speakers

Aaron Abt is a game designer from Zurich, Switzerland. After graduating from the Zurich Universities of the Arts in 2019, he co-founded Lululu Entertainment with two friends from the studies. As part of Lululu Entertainment, he helped to create their debut game “Bamerang” and their recently released second game “Henry Halfhead”. Besides the work at Lululu he designed and developed VR and AR experiences at the digital agency Ateo.

I am deeply passionate about creating video games with South African heroes & stories along with helping to grow and create more jobs in the South African video games industry. As the Studio Head of Disputed People Video Games, I lead our amazing team in creating fun & engaging video games for the local and global markets. I hold a MSc in Video Game Enterprise, Production and Design from Birmingham City University in the UK and I am currently a PhD candidate at the University of Stellenbosch. My PhD focuses on exploring in what ways South African made games can serve as decolonial spaces for identity formation and representation for South Africans and what insights can Africanfuturism provide us towards the development of African-focused genres in video games. I have over 20 years experience as a senior graphic designer and have won the Promax International Bronze and Promax Africa Silver design awards for my work for a major South African TV channel.

I’m Leia French, from South Africa! I’m a unity developer and junior writer at Spooky Doorway, an indie game studio based in Ireland.

I’m enthralled by narrative games. Stories have always been a way to reimagine our world. They let you, quite literally, walk in someone else’s shoes. They offer insight into who we are and where we stand.

I completed my MA in Game Design to better understand how we could design narrative games for social change – without sacrificing player enjoyment.

I came to realise that, as cultural artefacts, games can often mirror dominant ideologies – unwittingly glorifying militarism, capitalist accumulation, colonization and exclusionary narratives like racism, sexism and xenophobia. But I also found that if games can reflect dominant ideologies, they can be used to subvert them.

As I work on my own games, I strive to remain vigilant about the values I embed in my work — and for whom.

Meg currently scouts for the British games label Team17, helping indie developers secure support and funding for their games as well as providing feedback on ideas and prototypes.

They have been working in games for over a decade with a wildly varied CV working across games audio, project investment, events; following creative opportunities and turning their hand to any craft that sounds interesting and not too techy.

They have been credited on titles such as Dragons Dogma 2, Demon’s Souls, Forza Horizon 5, Anno1800 and plenty of indie gems.

After studying advertising and multimedia, Richard has been involved in animation & gaming across all spectrums, from creating visual effects for some of South Africa’s top commercials, to directing, designing and animating over 15 gaming prototypes. He founded the studio in 2014 and has played a vital role in overseeing the creative output, especially the inclusion of indie game development in 2023. From a management perspective, Richard has always sought good governance, money management and focused on building a team that has fun together as much as it works well together.”

Ryan is a two-time BAFTA-nominated composer with over twelve years of experience making music for indie games. He’s written for award winning projects like West of Loathing, Where the Water Tastes Like Wine, and Wizard With a Gun, and collaborated with developers and musicians from across the globe. His work covers a variety of genres, from jazz and American folk music, to synthwave, chamber music, and more. While he primarily writes for video games, his music has also been featured in short films, commercials, and the Smithsonian Museum in Washington D.C.

When not making audio, Ryan is likely preparing talks and online content on how to navigate the game industry. He’s spoken at dozens of events–including PAX West in Seattle, The Edinburgh Game Symposium, and the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco–where he’s given talks designed to help people start or further their work in games, with an emphasis on emotional and mental health.

Simon Ratcliffe is a score mixer and producer, film co-producer, and MD of the multi-national Sound & Motion Studios which he founded in 2002.

A music and film background led to his specialisation in game, streaming and film score mixing and supervision with clients including Arenanet, Disney, Netflix and Amazon Prime, and his team has won industry accolades such as Emmy Primetime, FrightNight, MMORPG of the Year, SAFTAs, Songlines, SAMA, and Global Music awards.

With a 14 year background in education and a focus on Dolby Atmos, he has given workshops on immersive mixing and film score production at the AES Immersive Conference, Huddersfield University APL, ACM, Metropolis and UCL London, and has a practice-based masters degree from Hertfordshire University. Simon is an engineer and researcher on the Echo Project focus group on immersive score recording, led by Huddersfield University APL and AIR Studios.

Sean Sutton is a Foley Artist and Audio Engineer at Sound and Motion Studios in Cape Town. A graduate of SAE Institute with a Bachelor’s degree in Sound Engineering, he has contributed to a range of films and series including Blood Legacy, Hunting Jessica Brok, and The Heart is a Muscle.

Within Sound and Motion, Sean’s versatility spans Foley performance, recording, and audio editing — bringing texture and realism to cinematic soundscapes. Beyond film, his passion lies in interactive storytelling and the evolving world of immersive audio for games.
As both a sound professional and avid gamer, Sean bridges the gap between creative audio production and player experience. His work with tools like FMOD and Wwise reflects his drive to explore how sound design shapes emotion, space, and narrative within virtual worlds.