Iain Simons

 Iain Simons, a man with many careers behind him and who has always been on the move with them, is now based in Nottingham with his most recent and well known gaming festival, Game City. He is the director of Game City, which was founded in 2006. His idea behind it was to take video games and make an arts festival, with tech and culture being the main starting point, and adding in theatre to as he says, ''bring the game to life''. Game City involves a wide variety of professions in the creative industry, a few being: designers, musicians, stage light technicians, theatre and costume designers.

Iain's ideas have not always been a successful hit, I personally think there is nothing wrong with this video game cover, it's bright, shows interaction between players and what is to be expected in the game itself, it's very appealing and grabs it's target audiences attention. However, shortly after this was released, Courtney Love (The Wife of Kurt Kobain, manipulated as the main lego character), tried to sue Game City as this character in the game, could sing any song of any genre, which she believed he would just not do in reality, perhaps giving off false perception. Luckily, nothing too serious happened, they had to change the cover of this particular game and Game City still continues every year.

It's not all bad with Game City though! They hold fundraising events, a great way for people from afar to get involved, bring up some new and original ideas for video gaming and helping to advertise Game City. They try not to use old symbolic images like Pacman and Space Invaders, as they are trying to achieve a more modern view on gaming, make it more appealing for the generation of today.

Iain's previous work experience to get him where he was today!

* Piano Player

* Macdonalds
* Casual theatre Technician
* He graduated in 1994
* Musician / Musical director
* Performer
* Producer
* Writer
* Programmer
* Designer
* Part time Lecturer
* Company Director
* Publisher / Writer
* Event Producer
* Festival Director

He goes on to explain that no matter how hard it is to get through, no matter how many career changes you have to go through, you will get to where you want to be if you don't give up. He tells me how Game City most probably wont be the last thing he does as a career, it's what he enjoys, but there is so much more he wants to achieve yet.

Game City, Nottingham 2012