamer, a journalist and a mother.


Margaret Robertson’s (Edge Magazine) opening slide for her “fresh ideas” talk, someone should have blogged the results by now…


John Sear (U. of Derby) and Toby Barnes (Pixel-Lab) fill up on coffee.


Tetsuya Mizuguchi (Q Entertainment) discusses some of the inspirations that brought about Rez.


Ken Perlin (New York U.) filling up at the bar, kindly sponsored by UK publisher Codemasters.


The future of indie development: Introversion’s Thomas and Vic Arundel dressed all fancy for the Develop Industry Excellence Awards. (Check out photos of other fancy dressed developers via the Nokia photo blog).


Michael French (Develop Magazine) hands off the Legend Award to Charles Cecil (Revolution). Well deserved!


Michelle Hinn (U. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) and Richard van Tol (AudioGames.net) enjoy a drink in the hotel lobby bar.


Charles Cecil opinion jamming. Was good fun!


IGDA volunteers’ lunch: (starting from back left) John Sear, Toby Barnes, Thomas Arundel, Martine Parry (top of head), Vic Arundel (back of head), me, Brian Rodway, Adam Martin…


…(clockwise from front-center) Mike Drummelsmith, Carl Bateman, ?, Emmeline Dobson, Mary-Margaret Walker.


? receives SkillSet accreditation recognition by Ian Livingstone (Eidos) during the academic reception.


Before heading out for the GamesIndustry.biz party, I took a nice stroll on the beach.


And also ran into the Pavilion, which is very much at the root of Brighton’s existance…


Derek Littlewood (Free Radical) and John Sear enjoy a drink on the red side of the bar.


Tetsuya Mizuguchi and Justin Keeling (IGN) acting foolish on the blue side of the bar.


Hardy poker players raising money for charity during the party.


Ernest Adams watches a demo by Dimitris Grammenos during the game accessibility workshop.


Lunch on the beach with Jon Purdy (U. of Hull).


Brighton’s beach. Wish I had more of a chance to just chill out…