Ian Cofino
Afterburner
With a background in visual arts, Ian has a wealth of experience across many fields. Ian got his start in graphic design and film, before transitioning into gaming, where he worked at Visual Concepts on NBA2K. After leading the frontend UI team for three years, Ian moved to Outpost Games to work on the multiplayer survival shooter SOS, and its forward-thinking audience interactivity platform, Hero. Leaving Outpost in the summer of 2018, Ian formed Afterburner Studios with two colleagues and they released their debut title, Dreamscaper, in the summer of 2021 to critical and commercial success.
Ian Cofino is speaking at the following session/s
Founding a Game Studio: The Highs and Lows
Founding a Game Studio: The Highs and Lows is a panel that features a number of experienced studio founders to discuss the challenges and highlights of founding and running your own game studio. The panel will cover topics such as: creating a studio vision, running a studio ethically, overcoming challenges and finding sustainable investment. The panel will feature candid questions that will shed light on some of the lesser-known aspects of managing a game development studio and audience members will have the opportunity to ask insightful questions to accomplished founders who have seen a lot! The panel will also inspire those wanting to create their own studio in the future, as well as providing additional knowledge to existing industry founders.
Takeaway:
- How and why studios are founded and how they are sustained over time
- Potential pitfalls, challenges, risks and mitigations to those issues
- The benefits and highlights of running your own studio vs working in an existing studio
A lot of the opportunities that come from being here are speaking to other developers who are doing exactly the same thing as you. And there are some good parties – it’s very much a pleasurable work experience!
Gemma Foster
Dlala Studios
Develop:Brighton’s a great conference. It’s got a spread of people from all parts of the games industry talking about such a wide range of topics.
David Amor
Mag Interactive
It’s really nice to see some of the younger people in our studio come to Develop, interact with other people in the dev community and make new contacts. I think it’s really important to learn from other people.
Abbie Heppe
Media Molecule
There really is a huge mix of people at Develop - loads of peers that you can learn from and the perfect blend of every element of game development as well.
Alex Moyet
Curve Digital
People should come to Develop because it’s where the UK games industry meets.
Maria Sayans
ustwo
There’s really something for everyone at Develop and the experience of being around like-minded people is really useful.
Grace Carroll
Creative Assembly
Develop is a really great way to network, it’s also great for going to talks and finding that little tip that you didn’t know before and thinking – oh I’ll bring that back to the team!
Leanne Loombe
Riot Games
It’s fantastic to have such an event that provides this opportunity for all the game devs, indie devs and other organisations to get together to showcase what they do, meet and interact.
Rebecca Sampson
Hangar 13
Building games is hard and it’s taxing physically, mentally and emotionally. So being around a community that understands that is great – there’s a comraderie here.
Haden Blackman
Hangar 13
Develop is an excellent way of catching up with people – there’s a really nice community feel here.
Mike Bithell
Mike Bithell Games
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