Indiana Jones and the Great Circle’s creative director will join BAFTA for Game Republic New Horizons, a new flagship conference for the North of England.

MachineGames’ Axel Torvenius, the creative director of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, is the latest headliner confirmed to partake in a BAFTA interview session during the conference, and will be interviewed by Luke Hebblethwaite, BAFTA’s head of games.

“It’s not only a fantastic example of collaboration and the power of storytelling in games, but also complements the theme of Game Republic New Horizons – showing future opportunities like bringing together films and games, which we will be exploring more at the conference,” said Jamie Sefton, managing director of Game Republic.

“This new flagship conference for The North is important, because it has been created by Game Republic, as a grassroots network born and built in the North. Whilst we always strive to bring great guests to our events, we knew that to make a new flagship conference for our incredible Northern games industry, we needed to bring even more exceptional speakers and special guests.”

Sefton also hinted “more exciting reveals” will come in the next few weeks.

Game Republic New Horizons takes place from 9am BST to 10pm BST on October 16, 2025, in Middlesbrough’s Riverside Stadium (the home of Middlesbrough FC). The conference will include an expo, roundtables, bookable meetings, and an after-party featuring karaoke, golf, bowling, and more.

Early bird rates are available until the end of July, with tickets discounted by £200 down to £99. You can grab your tickets here.

“This event is a significant step for the Northern games industry – it will look at new opportunities, new markets and new investments, new tech, new games, but will also celebrate the incredible work that is going on in the North, across all regions, the UK and overseas,” said Dr Jackie Mulligan, co-director of the conference.

“This is very much a conference based on looking at what’s coming as well as celebrating what we have.”