Animex Game
Games talks from industry speakers.
Animex Game features two days of exciting talks from a range of speakers working in the games industry. Speakers share their insight into games they’ve worked on, their journey into the industry, career advice for those looking to get into games, and much more.
We’re busy behind the scenes working on our schedule for 2024. Keep an eye out for updates. Talks and speakers may be subject to change.
11 November 24
Middlesbrough Town Hall | TS1 2QJ
8:50AM
Registration
Middlesbrough Town Hall Foyer.
9:15AM
Welcome talk
A talk to open Animex 2024.
9:30AM
Portfolio tips and tricks for game artists
Jeff Parrott | Blizzard Entertainment
Develop a clear understanding of expectations with regards to your art portfolio as you enter the video game industry. This talk covers networking, interviewing, and working as a professional in the video game industry.
10:30AM
Designing levels with dyslexia
Raphael Kidd | Ubisoft
Raphael Kidd talks about how he designed levels with dyslexia. Covering open world design and linear level design, he discusses dyslexia and its challenges, how it can be used as a tool to your advantage and explaining his experiences and practices with VR, having worked on The Persistence (PS4 VR).
11:30AM
Lunch break
1:00PM
An insight into the role of a technical artist
Nigel Middleman | TT Games
Technical artists have become a critical part of many development studios and are often required to be able to work on animations, tools development and art creation. This talk is aimed at people who may be interested in getting into the field of technical art or for people who may not know about the role of technical artist and the types of skills that a technical artist may require. This will not be a tech talk, it will cover some of what the role and responsibilities of a technical artist is.
2:00PM
From programming to marketing – a gaming industry story
Opal Cadman | Team17 Digital
This talk shows the range of careers available in the games industry, and the journey your career can take. This talk shows how much you can grow, and how fun the publishing and marketing careers in the games industry can be.
3:00PM
Break
3:30PM
The perilous 9ft journey: taking RimWorld from desk to couch, an adventure in UI
Kevin Mann | Double Eleven
Kevin Mann delves into the details of converting a complex and much loved PC game, RimWorld, to a console game from a UI/UX perspective. The task of converting a game from PC to console is never easy, but in the case of RimWorld, it was particularly challenging. The game's complex mechanics and user interface made the transition to consoles a daunting task. During the session, Kevin will share Double Eleven’s experiences of the challenges they faced during the conversion process and how they overcame them, to receive 5 star reviews and praise from the players.
4:30PM
Designing key game moments
Daniel Arriaga | Hundred Star Games
Daniel Arriaga discusses why specific video game moments have persisted in time as iconic and memorable. You learn how the human memory works and how certain patterns and features make spaces, actions and experiences easily recallable, recognisable and relatable to your target demographic. Daniel shares insights on how game mechanics can establish a strong product identity. The talk closes with a Q&A.
5:30PM
Close
12 November 24
Middlesbrough Town Hall | TS1 2QJ
9:00AM
Registration
Middlesbrough Town Hall Foyer.
9:30AM
How I designed Cyberpunk 2077 levels
Max Pears | Hangar 13
Max Pears discusses the creative minds - who was involved with making the level and the team dynamics, his design process - how he approached a level when starting, working with brands, and mistakes and growth.
10:30AM
The Tanglewood Games optimisation playbook
Adam Capon | Tanglewood Games
Rodrigo Roldan-Romero | Tanglewood Games
The Tanglewood games team take a look at an introduction to game performance optimisation, efficient coding practices and algorithm optimisation, rendering and world optimisation, memory management, platform-specific optimisation, tips and best practice and finish off with a Q&A session.
11:30AM
Lunch break
1:00PM
Animating characters across the Sword Coast: cinematic challenges in Baldur's Gate 3
Adam Smith | Larian Studios
Logan Prové | Larian Studios
Adam Smith and Logan Prové highlight some of the challenges faced making animations for Larian Studio’s largest cinematic game, Baldur’s Gate 3.
2:00PM
Video game structural layers for narrative design
Eoghain Meakin | Ulster University and Can You Eat It?
Eoghain Meakin discusses the structural layers present in many video games that impose and motivate the shape of any narrative within them. By outlining and understanding these layers it should help designers create effective narratives in games.
3:00PM
Break
3:30PM
Cinematic design for games
David Pumpa | Playground Games
David Pumpa talks about what you need to consider when you’re creating and implementing cinematics into games.
4:30PM
From concept to controller: inside the game design process
Karolina Latka | Behaviour Interactive
How do you recognise a successful development cycle? What can help your game stand out? What should be at the core of your game design? In this talk, Karolina Latka dives into game design and also how it impacts the game development holistically.
5:30PM
Close