Indie BootCamp
Free sessions on Wednesday 11 and Thursday 12 July for students, start-ups, and anyone else looking to be the next big thing! Join us to hear straight talking from successful indie developers about how they started, what worked for them, and what mistakes they made – so you can avoid repeating them.
Indie BootCamp sessions
How to Make People Love You, Or at Least Love Working With You
In an industry where your team is your strength or weakness, this talk will cover how to create a positive company culture, a work environment where your employees want to be, and more importantly where they want to give you their best. Taking a look at examples from other companies, industries, and cultures, this talk will reflect on how to successfully manage company morale, how to attract the right staff and one of the most important topics: how to retain talent.
Game development is a fast-evolving industry, with younger generations having more input into the way it's shaped. Recruitment for talented staff, especially for smaller studios without big budgets, is becoming challenging, so companies need to look at other ways of attracting new talent. With a national average of 25 - 30 year olds staying in jobs for only 2-3 years, you also need to look at new ways to hold on to your staff.
And to help you walk the fine line between "domineering boss and push over", Nina will also be talking about how to nip damaging behaviour in the bud and how to work with your team to get to the root of why it's happening.
Takeaway:
- Advice and tips on how to make your company the best place to work and make sure your employees never leave you.
- Create and maintain a positive company culture
Technical Art – What it is and How to Get There
Technical Art is a fairly new specialisation within Art teams, is not strictly defined and often means different things to different people. In this session we take a deep dive into the variety of different specialisations, roles and responsibilities which are broadly categorised as “technical art”. How do you build a technical art team? Hiring is notoriously difficult for these positions; we also cover what we look for in potential Technical Artists, common ways that artists transition into more technical roles and ways to foster cultural adoption of Technical Art within your team.
Takeaway:
- Greater understanding of the variety of roles and responsibilities within Technical Art
- Things you can do as an artist to transition more towards a Technical Art role
Demystifying the Media: How to Earn Your Place in the Press
Laying bare the inner workings of the games media, Lewis explains how indies can earn their place in the press and on influencer channels.
Takeaway:
- Understand the meaning of 'earned media'
- Learn how journalists, editors and channel owners work, and what they need to tell a compelling story
- Learn the value of trust in building media relationships - and how to earn it!
- How to use this knowledge to create PR campaigns that create mutual value and benefit.
Herding Kittens at Bossa: Production Practices for Indie Teams
If there is one thing that Bossa Studios is known for, it's taking risks. The likes of Surgeon Simulator, I am Bread, and now the very first Community-Created MMO, Worlds Adrift, are just a few of the creative and unique projects that came out of Bossa and enticed the gaming industry.
But have you ever wondered about the people behind those games? How have these creatives been found and moulded into the developers they are today? Has it always been this way? What's next to come?
This talk will cover the unique approach to picking out the right people for the company as well as the flexible approach to production. Expect to leave the talk with a better understanding of the creatives behind Bossa, the attributes we look in people, how they are brought together with projects and the ways we keep them focused and passionate. Perhaps you will see yourself in this talk or you will wish to adapt the same process with your own teams. Perhaps even come up with something brand new! Either way, it's all about finding the best and brightest people, and finding the right ways to allow them to be as creative as possible.
Takeaway:
- Learn and understand the Bossa company values
- Find out what's the Bossa production process like
- How to bring teams together
The Messy Collision of Blockchain and Gaming
Blockchain technology has the potential to disrupt all areas of human activity and gaming is in the vanguard of that assault. Forget Bitcoin and CryptoKitties, the ability for players to own their in-game assets, sell them on, or use them in other games - Overwatch characters in Super Mario Kart? - will radically impact the sector, providing opportunities for the current leaders to grow their businesses or go the way of one-time leaders such as Midway, THQ and Acclaim.
Takeaway:
- What is blockchain?
- Why is blockchain important for gaming?
- What should you be doing to make the most of this opportunity?
You Are Spending Too Long Making Your Game
Veteran indie dev, Jake Birkett, will talk about why you are spending too long making your game and how much a "good" game can earn on Steam.
Takeaway:
- Why making games quicker is sensible.
- How much an average "good" game on Steam will earn in the first year.
- Tips for how to make games quicker.
Seismic Changes to the SEIS/EIS Regime and Their Implications to You
If you are looking to raise investment in your business, you will most likely be considering the numerous benefits of the SEIS and EIS arrangements. Such benefits can include various generous tax reliefs to investors who buy shares inappropriately qualifying businesses.
On March 15th, the Finance Act 2018 introduced certain changes to the SEIS/EIS rules, some of which will impact a number of games businesses seeking to raise investment using these methods.
Crucially, companies issuing any new SEIS/EIS based shares after this date will need to ensure that they still qualify under these new rules, or risk any tax benefits being restricted or even clawed back.
This session will explore some of the key rule changes, some of the potential impacts and a few potential strategies that might help you out.
TAKEAWAY: Attendees can expect to get a broad understanding of the changes to the SEIS/ EIS rules and some ideas about how to address these moving forward.
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There’s something creative about Brighton, so it’s the perfect place to have the conference.
Graham Devine
Magic Leap
I really like Develop, I really like the intimacy of it and I love the location.. there’s a good diversity of talks going on so there hasn’t been a time when there’s nothing I want to see.
Brenda Romero
Romero Games
I’ve really been impressed with Develop – the small intimate setting were you can get to know the other participants, sit in the row with people you saw at the last talk or interact over coffee.
Ethan Evans
Twitch
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