A panel of Art Directors from across the industry will discuss:

• How to create distinctive styles that make your game stand out.
• How to keep the art team inspired and on track with the visuals. 
• What the future looks like for artists, considering the visual advancements in UE5, PS5, Photogrammetry etc
• What has been the most inspiring game for them visually and why.
• What are the greatest skills required of an Art Director.
• How has being an Art Director changed over the past 10 - 20 years in games.

Takeaway: 

• You will learn what it takes to be an Art Director in 2022
• What the challenges are 
• What the future of games art could potentially look like 

We're used to bad acting and dialogue in games; they're usually just cut scenes in between the action. But when believable human conversations are a central part of a game's experience, how do you make sure you get authentic performances? How do you create conversations that flow like real human interactions? And how do you make sure that translates in-engine? In this talk Director Luke Whittaker and Creative Producer John Lau discuss create immersive, human-feeling conversations at the heart of State of Play's interactive drama South of The Circle, and how they tried to avoid the pitfalls of modern video game performances. From casting, to rehearsal, performance capture, and the development of a unique conversation mechanic, Luke and John discuss the things their team had to learn in order to ensure that South of The Circle's animation and interactions did justice to its incredible cast, including actors from Bohemian Rhapsody, Game of Thrones and Downton Abbey.

Takeaway:

• Treat your actors as co-creators 
• Experiment before it gets expensive 
• Design in a way which is sympathetic to the performance