Develop 2025 - overall really enjoyable! I opted for the free expo ticket, which I reckon if it’s your first time going and there aren’t too many talks that you’re interested in is more than enough. The indie bootcamp talks on thursday were pretty good, and I’m grateful they made those for free.

My biggest takeaway is that next time, I want to have a proper reason to go there, as in not just hanging around and ’looking for work’ (which was printed on my badge on full display for all to see). Looking for an official proper full time position feels is a bit unrealistic as there are SO many people looking for work and so few recruiters that I don’t really see anyone getting a job offer on the spot (especially for AAA! unless you’re really, really memorable and incredible. Perhaps more likely at an indie studio).

However if you’re a freelancer / contractor, I can definitely see you finding more of that kind of work through the grapevine!

I’m not in a position to look for work, as I’m still fleshing out my reel to be what I consider industry ready. On that same topic, meeting people and seeing what the quality of work that is out there was really valuable. The bar is high, but also achievable!

A great reason to go would be to have a game to show, whether it be at Brilliant Indie Treasures or as part of the official indie showcase. Or to look for funding / publishers / generally build up awareness of your game

Brilliant Indie Treasures was packed

That’s a personal goal of mine, to bring a game to exhibit next time. I don’t think it’d be impossible to get into BIT, as there were games ranging from quite rough and ready to extremely polished. Everything I played was at the very least interesting and novel.

A few standout games I had the chance to play:

• Faceminer - super cool aesthetic and graphic design, music is killer and the dev was incredibly nice.
• Mythmatch - really got into a flowstate with this one. a really gorgeous mix of puzzle, narrative and invention.
• Nanuka - which I’ve been following since I saw it inside Debug Magazine issue 8. Incredibly gorgeous and smooth pixel art.
• Galatico - which felt like a love letter to Doom, with incredible game feel.

I also had a couple friends show their game off - shoutout to James with Striker, and Rhianna with SuperNova.

I really wanted to try the two winners - Robes and Wrinkles, and Hungry Horrors, but the indie showcase booth was incredibly busy! Robes and Wrinkles did something really nice which was actually have TWO laptops with their game on it, which let more people play it and might’ve helped them win the audience choice awards! If you get into the main indie showcase on the expo floor that’s well worth it - there’ll be a huge amount of people that end up playing your game / waiting around to play your game.

The best bits of Develop for me was the opportunity to hangout and catchup with friends I don’t usually get the chance to, because we’re all so busy with everyday life. The Bristol Playtest Party crew met up on wednesday and it was great to chat outside of our usual environment ie. crammed into a sweaty room, feverishly trying to show our games while eating pizza.

Bristol Playtest Party Developers meetup

Another great event was the animation meetup the folks at Super Spline put on on Thursday. Such a great treat - it’s so rare to meet other animators who are specifically game industry focused, there’s really not too many of us! It’s so nice to be able to talk about reference and keyframes and mocap with other people who understand precisely what you’re talking about in person - I’ve taken animation classes online, but have rarely had the chance to hang out with character animators in the flesh.

It was worth going to Develop just for this event, alone. Something really nice that Super Spline did was encourage everyone to wear a nametag with an interest written down that had nothing to do with animation or games, which was an excellent ice breaker.

I ended up spending about £170 in total, including hotel (£50) and train (£36). Not the cheapest, and I could have certainly tightened the wallet a bit more, but certainly not the most expensive and imo a great use of money and time. Would I go again? Definitely, especially if I have a good reason to go.

And finally, a few shoutouts:

• thank you Sonya for giving me your quiz prize - the O/N magazine #2! You are too kind Picked up Patch and Debug magazine for myself. Long live physical media!

• thank you Jake for being a great bunk buddy The smallest hotel room I’ve ever stayed in.

• thank you everyone else I hung out with, including but not limited to: Rhianna, James, Dom, Louis, Hollie, Marlon, Owen etc.