Yorkshire Games Festival 2025

Speakers

Alex Earle, Festival host

Wednesday 12 February 2025

Sophie Artemigi, Game Designer

How to Make Games When Everything’s on Fire (Navigating Getting Banned from the App Store and Almost Dying Twice) 

Kyle Rowley – Game Director, Remedy Entertainment

Crafting the Horror of Alan Wake 2

Claire Morwood – Game Designer, Programmer and Artist

Asterism: The game design of an interactive music album

James Carbutt and Will Todd – Coal Supper

Ricky Haggett and Richard Hogg – Hollow Ponds

Making Flock

Thursday 13 February 2025

Eli Rainsberry – Composer, Sound Artist and Audio Designer

Designing Responsive Musical Moments

Gary Carr – Studio Director, Two Point Studios

Kitt Byrne – Artist and Designer, Balloon Studios

The Art of Botany Manor

Sarah-Joy Longthorne – Senior narrative designer and writer, The Chinese Room

Tales from Storyland: A Case Study Anthology

Leah Caldwell – Cinematic and Gameplay Animation Producer, Larian Studios

Workshops

Wednesday 12 February

Mel Cummings – Freelance Concept Artist

How to use nature to create concept art that gets you noticed

Khan – Lead Narrative Designer, Ubisoft Reflections

Let's make a character, AAA-style

Annie Grudeva – Lead Game Designer, Radical Forge

Mechanics, dynamics, aesthetics: A design framework for rapid prototyping and iteration

Jade Evans – Senior Artist, Chucklefish

Do you draw it really small?

Careers lounge

Wednesday and Thursday, 15.00–16.00  

• 15–23 February 2025

WiFi Wars

Yorkshire Games Festival hosted WiFi Wars—the live comedy game show where everyone gets to play along!

Explore Analogue with Dungeons and Flagons

Swap pixels for pencils and join board gaming fanatics Cards or Die and Dungeons & Flagons and indulge in the wonderful world of analogue gaming.

Two Point Museum

Hands-on gaming with the upcoming museum-management simulator from Two Point Studios, Two Point Museum, before it releases on 4 March this year.

BBC Game On Grandparents

An intergenerational gaming challenge.

YGF 2025 Festival Showcase

A platform for developers to present their new games to a family-friendly audience.

YGF film screenings

A specially programmed selection of gaming related film screenings as part of Yorkshire Games Festival 2025.

• 15–16 February 2025

YGF and Dungeons & Flagons hosted an adults-only board gaming social in the museum.  

Visitors could bring pals, grab a drink from the bar and play a massive range of board games, and card games and explore all things analogue with the team from Dungeons & Flagons. 

Our specially programmed selection of gaming-related film screenings as part of Yorkshire Games Festival 2025.

Programme

• Mortal Kombat (35mm)
• Super Mario Bros (35mm)
• Wreck-It Ralph
• Detective Pikachu
• Zathura: A Space Adventure
• The Angry Birds Movie
• Sonic the Hedgehog 3
• Five Nights at Freddy's
• The Lego Movie
• Street Fighter

• 15–23 February 2025

A platform for developers to present their new games to a family-friendly audience.

Exhibitors

A Tale in the Garden

A Tale in the Garden is a relaxing gardening simulator where you follow Filomena's journey. As she nurtures her garden for a contest, she eagerly awaits the arrival of her granddaughter Frida.

Adventures of a Cat in Space

A musical experience for the whole family. Solve puzzles and explore the galaxy to unlock songs and find your way back to Earth in a musical point & click adventure purrrfect for all ages.

Astra Protocol 2

Monitors have received notification of an unknown event, referred to as ASTRA PROTOCOL. You have been designated search and reconnaissance to determine the meaning of this ASTRA PROTOCOL. SECONDARY OBJECTIVE: Find evidence of survivors. PROBABILITY OF HOSTILES: HIGH.

Cabbie!

Cabbie!® is an epic co-op driving adventure for one to four players where you boost, drift and jump your way to victory in a frantic race against the clock.

City Of Corals

Save the coral reef city in this cute tiny adventure game! Meet the colourful residents of this underwater city, explore the streets, befriend different species of fish and help them restore the corals to their former glory!

Dunk Dunk

Dunk with or on your friends in Dunk Dunk, a multiplayer action basketball arcade party game full of chaotic fun. Familiar platforming controls plus unique stretchy arm controls make for nail-bitingly tough matches. Dress up your dunker and get ready to dunk across the universe!

EMITIME

EMITIME is a Roguelike Grid-based deck builder where music and beat are your strategies! Expand your deck as you defeat the enemies you encounter along the way, and switch between the two protagonists from the past and future as you explore the map!

Farewell North 

Play as a border collie and restore color to your human’s world in an atmospheric journey through the northern isles of Scotland. Explore land and sea, uncover hidden paths, herd animals and free wildlife to bring color back to her world, while revealing an emotional story about saying farewell.

Gata Guressi

Gata Guressi is a sci-fi translation RPG about learning and understanding the languages and cultures of Hierre, a fictional star system.

GunSuit Guardians

Gear up your GunSuit and defend Earth from an alien siege! Equip and upgrade unique arsenals of overpowered weapons to survive overwhelming numbers in this action-roguelite twin-stick horde survival.

Hyper Sentinel: Fusion

Epic roguelite shoot-em-up action! Attack & disable space-destroyers. Infiltrate & plunder resources. Explore the moonbase & upgrade your Sentinel Fight and Hyper Droid before blasting back into battle.

Morgan: Metal Detective

Morgan: Metal Detective is a first-person, cozy metal-detecting adventure game. It combines exploration, creativity, and a cozy atmosphere into a heartwarming adventure. Everyone on the island is searching for something, Morgan must search the island with her metal detector to find these lost treasures.

Noble

Relive medieval times through the family tree of one of the four Noble Houses. Marry your nobles with the other houses. Survive for centuries and generations. Grow your family. Realistic biology-based genes. Watch the genes of your kin unfold Experience the marvel of realistic, simulated genotypes and observe the phenotypes!"

PLACEGROUND

PLACEGROUND is a space building simulation game blending architectural design and comic-like aesthetics, where players create spaces as NPCs independently shape unique narratives.

Reality Drift

Reality Drift is a roguelike racing game where your choices matter. Race through a series of strange worlds, choose upgrades for your car and decide which track will be next - your decisions are just as important as how you drive!

Spirits of Heartwood

"Welcome to Spirits of Heartwood, a wholesome, family-friendly, two-player co-op adventure where you collect adorable Spirits and help rebuild the cosy Heartwood village. It’s the perfect Sunday afternoon game that rekindles the joy of shared gaming experiences, reminding us of the simple pleasures of connection and play. Together, you’ll:

• Discover a world of adorable Spirits
• Work together, completing fun activities to bring the Spirits out of hiding
• Unravel a compelling story
• Revitalize and restore the village

The fate of Heartwood Village is in your hands—can you bring the magic back?

Tulou

A decaying road separates Hui from her best friend Bee. Join Hui as she crafts bricks, gathers resources, and recruits a unique cast of helpers to aid her along the way.

Vextorial

Vextorial is a Multi-Dimensional puzzle-platformer where you play as Pilo, a 2D creature exploring a 3D space. Solve unique mind-bending puzzles by shifting gravity around you to explore an ancient ruin and uncover the mystery of your lost memories. Throughout the adventure you will:

• Manipulate gravity of the environment
• Switch to different planes in a 3-dimensional field
• Solve meta-puzzles unravelled in later stages of the game
• Discover the lore of the enigmatic realm