May 2017 Newsletter

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All the latest updates from the Hub, news from Bristol & SW developers, jobs, opportunities & events.

Bristol Games Hub is a non-profit space for games and play. We run this newsletter, host events, and also rent desk space at cost price with no strings attached, so you can get on with creating amazing games! Contact jake at aurochdigital.com for more information.

Jake can also be contacted regarding including news items in the next newsletter, the deadline for which is 10th June.

Next Games Hub Anti-Social: 25th May, 7.30pm

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

Matt Walker – Red Panda Audio

Red Panda Audio’s Matt Walker talks us through his experiences designing sound for games – complete with ukelele!

So join us then! We’re at 77 Stokes Croft on the 3rd Floor. The entrance is off Thomas Street, just up from the junction of Thomas St/Stokes Croft, above MeatLiquor.

Games Hub News

BAFTA Breakthrough Brits Applications Open

For five years BAFTA has been running a mentoring programme to support burgeoning dev talent in the British video games sector. Applications for the 2017 programme are currently open and will close on May 30th.

Successful applicants (of which there are 20 each year across videogames, TV and film) receive a bespoke programme of career development support, including one-to-one mentoring, guidance sessions and networking opportunities, as well as free access to BAFTA events for 12 months.

To qualify applicants must have a professional credit on a piece of work released in the UK between August 2016 and August 2017, and reside in the UK. Applicants should be over 18, and there’s no upper age limit. Small teams may apply, though each team member must complete the application process individually.

It’s easy to apply or find out more: http://www.bafta.org/supporting-talent/breakthrough-brits/apply-now-to-breakthrough-brits

SW Freelancer/Company Dev Directory

If you’re looking for people to help on a project, or you are available for work – put your details in. Please only list info you’re happyto have in the public domain: http://bit.ly/bghdirectory

SW Game Dev Jobs Facebook page – Find roles and post new openings here…

Monthly Indie Spotlight

Cole Jefferies

I’m Cole, a one-person indie dev who makes games under the banner of ColePowered games. I recently moved to Bristol after living for a while in Gloucestershire and Cardiff, so I decided to join the Games Hub – really loving it so far! I haven’t done any high profile games, but Concrete Jungle is probably the one you’re most likely to have heard of – a city-building puzzle game.

I’m currently working on a brand new project that involves managing a detective department, and catching a generated criminal/crime syndicate. Basically it’s a procedurally-generated police procedural. I’m drawing inspiration from 90s management/strategy games of old, as well as recent indie games such as ‘Orwell’ and ‘This is the Police’ that touch on similar themes. It’s super early days, so I don’t have much to show at the moment (the only graphical asset right now is a corkboard texture), but I’m hoping this project will turn into something interesting. See you around!

Dev Scene News

Opposable Games

Opposable VR are busy beavering away preparing for the opening of the Bristol VR Lab later this year. They’ve also recently posted official VR World Congress photos on the event’s Facebook page! There are some absolute beauties in there so do go check them out and getting tagging yourselves and your colleagues if you were at the event, or simply have a scroll through!

Tuesday pics
Wednesday pics
Thursday pics

A huge thanks to Scott Salt and his photography team for doing such an excellent job! Videos of the talks are coming soon!

Auroch Digital

We’ve had lots of exciting steps forward in our development of Dark Future: Blood Red States and Ogre.  We’ve also met with investors to pitch ideas for our future projects, which was all really positive and we’ll hopefully have more to share on that soon!

Both Chainsaw Warrior titles are on sale at 50% and 60% off respectively in the Humble Store Spring Sale.

You can also check out the three new Dark Future screenshots on the Steam page and wishlist the game now to be kept up to date with developments.

Ndemic Creations

After its launch last month in the USA and UK, Plague Inc: The Board Game is now available in Canada, and is going down really well both online and in brick and mortar stores across the country. We’re also in the process of planning out a second manufacturing run and have our sights set on localised versions for European fans.

We’re celebrating both the board game launch and the arrival of the Plague Inc: Scenario Creator for mobile with a community competition this month, asking players to create scenarios based on the theme “Board Games”. Winners will be picked in August, so look forward to some interesting fan creations!

We’ve also seen one more addition to the team, bringing us up to a full roster of seven in Office Zero!

Jobs & Opportunities

Complete Control – Senior HTML5 Developer

Complete Control is a double BAFTA award winning children’s entertainment and games agency, located in a beautiful studio just outside of Bath. We are a small team of 17 that produce digital content for the best loved children’s brands across the BBC, Cartoon Network, LEGO, Nickelodeon, Penguin Books and many more great clients. More info at https://www.completecontrol.co.uk/job/senior-html5-games-developer/

Aardman Animations

Aardman Animations are in the hunt for animators exprienced in using Motion Builder. For more information email george.rowe@aardman.com

Events Diary

Ocean Games Jam (May 20th-21st)

The weekend of May 20th-21st sees Noize Fabrik in Berlin host the Ocean Games Jam. The two-day event will bring together game developers, scientists and journalists to develop new playful ways to tackle environmental issues associated with the oceans such as pollution, overfishing and resource exploitation. Participants should register their interest on the website here. Flights and one night’s hotel accommodation will be paid for the first 8 UK-based participants who register their interest!

Unity Group May Meet Up – Pervasive Media Studio (May 18th)

Hi everyone. We had a great time at the PM Studio last time and we’re very grateful that we’re able to host this month’s meetup there again.
Thomas Greener, a developer at Atkins and former developer at Opposable Games will be leading the main talk. He’s developed his own asset for the Unity Asset Store and will detail how he developed that from concept to finished product and detail the other challenges of marketing and supporting his asset.

Quick Links

Thanks all!

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