BAFTA Games presents a panel of three indie developers to explore how the role of the independent developer has influenced the UK Games Industry. Uncover tips and tricks from the experts on how to develop your own game for market, career pathways and lessons learned from their own games.
This event is predominantly aimed at indie game developers and identifying ways to get their games to market while picking up tips from others who have already done it.
Speakers include Alex Darby (darbotron ltd.), Mark Backler (Lost Words) and Nareice Wint (Lucid Games & Party Llama Games).
Hosted by Shay Thompson
Alex Darby
Alex is a mostly hairless ape-descended carbon based life form from the planet Earth. He lives in Leamington Spa with his wife and son, a happy dog, and a large collection of video games, LEGO, and skateboards.
He has been making games professionally since 1996, and is credited as a programmer and/or designer on 18 published multi-platform titles to date; was a co-creator of the DJ Hero franchise; and is a member of BAFTA.
Alex runs independent micro studio darbotron ltd. specialising in console porting as well as technical and design consultancy.
Mark Backler
Mark has worked in the games industry for 11 years at companies like EA, Lionhead and Sony on games including Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and the BAFTA award winning Fable 2. He has now founded his own company, Sketchbook Games, which is based at the Colchester Games Hub at Essex University. The studio is developing the multi-award winning Lost Words, an atmospheric puzzle game that is set inside a diary and sees players using words as platforms for their character.
Nareice Wint
Nareice has worked for Lucid Games as an Associate Producer for the past year and a half, helping produce Switchblade, a 5v5 vehicle MOBA. She also runs her own company in her spare time called Party Llama Games. The team of 10 people is currently working on Pandora, an action-adventure episodic game based on the story Greek myth Pandora's Box.
Shay Thompson
Shay (Host) is a video games presenter with huge enthusiasm for all things nerdy. Interests include romancing alien squad mates, spending too much time in the character creator and trying to pet all the cats. Shay currently works as a full time Xbox Interactive streamer.