Colin MacDonald, industry legend and the man behind All4Games, is the creator of the increasingly crucial Games|Drinks events.
Focused on industry only (sorry students!) Colin has curated a selection of speakers from all areas of the gaming sector, in a relaxed environment, where there are also drinks. It’s simple and fiendishly clever.
The last events have taken place in Glasgow and Dundee, but Colin has bowed to popular pressure and has now included Edinburgh in the line-up for the next sessions in early November. The next events are:
- Glasgow – Monday November 4th (Broadcast, Sauchiehall St)
- Edinburgh – Tuesday November 5th (Henrys Cellar Bar, Morrison St)
- Dundee – Thursday November 7th (Beat Generator Live, North Lindsay St)
Tickets are free. Click through to each event to book on EventBrite.
We asked Colin what the inspiration was for creating the whole series. He told us:
“I held the first event because I met a chap from Warner Music who said he’d put money behind the bar if only there was a Scottish event where he could meet local game developers. So I organised the first event in Dundee for those already working in and around the games industry, meaning everyone could meet up without the ridiculous situation of only ever seeing each other in San Francisco and Cologne. That first event seemed to go down a storm, so I’ve been talked into doing it in both Edinburgh and Glasgow as well now. The things I’ll do for a drink!”
The format is simple: arrival from 4:30pm onwards, with talks starting 5:30pm sharp.
Speakers vary across each city. The current participants are:
Glasgow:
- Philip and Andrew Oliver (AKA The Oliver Twins of ‘Dizzy’ fame)
- Ged Grimes, composer of The Bard’s Tale IV: Barrows Deep soundtrack, and Simple Minds bassist.
- Stuart Burnside, British Film Institute on Video Games Tax Credits
- Danny Buksh, Glasgow School of Art
- Sara Gatland, Video Editor
- Neil Parmer, Escape Technology
- Remaining speakers TBC; get in touch if interested in speaking.
Edinburgh:
- Philip and Andrew Oliver (AKA The Oliver Twins of ‘Dizzy’ fame)
- Chris Scullion (@scully1888), journalist, on “Getting games journalists to notice your game”
- Stuart Burnside, British Film Institute on Video Games Tax Credits
- Attila Vass, VP of Engineering at Speech Graphics
- V&A Dundee
- Neil Parmer, Escape Technology
- Greg Lee, Lead Artist, Ruffian Games
- Remaining speakers TBC; get in touch if interested in speaking.
(Drinks kindly sponsored by Escape Technology and Speech Graphics).
Dundee:
- Philip and Andrew Oliver (AKA The Oliver Twins of ‘Dizzy’ fame)
- Bobby Wertheim, Head of Content, Sega
- V&A Dundee
- Neil Parmer, Escape Technology
- Paul Farley, Chilli Connect (Unity), “Hidden Treasure – Finding and exploiting game studio IP”
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Gary McCartan, Pocket Sized Hands
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Neil Crawford, Head of Technology, FindMyPast, “30 production deploys a day, are you crazy?”
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Greg Lee, Lead Artist, Ruffian Games
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Remaining speaker TBC.
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