David Jones keynoting Develop 2009

By Mark Walton, Luke Anderson, GameSpot UKPosted Mar 11, 2009 6:54 am PT

Creator of Lemmings and Grand Theft Auto to deliver his thoughts on "how to make a game successful"; promises more details on APB.

Whilst the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco attracts some big names such as Nintendo president Satoru Iwata and Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima, the UK won't be left wanting for its premier annual game-development conference, Develop.

This year David Jones will be delivering a keynote speech on how to make great games, having previously spoken at last year's GDC. Last year's Develop lineup saw BioShock creative director Ken Levine revealing that 2K Boston hires less virgins, Bungie discussing where Halo's AI will go next, Media Molecule's Alex Evans uncovering some of the challenges in developing Little Big Planet, and Rockstar Games winning the overall grand-prix prize as part of the Develop awards ceremony.

Jones is best known for his work as founder of DMA design, which created both the Lemmings and GTA franchises. More recently he launched Crackdown with his new company Realtime Worlds, and is currently developing the online All Points Bulletin. More about the game, which is commonly known as APB, will be revealed at the conference. Speaking to Develop organizers, he spoke highly of the upcoming event: "I'm looking forward to coming to Brighton as it's a great opportunity to share some of my experiences of making games--both good and not so good--plus tell a few of Realtime Worlds' stories to my fellow developers."

Besides Jones, the Develop 2009 lineup will include Jason Avent from Disney's Black Rock Studios, Martyn Brown from Team 17, and Limvirak Chea from Google. This year will also see the addition of a new part of the conference titled "Evolve" that will focus on new technologies including mobile, XBLA, and social gaming, which David himself predicted would be the way forward back in 2004.

The Develop conference is due to take place at the Hilton Metropole in Brighton from July 14-16, 2009. The new Evolve section will run on July 14 and alongside Develop on July 15. GameSpot UK will be there in force, so stay tuned for more news as the event approaches and from Brighton when the time comes.

17 Comments

  • Durrenn

    Posted Mar 15, 2009 5:44 pm PT

    APB news? FINALLY.

  • kurohubby

    Posted Mar 12, 2009 5:11 am PT

    wow what a useless artical. I've been trying to keep up with APB but there not giving details easy I knew about this game before the 360 and ps3 came out and now I know just a little more and a trailer and so concept art

  • richioso

    Posted Mar 12, 2009 4:46 am PT

    Team17 did Worms, thats all you got to say.

  • flyingteddy

    Posted Mar 12, 2009 1:57 am PT

    Wonder what Team 17 are up to, used to love their games on the Amiga, next gen versions of Alien Breed/Superfrog/Project X? I wish.

  • Pete5506

    Posted Mar 11, 2009 9:47 pm PT

    I haven't seen much for APB but I will be watching it

  • PhantomPlayers

    Posted Mar 11, 2009 5:27 pm PT

    Finally! Some APB news! Even though they didnt release huge details on it, I'm glad to know its still alive and in production =]

  • SonicX_89

    Posted Mar 11, 2009 2:37 pm PT

    Crackdown was awesome, I'm looking forward to APB.

  • avneet1

    Posted Mar 11, 2009 2:29 pm PT

    Evolved is a great site for an APB community. Some members already have places assured to them in the beta for being loyal to ABP(people who registered before a certain date). Site again is http://apb-evolved.com/

  • Shadow_Fire41

    Posted Mar 11, 2009 2:26 pm PT

    when are they gonna release APB info already?
    also, this evolve thing............it intrigues me.

  • brendanhunt1

    Posted Mar 11, 2009 1:47 pm PT

    thank you for making gta possible

  • zeeshan810

    Posted Mar 11, 2009 1:39 pm PT

    David Jones THANKS*** INTERESTING..!!!

  • Snrm007

    Posted Mar 11, 2009 1:29 pm PT

    hm sounds interesting!

  • avneet1

    Posted Mar 11, 2009 11:56 am PT

    Same have been tracking APB. Awesome game. It's much better than GTA4 online. Check out http://apb-evolved.com/

  • Gooeykat

    Posted Mar 11, 2009 9:41 am PT

    Davie Jones, groovy

  • mcjakeqcool

    Posted Mar 11, 2009 9:26 am PT

    Yeah I only really heard about APB last year, then the date for releace was December '08, it was delayed and then I pretty much forgot about it, so it's got to hear more news about it, apparently it's gonna be a big game, but when I first heard about it I did'ent thing much of it, regardless it's gonna be a awsome game.

  • Thing2

    Posted Mar 11, 2009 7:46 am PT

    i concur, been tracking it since i first heard about it with nary an update for 2+ years, can't wait to see what he has to say

  • Mac11_Fanboy

    Posted Mar 11, 2009 7:41 am PT

    news on APB has been quiet for a while, about time

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