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By National Science and Media Museum on

Introducing our Yorkshire Games Festival 2024 speakers

It’s less than a week to YGF and this year’s programme is jam-packed with incredible guests who collectively have decades of experience in the games industry.

But what have they worked on during that time? Read on to find out.

Alex Earle

Alex is this year’s host and he’s worked on a number of games, including recently announced Southfield which will be coming to early access later this year.

Southfield is no ordinary island, and this is no ordinary farming game. Combine cartoony crops with chaotic effects and customise your farm with fun toys and machines to automate your harvest. Whether you’re a solo explorer, or you’re looking for a new destination to play with friends, Southfield is the place to be!

Alex has also worked on several other games, including:

Henry Hoffman

Henry is the Founder of Newfangled Games and his talk will discuss the design principles of award-winning game Paper Trail, with a focus on mechanic-driven design.

Paper Trail

Paper Trail is a top-down puzzle adventure about leaving home, set in a foldable paper world. You play as Paige, a budding academic, leaving home for the first time to pursue her studies. On the journey, you learn to fold the world, merging two sides to solve puzzles, explore new areas and uncover long-lost secrets.

Henry’s other game credits include:

  • Hue
  • Mush
  • Mortar Melon

Samantha Béart

Samantha joins us for an in-conversation event and Q&A with host Alex Earle in the evening following the Game Talks. They are a classically trained actor with a career spanning nearly two decades. Their most recent performance as the fiery companion Karlach in Baldur’s Gate 3 has been met with both cultural and critical acclaim.

Baldur’s Gate 3 is a story-rich, party-based RPG set in the universe of Dungeons & Dragons, where your choices shape a tale of fellowship and betrayal, survival and sacrifice, and the lure of absolute power.

Samantha’s other game credits include:

Rhianne Murphy

Rhianne Murphy has over seven years’ experience working as a level and narrative designer in the UK AAA game development scene. Her talk will discuss her journey from graduation to games and what steps you can take to break into the industry.

Rhianne’s game credits include Crackdown 3.

Time to step up your boom and stop crime as a super-powered Agent in Crackdown 3‘s open-world sandbox of mayhem and destruction. Explore the heights of New Providence, tear up the streets in iconic vehicles, and use your powerful abilities to stop a ruthless criminal empire.

Sean Gorman

Sean Gorman is an experienced Lead Level Designer currently at VOID Interactive, with over eight years of professional experience in the video games industry. His talk will focus on how Level Designers can enhance their design blockouts, while teaching the fundamentals and showcasing techniques.

His most recent game credit is Ready or Not, an intense, tactical, first-person shooter that depicts a modern-day world in which SWAT police units are called to defuse hostile and confronting situations.

Other games Sean has worked on include:

Sophie Knowles

Sophie Knowles is a 3D generalist and currently the Lead Artist at Sad Owl Studio, the studio behind Viewfinder. Her talk will take you behind the art of Viewfinder, a mind-bending first-person adventure game in which you can bring pictures to life by placing them into the world.

Challenge perception, redefine reality, and reshape the world around you with an instant camera. Viewfinder is a new single-player game offering gamers hours of interesting and fun experiences while uncovering the mysteries left behind.

Sophie has also worked on:

Adrienne Law

Adrienne Law is a Senior Writer at Larian Studios, an independent developer dedicated to pushing the boundaries of storytelling and player freedom. Her talk is entitled ‘Writing with Character: Lenses for crafting compelling NPCs’.

As Dusk Falls is an original interactive drama from INTERIOR/NIGHT that explores the entangled lives of two families across 30 years. Starting in 1998 with a robbery gone wrong in small-town Arizona, the choices you make have a powerful impact on the characters’ lives in this uncompromising story of betrayal, sacrifice and resilience.

Other games Adrienne has worked on include:

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