Teams from across the Sumo Digital family are headed to global games industry stages around the world this Autumn to deliver talks and share their game development expertise.

GAMES INDUSTRY CONFERENCE | 24TH OCTOBER – 27TH OCTOBER

Coming up this week is the Games Industry Conference (GIC), which runs at the Poznan Game Arena in Poland from Thursday 24th October – Sunday the 27th of October.

PixelAnt Games’ Lead Software Engineer Grzegorz Wątroba will be joined by industry experts to discuss the challenges, solutions and opportunities of programming for multi-platform development. Later that day Grzegorz will also be sharing his specialist knowledge about Unreal Engine 5’s Mass Entity System and showing practical examples to help attendees understand and integrate Entity Component System (ECS) into their game.

Get the Grzegorz double-bill by heading to: AUA: Struggles of Programming for Multiple Platforms at 1pm (CET) in the AUA Open Hall, and UE5 Mass Entity system in Practice at 3pm (CET) at Monster Couch Hall. Both sessions are taking place on Friday 25th October.

Also at GIC this week, Sumo Group’s Senior Learning and Development Advisor Agnieszka Przepiorkowska and Sumo Leamington’s Associate Technical Director Graham Mills will be discussing how management styles can impact your team, and the best ways to protect and foster the next generation of game developers.

Level-up your leadership by attending Pre-Training: Preventing Peter Principle Problems on Saturday 26th October at 7pm (CET) at Monster Couch Hall.

You can find out more about these talks, plus see the full agenda and event info on the Games Industry Conference website.

Amy Elliott – Programmer at Sumo Leamington – will be speaking at the inaugural Develop: North about utilising Unity tools for efficiency.

DEVELOP: NORTH | 14TH NOVEMBER

Next month, the game development community heads up north for Develop: North – the sister event to the annually-hosted Develop: Brighton – on Thursday 14th November. With almost 30 sessions covering every discipline of game making, the one-day event aims to inspire and skill up the UK games industry. Having previously seen our teams speaking at the Brighton event this summer, we’re delighted that they’ll be taking their expertise to Liverpool for this inaugural event.

Don’t miss Sumo Leamington’s Junior Programmer (and recipient of both the Develop: Star ‘Tomorrow’s Star’ Award and the TIGA Graduate of the Year Award for Programming) Amy Elliott sharing insight into building efficient custom tools in Unity to improve team collaboration between technical and creative teams. Expect discussion on creating tooling in the Unity Editor, and how building tools can reduce feedback loops, improve iteration speeds and cut down on miscommunications.

Catch Building Efficient Custom Tools in Unity to Improve Team Collaboration at 11.45am – 12.30pm (GMT) in Space 7.

Also at Develop: North, members of The Chinese Room’s Audio team – Francesco Del Pia and Harry Nixon – will be diving into how they created the sound design for their latest title, Still Wakes the Deep. From direction and design, to implementation and overall result, they’ll be sharing how the game’s audio supported and enhanced its narrative and atmosphere, and highlight how they adapted their strategies throughout production to meet the game’s demands in the lead up to launch.

Don’t miss Still Wakes the Deep: The Audio Design Behind the Oil Rig happening from 4.15pm – 5pm (GMT) in Space 7.

Discover the full agenda for Develop: North over on the website.

Agnieszka Przepiorkowska – Senior Learning and Development Advisor at Sumo – shares insights into the impact of a good manager.

SPEAKING IN OUR COMMUNITIES

Also happening this month: following her appearance at this year’s Sumo Developer Conference talking all things neurodiversity, Lab42’s Office Administrator Cindy Archer is taking part in this year’s SIC Conference on Tuesday 29th October 2024 to take part in the Building an Inclusive Work Culture panel. Dedicated to improving access to work for disabled, chronically ill and neurodivergent people, SIC in the City believes inclusivity and accessibility is critical and non-negotiable. For more information about the event and to pick up your ticket, head to the SIC website.

Auroch Digital Studio Director, Nina Adams, is headed to Sheffield to take part in the National Video Game Museum’s #RaiseTheGame networking event: Empower Up: Empowering the Video Game Industry to be Stronger and more Inclusive for Everyone. The event will explore how empowering diversity and inclusion as strategic foundations can make the video game industry stronger, accessible and more inclusive for everyone, and Nina will be taking part in the evening’s panel to share her experiences and insight into how Auroch Digital fosters a culture of inclusivity. Tickets are free and attendees will have the opportunity to explore the museum’s collection (which includes the BAFTA for Best British Game our team won for Sackboy: A Big Adventure in 2021). Register and find out more on the NVGM website. 

Finally, Marketing Executive at Red Kite Games, Declan Larkins, will be taking part in a panel at #GaMaYo on Thursday 21st of November. Titled Low Budget Tips and Tricks to Promote Your Studio and Game, he’ll be sharing free tools and tactics to help developers grow their studio on a budget. Hosted bi-annually, GaMaYo is a free, informal network of videogame markers in Yorkshire and the North of England. More information, plus where to buy tickets, can be found on the website.

Looking to work with expert teams to make your game development dream a reality? Sumo offers game development support in a range of disciplines, co and full-development and porting services. Find out more about working with us over on the Services Page.