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David Hamilton
A graduate from Abertay University, David Founded Digital Goldfish - a mobile games studio in 2005 which was later acquired by Ninja Kiwi in 2012. Now David co-manages Dundee studio which employs over 30 staff. In total the company has had over 100 million downloads across mobile, console and Steam. Best known for Bloons."
Twitter handle: @ninjakiwigames
Jess Hider
With a background in art, Jess previously worked on console Minecraft before moving across to Epic Games, as part of the Unreal Engine team, to support developers across Europe. Alongside her work she is a STEM VGA, BAFTA Crew member, frequent event speaker and previous Dare Academy mentor.
Twitter: @JessHider
Ross Manthorp
Ross is the Community Manager at YoYo Games. Working with GameMaker means he is very involved with indie games development and is constantly seeing new and amazing games coming from great developers. It’s so inspiring to see and a large part of why I enjoy my work, which is why he cannot wait to be part of the Dare Academy 2018.
Twitter handles - @YoYoGames @rmanthorp
Chris Dawson
As an Abertay University graduate, Chris has been programming from a young age, working on many AAA and mobile games alike in the industry. He has been involved in various titles such as 'The Shoot', 'Crackdown 3', 'Minecraft', 'Need for Speed' and 'Moshi Monsters' to name a few. Although Chris has worked with many APIs, languages and Engines, he currently specialises in the Unreal Engine 4.
Chris has been part of Dare in many different forms over the years and looks to help teams make the best game in the short space of time. His mentoring focus has always been feasibility, planning, technical issues and making sure the end product is enjoyable.
Chris Trewartha
Chris Trewartha is the Publishing Manager at YoYo Games, the Dundee based developers of GameMaker.
As a programmer, Chris worked on some of the best-loved franchises in video games, including Wipeout, Motorstorm, and SingStar. He managed the engineering team on the Xbox One launch title Ryse: Son of Rome, a title renowned for its technical virtues (and gameplay sins).
Chris then returned to Scotland to develop mobile games as a Senior Producer at Outplay Entertainment, before moving to YoYo in 2017.
Marc Williamson
With over a decade of experience in the games industry, Marc joined Tag Games back in 2010 and has played a pivotal role in all of Tag’s products from pitch to launch, leading teams and managing client relationships It has recently been announced that he is to take over as Tag Games CEO.
Twitter: @Mungry
Colin MacDonald
Colin entered the games industry in 1990 as Software Manager of SAM Computers, the manufacturer of the last British home computer.
Following that experience he founded a small games company which brought around twenty titles to market, including licences of Lemmings and Prince of Persia. He joined DMA Design in 1997 as Producer on the multi-billion dollar generating Grand Theft Auto franchise, then helped found and was Studio Manager of Realtime Worlds, where he helped raise over $100m in investment and oversaw development of the 2 million selling, BAFTA-winning game Crackdown, and the online game APB.
Colin was then VP of Business Development at RTW spinout eeGeo, and is now Commissioning Editor for Games at Channel 4 / Head of All 4 Games, and Chairman of facial animation specialists Speech Graphics.
Luke Savage
Luke Savage is Senior Academic Development Manager at Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE).
He manages PlayStation First, SIE's Global Academic Programme.
That means he has a very cool job - he helps students make games on PlayStation!
Neil Holmes
Over 25 years in the games industry working on over 40 titles in programmer, producer and technical management roles on a diverse range of titles from F2P hits like Angry Birds Go to AAA console games. Now working as a Developer Account Manager looking after ID@Xbox developers across Europe at Microsoft.
I started out programming Z80 assembler on the spectrum and original GameBoy and have since worked on practically every platform that has been released!
I've had successful roles as senior programmer, producer and Technical Manager overseeing all aspects of game development, but my first love has always been hands on gameplay coding.
Specialities: Computer/Console/Mobile Games & Development. Tools & Technology development. Game Design, Production and Development Specialist. Strong technology background. Unity experience. Expert understanding of free to play business model and supporting technologies.
