As a response to the Covid-19 pandemic, the British Council has transformed PlayUK festival of innovation and interaction between art and technology. In the coming months, by providing free access to an exciting mix of online content, PlayUK has moved from physical to online continuing focus on UK game industry.
PlayUK 2020 is series of live digital events and everyone is invited to learn about the UK scene and connect with professionals from the games industry. Over the course of the next five months, we will be producing weekly video content, as well as monthly live sessions, and anyone with an interest in the games industry and creative economy can tune in.
Our next live session is titled Making of Observation: Scene by Scene. In this session Writer/Director Jon McKellan dives into several key scenes of their Best British Game BAFTA Winning game 'Observation', discussing their origin, concepts and production. Each scene tackles a different aspect of building the game, from the writing process, performance, technical design, and polish, with time for Q&A. This session would be useful for anyone with an interest in 'high-polish' indie game production, and experimental narrative design.
MEET OUR PLAYUK SPEAKER, JON McKELLAN
Jon is the founder and Creative Director of Glasgow based game studio "No Code". Formed in 2015 - after many years in AAA game development studios on such titles as Alien: Isolation and Red Dead Redemption 2 - No Code started as a 2-person team with life time friend and co-founder Omar Khan, and is now 14 strong, with 3 game releases, and several awards including a 'Best British Game' BAFTA Award for their latest title "Observation". Named as a BAFTA Breakthrough Brit in 2016, Jon has worked with his team to deliver critically acclaimed and best-selling narrative games, praised for their well realised atmosphere, compelling writing and performances, and innovative and exciting gameplay. In 2020, the team is expanding further, and preparing for their biggest, most exciting project to date.
The UK has an internationally renowned scene of groundbreaking games and entrepreneurial developers – from coders to designers and producers to developers, and an everlasting curiosity for connections to the international scene. With this in mind, British Council decided to transform Play UK 2020 from face-to-face events into digital ones. Festival sessions will be led by leading UK videogames artists and creators for everyone interested in game industry, sharing knowledge and expertise in various elements of game development, from writing, to art, audio, and many others.