Yorkshire Games Festival

What is the Yorkshire Games Festival?

The Yorkshire Games Festival is a yearly event held at the Science and Media Museum in Bradford, United Kingdom. The festival celebrates video games and their developers with talks, demos, and exhibits. The event is organised by a team of volunteers who are passionate about video gaming and its potential to inspire people of all ages. 

One of the goals of the festival is to provide a space for independent developers to showcase their work. Another goal is to educate the public about the history and culture of video gaming. The festival also includes a variety of family-friendly activities, such as face painting and carnival games. Overall, the Yorkshire Games Festival is a fun and informative event that celebrates one of the most popular forms of entertainment in the world.

Main Events & Tournament Information

TOURNAMENTS

Yorkshire games Festival has hosted Rocket League tournaments with players showing up from all over the county, including esports teams from colleges!

GAME TALKS

Game Talks is a unique programme of talks, master classes and events featuring high-profile industry guests. Join them to learn more about what you do; be inspired while networking with other participants in the field!

Our fantastic guest speakers included Max Pears, Level Designer at CD Projekt Red; Sallyann Houghton of Epic Games; Melissa Phillips, Head of Studio at Silver Rain Games; freelance character design artist Lucy Kyriakidou; and Max Mead, Senior Environment Artist at Ubisoft Leamington. We also played host to a pop-up Usability Lab from Team17; joined forces with the Sheffield Gaming Podcast and the British Esports Association for special festival-themed streams; and wrapped it all up with a virtual pub quiz!

• David Sheppard, Ubisoft Leamington: The role of UX in gaming
• Dr James Cook, University of Edinburgh; Adam J. Sporka, composer; Jan Valta, composer: Adaptive music in open-world games
• Trine Laier, Those Eyes: Hush-hush! How to design ‘authentic’ games
• David Fenn, Acid Nerve: Death’s Door: Making a big game with a small team
• Mat Murray, XR Games: How to raise investment funding for your games studio
• Will Doyle, Supermassive Games: The Dark Pictures Anthology: Crafting interactive horror stories
• Sean Gorman, Rocksteady: Level design: Function and form
• Joshua Garrity, Team17: Top tips for the perfect game pitch
• Bex Betton, Women in Games Ambassador: Should I engage in work experience and unpaid opportunities in the games industry?
• Nele Steenput, nDreams: Best practices in character art for VR
• James Dobrowski, Sharkmob London: Production 101: A key to making great games is playing great games!
• Classified speaker: Classified talk topic

LET’S PLAY! FAMILY WEEKEND

The Let’s Play! Weekend is a weekend filled with gameplay, activities and live shows for all the family to enjoy together. Explore unique games from Northern studios or try out new ones while you play along in special events throughout this one-of event space!

10.00–16.30 Northern Games Showcase

10.00–16.30 Flashback Arcade

10.00–16.30 Discover Esports! with Burnley FC and Bu

10.00–16.30 Big Screen Gaming

10.00–16.30 Exploring Analogue

10.00–16.30 Making Bradford 2025: The Game

10.00–16.30 The Animal Crossing Diaries on Tour

10.00–16.30 Solidaritech

10.00–16.30 Gaming the Mind

10.30 Kids’ Club film screening: Sonic the Hedgehog (PG)

YOUNG DEVELOPERS CONFERENCE

The Young Developers Conference is a one day event that targets Key Stage 3 students. The program aims to inspire and inform younger game makers about the amazing opportunities available within this exciting industry!

09.30 Learning packages for KS3

16.30 BAFTA Young Game Designers teacher/parent workshop

THURSDAY

12.10 YGF: Career Surgeries

13.00 BAFTA Young Game Designers autism friendly workshop

FRIDAY

12.10 YGF: Career Surgeries

13.00 BAFTA Young Game Designers autism friendly workshop

Programme summary / Overview

• GAME TALKS

• LET’S PLAY! FAMILY WEEKEND

• YOUNG DEVELOPERS CONFERENCE