DEVELOP
Celebration strikes a balance with introspection at this year’s Develop Conference in Brighton
L ook up between the awards, expos and conference talks on the East Sussex coast this July and you might observe a few dark clouds in an otherwise spotless sky. In the months since Brighton’s Hilton Metropole previously opened its doors to Develop, there’s no escaping that the industry has sustained damage, not least counting two 2023 Star Award winners among its casualties.
Back then, Roll7 stepped away with the Best Studio gong, while Tango Gameworks saw Hi-Fi Rush crowned Best Original IP. With that in mind, for all there is to celebrate at Develop 2024, discussion of hot topics will surely feel more urgent than ever.
The three-day conference kicks off on July 9 with a keynote centred on indie gaming, presided over by Sony Interactive Entertainment’s Shuhei Yoshida and Greg Rice. The combined experiences of the pair in supporting smaller studios over the years should serve up valuable insight for modestly sized developers looking to work with bigger names.
Baldur’s Gate 3 or perhaps Alan Wake 2 seem to be favourites to disrupt Sony’s run of Best Game winners
Positive business stories also come from Surgent Studios founder Abubakar Salim, fresh from releasing Tales Of Kenzera: Zau, as he probes into the realities of starting a studio, plus Joe Brammer of the Derby-based Bulkhead, picking over the pitfalls the developer had to navigate in transitioning to a shorter working week.
Somewhat inevitably, however, much of the business talk turns to choppier waters. A session frankly titled ‘The Games Industry 2024 Survival Guide’ will see industry veterans and up-andcomers offer tips that studios should welcome aboard to help keep their ships afloat. Elsewhere, the direct fallout of cutbacks is at issue, as Christina Logan of union IWGB Game Workers addresses supporting staff through redundancies. Leon Hijazi-Killin of Sumo then makes another timely intervention on the financial concerns surrounding DEI (diversity, equality and inclusion), exploring how short-term cost saving may stop companies attracting talent.
The art and craft of games is widely represented in these talks too, of course. Following our visit to The Chinese Room in E386, we look forward to hearing technical director Louis Larsson-De Wet get into the weeds of working with water and tentacles in Still Wakes The Deep. We’re equally keen to hear more from Jakob Schmidt of Geometric Interactive on the techniques behind Cocoon’s realtime synthesised soundtrack that he introduced us to in E393. Roll7 is also set to have a presence in artist Aubrey McCarthy, diving into the technique of bringing illustrative art styles to games, while further audiovisual chat will come from big hitters EA DICE, Rocksteady and Rebellion.
Nominees for the Best Game prize at this year
