Services:
Hello, I'm David Hayward and this site collects my freelance work. Currently based in Manchester, I've been running events, festivals, exhibitions and conferences since 2001.
I specialise in helping organisations find and realise the potential of videogames. Typical services I provide are:
Videogame curation and research.
Developer relations.
Public speaking tuition.
Event production.
Event programming.
Exhibit planning.
Physical prototyping.
Technical setup.
If you need someone with a good balance of social and technical skills, level headed in a crisis and able to make the most of scarce resources, you can contact me via email:
Projects:
Feral Vector
Feral Vector began as an experimental event for independent developers, and has become a festival about game design and play. Rather than just talks, it also features live games, prototypes, discussions, workshops, walks, roleplay, installation art, and performances.
Nottingham Hackspace
I was one of the founders of Nottingham Hackspace, remaining a trustee for five years. As a fully boot-strapped grass-roots organisation, within 18 months it grew from three people in a pub to one of Europe’s largest hackspaces. It now occupies a ten-thousand square foot workshop and studio space.
Public Speaking Workshops
I was once rigorously trained as a public speaker, and am skilled at passing this knowledge on to others. Initially devised for Game Republic and Creative England, I can deliver practical public speaking workshops for groups of up to ten.
Controller Factory: A Maze Berlin
Collaboration with Jonatan Van Hove and Sos Sosowski for A Maze Berlin 2016. Participants learned about arcade parts, tools, soldering and microcontrollers, then under our tuition turned everyday objects ranging from paperbacks to ballet pumps into working videogame controllers.
GPS Bus Clock
Working as part of the Urban Sustainable Development Lab, with Angus Taggart writing software, I designed and produced a large scale physical prototype of an internet connected public clock, aimed at opening up smart cities data to vulnerable user-groups who do not use smartphones.
Business Piñata
I was invited to lead a team at French experimental game jam Zoo Machines. With students Antione, Victor and Luc on art and programming, I built a custom controller for Business Piñata: Reach into the world, grasp the Invisible Hand, and decipher secret handshakes to unlock high frequency trading mode…
GameCamp
GameCamp was the UKs only unconference devoted to games of all kinds. Organised by a group of game developers, journalists, lecturers and event organisers, it took place at LSBU in London with around two hundred and fifty attendees. With Ross Fowkes & Jo Summers, I designed systems to run a board game library for it.
Gambling Lambs
A non-profit experiment in running a inclusive, sociable board games night. Running monthly from 2009 – 2014, it focused on novel games; deep enough to be interesting, casual enough to accommodate chatting and tea. Though this curatorial approach, it built an audience with a wide age range and a good gender balance.
Clients:
Children’s Capital Of Culture
Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council hired myself and Alex Johansson as Creative Producers for the 2024 Plug In And Play Festival, part of their Children’s Capital Of Culture programme. We designed, curated, and delivered a weekend games trail over seven sites.
EGX x MCM
Since 2008 I have curated submissions for the Leftfield Collection, a part of EGX. EGX is one of the biggest videogame shows in Europe; taking place in the ExCeL Centre and the Birmingham NEC, attracting over 80,000 visitors per show.
WASD
From its first event in 2022 to the unfortunate closure of WASD in 2024, I was curator of WASD’s Curios lineup, which showcased new and experimental games.
BBC R&D
I was hired as one of several camera operators for an experimental 8K film shoot, generating a corpus of footage for AI video editing experiments.
The Tentacle Collective
The Tentacle Collective, run by Payload Studios, is a collaborative showcase for independent commercial videogame developers, touring various large events such as EGX and Insomnia. Stand owner Payload Studios consulted me on the initial concept, then hired me to test out components for the stand build.
Manchester Day Games Room
Manchester City Council and Rock Paper Shotgun hired me to organise the Manchester Day Games Room. Two staterooms in the gothic splendour of Manchester Town Hall hosted a broad collection of board and videogames, played by thousands of people.
Develop Game Jam
Develop, the UK’s main videogames industry conference, hire YMPT to produce the Develop Game Jam each July. Support staff run the venue for two days while teams create games. At the end of the conference, with strict timescales and media managed by David Hayward, the teams present their work to Develop attendees.
Virgin Media
Virgin Media hired me to curate and run VMGS (Virgin Media Game Space), the UK’s first public facing game space. Located in central London, it featured a mixture of exhibitions, events, and co-working space for London based videogame developers. The space ran in August and September of 2013, before taking highlights to the Eurogamer Expo.
GameCity Festival
From 2011 – 2014, I served as a production manager, screen content curator, exhibit builder and all round troubleshooter for the GameCity Festival in Nottingham. Predominantly involved managing submissions and developer relations; coordinating other teams, running venues, and building unusual game installations.
Rumpus Royale
The Wild Rumpus run energetic club nights featuring the best in multiplayer indie games and live music. At GDC 2013 in San Francisco, YMPT assisted with tech and production for Rumpus Royale MMXIII, a series of indie game world championship tournaments.
Slingshot Effect
Location scout for a Nottingham edition of Slingshot’s live action zombie game, 2.8 Hours Later. As well as researching then mapping potential venues, I conducted a feasibility study identifying potential confounding factors, such as environmental hazards and limitations of venue-types in the city.
Nottingham Trent University
Nottingham Trent University commissioned YMPT to investigate the potential to commercialise university facilities in relation to the videogames industry. The study comprised interviews with academic staff and game developers, cataloging of facilities and expertise, and research on similar programmes.