THE LARGEST GATHERING OF GAMES DEVELOPERS IN EUROPE HITS BRIGHTON AGAIN – THE COUNTDOWN BEGINS

The countdown has begun to the start of Europe's largest games development conference and expo. Brighton will once again become the centre of the development world when the Develop Conference & Expo opens its doors on July 24. Over the following three days 75 sessions will take place with nearly 90 speakers covering topics across seven tracks with subjects as diverse as Textures and Shaders in the HD Era through to Their Money, Your Life - Raising Money For Games Companies.

The event will have an international flavour this year with participants from USA, Canada, France, Germany, Sweden, Netherlands, Spain, Korea, Japan, Brazil, Australia, India, Russia, Singapore, Turkey as well as the host nations. The latest confirmed international speaker is Tsutomo Kouno from the Japanese arm of Sony Worldwide Studios who will be talking about the creation of LocoRoco. In addition, Tommy Tallarico will be flying in to Brighton to give one of his unforgettable presentations on the future of game audio.

In addition to the heavyweight conference programme there are also a number of more lighthearted sessions taking place this year. Opinion Jam, described as "a conference, compressed" is made up of ten industry luminaries who put their ludicrous opinions under a stress test. Within the Audio Track there's an open mic session on the future of gaming audio, with a prize for the most controversial contribution. And in the final session of the conference, there are plenty of contenders, but who is really the biggest know-it-all in the games development industry? Come and see eight industry luminaries face-off on stage in Buzz: The Video Game, a special knockabout session featuring Brighton-based developer Relentless Software's smash hit Buzz: The Mega Quiz, with questions specially written by Develop magazine's editor Michael French.

"We've been able to build on our initial success from last year - attracting more speakers from further afield as well as more senior talent. This is a world class conference programme and one that will provide delegates with sessions that will make a difference, as well as entertain and inform," commented event director Andy Lane.

Last year, approximately 1200 delegates attended the conference, from CEOs to junior programmers, and this year numbers are set to be up in line with the increase in speakers and exhibitors. The event opens on Tuesday July 24 with the Mobile Day and Games:EDU and continues through until the last session of the conference - the Buzz Quiz - at 16.45 on Thursday July 26.

Participating companies to date include:

7Seas Technologies Limited Abductor Producoes Cinematograficas Actoz Soft Co., Ltd Animazoo Animosys Ankanet Software and Mobile Systems Artemdigital Audiokinetic Autodesk Basari Mobile IT Products Beyerdynamic Bizarre Creations Blitz Games Carbonon Tech Pvt Ltd Centauro Multimedia S.L Cep Dünyasi Climax Racing Color Chips India Limited Crytek Develop Magazine Double Fusion Double Negative Ltd DQ Entertainment Limited Electronic Arts Emergent Game Technologies Engenuity Entidad Pública Red.es Epic Evolution Studios Freestyle Games Frontier Full Sail Fuzzyeyes Studio Game Developers Association of Australia GameFace Gameneo Games Academy GmbH Games Audit Ltd Games That Matter Gameshadow Gameshastra Solutions Pvt Ltd gamesindustry.biz Gamesound Gamevil Inc Geomerics Glu Mobile Goldfish Information Technologies Guerrilla-Games Halfbrick Studios Handygo HAT BilgiIslem AS Heldhand Ideaworks 3D IF Elektronik Ltd IGM Image Infotainment Limited Infospace Inc. Instinct Technology Introversion Software Jagex Jeuxvideo.com Kahani World Inc Koch Media Kuju Entertainment lemonQuest Lionhead Studios Lucas Arts M:Metrics Meantime Mobile Creations Mgame Midway Games Mobiga Oyun Teknolojileri A.S Mobile Entertainment Microsoft Moket Pty Ltd music4games Namco Bandai Games Naturalmotion NCsoft Neowiz Netgame New Disk Nexgen Studio Pte Ltd Nexon Mobile NHN Corp Nikita Nokia NtreeySoft Orange Gum Pte Ltd Oysterr Digital India Private Ltd Perforce Software Philips amBX Pixofun Pocket Gamer Polygon Magic Powerspace USA Pozitim Teknoloji ve Bilis¸im Qualcomm Rabenstark Spielzeug GmbH Rare Rebellion Relentless Software Remedy Richard Jacques Studios Sanra software Ltd Sarassin LLP Sierra Entertainment Skyzone Mobile Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Southampton Solent University Spielwerke Stormfront Studios Swordfish Studios Tech Excel TecToy Mobile Telenity Bilis¸im Testronic Labs The Game Design Studio Tiga TIM Brasil Unkasoft Veripark Vivo Webeng Korea Webzen WeMade Entertainment Co Ltd XNA Group, Microsoft Yacom - Deutsche Telekom Zoe Mode.