Bristol Games Hub January Newsletter

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Steam Dev Days Talk & Steam Machine Demo at the next antisocial!
Auroch Digital’s Tomas Rawlings was at the Steam Dev Days in Seattle and so got one of the proptoype Steam Machines and controller. We’re going to be talking about what developers can learn from the event and giving you a chance to have a play on the Steam Machine at the social on Thursday 31st January. Note while attendance is free, the venue capacity is limited so come early to avoid disappointment. Join us from 7:30pm and BYOB.
So kicking off with this month’s news, in the order they were sent to me;
Firstly, a massive congratulations to Leanne Bayley and Alex Trowers for their gem of a game Glyph Quest – it’s set to become a massive hit and couldn’t have been created by a nicer team. Definitely give it a play at https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/glyph-quest/id792412685?mt=8
And here’s a great wee article Leanne wrote about some of the adversities they faced developing their game and highlighting the difficulties trying to get a job in the industry as a pregnant woman:
–Mobile Pie

DanceTag has recently been released on Andriod and iOS! DanceTag is a dance game which invites you to create 15 second films of you and your friends dancing in all sorts of locations, and tag those locations with your dance.

Also we have a competition to win a £50 iTunes voucher for doing a dance which ends on the 31stJan. Find Strode Theatre, Street on the DanceTag app map for further details.

Finally if you know of any musicians that want to have their music in DanceTag we are currently looking for new work. Contact Joe – joeryandesign@gmail.com  http://www.dancetagapp.com/

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Puppy Games
Over the Christmas holidays, Puppygames had a Humble Weekly Sale. As you can imagine, we all pretty much spent the holidays hitting F5 over and over to check on its progress. The outcome was that we sold a whole bunch of games and generated over $32000 for UK games industry charity GamesAid ( gamesaid.org ).
Industry legend Ian Livingstone provided voice-over for the promo video which set a new bar for Humble campaign trailers. ( http://youtu.be/kMumwL7w7Mw )
We’re very pleased with how it went and the income from the sale should keep us fed for a few months while we work on our next game, Battledroid.

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Thought Den

If you hate games, hate animals and always mute the sound, don’t play this crap game we made about woolly mammoths for National Museums Scotland. Play link – tdn.lv/MammothGame

Concept, design & build – thoughtden.co.uk

Sound – forceofhab.it/

Client – nms.ac.uk/mammoths

Bonus motion graphics piece here, with additional cute mammoths. Bleugh! vimeo.com/84038014

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Auroch Digital
We are about to release our most exciting project to date, though we’re under strict NDA so this newsletter is too early for me to tell you, ha!  We will be making loud noises in the next week or 2, so please keep up to date on our fb page (Auroch Digital) or on the website; aurochdigital.com
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Opposable Games
Opposable recently brought on board Ben Curtis as a production manager with a wealth of digital and mobile project experience.
The team will be launching Legends of Xor into closed beta in February as the first part of a stream of releases until March, after which they begin work on their upcoming original IP second screen title Salvaged, more details to follow shortly.
Opposable Games are looking for community managers, a marketing assistant, and a business development executive – get in touch if you know anyone suitable.

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Force of Habit
Force of Habit will finally be releasing Toast Time for iOS on the 6th of February! On the same day we will be throwing a joint party with Andalusian Games, who are celebrating their game Tangiers being Greenlit. Head along to the upstairs room of The Big Chill in Bristol for drinking, DJ’s, toast (selection of spreads available), 8-player Bomberman and a Nidhogg tournament. It goes without saying that it’s free to all.  The new Toast Time teaser trailer is viewable online here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0-FbITKRlA and everyone’s invited to the party: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BeBTLWZCYAAbvU7.png:large
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Demon Apathy
Hi all!  Check out our game Space Fort, we’ve done a few major updates since its release to the point where it’s actually enjoyable, even to other people!:)
There’s a LITE version of it on each store aswell.  Have fun!”
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East West Games
Ed Relf a local (Bristol based) games industry executive freelancer (www.eastwestgames.com) has teamed up with 5 other people from across the gaming/cryptocurrency industry to work on a very exciting but top secret project focussed within the area of BitCoin/cryptocurrency. The team are currently working on a prototype and will be raising investor finance in the next 4 – 6 weeks so now is a great time to join the team. The team are looking for programmers/ developers with a particular strength in front end visual development but also interested in hearing from anyone with interest in this exciting space. Find out more at www.atopsecretproject.com

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Funding Opportunities

Wellcome Trust Grants Deadline Approaches!
The Wellcome Trust have a number of funding streams with deadlines looming; A reminder that the deadlines for the next rounds of Wellcome Trust funding are coming up:
24th January – Development Awards (Broadcast, Games and Film) – up to £10,000
31st January – People Awards – up to £30,000 and also Co-Production Awards – £30,000 to £300,000
The awards support broadcast, games and film projects that engage the audience with contemporary or historical biomedical science in an accessible way.
Development Awards (Broadcast, Games and Film) are for up to £10k to support the development of broadcast proposals and games in any genre. The awards should enable ideas to be developed into high impact, well-researched proposals to help secure a UK platform and production funding.
People Awards are for up to £30k and can support television programmes and series, films, games, websites and cross-platform projects. This includes production funding.
Co-Production Awards range from £30,000 – £300,000. These support broadcast, games and film projects that bring science stories to the heart of pure entertainment. To be eligible, projects must have a secured distribution platform prior to applying and the Co-Production Award must only part finance the project, i.e. at least matching funding should already be secured.
The January deadline for Co-Production Awards is for Expressions of Interest. Details can be found on our website: http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/Funding/Public-engagement/Funding-schemes/Broadcast-games-and-film-awards/Co-production-awards/index.htm
If you are successful at this stage, you will be invited to submit a full application. You will also be invited for interview (approximately six weeks after the Expression of Interest deadline).
NB: Please note applications are now made via an eGrants online system. Registration of your company on the system takes two days so we would advise you to register now.
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Job Opportunities
Freelance Creative Coder Needed at KWMC
Creative Coder: 20-day freelance contract
Bristol-based arts organisation Knowle West Media Centre (KWMC) is looking for a creative coder to animate data-sets that are derived from local resources. The animations will explain aspects of community life in South Bristol. The ideal candidate will be someone who can creatively interpret data and present the results in a modern web browser.
The Creative Coder will work with a team of eight Junior Digital Producers (JDPs), aged 18-24, in developing the data visualizations. The coder will share their knowledge and enable the JDPs to create their own animations from the collected data-sets. The role of the Creative Coder will also include supporting the JDPs to create a “Data Toolkit”: a web page which will display the data visualisations alongside detailed tutorials of how they were produced, providing examples of the completed work.
This freelance contract is for 20 days during February and March 2014. Further opportunities for this type of data visualisation are also likely in the future. Please note that this is not a salaried post – it is a commissioned one-off fee for a 20-day freelance contract.
For more details and information about how to apply please visit www.kwmc.org.uk/jobs
Events you should attend!
UKTI Increasing Business through your Website – 20th Feb, Bristol Games Hub
UKTI are holding a half day session on how to internalise your websites, and how to access £3000 in matched funding to make that happen. The free seminar, led by an expert in international website communications, will take you on a web internationalisation journey and provide hints and tips to structure, design and optimise your website for international visitors and customers. The seminar will include case studies of UKTI clients who have already gained new international business through the web and you will also be able to learn from, and network with other companies that are doing so already. UKTI will also be on hand to talk through the range of free services to access wider funding for visiting tradeshows, markets and customers overseas.
http://10essentialsteps18feb.eventbrite.co.uk
 
Pervasive Media Studio – Watershed
Bristol Playable City award winner Hello Lamp Post has been nominated for a Postscapes 2013 Internet of Things Award, in the Smart City Application category. The ‘People’s Choice’ Awards are decided entirely by public votes and the team at the Games Hub’s sister space, the Pervasive Media Studio would love it if you’d help us take home the title!
Lunchtime Talk: Forget the economy, acquire Cryptocurrency
Friday, 24 January 2014 1:00pm – 2:00pm, Pervasive Media Studio, FREE
Former Games Hub resident Sam Phippen is giving a talk at the Studio all about Bitcoin, the secure form of currency that exists purely on the internet. In this talk, Sam will explore how Bitcoin works, take us through some of the controversy that surrounds it, take a look at some of the motivating reasons for its creation and ask what the future holds for cryptocurrency.
Lunchtime Talk: Loving Games, Gaming Love
Friday, 31 January 2014 1:00pm – 2:00pm, Pervasive Media Studio, FREE
Whilst the media tends to focus on ‘bad love’; obsession, negative portrayals of sexuality and misogyny within games, love itself is a vastly complicated, individual experience which plays a fundamental role in our daily lives. Esther MacCallum-Stewart will be investigating love in the context of games – how it is mis/represented, how it might be developed, and how designers are trying to challenge our expectations of gaming itself by engaging with some of love’s more complex iterations.
Playing for Change – A conference about games for change.
Wednesday 19th February 2014 (10am to 4:30pm)
To mark the establishment of the Games and Social Change Network hosted by Manchester Metropolitan University and supported by the Arts & Humanities Research Council, this FREE one-day event will provide participants with an introduction to explore some of the diverse potentials of play and games as agents of change.
Games for Change Festival – New York
Tom and I from Auroch Digital attended this event last year and aswell as some great talks and inspirational content, it was a hugely successful trip in terms of building our international trading partners and we signed a big deal (the one we’ll be telling you about next week!), so we can’t recommend it highly enough.  Make sure you get some time to check out the city too, particularly Central Park, the High Line and the view from the top of the Rockefeller Center at sunset 😉
Ahh lovely memories of summer, remember that? 😉

This entry was posted in Boardgame Jam, Bristol Games Hub News, Newsletter.