Develop:Brighton 2019, the Europe’s leading game developer conference, was attended by more developers, publishers and other industry professionals than ever before, with organisers Tandem Events announcing a record 21% increase in attendance year-on-year.
2871 delegates attended 100+ sessions across 10 tracks at the conference, which took place from 9-11 July at the Hilton Brighton Metropole. More than 2,800 meetings were also set up through their bespoke Meet@Develop meeting scheduler.
“We’d like to thank all our attendees, speakers, sponsors and exhibitors for making Develop:Brighton 2019 such a success,” said Tandem Events managing director Andy Lane. “This year we welcomed more people, hosted more sessions and enjoyed more ice cream than ever before!
“Our delegates belong to a tight knit community that relishes the opportunity to come together every summer to talk about the issues affecting the industry, to network and to learn from one another.”
This year’s conference was headlined by keynote speakers Sean Murray, creator of No Man’s Sky, Rebellion co-founders Chris and Jason Kingsley, the founders of Media Molecule and Frontier Developments CEO David Braben.
On Wednesday 10 July the industry also gathered for The Develop:Star Awards, an evening of celebration hosted by the legendary ‘Voice of the Balls’ Alan Dedicoat and marked by big wins for Playground Games, Sumo Digital, Jagex and Weather Factory.
“It doesn’t take a lot of convincing to get developers to head down to the beach in the summer, but this year’s Develop:Brighton conference felt busier and more electric than I’ve ever seen it,” said Haley Uyrus, marketing and communications manager at Mediatonic.
“We certainly felt everyone’s excitement and enthusiasm upstairs at our Mediatonic ‘Tonic Terrace’ as people stopped to chat between talks and the Expo – it was a great feeling to all be together in Brighton for a few days.”
Meanwhile the expo played host to around 50 companies and studios, the free Indie Bootcamp talks and the Unreal Engine Lounge which featured eight upcoming Unreal games.
Also at the Expo were the ten finalists of this year’s Indie Showcase. The overall winner, decided by a panel of industry experts, was Touch Type Tale by Pumpernickel Studio. Gladiabots by GFX47 was voted the People’s Choice winner by those who attended the Expo.
Develop:Brighton will return to the Hilton Brighton Metropole from Tuesday 14 to Thursday 16 July 2020.
Call for speakers will open in January 2020.