TWO North-East graduates have been named among the world’s leading young games developers.

Michael Brown, 29 and Shaun Spalding, 25, both feature in Develop magazine’s annual 30 under 30 – an influential round-up of the best young games development talent from around the world.

The pair are also set to speak at next year’s Animex festival which takes place at Teesside University from February 9 to 13.

Michael graduated last year with a BSc (Hons) computer games design and is now a director at independent games company Boneloaf in Sheffield, which he founded with his two brothers James and Jonathan.

“It feels a bit bizarre to be on the list but it is great recognition,” said Michael.

“I had a fantastic experience at Teesside University and can’t rate the games course highly enough.”

Shaun graduated from Teesside in 2011 with a BSc (Hons) in creative digital media. Since then he has worked for Ubisoft Reflections, created his own online tutorial, Making Games and launched an award winning independent game, Another Perspective.

Gabrielle Kent, deputy head of games art and design at Teesside University, said: “We are extremely proud of what our graduates achieve and delighted that they are being recognised with such prestigious accolades.”