July 18 Newsletter
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 nina at aurochdigital.com for more information.
To have your news, events and / or job opportunities featured in the monthly newsletter, you can contact jake@aurochdigital.com. The deadline for entries is 10th August.
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 happy to have in the public domain: http://bit.ly/bghdirectory
SW Game Dev Jobs Facebook page – Find roles and post new openings here…
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Dev Scene News
Opposable Games
Bristol VR Lab have recently launched a jobs page gathering together local VR and AR on their website here. It’s updated regularly as new positions arise so do keep checking back to it! See the Jobs section for their current posting.
Auroch Digital
We sent two of our fittest and finest down to Develop: Brighton this week! Our Design and Production Director, Tomas Rawlings, gave a talk on ‘Surviving the Steampocalypse‘ and our own Nina Adams gave a talk titled ‘How to Make People Love You, Or at Least Love Working With You‘! Both talks were a great success. Did you manage to get down to Develop this year? Let us know your thoughts and if you have any further questions, feel free to let us know.
Our Mars Horizon podcast episode 3 is now live, and features a guest appearance from Andrew Kuh of the UK Space Agency! It was a fascinating experience talking to him about how real world ideas will feature in the game, and you can check it out on Apple Podcasts or our website.
Finally, our GameTheNews initiative has been fully absorbed into Auroch Digital. You can read more about this in our final blog post as Tomas talks about newsgaming in general, summarises on the initiative as a whole, and our plans to incorporate it into Auroch Digital projects in the future.
Ndemic Creations
Plague Inc. infects Buckingham Palace – Ndemic founder and Plague Inc. creator James Vaughan took a trip to London to visit the Queen (well, Prince Charles), and to receive in person the Queen’s Award For Innovation. He had to scrub up, of course, but didn’t neglect to represent the company with his trusty pair of Plague Inc. socks.
Plague Inc. Mutation 16 is live on iOS! – the latest, most Royal update to Plague Inc. brings with it a big UI overhaul and two brand new scenarios. ‘Ultimate Board Games’ tasks you with designing, producing and selling your own infectious tabletop game, while ‘Science Denial’ imagines a world in which faith in scientists is at its lowest ebb. Mutation 16, AKA ‘The Royal Update’, is free to download on iOS now and is due to spread to other formats soon.
SPECTRUM 48
SPECTRUM48 are looking for beta testers to help test their upcoming mobile game OCO. There’s a very rough video and game details here: www.oco-game.com
If you’re interested please get in touch with Philip: philip@spectrum48.com
Jobs & Opportunities
Opposable Games
Opposable Games are soon going to be needing testers for their new R&D project – a sci-fi local multiplayer VR arcade game complete with tracked Nerf guns and backpack PCs (read: “no” wires). If you’re interested in testing the game then you can sign up here. The tests won’t be taking place for a little while but Opposable will let you know when they have a date.
Ndemic Creations
Ndemic Creations is looking for a new tech/programming intern!
A slot has opened up for a tech/programming internship (paid) at Ndemic Creations starting in the next month or so. Follow the link for more info and how to apply: https://bit.ly/2JexWUk
Auroch Digital
At Auroch Digital we’re hoping to add an Unreal Developer and Marketing & Community Manager to our award-winning team. The Marketing & Community Manager is a combined marketing and community role with a primary focus on marketing and selling our products and developing and building our audience of fans. The Unreal developer role is for a programmer who will be working on a groundbreaking Unreal Engine 4 project. You’ll be an integral part of our coding team, working alongside a talented group on a very special, high visibility project with a major tech partner. For more information or to apply, email admin@aurochdigital.com.
Events Diary
Super Hamlet 64 (Wednesday 25th – Saturday 28th July @ The Arma Tavern, BS8 2HY)
3 years ago poetry slam winner Edward/Edalia Day set about rewriting Hamlet using only videogame quotes. 400 hours of playing later they’ve come up with the wildest Shakespeare experience you’re ever likely to see. Combining classical text with modern poetry, the show also dissects modern ideas of
privilege, gender and mortality. You can check out the trailer here!
“Day never ceased to impress…like a man possessed at times, effortlessly switching
between characters…for me, the best original play I have seen.”
★★★★★ Theatre Bath
Suffragette Landmarks (Multiple dates and venues throughout July)
This is a government-funded project initiated by Bristol Women’s Voice. It’s a games-making project working with young women and girls aged 13-18 that has several aims;
- raise awareness of histories of Bristol Suffragettes and explore their relevance today
- use those Bristol Suffragette stories to inspire the young women and girls to design and build computer games
- create opportunities for participants to find out more about careers in the games industry through meeting people working in the sector and visiting different creative industry spaces
- create real world markers on the city landscape to draw public attention to both the games and associated stories
The dates these workshops will be running are as follows;
- Mondays in Knowle West Media Centre 16/23/30 July & 6th August
- Tuesdays at Docklands Youth Centre in St Pauls 17/24/31 July & 7th August
- Wednesdays at The Vench in Lockleaze 18/25th July & 1/8th August
Get in touch with constance@grrrlgames.org for more information.