Games Industry Events Round-Up: February Edition

Welcome back to our monthly games events blog! If you thought January was busy, get ready for February as there's a lot to look forward to! Check out all the details below...

 

Yorkshire Games Festival – February 5-9^th

This five-day event celebrates all things games design and production! Their fifth annual event will feature special guests, masterclasses, and workshops.

9% of the UK games industry is located in Yorkshire and the Humber, so the Yorkshire Games Festival is all about embracing and honouring this proud statistic!

There will be a programme of talks and masterclasses from industry experts that are aimed at a range of audiences from recent grads, to those still studying, to industry professionals. This year the talks will include

• Demystifying Mobile Game Development
• A Guide to Unconventional Games Development
• The Future of Games
• Career Surgeries
• Meet the Developers Networking Event

A part of the festival includes their Let’s Play! Family weekend. This will revolve around their family-friendly talks and events such as CBBC games, a game showcase and kids club: Detective Pikachu!

Find out more and get tickets to the festival here!

And if you're in local why not check out our latest games jobs in Yorkshire now!

 

Ukie Hub Crawls

February is a busy month for Ukie’s hub crawls. These crawls focus on bringing together game businesses and this year the theme is how to raise your business’s profile and build your brand! There are eight of these going on across the country in Feb, check out which cities they’re happening in and where you can get tickets below!

Speeches at this month’s crawls will include some of the following:

• Crash course in video game law
• Standing out: why PR is essential as a 21s century game developer
• An insight into the next generation of gamers
• Improve retention and engagement with real-life rewards
• Influencers? The valuable lesson learned
• Should you put ads in your games?

Find tickets for your local HubCrawl here...

Dundee – 6^th 

Brighton – 12^th

Manchester – 13^th 

Cardiff – 19^th 

Southampton – 20^th 

Cambridge – 24^th

Liverpool – 26^th

Bristol – 27^th 

Find out more about this year's Hub Crawls here...

 

GAME:UP – 6^th

 

If you work in Games Analytics this is the event for you. Hosted at Ukie's London with talks including

• Exploring how soft-launching games has evolved over time
• Designing game economies
• Discovering different deck archetypes.

This is a great chance to meet up and network with others who do game analytics (as well as to get your hands on some pizza!).

Click here to sign up for the event!

 

UK@Kidscreen – February 10^th

 

This event is a great opportunity to stay on top of the important issues and trends in the kids’ entertainment industry. It’s also the perfect chance to generate business opportunities and network with decision-makers in the field.

Find out more about UK@Kidscreen here...

 

Esport BAR: Cannes – February 11-13^th

 

 

The world’s leading business esports event returns for another year of executives and leaders joining together to shape the future of esports.

The event is hosted in Cannes and will include one-to-one matchmaking services to mix esports industry experts. Their three-day programme of mentoring and insights will cover how to invest and develop expertise in esports.

The forum programme involves a conference and networking events which is designed to help develop esports business strategies. This alongside the one-to-one matchmaking event provides great opportunities to meet and network with those in the esports arena.

This will be followed by the Game Shakers Awards which celebrate the game changers of esports! It’s a great event that focuses on rewarding amazing professionals for their contribution to the field.

Find out more and get your tickets here!

And whilst you're there, why not check out our latest games jobs in France?

 

D.I.C.E 2020 Summit – 11-13^th

The Design, Innovate, Communicate, Entertain conference - D.I.C.E is an exclusive event that gathers the most creative minds at a three-day event in Las Vegas. It’s all about celebrating the bright and dedicated people who explore the creative process and artistic expression.

The theme this year is ‘Next Level’. Game makers are set to explore where games are headed in the future and what that means to the global community. The summit will be followed by the annual D.I.C.E awards which recognises the best talent in the industry.

Get your tickets to D.I.C.E here!

And check out our latest games jobs in the US here.

 

MGS20 – 12^th

 

 

This two-day event aimed at developers, publishers and marketers in San Francisco connects people in the mobile app and online marketing arenas. There will be workshops and panels lead and attended by loads of people in the industry from those in AI, monetisation, branding, VR, business operations and many more!

Read more about MGS20 here!

 

Epic.LAN – Epic 29 – 20^th

 

This gamer event is based around a range of social and esports tournaments, with parties ranging from 32 players to a whopping 700! The event will take place around the UK and works closely with industry organisations such as EGX And ESL UK.

This is a great one to get involved with if you’re a gamer who loves competing in tournaments, as this is a big one!

Find out how to get involved in this event here...

 

Dev Quest – 19^th

 

 

This event explores the challenges that are often faced in the game development process. There will be talks from several guests, and it’s a great opportunity to mingle with fellow game developers and chat to the keynote speakers afterwards!

Find out more about DevQuest here and get your tickets here!

 

GameBlast - 20-21^st

This huge charity event is organised by SpecialEffect, the gaming charity, and is the UK’s biggest annual charity gaming marathon weekend!

The event is run to raise money for SpecialEffect, who help people with disabilities to play the games they are desperate to play due to their conditions.

In the games industry (and anyone else who wants to get involved) are encouraged to organise their own gaming marathons/events during the weekend of the 21^st of February and raise donations through the Just Giving page.

We at Skillsearch will be taking part on the 21^st with our own mini-game marathon, so if you want to get involved as well, start organising! You can find some ideas of what to do for your fundraiser here!

Read more about GameBlast20 and SpecialEffect here.

 

GamesIndustry.biz Investment Summit @ Pax East 2020 – 27^th 

 

 

This year, the GamesIndustry.biz Summit celebrates its 10^th year! This summit provides a great opportunity for small- and medium-sized games companies to learn more about games investment. You can meet and pitch to investors, publishers and platform holders in the afternoon of the event. There will be some huge games there including Sony PlayStation, Oculus, Ubisoft, Sega, Team17, Xsolla and more!

Get your tickets here...

That's everything that's going on in games in February! Check out what you missed in January's edition here!

You can also check out our March edition now!

In the meantime, feel free to contact me at fs@skillsearch.com if you've got a games event you'd like me to include in my monthly round-up!