Interview

UK devs, rise up: Game Dev North's Benjamin Milnes on indies doing it for themselves

Today Liverpool, tomorrow the world

UK devs, rise up: Game Dev North's Benjamin Milnes on indies doing it for themselves
Back in April, PocketGamer.biz popped along to one of Game Dev North's events in Chester.

Focusing on encouraging co-operation between outfits based in the north of England – from coders and programmers to musicians like co-organisers Project Static– the event has blossomed into a bigger and bigger deal for those attending meet up after meet up.

With the seventh Game Dev North having recently touched down in Liverpool and with a new base planned in Leeds, we caught up with Project Static's Benjamin Milnes for his take on expanding the platform into a nationwide franchise.

Pocket Gamer: It appears from the outside that every Game Dev North event is bigger than the last. Is this the case?

Benjamin Milnes: We've certainly grown quickly!

Our first event was in February and we had less than 10 people there. Six events later and we get around 200 people per event - and we are still growing.

Our October bash in the Elevator Bar in Liverpool was busy and lively and around half of the attendees had never been to GameDevNorth before, so there are lots of new people coming along.

Recent GDNs have also seen you gain the support of notable backers such as Microsoft. How important has their support been?

Without backing we would not be able to run GameDevNorth. Sheridans Solicitors, Microsoft and TIGA have supported our past events and we are continuing to work with them on future events.

We are also going to announce a new group of events with Autodesk in the near future. We are able to hire great venues, give lots of free drinks and not charge anyone for attending due to the great support from our sponsors.

Did you imagine GDN would grow this quickly when you started out?

We always hoped the event would eventually grow so we could hire out venues and put on great events. However, we did not expect to go from having a table in a bar to hiring the whole place out in a matter of a couple of months.



I think the greatest thing about being so popular is finding out just how many independent game developers there are in the north west of England.

What do you think GDN does for the developers that attend?

The events are always fun so it's a great way to relax and have a drink with some like minded people. Everyone is so friendly it's also easy to network with other companies.

If you are a freelancer just walk around the tables, because at one of the tables there will be a company who wants to hire your services.

We also have a big projector screen with a Twitter wall on. So if you are looking for something or someone, just tweet where you are sitting and tell people to come see you.

Could we see you branching out the format to launch similar regular events in other areas around the UK?

Yes, we are defiantly looking to branch out. We recently moved our company, Project Static, to Leeds and we will be holding a GameDevNorth in the city before Christmas.

[Fellow organiser] Sam Mottershaw is carrying on his Liverpool event with the help of the other co-hosts.



Leeds is a fantastic technology city with great universities, so we are looking forward to that.

If any other areas in the north of England is feeling like they need an event like this we are looking to expand further in 2013.
Thanks to Benjamin for his time.You can find out more about Game Dev North on the event's Facebook page.

With a fine eye for detail, Keith Andrew is fuelled by strong coffee, Kylie Minogue and the shapely curve of a san serif font.