One could almost call it tradition by now: iGGi attending Develop: Brighton with over 20 of its PG Researchers and members of Staff and running a stand on the conference's Expo floor. And as in the past five years, we had a fabulous and productive time.

We are therefore a little sad to note that at least regarding our presence at the Develop Expo, this may have been our last for the foreseeable future.

We would like to thank all of those who passed by our stand, especially where they took time to speak to one or more of our team. We embraced conversations of all kinds: many visitors were still not aware that such a vast body of academic games research exists in the UK and we love everyone to spread the word. Some were already working as (or looking to become) researchers themselves, others were interested in a potential knowledge exchange or opportunity to hire, and many were simply just curious.

The atmosphere felt perculiarly quiet this year. The ongoing uncertainty on the job market - in large parts attributed to "the AI takeover" - has left its mark.

However, we think there is very good reason to remain positive and consider times of economic downturn as an opportunity, a break we should all welcome in order to re-consider our present strategies, to draw wisdome from lessons learned, and to embark on exciting journeys in new, as yet unexplored directions. And iGGi is certainly always investigating those, as our tagline correctly suggests: "Your Future in Games Research"!

Displays at the iGGi Stand during the Develop Expo 2026

Displays at our stand this year included:

• Tafl Champions by Gritstone Games - a showcase of Tamsin Isaac's Knowledge Exchange with the company

• "PidgeyPost: A Gamified Maze Task for Online Experimental Research in Second Language Acquisition" by Steph Carter

• Exploring Human Behaviour in Social Virtual Reality by Karl Clarke

• "Detachment Undone", a not too serious Serious Game by Luiza Gossian

• "What We Can Learn about the Human Brain through Tetris" by Nicole Levermore

• An invitation for Indie Devs of Narrative Games to participate in a focus-study by Alex Flint

• Our this year's showcase video and "iGGi @ Develop" lookup
  

We may not be back with a stand, but we will definitely be back next year with our people - see you again in 2027, Brighton!