Develop Conference and Expo 2008 to focus on ‘perfecting the state-of-the-art’

You know the deal. The Year of the Rat comes scurrying by, and every gaming event from here to Timbuktu has cranked the dates on their banners up a notch just to tell you, “We’re coming back!” But have they got anything new this time around? Organizer Tandem Events thinks so, and they plan to make Develop Conference and Expo 2008 more than just a European gaming event that sticks to Brighton like shoe-gum. Find out what they’ve got planned at the full story.

Tandem Events, the ambitious folk that they are, have announced that the Develop Conference and Expo 2008 will be held on July 29 – 31. The organizer also expects that its industry-focused tracks and programs are bound to make Develop Conference the “ultimate European gathering of developers.”

Why? Well, they’re planning on placing 90 of the world’s best-dressed suits and minds of the gaming industry into 60 sessions of exchanging ideas, principles, theories, and opinions. These sessions are said to focus on Tandem Event’s predefined eight-track program that covers all the corners of the industry.

Also, they’ve rounded up four themes – new, they say, for 2008 – which should provide a focal point for their topics: capitalize, specialize, inspire, and enjoy. The Develop Conference aims to get “back-to-basics” on game development.

Tandem Events believes it’s only now that developers have learned to truly exploit the next-generation hardware. The primary goal now is to perfect “state-of-the-art” games.

Develop Mobile and GAMES:EDU are also prepped to trot alongside the big conference event, though these two events have just as much significance as the mother lode. Develop Mobile will be the meeting place of the budding segment that spurred at the increase of game-capable phones, including the Apple iPhone.

GAMES:EDU, in contrast, will tackle the slowly proliferating opinions over educational games – or as EA puts it, serious gaming. Picture this: The world’s lucrative minds in education and the game industry will be deciding if games as educational tools could really work – and better yet, figuring out how.

All that and a whole lot more from the free-admission Expo session when July 29, 2008 hits. You can expect three-day, midweek events to bring the Hilton down in southern England, because if you haven’t already guessed, Develop will crash in Brighton. Again.