If you needed another reason to love video games, recent studies show that gaming is good for our learning and social skills and can even benefit our health too. While video games have often earned a bad rap around addiction and violence, positive steps are being made to create a more diverse and inclusive gaming world. Shay Thompson sits down with Alysia Judge, Corey Brotherson and Chella Ramanan to talk about the exciting future of this evolving and influential industry.

Friday 11 Jun 8pm - 8:55pm
Cheltenham Town Hall, Main Hall

£8* plus booking fee; Doors open 20 minutes before the event starts. 

BOOK HERE

This event will be live-streamed for free and available on-demand via the CheltSciFest Player. To register, click here.

Biography

Shay Thompson is a presenter and journalist working in the games industry. Shay previously hosted McLaren’s Shadowcast and appeared in other McLaren Shadow Project related content on YouTube. Outside of that, Shay has also hosted panels and podcasts for BAFTA and is currently appearing on the BBC Sounds podcast, Press X to Continue.
Alysia Judge is a presenter and producer, having hosted for Netflix, IGN, Nintendo, and BAFTA. She’s also appeared on Channel 4 News, Al Jazeera and the BBC Radio as a video games expert, while her written work has been published in The Guardian, BBC, IGN, PC Gamer and Official PlayStation Magazine. She currently produces and edits videos for Netflix’s UK YouTube channel.
Corey Brotherson is an award-winning writer, editor and creative consultant who has worked in the video games industry since 2001 as a journalist, critic and content producer for over a dozen companies, including Sony PlayStation and the Eurogamer Network. He’s the co-writer of the world’s first Windrush video game – Windrush Tales, co-created with writer/narrative designer Chella Ramanan. Corey guest teaches writing to junior and secondary school students and has scribed over a dozen comic book stories since 2005, including women-focused sci-fi anthology Deadlier Than…, and the critically acclaimed ongoing graphic novel series, Magic of Myths (with artist and co-creator Sergio Calvet).
Former games journalist Chella Ramanan is the co-founder of 3-Fold Games, the studio behind the BAFTA-nominated indie game ‘Before I Forget’ and narrative director on Windrush Tales. She is currently a narrative designer at Ubisoft Massive, in Malmo, Sweden. Throughout her career, Chella continues to be committed to telling stories that elevate marginalised perspectives and challenge the accepted default. She is also co-founder of POC in Play, an organisation dedicated to the inclusion and representation of people of colour in the videogames industry. Her achievements includeGameindustry.biz 100, Evening Standard Influential Londoner and Game Dev Heroes awards.