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By Jamie Sefton on

Celebrating Yorkshire games

It's almost time for this year’s Yorkshire Games Festival. Game Republic’s Jamie Sefton takes a look at some of the exciting Yorkshire games developers whose work you’ll be able to sample at the five-day event.

The Yorkshire Games Festival at the National Science and Media Museum is now in its second year, and a wonderful opportunity for students, games fans, games developers and families to attend workshops, showcases and talks from some of the best games companies in the world. The two-day conference track on Thursday 9 and Friday 10 November features writers, musicians, artists and programmers who have worked on some of the biggest global games hits: Destiny 2, FIFA, Star Wars Battlefront, World of Tanks, Uncharted, The Last of Us, Hellblade, LEGO Marvel Superheroes and more.

A still from the videogame The Last of Us
Bradford-born Iki Ikram worked on VFX for The Last of Us

However, the ‘Yorkshire’ part of the festival is so important for Game Republic, as it shines a light on the fantastic industry that we have in the region and supported by our network: more than 200 developers, huge companies such as Rockstar Leeds (Grand Theft Auto), Team17 (Worms) and Sumo Digital (Crackdown, Snake Pass) as well as many more smaller companies that make world-conquering games on mobile, console and PC, and in the virtual worlds of AR and VR.

A still from Gang Beasts
Gang Beasts was developed by Sheffield studio Boneloaf

Sheffield developer Boneloaf are featured in the main conference, talking about their incredibly successful jelly-person multiplayer brawling game Gang Beasts, but the games weekend also features many more Yorkshire and Humber developers as part of a Yorkshire Games Showcase, and games funded through the Creative England GamesLab Leeds initiative and the government’s UK Games Fund.

Image shows a young girl playing a computer game
The whole family can come and try out brand new, locally made games as part of our Let’s Play! family weekend

Make sure you check out the hugely enjoyable VR Partyware from Huddersfield’s Shuttershade Studios, AR game Smash Tanks from Sheffield developer Dumpling Design, and wonderful platforming game Mable & the Wood from another Sheffield-based developer, Triplevision Games. Plus there are other incredible titles from New Moon Games, GameDigits, Gentlemen of Science and many, many more from across Yorkshire.

Please come and support the Yorkshire Games Festival—buy tickets, see the talks, take part in the workshops and play the games, so we can make sure we continue to grow this special games event for our region into 2018 and beyond!

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