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GI Sprint Summer 2024

Making video games cheaper, faster and better

Over three weeks on GamesIndustry.biz, we will be discussing ways to make video games cheaper, faster and better. Covering areas such as AI, cloud, concepting, processes and new ways of working
Speakers
Brady Woods

Brady Woods

Product Leader, Xbox Game Creator Services

Dominique Gawlowski

Dominique Gawlowski

MD, Free Lives

Dr Aleena Chia

Dr Aleena Chia

Lecturer, Goldsmiths, University of London.

Graham McAllister

Graham McAllister

Organisational Psychologist

Haiyan Zhang

Haiyan Zhang

General Manager, Gaming AI at Xbox

Jesse Schell

Jesse Schell

CEO, Schell Games

Lauren Maslen

Lauren Maslen

Production Director at Mighty Build and Test, a Keywords Studio

Lucie Migné

Lucie Migné

Senior Producer at Mighty Build and Test, a Keywords Studio

Rami Ismail

Rami Ismail

Game Developer

Sahar Asadi

Sahar Asadi

Director of AI Labs at King

Sean Cooper

Sean Cooper

Technical Director, Didimo

Shawn Layden

Shawn Layden

Tommy Thompson

Tommy Thompson

Director, AI and Games

Tony Gowland

Tony Gowland

MD, Ant Workshop

Ulas Karademir

Ulas Karademir

CTO, IO Interactive

GI Sprint Summer 2024
    1. The unsustainability of AAA video games

      Games veteran Shawn Layden speaks with GamesIndustry.biz about the spiralling costs of AAA game development, and why it needs entirely rethinking. (This session is available as a video, podcast and article)
    1. Meet IO Interactive's new CTO

      Ulas Karademir on his return to IO Interactive, and his approach to making games faster and better. (This session is available as an article)
    1. The art of failing fast

      Video game veterans Tony Gowland, Dominique Gawlowski and Rami Ismail share wisdom on the importance of getting it wrong quickly. (This session is available as a video, podcast and article)
    1. Developers should be making singles, not albums

      Indie development legend Tony Gowland on the advantages of making smaller games. (This session is available as an article)
    1. How AI can (and cannot) speed up game development

      AI experts Tommy Thompson, Sean Cooper, Aleena Chia, Lauren Maslen and Lucie Migne opens our AI talks by discussing the broad opportunities and challenges of the technology. (This session is available as a video, podcast and article)
    1. How King uses AI to speed up the development of Candy Crush

      King's Sahar Asadi shares how the mobile games giant is utilising AI to support its development teams (This session is available as an article)
    1. Getting it right at the concept stage

      Team Sync's Graham McAllister on why the concept stage is the most important one to get right for team efficiency. (This session is available as a video, podcast and article)
    1. Getting remote working... working

      For some developers, the switch to remote and hybrid working has significantly slowed down development. Yet others have managed to overcome this issue. We chat to development experts on how to get it right (This session is available as an article)
    1. Life without layoffs

      Schell Games boss Jesse Schell on the advantages of keeping a lean team, how to know the right team size for each project and the art of scaling up and down as development progresses. (This session is available as a video, podcast and article)
    1. AI and Cloud Keynote with Microsoft

      Haiyan Zhang, general manager of Gaming AI at Xbox, and Brady Woods, product leader at Xbox Game Creator Services, will discuss how the latest technology can help game developers build their games better and more efficiently
Articles
Everything we learned from GI Sprint

Everything we learned from GI Sprint

As our series on making games cheaper, faster and better comes to an end, we recap the highlights

GamesIndustry.biz Staff

Four ways AI and cloud can make game dev easier (and one thing they can't do) | GI Sprint

Four ways AI and cloud can make game dev easier (and one thing they can't do) | GI Sprint

We talk to Xbox about what these technologies can do to support – but not replace – developers

Alex Calvin

Life without layoffs, or why they are an avoidable part of game development | GI Sprint

Life without layoffs, or why they are an avoidable part of game development | GI Sprint

We talk to veteran game designer and CEO, Jesse Schell, who hasn't laid off any devs in 22 years

Vikki Blake

The benefits of working remotely | GI Sprint

The benefits of working remotely | GI Sprint

Bossa Studios' Henrique Olifiers and FuturLab's Toby Adam-Smith discuss remote working, and how to maintain efficiency and teamwork

Sophie McEvoy

Getting your game vision right at the concept stage | GI Sprint

Getting your game vision right at the concept stage | GI Sprint

Graham McAllister details the challenges of aligning on a vision, why it matters so much, and how developers can overcome the issue

Alex Calvin

How King is using AI to speed up development of new Candy Crush levels

How King is using AI to speed up development of new Candy Crush levels

The firm has made level iteration 50% faster as a result of its playtesting bot

Christopher Dring

How you can tap into the AI revolution to make games more efficiently | GI Sprint

How you can tap into the AI revolution to make games more efficiently | GI Sprint

Industry insiders shed light on the best way to make use of AI tools, without losing touch with your core purpose

Keumars Afifi-Sabet

Xbox tech leaders to close our GI Sprint series next week

Xbox tech leaders to close our GI Sprint series next week

Haiyan Zhang and Brady Woods to discuss the opportunities of AI and cloud

Christopher Dring

IO Interactive's mission to speed up game development | GI Sprint

IO Interactive's mission to speed up game development | GI Sprint

The Hitman developer discusses the advantages of running its own tech and how it's looking to make games 'cheaper, faster and better'

Christopher Dring

Why devs need to fail fast, and how to do so | GI Sprint

Why devs need to fail fast, and how to do so | GI Sprint

Industry pros share tips on failing with grace, iterating faster, and how to know when a project should be abandoned in favour of your next idea

Vikki Blake