Where you launch matters more than ever. Player behaviour is shifting, competition is intensifying, and developers have more choices than ever before. In this talk, I’ll cover how Xbox and developers can work together to help games break through by improving discovery, reaching new players across devices, and reducing the friction of shipping. I’ll also cover when to engage with ID@Xbox, how to pitch us, and the common pitfalls we see, with practical examples throughout.

Guy Richards
Xbox

The way we talk about sound is holding back the way we design it. In game audio we too-often rely on a narrow set of descriptors: bright, dark, warm, gritty. We also tend to default to technical processes — more compression, less reverb, more distortion — or literal source references — more metallic, more watery, more engine. While useful, these ways of talking about sound can flatten creative intent, restrict exploration, and make it harder to communicate nuanced ideas. To design more expressive, evocative audio, we need better creative language - and one of the richest sources of inspiration comes from the visual arts.

In this session, Ashton Mills draws from his experience as a sound designer and creative leader in game audio, exploring how visual thinking can augment our approaches to sound design. Ashton demonstrates how concepts like line, shape, texture, contrast, and movement can be translated into sound, offering different ways to imagine, design, and communicate audio ideas.

The talk explores how soft and hard lines map to envelope design, how visual texture differs from timbre in shaping sonic identity, and how art movements such as impressionism, expressionism, and realism can inform creative intent and stylistic choices in game audio. Through practical examples from RuneScape:Dragonwilds and sound design DAW sessions, Ashton will bridge the gap between the philosophical and the concrete; offering attendees techniques they can apply to their own work.

Session Takeaway

• Unlock new imaginative approaches to sound design.
• Discover untapped sources of inspiration for creative work.
• Improve collaboration between sound and other disciplines.
• Give better creative feedback and have new ways to respond to feedback.

Ashton Mills
Jagex

Andrew Dodds
Jagex

The classic detective story starts with them exploring the scene and collecting evidence, and ends with the detective sitting in their chair, smoking a pipe and piecing it all together. This talk explains how inkle's breakout mystery game TR-49 takes a different approach that puts the deduction step first, by turning the puzzle process from a quiz about the evidence that can only end in a tick and a new puzzle into the way the player explores the "map" of the game, opening new "locations" by the deductions they make: which in turn allows us to make space for the deeper mysteries, with less clear-cut answers, that bring the game to life.

Session Takeaway

• A different model for deduction mechanics; moving from quizzes to exploration.
• Examples drawn from our recent release, TR-49, of how we did this in practice.
• Pros and cons for this design strategy.

Jon Ingold
inkle

In this session we will start with a brief but eye-opening introduction to the history of visual design, before we question just about everything you think you know about art direction.
We will discuss a variety of methods for breaking down fuzzy creative goals, and using lenses in order to learn elemental things about the game we are making. Along the way we’ll also discuss some counter-intuitive advice like why art direction is not about art. We then take all these insights and use them to construct the process that creates the game. 
This is a talk for people looking to move into creative leadership across all disciplines of art, for those who are already art directors, and should also be informative to other creative leaders in game design, audio, and tech art. 

Session Takeaway

• A deeper understanding of the context in which art directors operate. 
• A set of methods for breaking down fuzzy goals. 
• A collection of lenses to analyze your project through. 
• Applying first principles to guide and sharpen your project’s art. 

Gerben Pasjes
d3t-Keywords

You have seen it a million times before. A game releases to crickets, and after the sad headlines, layoffs, and internal chaos, the employees say the same thing: "we should have seen this coming".

So what happened? 

In this session we will go from start to end, conception to testing to production to ship, and build a framework of how to identify (and solve!) product issues BEFORE you ship. If you are releasing any sort of project in 2026 or beyond, this talk is sure to be useful.

Session Takeaway

After seeing this talk you can apply to your own project:

- A practical framework to define success at the project and feature level, so your development is always aligned and pointed towards the vision.

- Key insights on how to validate your project before its too late, how to playtest efficiently, how to not waste development figuring it out.

- A check list of warning signs to watch out for from announce to ship, so that your marketing is measurable and translates to actual sales.

Amir Didarzadeh
NBI

It's a bit of a thankless task, trying to cut above the noise when there are now 20,000 games released each year - so how do you get publishers (and players) to sit up and take notice?

Anna Blewden, CEO & Creative Director of Games with DNA, found herself in this exact position in September last year. Disheartened by the challenge of convincing publishers there was a real audience for her game - a Wild West romance/mystery visual novel - she decided to take matters into her own hands.

Within 2 months, Anna had grown her TikTok account from 0 to 30,000 followers, even before the game's demo release. Now, just a few months later, the game has amassed more than 100,000 followers across social media platforms, with over 17M video views, and a thriving Discord community filled with engaged fans, fanart, and cosplays.

In this talk, Anna will use Love & Fool's Gold as a case study, breaking down her findings (born from successes and failures alike) into actionable Dos and Don'ts, so that you too can grow your game's following and prove its worth - to publishers and players alike.

Session Takeaway

Building an engaged online community with zero budget or marketing support

Practical tips for producing short-form content with viral potential

How to leverage the algorithm to reach your game's target audience 

Combining user psychology, marketing, meme culture, and data-driven insights to achieve sustainable growth

Anna Blewden
Games with DNA

This talk breaks down the music design process behind Saros, covering our approach to soundtrack development, how narrative is integrated into creative and technical workflows, and lessons learned from building a music system that remains engaging within a death-loop structure.

Session Takeaway

• Details of the Music Design approach in Saros.
• A deeper look into some of our Music Design Processes at CA.
• Music Recording, Production, Implementation, and Mix insights for Saros.

Joe Thwaites
Sony Interactive Entertainment

Game development rarely goes exactly to plan. Technical challenges, slipping milestones, scope changes, and sudden priority shifts, often under pressure. Producers are there to monitor and mitigate risks, but what can you do when a crisis situation develops regardless of your efforts?

This roundtable brings producers and other game development leaders together to talk honestly about how crises can be navigated without destroying the game or the teams that make them. The session explores how to deal with chaotic situations and what actually helps when a team is behind or faces serious technical, team, or financial issues.

Through shared experiences, participants unpack how to communicate under pressure, make hard calls, and learn from real-world examples of games that had to delay or pivot.

This is a practical, experience-driven conversation aimed at producers, project leads, studio heads, and publisher teams who want healthier and more resilient collaborations.

Session Takeaway

Learn about different types of crisis situations you might face during development and how peers have dealt with them

How to effectively communicate during high pressure situations

How to handle tension such as disagreements, shifting priorities, and unmet deadlines

How to deal with stakeholders such as publishers during a crisis situation

Eline Muijres
Cohop Games

Sally Blake
Silent Games

Since its inception in 2019, Limit Break has grown from a small cohort of 100 participants to a massive network of over 1,600 mentors and mentees. But how does a volunteer-run non-profit achieve this scale, and more importantly, why should game studios care?

In this session, Limit Break Founder Anisa Sanusi shares the origin story of the UK’s largest mentorship program for maginalised talent. She will reveal how a grassroots initiative evolved into a pillar of the industry, supporting thousands of careers from entry-level students to seasoned veterans.

Attendees will discover how supporting mentorship programs improves staff retention, levels up their skills, and fosters a healthier, more diverse studio culture. Anisa will also offer practical advice on running a successful non-profit. Whether you want to start your own employee resource group, launch a charity initiative, or simply become a better mentor, this talk will give you the tips you need for managing volunteers, organising community events on little or no budget, and that success often means embracing the chaos, ditching perfectionism, and just doing whatever it takes to get the job done.

Session Takeaway

- The Benefits of Mentorship: Understand the business benefits of mentorship, including higher staff retention, increased skill development, and improved team morale.

- Building a Community: Practical steps on how to set up and manage your own non-profit, charity, or internal employee resource group using a volunteer model.

- Better Mentoring and Leadership Skills: Learn how mentoring can help you to become a more effective leader in your own studio.

Anisa Sanusi
Limit Break

They're old. They're tired. They're barely hanging on. Mike Rose (No More Robots) and Rami Ismail (previously of Vlambeer) have been knocking around the video game industry for 15 years now, Mike on the publishing side, and Rami on the developer side. Now they've finally fulfilled their dreams of starting a video game industry podcast (which is an entirely unique idea and has never been done before), through which they tell terrible stories, give terrible advice, and swan around like they own the place.

In this very special live episode of Mike & Rami Are Still Here, the duo will talk memories of past Develop:Brighton visits; what is on the horizon for our industry at a time of extreme worry, and maybe even take a question or two from the audience, if they can stomach it.

Session Takeaway

• A better understanding of publisher funding in 2026. What should you be asking for? How many units will you actually sell?
• What can we expect sales to look like going forward into 2027? Are things levelling out? Are they getting worse?
• What tips and tricks are there for surviving as a studio right now? How can you rise above?

Mike Rose
No More Robots

Rami Ismail
Rami Ismail

Join experts from PwC Valuations and Strategy& for an insightful session exploring key trends shaping the gaming industry, drawing on historical and forward-looking insights from the annual PwC Entertainment & Media Outlook. Whether you are part of an established studio or preparing to launch your first title, this session will help you make more informed commercial decisions by improving your understanding of the market landscape in the UK and internationally.

The session will examine current market conditions through the lens of fundraising and valuation, incorporating perspectives from both strategic (large corporate) and financial (venture capital) investors, and highlighting how these dynamics have evolved over the past year.

The discussion will conclude with a light-touch overview of valuation methodologies, exploring how gaming companies are being valued today, where investors are seeing the greatest sources of value, and how these insights translate to early-stage studios.

Session Takeaway

• Insights into the UK gaming market future outlook and historical trends
• An overview of fundraising perspectives and how investors see value
• Guidance into how to frame and understand your business’s value

Julian Barklund
PwC

Imogen Glen
PwC

The S.T.E.A.L. game design model seeks to remove subjective game design terms, such as “fun” and “gameplay”, with objective terms, such as syntax, tension, and emotion, that designers are able to measure. Using objective terms over subjective terms will equip you with the tools to determine whether certain features of a game achieve the type of player experience that you are is aiming for in your game.

Session Takeaway

• How to adapt features from other games to the needs of the game they are working on and preserving the impact on players.

• remove subjective terms such as “fun” and replace them with with objective, measurable, implementable terms such as syntax, tension, intended emotion and alignment so that designers can determine what those features achieve the intended player experience.

• break down games into understandable and meaningful elements, seeing how each part impacts the next. When a player isn’t having fun, the S.T.E.A.L. framework gives designers the tools to determine why.

Annie Grudeva
Radical Forge

We set up an indie studio because we wanted to build cool things in VR. Part of that is working directly with hardware so we chose Godot so we could build our own tech stack overtime. This talk dives into the technical challenges of using an unproven engine and shipping in a difficult technical space where almost everyone is on Unity/Unreal with multiple layers between them. The challenges of hitting framerate and the design and technical choices and mistakes we made.

Review rewriting the font engine, dealing with undocumented APIs from platform holders and variety of corner edge cases that taking control of your tech stack as a tiny indie studio bring. Then add on the decision to port to PSVR2, Apple and variety of other hardware.

Session Takeaway

• How to build an engine as an indie.
• Understanding of Godot, and the pros and cons of seeding your tech state with an existing engine.
• Some VR / Godot specific programming lessons.

Claire Blackshaw
Flammable Penguins Games

Few games have continued to grow and evolve in such a dramatic way as the innovative and hugely popular procedural space game, No Man's Sky. Since its release in 2016 the small dev team have continued to pour love and dedication into this multi-award winning title, with audio being constantly updated and expanded. No Man’s Sky is massively varied - planetary exploration, battles in space, build your own ships, explore space wrecks, discover wild alien creatures, trade, craft, fight and cooperate - it’s a universe-sized sandbox.

As a truly independent studio, Hello Games has a strong DIY ethos which extends throughout the audio, with all sound in the game being fully bespoke and original. Audio director, Paul Weir, will highlight ways in which some of the key sounds were created and the need to retain focus on how the audio makes players feel, emphasising emotion over technology in approaching the sound design. He’ll also discuss how the many game-changing updates have forced the audio to evolve, and the value of maintaining strong discipline and organisation within the project.

Session Takeaway

- Learn how the game has developed over a decade and the impact this has had on the sound design and with hindsight, what approaches could have been different.

- Gain insights about how to prioritise feeling and emotion over process and technology.

- Be inspired by approaches to creating some of No Man’s Sky’s iconic sounds.

Paul Weir
Hello Games

With most advisory boards and leading games companies still dominated by leaders in their 50s and beyond, the perspectives of under-35 professionals are too often overlooked. This roundtable creates a dedicated space for younger voices in the games industry to speak candidly about the issues they find most challenging and concerning, including career progression, job security, workplace culture, AI, freedom of speech, leadership, and the future of the industry

Session Takeaway

Top 5 areas to be considered by the industry from the under 35s, these can be published and circulated to some of the national and regional advisory boards who represent the sector.

Gina Jackson
Pitchify

Learn the basics of using TikTok to launch your game and build your brand from Panda Cat Games’ Social Media Manager, Molly Holmes. She’ll share her tried and tested tips and tricks, and what she’s learnt about launching your social presence from scratch and building a following - so that you can do the same for your indie games company. (Warning: May include spreadsheets and graphs!)

This will cover:

• Why TikTok?
• Getting started
• What works and what doesn't (trends, rules, attention spans)
• Growing a following
• How to monitor and improve
• Generating ideas and content

Session Takeaway

• Basic understanding of TikTok.
• Knowledge of how to get started.
• Why TikTok can be important for indie games.
• Tips and tricks for how to get the best out of it.

Molly Holmes
Panda Cat Games

The people we work with in this industry are the machines that other industries rely on. But ours are humans and in a fast paced environment the complexities of human needs are challenging and changing. 

This talk explores the real human needs in the industry, the trends that we're seeing regularly and how we support the diverse workforce. From the increase in the use of unions to support employees to the fears about their future and ensuring there is trust and fairness this talk explores the different needs and how you can provide the best. 

We will explore the generational differences, the challenges around supporting neurodivergent people the very best you can and why wellbeing should be at the heart of our industry. We will demonstrate why budget shouldn't restrict your thinking around this and why in fact proactive management will save you thousands of pounds. 

This session will inspire you whether you work with contractors, freelancers, your friends or employ people to lean into good conversation skills to create better, stronger studios. 

Session Takeaway

• Why game studios run with human — and why treating people like machines is costing you more than you think.

• A clearer understanding of the real, shifting needs of today’s game development workforce.

• What current trends (including unions, job insecurity, and trust) are telling us about studio culture.

• How to better support neurodivergent people without overcomplicating or overcorrecting.

• Why wellbeing is a performance strategy, not a perk.

• How proactive, people-centred management reduces risk, turnover, and cost.

• Practical ways to have better conversations that build trust, fairness, and stronger teams.

• How putting people first creates healthier, more resilient studios — whether you work with employees, freelancers, or contractors.

Sarah Brewster
Fresh Seed Ltd

Stuart Muckley
Code Wizards Group

Natalie Griffith
Consultant

Kerrie Holland
Tanglewood Games

There are a lot of barriers for new juniors trying to enter the games industry. Quite often, jobs require previous experience, which is seemingly impossible to get because you need the experience to be hired in the first place. But what juniors often forget is that there are adjacent industries where they could find work and gain relevant experience to increase their chances.

In this session, I’ll share with you my journey as a 3D Environment Artist with over 7 years of experience in a multitude of industries. With the knowledge I have, I hope to inspire new talent to look beyond gaming to adjacent industries in order to gain skills, knowledge and experience in these industries while looking for smaller gigs in the shape of contracts in the games industry. As a result of adapting my workflow for each industry, I’ve learned that limitations are often perceptions, not realities.

I’ve found ways to thrive, and I know that many talented developers and artists will be able to do the same by slightly adjusting their vision for their career in a way that does not sacrifice their creativity.

Through real examples, showing my own projects, I’ll highlight how transferable 3D skills are and how to create a shadow portfolio that can earn juniors a side hustle with the potential of becoming a full time job. Architectural firms, interior designers, automotive companies, the cosmetic industry and even government departments rely on 3D renders for various projects that juniors have the relevant skillset to excel in.

This talk isn’t about making excuses, but about finding more opportunities that could expand your worldview. If the games industry asks for ten years of 3D experience, it does not have to just be in gaming.

Session Takeaway

• How to convert art skills from Games to other industries

• How to learn from the examples of industry veterans

• Looking at other opportunities to gain experience as a 3D artist

• Tangible next steps and places to seek further guidance

Domingo Botteram
Silver Moon Labs

Launching a demo on Steam can be a powerful marketing beat in indie development. In this talk, Helen breaks down the full, unfiltered data behind the public demo launch of Forbidden Solitaire, a retro FMV horror card game that hit #1 in Steam’s New & Trending Demos and broke into Trending Free, without a publisher or external marketing agency.

Drawing from internal metrics, the session walks through how a small team planned, timed, and executed a demo launch designed to maximise wishlist conversion, Steam visibility, and streamer engagement. Helen will cover how an earlier, curated streamer demo informed the public release; how the team polished and positioned the demo; and how Steam tools (wishlister emails, news posts, reaching existing audiences and streaming live video) added visibility.

The talk includes concrete results: wishlist gains and losses, downloads, completion rates, median playtime, and chart performance; alongside outcomes from press and streamer outreach, and social media. It also explores how the team used the demo data and feedback, to further hone their efforts for the next marketing push.

Attendees will leave with practical ideas for demo-driven marketing, insight into Steam discovery for smaller games, and a realistic picture of what a focused, data-led campaign can achieve for small teams, especially those working in trend-led genres like horror.

Session Takeaway

• Timing and focus matter: Demo launch + Steam tools + targeted messaging = max eyeballs & wishlists.
• Curated attention beats general noise: Thorough and thoughtful streamer & press outreach cut through, sparking genuine enthusiasm.
• Data feeds the next campaign: Campaign data and demo feedback drove game improvements and will make subsequent marketing beats even stronger.

Helen Carmichael
Grey Alien Games

Scaling a project from prototype to production is a time when a lot of technical debt comes due, as the small team at Failbetter Games working on our upcoming game, Mandrake, found when entering production. This is a talk about how (and why) we decided to tackle this problem head-on with a focus on code quality and architecture, the challenges we faced, and the benefits that came back to us as a result.

Session Takeaway

• Where the cheap wins are when adopting a focus on code quality.
• Tips on moving from prototype code to production code.
• The cost/benefit tradeoff of doing all this at indie scale.

Séamus Ó Buadhacháin
Failbetter Games

Having spoken at the inaugural Develop Conference audio track 20 years ago, we’re delighted to welcome Nick Laviers back from LA to his native land to share from his deep knowledge and rich experience. It has, in fact, been thirty years (and counting) during which Laviers has successfully worked at the forefront of videogame development, responsible for award-winning ear candy on dozens of major titles and series, including Harry Potter, Command and Conquer and Star Wars: Jedi.

In a revealing and inspiring talk, he’ll discuss key learnings wrought from navigating the joys and vicissitudes of a constantly changing industry and ever evolving technology, a global pandemic and now a potential AI revolution. Find out what you might learn for your career from his three decades at the coalface of AAA game music, sound, dialogue and audio tech.

Session Takeaway

• Reflections on what might lead to career longevity working on multiple AAA games.
• Thoughts on what provides the best conditions and platform for games audio production, drawing from 30 years of professional experience.
• An industry veteran's perspective on AI in the audio domain and where things might be headed.

Nick Laviers
Respawn Entertainment

If you’re a dev who wants to make your game more accessible, but are constantly struggling to get the greenlight - this session is for you.

Our roundtable brings together accessibility specialists working in studios and a former director who successfully established a dedicated accessibility role to give insights on how to get buy-in for accessibility at your studio. We’ll provide a safe space to discuss the challenges of achieving buy-in and explore strategies for making a business case for accessibility. We’ll also share resources, data and help foster connections with the accessibility community that you can take away to help you going forward.

This roundtable aims to be accessible and approachable for everyone, from juniors to directors. We welcome accessibility consultants and lived experience experts to bring their experience to the table and learn more about the challenges developers face in making accessibility a priority.

Alongside Cari, our moderators are:

Robert Macdonald, a UI/UX veteran with over 21 years of experience in game development, most recently serving as Studio UI/UX Director at Splash Damage, where he oversaw UI, UX, and accessibility across multiple projects. His credits include Halo: The Master Chief Collection, Gears Tactics, Gears of War 4 and Batman: Arkham Origins, spanning multiple platforms and genres. An advocate for inclusive design, he led studio-wide accessibility initiatives, including creating and recruiting for Splash Damage’s first dedicated accessibility role and helping embed accessibility into development culture and production practices.

Harriet Frayling, Senior Accessibility Specialist at Many Cats Studios. Harriet has spent 8+ years providing technical accessibility and inclusive design guidance, workshops and talks to studios, publishers and communities. Drawing on her lived experience as a disabled professional, and her expertise as an award winning accessibility consultant, she has helped numerous teams from AAA to Indie navigate the complexities of game accessibility, delivering expert accessibility consultation, research, analysis, testing and process development.

Session Takeaway

• Space to discuss challenges with getting buy-in for accessibility.

• Insights from industry veterans on making a business case for accessibility.

• Resources, data, and connections with the accessibility community.

Cari Watterton
Scopely

Robert Macdonald
Freelance

Harriet Frayling
Many Cats Studios

The video games ecosystem has encountered many steep challenges recently with increasing redundancies, reduction in new talent entering the industry, and the rise of generative AI to name a few.

Such uncertainty would make anyone doubt the future and wonder where they stand. This was no different for the staff at the Disco Elysium studio ZA/UM. Yet there was a difference, such a difference that it brought employees together to talk, share their concerns and build the courage to address such matters to management. Time passed, yet as of October 2025, developers at ZA/UM formed the first officially recognized trade union in the UK video games industry. Represented by the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain (IWGB) as the "ZA/UM Workers' Alliance," the union secured a voluntary recognition agreement with management to negotiate on job security, pay, and conditions following industry-wide layoffs.

How did such development happen?

Join us for this eye opening session as we explore what it takes to build momentum towards unionisation amongst workers, examining the steps needed to make such change happen from start to finish, and go down the rabbit hole with members of the “ZA/UM Workers' Alliance” to discuss their experiences and the impact unionising has had throughout the studio.

Session Takeaway

• Firsthand telling what it takes to create collective action within a studio and strengthen resolve in having difficult conversations as a team.

• The process in breaking down barriers between staff and management to communicate on mutual grounds for the progression of the company.

• The benefits of unisonising as a video game company that provides advantages for everyone within the business, from empowering workers to meeting goals and compromises as management.

Spring McParlinJones
IWGB Game Workers

Chris Harper
Technical Artist

We are taught that conflict drives story—to believe that conflict is the only way to tell a “good” story. That without opposition, escalation there is no movement, no meaning, no growth. But what if that assumption is not just limiting—but actively harmful?

Telling Conflict-Less Stories argues that adversarial narratives narrow our imagination, normalize violence, and reduce complex problems. Rooted in Aristotelian hero-centric themes, these stories offer violence without solutions. These structures insist on isolation, domination, and conquest—values that are the foundations of colonialism, capitalism, and patriarchy. The result is not catharsis, but trauma; not resolution, but a narrow focus of ONE answer to all problems - violence.

This talk proposes a shift: from conflict to tension, from opposition to questions. What if stories were driven by curiosity instead of combat, by cooperation instead of conquest, by empathy, exploration, and collective transformation? Drawing from cozy games, Indigenous and
non-Western narrative traditions, and structures like kishōtenketsu, Conflict-Less storytelling decentralizes the hero and recenters the world—its systems, relationships, ecologies, into shared meaning-making.

This talk is a mix of case studies, practical advice, and my signature entertaining delivery.
It demonstrates that the world is already full of conflict-less stories and IPs making hordes of money, along with the disturbing, mounting evidence that centering conflict in our stories limits our ability to solve problems in any other way than incorporating violence, or at best they only strive to preserve the status quo. In other words, proof that stories driven by conflict are putting restraints on our imaginative problem solving.
The solutions offered in the talk create/increase/allow for more:

- Investigation

- Empathy

- Suspense

- Curiosity

- Multiple perspectives

And most importantly:

- CONTEXT for your narratives and experiences.

Session Takeaway

• Unlearn the 5 Conflicts and Learn the 5 Tensions.
• Case studies of how Conflict-Less Narratives are already making money.
• How to subvert the Win/Loss condition in your games.

Christopher Morrison
Reality+, LLC

Technical debt is a phenomenon both overpresent and understudied. No matter your role in a production team, you've certainly encountered it yourself, or heard someone complain about it.

But what, exactly, is technical debt? What causes it? How bad is it? Can we avoid it? How?

We'll shed some light on the scary monster that plagues so many projects, see how it came to be, why it's often here for good - or at least unavoidable - reasons, and how, if we learn how to handle it intelligently and without fear, it can become a familiar part of our daily job.

This talk is non-coders friendly !

Technical debt does not happen only in code, and managing it is not the prerogative of programmers.

General examples and daily-life metaphors will be used, and while there will be some anecdotes from my own experience as a developer, we won't be digging into technical details.

Session Takeaway

• A better understanding of what technical debt is, how it can hinder your production and impact your team.

• Learning to identify its root causes and understand that you often can't avoid it...and that sometimes you don't want to.

• Practical tips on how to evaluate and manage the debt you will create so it doesn’t overwhelm you.

Marion Not
Freelance

Everything you need to know about working with content creators. From key distribution tips and tools for identifying creators to creative angles and creator programs.

Here are the 10 commandments:

• Plan Ahead
• Spend Time / Money
• Do Thy Research
• Know Thy Platform
• Distribute Keys
• Negotiate w/ Incentives
• Get Creative
• Consider Community
• Set Up A Creator Program
• Amplify

Timo Verschueren
Black Soup

While big tech dominates AI headlines, especially where energy, technology and social responsibility are concerned, smaller agile indies are proving that ethical development has a competitive edge in the modern marketplace, consumers are becoming more aware of the economic and social responsibility that AI brings with it. Parable Studios founder Ambrose Robinson would present how Millennium Whisper, Steam’s first on-device AI game published by Parable Studios utilised real life actor-led data with royalty payment models to put more emphasis on Ethical AI practises in game creation, and additionally eliminates server costs through local inference, and the work going into the Parable Engine for other indie studios to utilise so that they too can build sustainable games without data scraping. Overall the talk would present a strong case on why small teams are best positioned to lead the responsible AI revolution through transparency, ownership, and technical innovation. 

Session Takeaway

• Indie Devs will leave confident in the knowledge that technical solutions where AI are concerned are closer than they perhaps realize being able to use creative-facing tools to facilitate non-technical design work in AI development and game integration.
• Ethical AI isn't just a buzzword, small indie teams can integrate AI by adapting to Psychologically-grounded character AI trained on live
  actor performances, supporting creative livelihoods and safeguarding their brand with consumers. Generative AI is NOT the way forward.
• That Indies need to innovate quickly, explore and test to lead the way forward while big tech struggles with implementation, costs and infrastructure.

Ambrose Robinson
Parable Studios

Acclaimed audio director and creative sound designer Martin Stig Andersen discusses his compelling and inspirational audio work with friend and fellow game audio guru, Rob Bridgett. Since his first foray into games, Andersen has continued to make his personal mark on the landscape of story-telling interactive sound and music. His innovative work on Limbo and Inside, among several other noted titles, has long since earned him a place in the game audio hall of fame. Be inspired by his unique approach in exploring the ‘why’ of sound, and its subconscious power to convey and communicate meaning in one of his latest works, Cairn.

Session Takeaway

• Why making the sound of Cairn beautiful, almost like an album, was as important, if not more important than it being ‘correct’.
• How the up-close ‘micro’ sound in front of you works in contrast with the expansive soundscape around you.
• Innovation in a unique approach to Atmos mixing.
• Developing breathing and foley as a language and syntax to communicate vital player feedback and meaning through sound.

Martin Stig Andersen
Interactive Tapes

Rob Bridgett
Sony Interactive Entertainment

Having open conversations around mental health helps to create a positive culture around mental well-being. This session will explore the importance of eliminating the stigma surrounding mental health by raising awareness and promoting regular conversation around the topic. It will give strategies to help employers understand how to support their staff’s mental health and offer staff ways to feel supported and safe to talk about their mental health. A positive and practical continuum of ideas and resources will be given throughout to support the talented individuals who work to create the games that we love.

Session Takeaway

• How creating a positive mental well-being culture benefits everyone.

• The importance of starting and continuing conversations about mental health to enable support.

• Access to a practical toolkit of ideas that range from easy to implement to in-depth strategies to support mental health.

Katie Squires
South Westerly Games Ltd

What does it really take to turn a game idea into a sustainable indie studio, without a publisher at the start, a big team, or a flashy office?

In this candid, behind-the-scenes session, you’ll get a practical roadmap to building an indie game studio from the ground up, starting right where many great studios begin: your bedroom. Drawing on HaZ’s real-world experience of setting up Beyond The Pixels, this talk breaks down the key creative and business decisions every aspiring indie developer must face.

We’ll explore how to scope your first game idea realistically, choose the right engine for your goals, and avoid the common traps that stall projects early. You’ll learn how to assemble a lean, flexible team, collaborate effectively, and start building a genuine, engaged community from day one, not as an afterthought.

Beyond development, the session dives into the often-unspoken business side of indie games: legal setup, trademarks, publishing routes, funding strategies, and the realities of managing cashflow. No buzzwords, no wishful thinking—just honest insight into what it takes to survive and thrive as an independent studio in today’s crowded market.

Whether you’re a solo developer, a student, or a creative ready to take the leap, this session offers a clear, transparent look at turning passion into a studio—and giving your indie game its best chance.

Session Takeaway

• A Solid foundation of what it takes to build an indie studio from scratch.
• Tip on how to deal with business and strategic decisions of running an indie studio.
• The confidence to just take that leap and go for it!

HaZ Dulull
Beyond The Pixels

There are two types of game designers when it comes to daily practice, the Machete or the Broom. We are either acting as the “visionary” - cutting a swath through the jungle, leading the way to our fully-fleshed-out game; or we are the “collator” - sweeping up behind this, clarifying where the path is through each decision.

This talk unpacks the concept of these two roles by way of demonstrating how to contribute to, and amplify, core design principles on any new project.

Session Takeaway

• Learn when a game designer is being a machete or a broom, and what the relationship between these roles is

• Knowing when to push forward and when to take a short left on design decisions

• Applying this lens helps designers at any level contribute to clear and concise designs

Tristan Jacobs
Glowmade

The Dungeon Masters Guide To Production takes the transferable skills of being a Dungeon Master and shows a practical throughline to how it can be applied during the day to day of being a games producer.

The presentation is aimed at those who want to either learn more about production or are looking to move into the role - however it has a lot of good lessons that can be useful across all disciplines and seniority levels, especially those who are interested in leadership.

The presentation takes the audience through the life of a Dungeon Master; setting up the campaign, recruiting the party, executing on the campaign, reacting to the party making decisions you didn’t expect and ending with the final boss!

Or… Prototyping, Pre-Production, Production and Release!

Session Takeaway

• Practical Advice & Guidance on how to start a project.
• Practical Advice & Guidance on how to effectively bring a project to a close.
• Understand how to manage a team and get the best from them.
• How to effectively resolve interpersonal conflicts

Steven Golding
Miami Avalon

Influencer marketing remains a hotly debated topic within the games industry. For some developers, it has driven discovery, wishlists and momentum. For others, it has been expensive, disappointing, or actively damaging to trust.

This session draws directly from real developer conversations and industry discussions, including common concerns such as creators overshadowing the game, sponsored content feeling inauthentic, or campaigns failing to convert into meaningful results. Rather than dismissing this scepticism, the talk examines why creator marketing can feel like it “doesn’t work” and what’s different when it’s approached with purpose.

The session breaks down why creator campaigns can sometimes feel ineffective, and when they can genuinely add value, helping teams assess the pros and cons before investing time or budget. It explores how creator marketing differs from traditional advertising, why disclosure and creative control matter, and why success should not be measured purely in short term sales.

Designed for developers and small teams, this talk aims to provide clarity rather than advocacy. Attendees will leave better equipped to evaluate whether creator marketing is the right choice for their game, and how to approach it without wasting budget or trust.

Session Takeaway

• The common dilemmas in creator campaigns and how to navigate them.

• A framework for deciding whether creator marketing is worth pursuing for your game.

• How to work with creators in ways that respect audiences, budgets, and long-term trust.

Beth Wain
The Path

Modern game development relies heavily on DCC tools such as Maya, Houdini, and Blender, yet these tools are often treated as isolated asset exporters rather than part of a cohesive pipeline.

In this session, I’ll share practical approaches for building more robust DCC pipelines for games by borrowing ideas from film and animation pipelines while also highlighting film workflows that break down in real-time production. Drawing on experience across film, animation, and game cinematics, I’ll cover which concepts translate well to games, which ones should be avoided, and how to adapt both without over-engineering.

The focus is on pipeline architecture and production realities rather than specific tools or code. Attendees will leave with concrete strategies for improving DCC pipelines to better support iteration, scale, and collaboration in modern game development.

Session Takeaway

• How stronger DCC pipeline structure improves iteration speed, stability, and collaboration across art, cinematics, and engineering.
  
• What kinds of pipeline capabilities games can benefit from, based on lessons learned from film and animation pipelines.
  
• Why investing in pipeline architecture and tooling pays off as teams and content scale.

Elif Ulasoglu
Pixomondo

Benedicte Ouimet knows her way around videogame music. For twenty years, she has worked on a wide range of projects and budgets from indie to massive AAA.

Working as music supervisor for Ubisoft out of Montreal, she supports multiple teams in providing source music and original score from concept and development through to system design and oversight of implementation, working with all manner of musicians and score composers en route.

In this talk, she will discuss best practice and process drawing on diverse examples of what works and why – and what really didn’t – to give key insights on how to achieve the best musical outcome for your game project.

Session Takeaway

• Be inspired by diverse examples of music design for video games.
• Learn about best practice in managing the music production.
• Gain insights about how to achieve the best musical outcome for your game.

Bénédicte Ouimet
Ubisoft

Join us for sun, sand, and stories in this special live recording of mayamada's Story x Story podcast! Nigel & Tazziii will be discussing the games industry, reacting to the newly released Games Industry Census, and introducing the brand new end of year "Do I Look Like A Gamer?" Players & Makers Awards.

Join the mayamada team at Develop:Brighton for a special live recording of the Story x Story Podcast! Hosted by mayamada Co-Founder Nigel Twumasi and Creative Director Tazziii, we're diving into the heart of the gaming industry. The Games Industry Census will have landed the day before, so if you want to continue the conversation, unpack the findings, and share what they mean for you and your work, this is the place to do it. We'll be inviting attendees from aspiring professionals and freelancers to indie developers and AAA studios to share their perspectives in a relaxed, open setting. We'll also be introducing the Players & Makers Awards - a brand new initiative celebrating people and projects building a more inclusive games culture and industry, launching as part of the 5th year of "Do I Look Like A Gamer?" Our aim is to provide a casual and thought-provoking platform for meaningful conversations around the games industry. If you want more of your voice to be represented in games, don't miss this opportunity to be part of the conversation!

Session Takeaway

Nigel Twumasi
mayamada

Tazziii
mayamada

I've made a conscious choice to build my career in the UK. I love the culture, landscape, diversity and talent in this wonderful melting pot.

In late 2025, I gave a version of this talk to the Unreal Meetup group in London. The goal was to share my journey in launching a game development studio, finding funding, building a product and finding a way of working that can create incredible and competitive videogame experiences in an increasingly challenging market. After a great response, I'd like to evolve the talk for Develop, and share the granular steps and lessons that I've learned since embarking on the ambitious journey to start a high-end game development studio.

Attendees will go on a linear journey through my work so far, starting in a bedroom, and reaching Gamescom and beyond. As we travel, we will reach checkpoints, in the form of lessons, resources and takeaways, that can be applied to other projects, goals or journeys.

 There's no special trick, secret or exceptional talent. Instead, there are repeatable actions, granular tasks and perspectives that can be applied by anyone. I must stress that I don't claim to have all the answers, nor am I a runaway success at everything I undertake. However, I have been able to break into the industry and take on my some of my wildest dreams and goals within game development over the years. I'd love to share that with my peers, and hopefully help a few others to do the same.

Session Takeaway

• Starting a studio from scratch. Step-by-step guidance, lessons and examples.
• Applying for and deploying project finance in the UK. Resources and strategy.
• The realities of building a videogame development studio. What do you actually need to do/have to make it work?
• A step by step journey towards our first high-end commercial videogame. Starting in our bedroom, all the way to Gamescom and beyond.
• How to get your work out into the world - daily tasks and actions.

Alistair Hume
Full Dive Games

End your Develop 2026 on a high (or at least a very weird note)...

Join us for a Taskmaster-style showdown featuring:

🎮 Video game trivia

🧠 Puzzling nonsense

💥 Physical challenges of questionable purpose

🏆 Prizes include actual items (Develop passes) and concepts like ‘smug satisfaction’ and ‘mild regret’

The Rules?

They’re made up on the spot. But we can confirm that fire beats leaf beats water beats fire. Expect that logic to settle more than one argument.

Your hosts, Stevie Ward and Jon Torrens, will be your gloriously biased BOSSES. Will they be fair? Or petty? Only the fates (and their caffeine levels) can say. They’re easily bribed, too. And vain.

Expect:

✔ Tomfoolery

✔ Shenanigans*

✔ Silliness

(*the value of shenanigans may go down as well as up)

Also: There’s beer. Which probably should have been the first bullet point.

Will you survive the madness?

Of course you will*.

Stevie Ward
Future Publishing

Jon Torrens
Communication Coach

With awards noms galore, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle has been showered with critical acclaim for its impressive music, sound and dialogue. Develop welcomes audio director, Pete Ward, for an unmissable ‘behind the scenes making of’ session in which he’ll discuss building the audio team and getting to grips with a truly iconic IP. Taking a look back at his journey through an extraordinary project, he’ll discuss how his team went about recreating and mixing those famed and much-loved key sounds for today’s game tech and gamers listening in Dolby Atmos, and what he personally learned along the way.

Session Takeaway

• Gain insights on building an audio team.
• Find out how the team made and used original recordings.
• Be inspired by harnessing sound design to recreate iconic sound content with just the right amount of nostalgia and humour.
• Learn tips and tricks for mixing in Dolby Atmos.

Pete Ward
MachineGames

In keeping with a whopping twenty years of Develop Conference tradition, our panel of game audio experts limber up for an inclusive town hall style discussion with conference delegates about the current state-of-the-art of music, sound and dialogue for games and what the future holds for game audio business, technology and creativity.

Matthew Florianz
Frontier Developments

Malin Arvidsson
thesoundofmarlin

Garry Taylor
Sony Interactive Entertainment

Jason Page
Unity

Bénédicte Ouimet
Ubisoft

Paul Weir
Hello Games

Nick Laviers
Respawn Entertainment