We are excited to host FÍS Games Summit 2024 at Galway’s Portershed a Dó on Market Street on Friday, April 5th, headlined by Game Maker’s Toolkit Creator Mark Brown, Shedworks’ Co-founder and Director Gregorios Kythreotis, and Massive Entertainment’s Senior Narrative Designer and 3-Fold Games’ Co-founder Chella Ramanan! 

Registration opens at 9:30 am with Mayor of Galway Eddie Hoare opening the event at 10 am and Minister of State for Trade Promotion, Digital and Company Regulation Dara Calleary closing the event. Lunch will be provided at the event, with a networking evening hosted at MacNeill’s pub at the Hardiman. 

Mark Brown presents: The Positive Power of Game Jams 

Mark Brown is the creator and host of Game Maker’s Toolkit: a highly regarded YouTube series about game design, with over 1.5 million subscribers. Mark is also a professional design consultant, gives guest lectures around the world, has run seven successful game jams, and has contributed to publications like EDGE Magazine, Wired, and Polygon.  

Every year, thousands of people enter the Game Maker’s Toolkit (GMTK) Game Jam to try making an entire game in just 48 hours. Why should developers put themselves through such an intense process? In his presentation, Mark gives 10 reasons why game jams are worth entering.  

Gregorios Kythreotis presents: The Art of ‘Sable’ 

Gregorios Kythreotis is a Co-founder and Director at Shedworks. He studied Architecture at the Bartlett and was Creative Director on Sable. He has also recently released a Design Works of Sable, filled with sketches, production imagery and thoughts on development of the project.  

Greg will present on “The Art of ‘Sable’: Imperfection, Limitation and Worldbuilding through Visual Design”. 

Chella Ramanan presents: Making Games for Real 

Chella Ramanan is a writer/narrative designer and co-founder of 3-Fold Games, the studio behind the BAFTA-nominated indie game ‘Before I Forget’. She is the director of the studio’s second game, Windrush Tales. Chella is also a senior narrative designer at Massive Entertainment, a Ubisoft studio, on Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora.  

Chella’s career is committed to telling stories that elevate marginalised perspectives and challenge the accepted default, and she will present on “Making Games For Real”. 

Jamie Gavin presents: Enigma Studios – Behind the Scenes 

Jamie Gavin is an independent game designer who has spent the past 5 years releasing a cult series of psychedelic horror games in Galway city under the name ENIGMA STUDIO. Since 2018, he has focused on finding unconventional ways of telling stories that explore themes of identity, reality and existence.  

With the imminent release of this trilogy’s highly anticipated final chapter – [ECHOSTASIS] – Jamie will reflect upon the journey that has led to the creation of his company in his presentation “Chaos to Company”. 

Maria O’Brien & Carlo Azzari present: IMIRT in 2024 and Beyond 

IMIRT Board members Carlo Azzari and Dr. Maria O’Brien (University of Galway) take to stage to discuss important topics for IMIRT– the Irish gamemakers’ association – in 2024 including the tax credit, policy engagement, workshops, and more. Read more about Imirt. 

NI Screen’s Kerry Michelle O’Brien presents: “Gaming. Why Ireland & not North America?”

Our second speaker on Friday is Kerry Michelle O’Brien – Manager of Interactive, Games and Immersive Northern Ireland Screen! 🔥

Kerry Michelle is a veteran of the production and post-production sector with 35+ years in the industry covering commercials, game shows, music promos, VFX, games, animation, documentaries and feature films. Clients have included Sony, HBO, Disney, Warner Bros, NETFLIX and Amazon.

As an openly transgender film maker, Kerry Michelle encourages diversity in her productions as well as supporting projects that have a diverse bias to either the content, subjects and/ or crews.

Recently she on-line edited the BAFTA and OSCAR winning documentary “Navalny” as well as having been Executive Producer of the HBO max queer biased feature film “Lupe”, helped produce and deliver 6 shorts for Women in Media’s “CAMERAderie” scheme as a mentor and Post Supervisor, as well as doing conform and delivery on a variety of documentaries and series currently being seen at major film festivals around the world.

Joining Northern Ireland Screen, Kerry brings a wealth of industry knowledge and experience that covers all the major production sectors especially the cross over between games technology and virtual production.

“I pride myself on always delivering projects to budget and schedule given the opportunity, we just need to make sure that all individuals are given a fair opportunity.”

Kerry Michelle will present on: “Gaming. Why Ireland & not North America?”

Leela Collins presents: Cultivating Success – Growing your Local Game Development Community 

Leela Collins is a Producer and Facilitator based in Belfast. They provide support to local studios as well as promoting programmes and events to raise the profile of the Northern Ireland Games Industry. Leela is committed to creating accessible and open spaces for all members of the industry with a specific focus on outreach to marginalised people through the Northern Ireland Game Development network and Game Changers Belfast.

Discover how building a strong local game development community benefits everyone involved. From fostering collaboration and knowledge sharing to empowering underrepresented voices, this talk will explore the countless opportunities and personal growth that come from actively participating in your local game development scene. 

“We’re delighted to welcome a fantastic lineup of local, national, and international speakers from the games industry to our fourth annual games summit. We hope to inspire, engage, and educate both newcomers and established game industry professionals alike, as they look to progress in their own careers. With FÍS Games Summit, we aim to foster the growth and success of the games community and industry in Galway and Ireland”. Alan Duggan – Ardán CEO 

FÍS Games Summit 2024 is the fourth annual event hosted by Ardán, supported by Screen Ireland, Gréasán na Meán Skillnet, IMIRT, WRAP, Creative Europe Media Desk Ireland, ATU Galway City, and Northern Ireland Screen. 

Read the full downloadable programme here: FÍS Games Summit | Ardán (ardan.ie) 

For press and media enquiries please contact kathryn@ardan.ie