350 games jobs on offer as ‘Godfather’ designer reveals tricks of trade

7 Feb 2012

The creative genius behind video games like Gold, as well as the popular Godfather and James Bond video games franchises, Phil Campbell, is one in the impressive line-up of speakers at the forthcoming Games Ireland gathering in Dublin, where some 350 local games jobs will also be on offer.

Campbell worked on the Tomb Raider franchise and created games like Gold, as well as the design of two blockbuster James Bond games.

He was creative director on EA’s The Godfather, where he created the interactive script, story and mission designs, as well as writing the dialogue for the game, which involved working with actors Marlon Brando, James Caan and Robert Duvall to bring their famous roles back to life for the game.

Campbell, who hails from Portrush in Northern Ireland, is one of a stellar line-up of speakers at the Games Ireland gathering at the Gibson Hotel in Dublin on 15 February, where he will host the second in the series of Games Master Classes in association with Enterprise Ireland.

The event will be attended by executives from Activision Blizzard, PopCap Games, Havok, Big Fish Games, Electronic Arts and Microsoft.

Games entrepreneur Dylan Collins, who sold Demonware to Activision and Jolt to GameStop, will host a panel on user acquisition strategies, ‘How to grow a business ninja style’.

Check out the green scene

A green screen will showcase the latest projects of games developed by Bitmith, Redwind, Openemotion, Tribal City and Ideal Binary.

The CEO of Games Ireland David Sweeney said more than 350 jobs will be on offer from existing start-ups and incumbent game development companies.

“Ireland already is an online hub for European games development but we need to get that message out around the world and deliver a single statement about all that is happening here and what is on offer,” Sweeney said.

A recent report from Forfas said Ireland has the potential to more than double its employment in core games activities to 4,500 people if actions are taken to position the country as one of the most progressive and digitally advanced business hot spots.

“There has never been a better time to get into this industry and it shows from the number of companies here and hiring using the gamesireland.ie website,” Sweeney said.

John Kennedy
By John Kennedy

John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years. His interests include all things technological, music, movies, reading, history, gaming and losing the occasional game of poker.

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