Unity's Helgason, Instant Action's Castle To Keynote At Develop

Instant Action CEO Louis Castle and Unity Technologies CEO David Helgason are set to present keynotes at Develop in Brighton July 13-15. Castle and Helgason will be giving the opening and closing keynotes, respectively, at the one-day, three-track Evolve program set for July 13. It's focused on new and emerging technologies, markets and platforms, and this will be evolve's second year as part of the larger Develop event. Castle, also a former creative development VP at EA and the co-founder of Westwood Studios, is set to speak on the blending of traditional gaming with social networks. "I have recently been attempting to free the games industry from the shackles of bricks and mortar and democratizing music games in the process," he says. It's been an exciting and challenging time and I'm really looking forward to sharing my experiences at Evolve." Helgason will give a talk entitled "Gamification: How Games are Everywhere," and use his experience leading Unity -- a tech company with a major focus on browser-based games -- to talk about how game studios can thrive outside of traditional development, in the areas of mobile, web and social networking. "I'm looking forward to coming to Evolve and sharing some of the discoveries we've made with Unity," says Helgason. "I'll be talking about how games are everywhere and, more importantly, how we can use them to conquer untapped markets. I'm not just talking about fun. Fun is overrated!" This will be the fifth Develop Conference in Brighton, and organizer Tandem Events says it expects more than 1,200 delegates from around the world to attend. The main event runs on July 14 and 15, and 80 sessions for game developers are currently on the slate -- with more speaker submissions still being accepted. "Social networking and casual games are just two of several big trends currently shaking up games development," says advisory board chairman Owain Bennallack. "Everything is changing, from digital distribution, question marks over the console cycle and new control methods, to apparent cut backs in Triple A development, the contrasting rise of micro developers and the deepening integration of games with the Internet." Interested parties can find further information at the event's official site.