As the Welsh Games Development Show gears up for its fifth consecutive year, Liam Turner talks with the chaps behind the controls, Huw Marshall and Mark John, about what’s in store this time round.
Why have you decided to move the show from Cardiff City Hall to the Tramshed?
This year Tramshed has just opened, and it was felt that it would be an appropriate venue to be able to host it because the tech hub that is going to open next to the venue is ideally going to be home to the gaming community of South Wales. We’re also looking to grow the industry, so basing the show slap-bang in the in the middle of Cardiff, next door to one of the city’s most exciting new venues, just makes perfect sense.
What are you hoping to achieve with this year’s show?
We want to give companies a chance to show their wares, showing the great games that are being produced in Wales, and also showing a new generation that not only can they be digital consumers, but they can also be digital creators. We want to see people coming through the door here that in a few years’ time are actually going to be part of that new economy creating games.
What can visitors expect?
We are going to be featuring Minecraft, which is becoming an increasingly more powerful tool in the classroom, for coding and cross-curricular activities. We’ve also got four speakers lined up. There’s a guy called William Huber, who’s the head of Games Education at Abertay University, which is viewed as possibly the leading games educators in Europe. And something we want to do with the show is have a VR lounge – it’s actually something we’d like to make as a more permanent fixture of the Tramshed building.
How strong do you think the Welsh gaming industry is at the moment?
It’s strong but it needs to be stronger. It’s got to be getting its products to work internationally, all around the world. We need to work together to create that sort of critical mass, to enable Wales to punch above its weight. But overall as an industry, Wales is one of the fastest growing games areas in the UK. We’re a little behind Scotland, but we’re playing catch-up very fast indeed.
Welsh Games Development Show, Tramshed, Cardiff, Sat 18 June. Tickets: £7.50-£20. Info: www.walesgamesdevshow.org