Develop:Brighton 2025 may have wrapped up its three-day networking event last Thursday, but there has been plenty of news rolling out in the days that followed. One of the speakers in attendance was Sam Lake (Creative Director on Alan Wake 2) who not only took part in a fireside chat in celebration of the studio's 30th anniversary, but was also awarded the prestigious Develop Star Award for contributions to the industry.
Originally, this post was focused just on the award ceremony, as the speech was posted by the organisers on their YouTube channel. However, as more articles have been posted, we're going to be expanding the concept slightly to include a mini-wrap-up of the event.
Ahead of the Event
Paired with the announcement of Sam's fireside chat, event partner, GamesIndustry.biz, reached out to the writer to hear his thoughts on the event and his response to the news that he will be receiving the Develop Star Award. Their conversation is posted, along with Tandem Events managing director Andy Lane (Managing Director at Tandem Events), HERE! (Archive)
Fireside Chat
On the Wednesday, Lake sat down for the fireside chat hosted by GamesRadar's Sam Loveridge. At present, we don't know if the talk has been recorded. However, GameIndustry.biz's Sophie McEvoy was in attendance and has posted a write-up of the conversation. Both the fireside chat and his acceptance speech later focuses on the topic of teamwork, with him mentioning those who he worked with on key projects throughout his time at Remedy. You can read Sophie's full article, HERE. (Archive)
Develop Star Award
On the second evenings, the organisers celebrated the industry with the Develop:Star Awards! There were eighteen categories; seventeen for games and an extra award for the Develop Star Award for contributions to the industry. Sam accepted the latter award with a speech addressing the complexities and importance of collaboration, and putting art first. The speech has been uploaded on the Develop YouTube channel, and embedded below...
Develop Star Award 2025 Winner Sam Lake's Acceptance Speech Transcription
Thank you, Andy. Thank you, Develop. This is an incredible honour. I did write some things because writer. Also, I left it to the last minute because professional. So, this is my first Develop and my first time visiting Brighton. It's been an absolute pleasure.
So, I will for sure come again.
There have been a lot of bad news in the games industry of layoffs, of projects cancelled and studios closed. And because of that, it's all the more important for us to gather here and keep making game; making beautiful, meaningful experiences to push this art form forward. I would not be standing here if not for the very talented people I've been fortunate and privileged to work with over the past thirty years. For games are teamwork, and for us to succeed, we need to succeed together. And for that we need to collaborate, and we need to understand each other. And for that, we need to communicate. Today's world is very polarizing. It's easy to get angry, be cynical, and not try to understand. I come to this always art first, but for us to create games, the business of it needs to make sense as well. So, I need to understand enough of that and of those parameters as well. It's vital in order to plan a creative vision that is achievable.
When someone tells us no, we get angry. It feels arbitrary, unreasonable. That's how it feels when there is no communication. We must understand to collaborate. We must ask “why” and “no”. Only when we get the answer and understand, we can accept it, and plan a way around the limitation. And in the same way, us on the art side must explain our vision again and again and why it matters for the business side to get behind it. All of this sounds very simple, but it's a lot of constant work...but also it's a must for us to succeed together.
When we encounter limitations, even when we do understand why, we are frustrated and disappointed. But what I find is that those limitations are what forces us to be creative and leads to new, exciting ideas and solutions we could never have even considered without those limitations. The limitations and obstacles lead us to discoveries that make what we are building more interesting, more unique and better than those first lazy ideas we would have settled for. A limitation is always an exciting opportunity for some new, never-been-seen-before solution and that's beautiful and that's art.
Thank you. As the final thing I want to say this love is love. Out of love comes art. So... love, make art, make games, not war. Thank you.
