Bristol Games Hub Newsletter March 2014

Posted on March 21, 2014 Updated on March 21, 2014

Below is news from the growing Bristol & South West games development scene. You find news from the hub, news from Bristol & SW developers then jobs, opportunities & events. 

Bristol Games Hub is a non-profit space for games and play. We run this news letter, host events and also rent desks at a bargain price with no strings attached so you can get on and create amazing games. Contact debbie at aurochdigital.com for more information or with news items for the next newsletter and let us news for the next one by 15th April please!

Next Games Hub Anti-Social: 27th March, 7.30pm

Join us for two great talks!  This month we’ve got:

Kickstarter Preparation, Braving the Elements: Crowdfunding / Trials and Tribulations in the Tabletop Gaming Industry

After bringing his first board game, Medieval Mastery, to publication–as the co-founder of Chaos Publishing–Miles Ratcliffe is currently preparing a Kickstarter launch for their second title, Brave the Elements (going live April 16th). With many hard lessons learnt along the way, he has helped propel the sales of his games through distribution for over 1000 copies. Now, after building up a wealth of contacts and advice, his Kickstarter is on the horizon and is willing to share his experiences / what he’s learnt.

Tech Demo – SeePlay

SeePlay is a live musical composer and performer for visual media, developed as a final-year project by Jamie Henson, a computer science student at the University of Bristol (and brief Hub resident last summer). An example of application for SeePlay could be for a game with no soundtrack. Running SeePlay in the background, it would perform live visual analysis on the game and generate music as you play based on these visual features!  There will be a low-key demo, consisting of a simple Unity test environment, where you will be invited to interact with the environment and give feedback on the music that is produced as a result of your actions in-game.

So join us on the 27th March at 7.30pm – all welcome!

Other Games Hub News

Thanks to all those who came to our board-game night. We’re thinking of doing the next one on a Sat or Sun during the day so we can take on bigger games. Email tom at aurochdigital.com if you’re interested in taking part.

Dev Scene News

Twice Circled

Twice Circled has managed to successfully raise funding to develop its next game, a strategy/simulation title for PC, via a publishing deal. Development starts in May.

I wrote a piece for the Full Indie UK column on PocketGamer.biz (despite it being a PC title ;P ) about my experiences of raising funding which you can read here if you are interested. I barely managed to scratch the surface in that one so if anybody would like to know more just come and grab me next time you see me.

Opposable Games

It’s an exciting time for Opposable Games, where the team are hard at work on their new multi-screen tactical shooter Salvaged. You can find out much more over at theSalvaged website, Twitter or Facebook and, if you’re planning on attending Rezzed(28th – 30th March), grab a play of an exclusive early build.

Elsewhere in the world of Opposable, the team have given their site a rather striking refresh at opposablegames.com, Ben’s adjusting to PDT at GDC, and new recruit Dan Page is getting stuck into his role as Marketing and Community Manager.

Home Groan Games

Our game The Grave Digger is now on Steam Greenlight, if you’re a Steam user please help support us by voting for it. Thanks!
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=233069775

Auroch Digital

It has been a busy month for Auroch Digital. A game we developed for BBC Radio 1xtra, Rap Battle, launched this week. Thanks to Force of Habit and Infinite Playground for their help with the game!  We were also short-listed for a GamesIndustry.biz Innovation Award for GameTheNews.net – you can vote for us here: http://bit.ly/1phjaLB  There is also an article about our JtR125 project on the AHRC website entitled ‘The Future of News’: http://bit.ly/1et8c3Z

Red Wasp Design

Red Wasp Design’s Call of Cthulhu: The Wasted Land hit Steam this month after successfully passing though Greenlight. See: http://redwaspdesign.wordpress.com/

Jobs & Opportunities

Aardman Interactive

Aardman Animation’s Interactive team are about to embark on a number of new interesting gaming and other app developments and are therefore looking out for talented, creative freelance people with experience in the games and web industry. Contact hannah.jones@aardman.com for more information.

Javascript/ HTML5 Game Developer
Developer with strong Javascript capabilities, experienced in HTML5 game development and Canvas animation. Some experience with game frameworks is required, preferably Phaser, otherwise Impact/ Flixel/ FlashPunk would be useful. – Available from w/c 24 March or as soon as possible from this date.

Interactive Developers
Developers experienced in producing high-end mobile games and apps using cross-platform technologies such as: Unity, Abode Air (preferably Starling), and HAXE.

Interesting Designers
Talented UI designers experienced in designing for mobile and online games, apps and responsive websites. Experience in childrens’ content would be useful, as would illustration expertise.

2014 Graduate and new talent competition (two places available)

Prize: £500 bursary and a minimum of one month in residence at the Pervasive Media Studio, Bristol.
http://www.watershed.co.uk/pmstudio/project/2014-graduate-and-new-talent-competition
For the second year, we are launching a competition to find 2 fantastic new Pervasive Media Studio residents to join our vibrant community of artists, creative companies, technologists and academics. The residencies will take place in September 2014 and will include a £500 bursary for each selected applicant. We are looking for two individuals who have recently emerged from education, or are at an early stage in their careers.

Jennifer Ann’s Group: Game Design Challenge with a first place prize of $7,000.

Can you create a video game about teen dating violence….without using violence in the game itself? Since 2008 Jennifer Ann’s Group, a nonprofit charity headquartered in Atlanta, has run a game design challenge to promote awareness of teen dating violence and provide educational information to protect teens. The contest is the largest and longest-running of its kind in the world and was recently named a 2014 Top 10 Trailblazer as selected by the National Youth Advisory Board. The contest is open to all over the age of 13 and receives entries from both the domestic and international video game community. The winning games for 2013 came from Argentina, Belgium, Ireland, and Thailand.Rules, sign-up information, FAQs, and previous winners are available through Jennifer Ann’s Group online at:
http://bit.ly/LifeLove2014

Events

Lunchtime Talk: Growing a community of web-native storytellers

Friday 21 March, 13:00, Pervasive Media Studio, FREE
http://www.watershed.co.uk/pmstudio/events/fri-21032014-100pm
What happens when you bring together filmmakers, web developers and designers for a weekend of story hacking? Gilles and Philo organise Popathon – a series of hackathon events that encourages multidisciplinary experimentation in the field of web-native storytelling. They will be sharing some of the lessons they learned and discuss the relevance for web documentary and also take the opportunity to demo some of the projects created during the weekend-long hackathons.

Lunchtime Talk: Overcoming the Resistance to Resistors; bringing art and technology together

Friday 28 March, 13:00, Pervasive Media Studio, FREE
http://www.watershed.co.uk/pmstudio/events/fri-28032014-100pm
Rachel Rayns is Artist-in-Residence and Creative Producer at the Raspberry Pi Foundation. She’s on a mission to make interesting things happen. At Raspberry Pi she is focusing on how we can support small art organisations with navigating investment and implementation of low-cost technologies.
Personally she’s working on Zoë Star, a herd of neurotic, humorous machines from an alternative reality. Funded by Art Council England, the project aims to explore how we, as users and makers, engage with technology: absurd outcomes are eagerly anticipated.

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Thanks all!