The team at Ardán are very excited to host the FÍS Games Summit this Thursday, February 23rd, 2023, live in-person at Portershed a Dó, the new space on Market Street in Galway city centre. FÍS Games Summit 2023 is the third iteration of this annual event and features a stellar line-up of speakers.

FÍS Games Summit is hosted by Ardán, in association with Screen Ireland, Creative Ireland, Galway City Council, Imirt, and Romero Games, and with the support of Northern Ireland Screen, WRAP Fund, ATU, Creative Europe Media Desk Ireland, the Portershed, and Spooky Doorway.  

Dana Nightingale presents: DEATHLOOP’s User Research User Experience Death Loop  

Our keynote speaker, Dana Nightingale (she/her), began working on the Dishonored Series as a Level Designer in 2010 after ten years of Thief modding and a master’s in architecture. She has worked on nearly every Dishonored release and is best known for her level design work on the Clockwork Mansion of Dishonored 2. In 2019, she became Campaign Designer on 2021’s critically acclaimed “DEATHLOOP”. She is currently Campaign Director at Arkane Lyon and a frequent contributor to conferences, podcasts, and other events. 

Josh Sawyer presents: Pentiment & Learning to Love Being an Awful Detective  

Josh Sawyer, another one of our great speakers on the day, started in the industry in 1999 at Black Isle Studios, where he worked on the Icewind Dale games. Since 2005, he has been at Obsidian Entertainment, where he has directed Fallout: New Vegas, Pillars of Eternity, Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire, and the 2022 narrative adventure game Pentiment. He is currently Obsidian’s studio design director. 

Dan Bergin-Holly in conversation with Colm Larkin: The Hidden Challenges of Game Production  

Dan Bergin-Holly is a producer and product manager who has been in games for over a decade. He started in academia, completing a PhD in live performance and video games – before taking his event management skills to games production, and he’s not looked back since. Dan has worked across mobile, console, and PC with IPs such as Sonic the Hedgehog, Transformers, Angry Birds, and most recently Mediatonic’s Fall Guys. 

Dan will be in conversation with Colm Larkin. In 2014 he founded Gambrinous to develop a game idea into a full commercial release: Guild of Dungeoneering. He is heavily involved with the Irish game development community, including spending four years on the board of Imirt. 

Henrik Jonsson – Amplifier – Long Term Game Investments 

With over 20 years’ experience in games and graphics programming, Henrik is now working as a technical advisor, industry scout and community ambassador for Amplifier Game Invest (part of Embracer Group). Awarded a prize from the hands of Swedish royalty for being an “Online Angel of the Year” following his work to make the game industry a better place, Henrik believes game developers do their best work in a psychologically safe environment.    

Johan Toresson & Paul Wilson – Raw Fury: How to Pitch to an Indie Publisher 

Johan and Paul join us to discuss the pitches & pitch decks they look for based on their roles as scout and producer for Raw Fury.   

Johan Toresson, a Raw Fury Scout, is currently trying to find the thing you will all gush about in two to three years as part of the scouting team at Raw Fury. Johan joined back in 2018 and has since then had the opportunity to help a bunch of great devs find funding and support with Raw Fury. 

Paul Wilson began his gaming career at Blizzard in 2006. He has since worked for companies like Zenimax and Apple, and also ran his own brand and media company. In the last 3 years at Raw Fury he has been working as a Game Producer and right now is focused on his next games, Mr.Sun’s Hatbox and Post Trauma. 

Brendan Dillon & Brian Gormley: Irish Games Industry Tax Credit Info Session  

In 2007 Brendan Dillon joined Demonware – Activision’s online technology studio in Dublin. He started out as a coder before transitioning to being a producer. He’s had the opportunity to work with external partners such as Bungie (Destiny) and Blizzard (Diablo 3). In 2022 Brendan joined Romero Games in Galway as Chief Operating Officer to support their growth to create John Romero’s next FPS.  

Brian Gormley is a partner in Philip Lee and specialises in advising on film and television financing and production, acting variously for production companies, studios, financiers, banks and investors. He sits on the advisory board of Animation Ireland and is a member of the IBEC (Irish Business and Employers Confederation) Audiovisual Forum.   

The goal of the session is to provide attendees with an overview of the attributes of Section 481A, the Irish tax credit for game development, including the main considerations of the application process. 

Sarah Healy: Romero Games – Implementing Missions in Your Game  

Sarah Healy is a gameplay programmer at Romero Games where she worked on the mission system for their last game, Empire of Sin. Before that she was working in Accenture’s The Dock on industry applications for VR/AR. Sarah will present on Implementing Missions in your game, looking at ways to approach mission development and design.   

For press and media enquiries relating to the summit, please contact kathryn@ardan.ie