Some of the best developers, composers and sound designers from the global gaming industry will congregate in Edinburgh this weekend for the Edinburgh Game Symposium 2.0 (EGS). With two full days of presentations, workshops, discussions and performances focusing on the latest in games development, games music & audio, EGS is shaping up to be a highlight of the Scottish gaming calendar this year.
Leading industry names involved in the symposium include Jason Graves (Dead Space & Tomb Raider), Vincent Diamante (Flower), Yann Seznec (Lucky Frame), Malath Abbas (Quartic Llama) and Grant Kirkhope (Banjo Kazooie & Viva Piñata).
EGS is an independent conference in games design and audio founded by Edinburgh University Masters students in music & composition Jacob Pernell and Luci Holland. It is the first in Scotland to focus on games music & audio, as well as more general game design.
The game industry is taking off in Scotland just now, with close to 100 game development studios and 93 Scottish games released in 2013. One of EGS’ founders, Luci Holland, said about the symposium:
We want to celebrate the booming games industry in Scotland and connect to our inter- national colleagues in the business, whilst entwining the independent games market with that of the AAA developments, uniting professionals, amateurs and hobbyists to come together as a community to discuss and learn from each other.
Friday 27th June’s events will take place at Edinburgh’s Traverse Theatre as part of the Edinburgh International Film Festival. Compered by Scottish Games Network director Brian Baglow, the day will feature a developers panel, composers panel, and an open games festival for new and student developers to showcase their work.
On Friday evening, there will be a free concert by the Edinburgh Film Music Orchestra, who will perform a special selection of video game music written by guest speakers and other leading games composers. This will include extracts from music from Tombraider, Flower, Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs and Viva Piñata.
Saturday 28th June will feature bespoke workshops in different aspects of game design and games audio Q&A sessions with international experts.
Tickets and more information available at www.edingame.com
