MORE ABOUT GAME DEV BOOTCAMPS
Game Dev Bootcamp is a collective of games industry professionals driven to change the sector and the games it produces. We are doing this by creating training and education that support people with diversity of thought, background and skills so we can develop and publish games that impact and bring joy to people from every walk of life across the globe. Feel free to contact us if you are interested in new course designs and delivery across the globe.
GAME DEV BOOTCAMPS TEAM & CONTRIBUTORS
Those contributing to the bootcamps
GINA JACKSON OBE
Video Games Production Bootcamp Course Leader
Dr. Gina Jackson OBE is a Video Games Industry pioneer. She was awarded an OBE in the 2020 Queen’s Birthday Honours for services to diversity and education in the Video Games industry, has recently received the MCV/Develop Women in Games award for her outstanding contribution and has a fellowship from Norwich University of the Arts for her contribution to the UK Video Games Industry. Gina started in games development in 1992 and has worked for developers, publishers, and distributors covering console, PC, and mobile games. She is passionate about diversity, games education and mental health with a particular focus on games development and production management and process. She is a trustee of GamesAid, sits on the board at NextGen Skills Academy, is Visiting Professor in Games Industry and Business at the Norwich University of the Arts and is an advisor to several games developers.
MARCIA DEAKIN
Co-Founder NextGen Skills Academy
Marcia is Games Partnership Director at NextGen Skills Academy, an organisation dedicated to working with employers and education to address skills shortages in Games, Animation and VFX. She has worked in the Games Industry since the days of the PS1, at great companies including Eidos, THQ and even a spell at PlayStation in Australia. She is passionate about creating opportunities for the best UK talent to work in our industry. She is a trustee for The BGI and a member of ScreenSkills Games Skills Council. She regularly delivers game courses for The Princes' Trust working with hard to reach young people.
STEPHEN HEY
Founder - Hey Stephen Hey
Stephen Hey says he is NOT the greatest games marketing man on the planet, but he has been promoting video games for 25 years now and knows a good deal about what does, and what doesn’t work.
Starting with Ocean’s ‘Jurassic Park’ in 1993, all the way through to games like the upcoming ‘Lost Ember’, Stephen has worked across every platform and genre, in-house (most recently as EA Chillingo’s Marketing Director) and agency side. His roles have covered PR, advertising, user acquisition, branding, market research and more.
In 2017 Stephen set up HeyStephenHey, to provide marketing consultancy services to indie developers of all shapes and sizes. He really loves his work and is mostly represented by a small Lego minifigure.
VICKY JEPSON
Bootcamp Project Manager - Create Central
Vicky Jepson is a media professional with a wealth of creative industry knowledge, expertise and experience. Her media career started at the BBC, where she established herself as an awarding television producer. She went freelance over 10 years ago, but continues to produce programmes for network television. Vicky has been working to deliver two creative incubators, one on Warwick University campus to stimulate and support creative ideas, prototypes and enterprises and one based at 1 Mill Street in Leamington Spa, to support graduates and the wider creative community as the Director of the University of Warwick’s Creative and Digital Communities Initiative. She is also the bootcamp Project Manager for Create Central.
DOM SHAW
EDI coordinator - Ukie
Dom Shaw is the driving force behind Ukie's EDI work including their flagship diversity initiative, the #RaiseTheGame pledge. From guidance and practical advice to engagement activities both online and in-person, Dom ensures that the pledge is the call to action to rally the sector together and becomes lead examples of inclusion to other industries.
Dom is also an ambassador for the charity Autistica, and is nominated for the Rising Star category for Develop:Star Awards 2021.
SARAH SORRELL
Charity Officer - Safe in our World
Sarah is the first employee for Safe in our World, the games industry mental health charity. She has extensive experience in the charity sector for which she has worked for over 20 years as a Fundraiser, Marketeer and Communicator. Sarah has always been an advocate for mental wellbeing and has previously developed programmes tackling some of the issues young people face. She is driven by the desire to banish all stigma relating to mental health issues once and for all and runs the Level Up programme supporting games companies to create working environments that support wellbeing.
ADAM BARKER
Adam cut his teeth at EA Chillingo where he masterminded the production on over 40+ game games as well as working on 60 more. The titles Adam worked on include Angry Birds, Cut The Rope, Tiny Troopers, Tiny Troopers 2, Tiny Troopers Alliance, Perfect Kick, Madcoaster and Snoopy Coaster. Adam then moved into management as part of the management team that bought the martial arts game, MMA Federation, to mobile. Recently Adam moved to BetFred where he spearheaded UX and consumer experience. After this Adam began practising freelance in UX and Production techniques across games and SAAS industries. Adam was integral to developing client portals for Yodel along with a new HHT driver app.Adam has also worked extensively in e-commerce both on the platform side with Shopit and Fashion retailer Rock On Ruby.
MIKAYLA SINEAD AKA “KAYBLE”
Streamer
Mikayla Sinead aka “Kayble” joins with a passion for leading with an inclusive intersectional mindset whilst centring joy. Mikayla is on a mission to build the future wave of movers and shakers to the UK gaming sector from better representative backgrounds. As a skilled public speaker, coach, facilitator, mentor and consultant Mikayla combines her love for video gaming & professional experience through her company Bridge Network Group alongside content creation on Twitch building a Black Women centered community for future change makers in the video game industry. On her streams you can expect to see matured rated, below average, game play with a sprinkle of shade and lots of laughing.
ROB MIDDLETON
Recently nominated for the Game Dev Hero Production Award, Rob currently works at Kwalee in Leamington Spa on the production efforts of their new PC and Console publishing team. Rob is a member of BAFTA Crew and is a passionate about creating supportive cultures that are inclusive and facilitate good mental health. Rob started his career in medical publishing, before making the jump to games at publisher Sold Out, working on titles such as KeyWe, Radical Rabbit Stew, Silt, and more.
A true games industry veteran, Andrew Oliver began making games with his brother Andrew some 40 years ago. The Oliver Brothers went on to create Dizzy, one of the most famous video games characters of the 1980s, and won a Guinness World Record for ‘Most Prolific 8 Bit Game Developer’. They have created over 150 games during their careers, founding Blitz Games and Radiant Worlds (sold to Rebellion) during that time. The brothers have now established Panivox, a new studio which is launching a brand new entertainment platform. The brothers also received honorary doctorates in 2008 from Coventry University (in business administration (DBA) and technology (DTech) for Philip and Andrew respectively) in recognition of their contribution to the growth of the electronic games industry both regionally and internationally and were honoured as Fellows of the Royal Society of Arts in 2010.
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I am a games lawyer in Sheridans' renowned games and interactive media teams, and a trustee for Safe In Our World; a mental health charity which aims to help individuals in the wider games industry that experience mental illness. I also organise an indie games showcase with two friends that runs each year as part of London Games Festival.
I am passionate about helping independent games developers and studios in both roles. As a lawyer I advise studios of all sizes on the various legal and commercial challenges that arising through running a games business - whether that's a Game Pass deal or a publishing contract, or securing VC funding, I've seen it all.
JAMES WALLIS
Board Game Expert
James has enjoyed a career that has brought him direct experience in almost every part of the games industry. As a games designer, he is best known for the storytelling card game Once Upon a Time, which is now available in 12 languages and is frequently utilised as a learning tool by TEFL teachers.
He founded and ran Hogshead Publishing, the UK’s largest publisher of role-playing games in the 1990s, and has distinguished himself as a journalist, a writer of 17 books, and most recently a lecturer on games design at London South Bank University and the National Film & Television School.