Greenfly Studios Co-Hosts Game Dev North 6
On Saturday, we made our way up to Liverpool for our first Game Dev North event as official co-hosts and boy was it a big one! With the event now receiving over 200 attendees (a far cry from the initial 10 person meetup), it meant moving from the Chester area to finding new premises further afield to accommodate them all.
With the Liverpool area comprising of such a high concentration of developers, such as Lucid Games (ex-Bizarre Creations) and Sony, it was the Leaf Tea Shop that provided a fantastic venue from which to host the proceedings. Thanks to official sponsors Microsoft, TIGA and Sheridans for supplying the venue and the drinks.
Prior to the industry quiz, a series of challenging rounds designed to test everyone’s gaming knowledge, was an informal hour (or two) of networking bliss. With companies such as TT Games, Spiral House, Setgo Limited, Sony and White Room Games attending, it was fascinating to talk with industry professionals ranging from triple-A industry giants to smaller one-man indie teams.
It was then onwards to the Game Dev North games quiz featuring questions from the organiser Sam Mottershaw. With rounds such as ‘Who Says That’ and ‘Controversy/Legends’, it was clear people needed both contemporary gaming knowledge as well as obscure gaming trivia. A brief respite was found in Ben Milnes and Craig Harbour customary “Project Static” audio round whilst the “Easter Eggs and Cheats” round , presented by Benjamin Hill (White Paper Games), had plenty of people reeling off long-forgotten Nintendo cheat codes.
With the quiz finished and the points tallied, Lee Stott, Microsoft evangelist, was on hand to give out prizes to the lucky winners: copies of both ‘Gears of War 3’ and ‘Forza 4’. A special Microsoft raffle prize had also been organised with the lucky winner, Caroline Powrie from Boss Baddie Games, winning a Windows 7 Nokia phone!
As always, it was a fantastic event and easily the best held to date. Be certain not to miss out on the next Game Dev North event, scheduled for October, titled “Rise of the Devs.”
— Update —
Facebook Photos
