Guildford.Games festival celebrates the town’s vibrant gaming cluster

Gaming business of all sizes and types met with members of the press and public last week (Friday 10 February) to celebrate the vibrant gaming cluster in Guildford and the surrounding area.

The day was packed with 16 talks and panel sessions from around 42 panellists on topics including getting into the industry, developing a games business and diversity and inclusion within the industry, along with 27 exhibitors. As a whole, the event saw more than 1200 attendees.

One of the first talks of the day featured BDO’s Gareth Hill, Felix Wong, Partner at Level Up Partners, and Emergent Entertainment CFO Neil Bancroft-Jones discussing the development of a gaming business from its first kindling between friends in a bedroom to becoming a major player in the industry and its founders’ eventual exit, offering insight to attendees at all stages of their journey in the industry.

Among the topics discussed during the Powering Up Growth panel were growing the business, seeking funding, signing publishing deals, attracting investment and eventually realising value in the business.

Speaking to The Business Magazine, Gareth said: “It’s brilliant to be back. My involvement in this first started a couple of years ago, when we were planning to have an in-person event, but then it never happened, so the two we’ve been involved in have been the virtual online ones. So it’s great to finally be here in person.

“I think the importance of the network is huge, and we are still in a position where building that face-to-face contact is by far the best way to develop the industry in the region. It’s great to see what’s going on, meet different people and just talk.”

Later on, attendees heard from Chris Filip from the British Film Institute, supported by Tom Vian from SFB Games and Mark Backler from Sketchbook Games, on the funding available from the UK Global Screen Fund, with details on the application process and money available for UK games companies looking to reach new international audiences.

Hosted by Lauren Kaye from She Play Games, the Women in Games Panel featured Adele Cutting from Sound Cuts, Alyx Jones from Liquid Violet and Becky Black from Supermassive Games. Together the panel discussed how to get more women involved in the industry, and how to address the idea that women don’t belong in the industry, with a number of suggestions made along with directions to resources such as The Women in Games Guide: Building A Fair Playing Field guide.

Outside the panel sessions, a variety of different companies hosted stalls including studios showing off their latest games and offering attendees the chance to apply for jobs, firms such as BDO providing advice on business matters, academic institutions discussing the range of industry-related courses they offer and organisations such as Enterprise M3 talking about the role they can play to support the cluster in Guildford.

Along with industry giants including Criterion, nDreams and Supermassive Games, a range of smaller studios attended. One of these was Quiztal Games, a Brighton-based studio who bought along their demo for Quiz Quest, a multiplayer game which sees players working together using their phones to answer a series of questions to work through a narrative, promoting team work and collaboration.

It was not just video games on display, either. OpozO is creating a range of modular board games, with customisation allowing for up to 18 billion different variations of the game based on the layout of tiles and piece types used in the game. Along with entertainment, the games help to teach people skills including problem solving, spatial, planning logic, concentration, memory and creativity.

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Lauran Carter, founding member of Guildford.Games and Head of Communications at Liquid Crimson, said: “To see the in-person Guildford.Games Festival back for the first time since the inaugural event in 2019 is a joy in itself – but to see it oversubscribed, buzzing with attendees here to meet & talk with the amazing Guildford developers and businesses is truly a career highlight for me!

“This celebration of Guildford video games couldn’t happen without our incredibly generous sponsors, who we thank profusely - once again, for trusting us with their teams and funds! Now, time to plan the G.G Festival 2024!”

Sponsors for the event included Charles Russell Speechlys, ID@Azure, Criterion, BDO, Hello Games, Perp Games, nDreams, Sledgehammer Games, Supermassive Games, Playsport Games, Guildford Borough Council, enterpriseM3, Liquid Crimson, Glowmade, Historic VR, Soundcuts, Amiqus and Fast Labels.

Nick Hurley, Head of Group for Employment and Immigration at Charles Russell Speechlys, said: “We’ve been involved since the inaugural festival and its great to see each iteration getting bigger and better known. The crowd and the enthusiasm are quite powerful – it’s really exciting.

“Being collective and being together, and creating that feeling of solidarity, gives a massive boost to the industry in the region, and it’s a great shop window for the businesses here. There’s loads of opportunity, and I think this will continue being a great showcase for the area.

“I’m looking forward to the Women in Games panel. As an employment lawyer, diversity, inclusion and the gender balance in games is an issue really close to my heart. Overall it’s an amazing event.”

CRS Corporate Partner, Rebecca Burford, added: “It’s a great atmosphere, the buzz is like nothing else really. To see so many different people from students to studios is brilliant. Events like this really help to raise awareness, being right at the heart of the community.”

Chris Burchell, Head of Enterprise & Innovation at Enterprise M3, said: “It’s fantastic to be here today. We’ve got big names like EA Games and Supermassive, but also smaller studios as well. Enterprise M3 is proud to be supporting the festival again this year.

“It’s just nice to see businesses talking to potential consumers and young people who want to get into the industry. There’s been some good talks. It’s great to be part of this cluster and we will look to do more in the future.

“Businesses are very busy, and I think there’s not a lot of time and space sometimes to connect, so this is a great opportunity to step back and for businesses to talk to each other and share their knowledge and experience.”

The games industry will take centre stage in the next print edition of The Business Magazine, to make sure you get your copy email [email protected].

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Featured image credit: Guildford.Games