Louis Castle to keynote Develop 2010

This year's Develop Conference has added two new speakers to its roster, one of which is Westwood Studios' founder Louis Castle, who will present the event's opening keynote.

Castle, now CEO of Instant Action, will host a session entitled 'Traditional Games Breaking into Social Networks: A View from the Frontline', in which he will discuss his experience of the sector.

"I have recently been attempting to free the games industry from the shackles of bricks and mortar and democratising music games in the process. It's been an exciting and challenging time and I'm really looking forward to sharing my experiences at Evolve," he commented.

Also confirmed for the event is David Helgason, CEO of Unity Technologies, who will present Evolve's closing keynote, 'Gamification: How Games are Everywhere'. His session will draw on Unity's rise to prominence in mobile and browser gaming and analyse gaming's rise on mobile, web, TV and social networks.

"Social networking and casual games are just two of several big trends currently shaking up games development," said Owain Bennallack, the Develop advisory board chairman.

"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. All of these issues and more will be debated in depth at Develop this summer."

The fifth Develop Conference will take place in Brighton between July 13-15.