Guests

For many people, meeting their childhood heroes at PLAY Expo is one of the highlights of the show. We always have a variety of developers, musicians, artists and other alumni from the videogames industry - past and present. Here is the schedule for this year and a bio of each of our guests for 2025.

Charles Cecil

Charles Cecil began his career in the early 1980s at Artic Computing where he wrote games for the ZX81 and ZX Spectrum. After Artic closed down he established Paragon Programming, which he later left to work at US Gold and then Activision.

Charles co-founded Revolution Software in 1990 along with Tony Warriner, David Sykes and Noirin Carmody. The studio has gone on to create some of the most iconic games in history, including Beneath a Steel Sky, In Cold Blood and the Broken Sword series which has sold millions worldwide and is regarded as a cornerstone of the point-and-click adventure genre.

Over his career, Charles has received multiple awards for his contributions to the games industry, including a BAFTA award for his work on Doctor Who for the BBC. In 2011 he was appointed MBE for services to the computer games industry and continues to work on new projects with Revolution Software today, keeping the spirit of classic adventure gaming alive.

Tony Warriner

Co-founder of Revolution Software (who brought you titles such as Broken Sword and Beneath a Steel Sky) and designer of game engine Virtual Theatre, Tony Warriner's success in innovative programming and gameplay packed with storytelling has seen him receive countless awards and nominations over the years.

Tony started his career at Artic Computing writing his first game Obsidian while still at school. After Artic closed down he joined Charles Cecil at Paragon Programming, before moving to Cascade Games. In 1990 Tony Co-founded Revolution Software with Charles Cecil, David Sykes and Noirin Carmody. As well as the Broken Sword series and Beneath a Steel Sky the studio has released countless other titles including In Cold Blood and Lure of the Temptress.

More recently Tony has produced new experimental arcade-adventure game, Wormhole Dungeon, and UrbX Warriors (with Stoo Cambridge) for the Spectrum Next which will be playable in the indie zone at PLAY Expo Blackpool.

Jeff Minter and Ivan 'Giles' Zorzin

Longtime supporters of PLAY Expo Jeff Minter and Ivan 'Giles' Zorzin will be joining us for PLAY Expo Blackpool 2025 to chat about what they've been up to recently and show us some of their latest games.

With a career that spans the evolution of gaming, from humble beginnings on the ZX81 through to the very latest current gen titles, this pair have been brought us many titles including Gridrunner, Llamatron, Attack of the Mutant Camels, TxK and every llama in between! 

Jeff is best known for his psychedelic aesthetic and cutting edge gameplay; Ivan’s creative coding combined with their inventive way of thinking outside the box means this couple have helped in revolutionising the games industry as we know it today.

John Romero

John Romero is an award-winning programmer, game designer and level designer whose work spans over 130 games, 108 of which have been published commercially. John is considered to be the "father of first person shooters" having led the design and contributed to the programming and audio design of the iconic and genre-defining games DOOM, Quake, Heretic and Hexen.

He was also one of the earliest supporters of eSports and a professional-level DOOM and Quake player. To date, Romero has co-founded eight successful game companies including the likes of id Software, Gazillion Entertainment and Romero Games.

He is considered to be among the world’s top game designers, and his products have won well over 100 awards. John Romero most recently won the Legend Award at 2017’s Develop: Brighton.

Matt Householder

Matt's game career spans 1981 to 2021: highlights being coin-op "Krull" (designer/programmer), Colecovision "Moon Patrol" (programmer/artist/sfx), Atari ST operating system (programmer), Epyx' "Winter Games", "World Games", and "California Games" (producer/creator/designer), Blizzard's "Diablo" and "Diablo II" (producer/writer/UI designer), and Disney Interactive's "Kitchen Scramble" (co-creator/designer).

RJ Mical

RJ has a long career which dates back to the 1980's where he worked for Williams and one of the games he worked on was Sinistar which will be playable in our arcade this year! He is best known for his work on the Commodore Amiga, Atari Lynx and 3DO computers and consoles. More recently he worked for Sony on the PlayStation 3 and PS Vita consoles. He is currently Director of games at Google.

Simon Phipps

Simon Phipps is a veteran British video game designer with a career spanning decades, leaving an indelible mark on the gaming industry. From early groundbreaking titles at Core Design including Bubba ‘n’ Stix, Rick Dangerous and Switchblade to beloved franchises like Harry Potter, Simon's creative vision and technical expertise have shaped the gaming experiences of millions.

After four decades of crafting immersive gaming experiences, Simon Phipps has retired from full-time game development. His focus has shifted towards exploring the realms of digital and analogue art through a diverse range of artistic endeavors. Notably, he exhibits his artwork in international destinations, showcasing his creative vision to a global audience.

Simon will be giving his talk on his time in the games industry on Sunday of PLAY Expo Blackpool. He will also be exhibiting some of his artwork and will be doing live painting during the day. He is looking forward to meeting his fans throughout the day and will be happy to sign his games for you all.

As we get closer to the show we'll start to confirm our schedules and make more announcements on the news page.