Newsletter

Bristol Games Hub Feb/March Newsletter

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Apologies for the lateness of February’s newsletter, its been a crazy busy month for us all at the Hub.  Also as you may or may not know, everything we do here is on a voluntary basis so there will be times when the paid work has to take priority. We looking for a volunteer to create a proper newsletter for me to just drop the text in every month. Any offers very much appreciated, and we’ll credit you on our website. Quite a few people looking to fill job roles this month so please see below for details in Job Opportunities!
Boardgames Night @ Bristol Games Hub – 20th March at 7pm!
The games hub is hosting its first boardgame night on the 20th march. Come along with your favourite game or join in with some of the ones we have planned. We’re aiming to play Relic, the Warhammer 40K version of Talisman at this first session but other players and games welcomed!  Email tom@aurochdigital.com if you have any questions or would like to join in the session.
Games Hub News – Global Game Jam a Huge Success – Thanks all!
We want to say a huge thanks to all who took part in January’s Global Games Jam. The Hub hosted over 70 developers from all over the South West to make 13 amazing games. It was really inspiring and there were many newbies at the event as well as some experienced hands.Main Winners:
1st Place – Senseless Runner by No Sense (See here: http://bit.ly/MyWrOe )
2nd Place – Sanbiki No Saru by Opposable
3rd Place – Mutable by Circular MongooseOther Category Winners:
Best Technical Achievement: Whiteout by TEAL (Which is on the Google
Play store: http://bit.ly/1hlZ4yQ )
Best Artistic Achievement: MMME by MMME
Best Gameplay Achievement: Sanbiki No Saru by Opposable
Best Sound Achievement: AHOD! by AHOD!
Well done to everyone!
And many thanks to Jake Manion from Aardman Digital, Tess from Opposable Games and Tom from Auroch Digital for judging, what proved to be a really tough competition!
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Auroch Digital
We’re extremely proud to announce that we have been working with Ndemic Creations to bring Plague Inc. to desktop. The new version sees the same captivating gameplay with the addition of multiplayer, user-generated content and much more. Plague Inc: Evolved launched on Steam Early Access on the 20th February and we’re continuing to work hard to bring you the extra features in this hugely successful, multi-award winning, viral hit. The game’s official page can be found at http://plagueincevolved.com and you really should watch the trailer, its awesome and shows just what our amazingly talented team have been up to 😉
See job opps below for some openings we have!
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Opposable Games – Salvaged
Opposable Games has recently launched the website for their brand new cross-screen tactical action game Salvaged. The game also is well represented across all your favourite social networks, so make sure you like or follow to get all the latest news.
The game has also been selected for the Leftfield Collection at this year’s Rezzed event. And the game will be playable throughout the whole show (28th-30th at the Birmingham NEC) with visitors able to get an exclusive first-look at the game.
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Evil Twin
Our new website for our upcoming game Victory at Sea has launched!In Victory at Sea players start out as a Destroyer Captain early in the war and can travel across the Pacific, Atlantic and the Mediterranean, seeking out and destroying enemy shipping and capturing ports. Control and fight against over 65 classes of ships across 3 theatres of war, in the battle for the seas. War will be declared Summer 2014 for desktop platforms, with the game launching on mobile in the Autumn. You can see it here http://www.victoryatseagame.com/ and see more about us here http://eviltwinartworks.com/

Deeperbeige Games
White-Out, our entry for Global Game Jam 2014 is now available completely free on iOS and Android. Built in just 48 hours at the Bristol Games Hub, it’s had some modest organic success on the app store with around 6000 installs so far.
iOS: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/white-out/id817420135?mt=8
Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.deeperbeige.whiteout

Lonewolf
Lonewolfwilliams (Gareth Williams) has nearly finished working on an advanced Unity tutorial ebook “Design patterns for Unity” which should be useful for intermediate to advanced level developers working in teams on larger-scale Unity projects. The ebook will be available for free and comes with supporting videos and a demo project, Game Hub people can preview here: http://bit.ly/1obandH and feedback to Gareth@lonewolfwilliams.com

Events & Opportunities

Jennifer Ann’s Group announces the “7th Annual Life.Love. 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
(http://stopTDV.com/2014-life-love-game-design-challenge.htm)

iDocs 2014
This two-day event dedicated to the rapidly evolving field of interactive documentary will focus on these pressing themes; Production Models, Engagement & Evaluation and New Territories. The event is at the Watershed on 20th/21st March and will feature the projects supported by the REACT documentary strand. Find out more and sign up here:http://idocs2014.dcrc.org.uk/

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TechSPARK Event – Silicon Gorge
Silicon Gorge (26th March, Engine Shed, Bristol) will showcase web and tech startups drawn from the Bristol and Bath area to an audience of angel and institutional investors from London and beyond. It will combine the resources of the world renown SETsquared Bristol and Bath centres, the new WebStart Bristol Web Incubator and the Bath and Bristol TechSPARK network to present a carefully selected showcase of what our region can offer.
If you want your startup to be considered for a pitching slot at Silicon Gorge, you need to complete this application form: http://bit.ly/1fMkfto
Silicon Gorge is about showcasing the best startups in our region, and
therefore, there is a selection process that goes something like this:
(i) Submit your application form by 6pm, 5th March;
(ii) If selected, you will get an invitation to pitch to a selection panel;
(ii) Pitch to a selection panel (either on 11th March in Bath or 14th
March in Bristol); and
(iii) If selected by the judges, you will be awarded a slot at Silicon
Gorge (26th March)
Silicon Gorge is sponsored by Invest in Bristol + Bath.  The selection panels are supported by RocketMakers and SETsquared and are organised by the Bath and Bristol TechSPARK network. Thanks and if interested, make sure you get your form in fast!

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Service Jam Bristol
From the 7th to the 9th of March 2014 there will be a Service Jam event here in Bristol, this is an event where you will collaborate in the development of an idea in a creative and innovative environment – potentially leading to new products, businesses and services.  There is an opportunity to apply for up to £10,000 from WebStart Bristol to further develop an idea at the end of the event.
See: http://www.gsjbristol.com/

PM Studio
Graduate and new talent competition (two places available) – £500 bursary and a minimum of one month in residence at the Pervasive Media Studio, Bristol, UK. The PM studio is looking for people to join thier 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. They are looking for two individuals who have recently emerged from education, or are at an early stage in their careers. You have fantastic ideas and want to explore how to make them a realit and your ideas fall into one or more of the following: Interaction/Experience design, Games design, Digital Storytelling etc. Feel free to contact them for a chat
admin@pmstudio.co.uk

A Room Full of Talent – an evening showcase for employers on Tuesday 11 March, 5-7pm. Knowle West Media Centre (KWMC) and the Creative Skills Hub (West of England LEP Skills) invite you to ‘A Room Full of Talent’:

Over the last five months eight young people have been working at KWMC as Junior Digital Producers – supported by the Creative Employment Programme for their first roles in the creative and digital industry. They have worked with IBM and artists, using technology to generate data feeds and visualise the information in exciting and accessible ways.

Come and meet them, network, enjoy refreshments, and explore their cardboard creation ‘The Living Living Room’ – an interactive art installation and gaming zone that gathers information about our lifestyle choices and our perceptions of our community.   www.datapatchwork.co.uk

On this journey the Junior Digital Producers have learned many new skills that we understand employers are crying out for. They’re now coming to the end of their employment with KWMC: Could you be a mentor for them, or even their next employer? This is a great opportunity to meet new creative talent and find out how your organisation can support young people into further employment. Do let us know if you would like to attend or want more information about the event. For further information please contact nicky.williams@woeskills.co.uk Directions:  Free parking and accessible access  http://kwmc.org.uk/contact/

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Job Opportunities:Auroch Digital
Auroch Digital is looking for a full-time accounts administrator/office manager, based at Bristol Games Hub.  Must be AAT qualified, with plenty of on the job experience. Competitive salary for the right person. Please contact Debbie with CV and a covering letter; debbie@aurochdigital.com  Deadline is Monday 17th March at 12 noon.  Interviews to take place later that week.  No recruitment agencies!
Plus if you are interested in joining the team and working on amazing new games for Steam and mobile and want to get ahead of the crowd, please do send us your CV if you are a Unity coder or Unity artist – debbie at aurochdigital.com
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Mobile Pie
Mobile Pie are currently looking for a Project Co-ordinator to help with our expanding team. Project management qualifications and experience in the games industry isn’t necessary, but being organised is! CVs and covering letters to jobs@mobilepie.com please!

Nth Camera Mobile developer wanted  http://nthcamera.tv/developer-wanted/

What comes after Vine and Vyclone? Come and work on a revolutionary new social video app. Matter 2 Media is looking for a developer to help build an Android and iOS app for video capture, editing and playback. This is an R&D project. The successful candidate will be able to work quickly, robustly and independently on both platforms, including native APIs; also able to spend regular time with co-developer Tim Kindberg at the Pervasive Media Studio in central Bristol. Experience with camera operation and video playback is highly desirable. The exact scope of work, timing and fee/day rate are negotiable. I will need someone to help during roughly the weeks beginning 17 March to 28th April (not necessarily full-time throughout)  For further details contact Tim Kindberg: tim@matter2media.com and see our project website nthcamera.tv. To apply please send CV, links to your work, day rate and a paragraph about why you’re the person for the job to the same address.

Bsquare (out in Trowbridge) is hiring: https://www6.ultirecruit.com/BSQ1000/JobBoard/JobDetails.aspx?__ID=%2AEBBC6A7F8D3BEA65

App Developer – Rendermedia CGI
At Rendermedia we deliver high-end CGI & Animation for digital & broadcast channels. Creating beautiful CGI and Animation for clients. We are looking to recruit a graduate developer in an internship position working closely with the CG team to help us develop interactive or app versions of the work we create, offering our clients a comprehensive in house service. The ideal candidate would be someone with an interest or experience in app development and able to take 3D assets in a variety of formats to helping us to deliver applications using AR and interactive 3D. This position would suit somebody willing to apply their knowledge to an already available wealth of assets and to build to their portfolio and CV.  This opportunity is on 2-3 month basis with potential for future work. To apply please contact Producer Stephanie Knapp via email. Please include CV, Cover Letter and examples of previous work. Email: Stephanie@rendermedia.co.uk/

Red7Mobile
Red7Mobile is looking for 3 more permanent mobile game developers to join our 20-strong team based in Temple Studios. Our Sports, Casino and Social games/apps, are built in Javascript/HTML5 but our developers come from a variety of backgrounds including native iPhone/Android, Actionscript, C++ etc… what they have in common is a flair for game development and a computing background. We work in a flexible team based environment with an attractive remuneration package. For more information please contact matt@red7mobile.com

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That’s it for now. We’ll be sending March’s newsletter out towards the end of the month with details for the next anti-social.

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

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.

Games Hub November Newsletter – Events, News and Opportunities!

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Games Hub Events…
Bristol Games Hub Anti-Social – Learn what makes games like League of Legends so popular! – ‘MOBA games and the role of emergent play’ – 
This Thursday 28th Nov at 7.30pm

The past three years has seen the ‘Multiplayer online battle arena’ (MOBA) genre become one of the most popular and pioneering genres in the games industry. As the most played online genre, a genre that is pioneering new modes of fair ‘free to play’ and a genre that is leading a thriving e-sports industry it has become impossible to ignore, however underpinning this incredible success story is an equally profound role of emergent play. Through drawing on past and present research surrounding MOBA culture, Josh Jarrett explores the development of this young genre and argues that at its core is an elevated role of players in the ongoing innovation of the genre.

Join us at the hub, 77 Stokes Croft at 7.30pm – see you there!

Her Game Collective – Mon 9th Dec 6.30pm
To celebrate the festive season Her Game Collective want to use our regular get together to make up a game about Xmas. There may be a little bit of prosecco to fuel our ideas, in which case we may not get past the paper planning stage. If you want to suggest which elements of Xmas we should do things to in a game then please come along onMonday 9th December from 6.30-8.30ish to Bristol Games Hub in Stokes Croft.

We will also be sharing our plans for 2014. More info here: http://hergc.wordpress.com/2013/11/19/xmas-spirit-fuelled-game-plan-session/

Boardgame Jam a Huge Success!
We’d like to thank all who took part in our first ever Boardgame Jam and the first game jam hosted at the Hub’s base in Stokes Croft.  The event was a huge success with people traveling from far and wide to take part (kudos to those who travelled from Brighton and Cambridge to join in!).  We had 5 teams of developers and students creating 5 amazing boardgames based on the theme of ‘Winter’, produced with a huge amount of energy, creativity, meeples and sweets to go around.  There are photos from the day on our Tumblr account: http://bristolgameshub.tumblr.com/
We’d also like to thank our sponsors for the event:
– UK Trade & Investment (who supported the event!)
– Aardman (for help with refreshments!)
– Unity 3D (for the chairs in the event space!)
– Plus thanks to Excelsior Comics and boardgameextras.co.uk
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Developer & Organisation News…
Aardman
Aardman Digital are excited to announce the release of ‘Wizards vs. Aliens’ created for the CBBC website. The game contains 3 chapters, 30 levels and over 3 hours of game play! Play the game here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/games/wizards-vs-aliens-eye-of-bashtarr

Their project  http://www.gruffalo.com/ has also gone live! The site was created for Pan Macmillan with games and activities to play in the deep dark wood!

Auroch Digital
Chainsaw Warrior AMA on Reddit
We’re going to be taking part in a Reddit AMA along with lots of other licensed Games Workshop developers on 3rd December at 8pm – http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/ – so if you’re about, come and join in! We’ll be talking ChainsawWarrior.net and joined by a lot of other talented developers (Warhammer Quest, Bloodbowl, Space Hulk and many more) and up-votes are welcomed.
JtR125 – Gamifying Jack the Ripper
We’ve announced our current GameTheNews project which is part of REACT.  JtR125 is one of six new collaborations between filmmakers, academic researchers and creative companies as part of the REACT Future Documentary Sandbox, a nationwide programme to explore the theme of Future Documentary funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council.  There is much more about the project here: http://aurochdigital.com/2013/11/11/gamifying-jack-the-ripper/
 
Force of Habit
November saw Ash and our buddy Joe Williamson showing Neon Caves at Explay. We managed to come away with the Audience Award/Game of the Show award. Neon Caves is part of the Indie Statik Kickstarter that ran recently. You can view the teaser trailer here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rE3bgI5-q-o
We also managed to win two other awards: the TIGA award for Best New IP for Toast Time and the TIGA GameHack award for Best Game for Timmy Bibble’s Friendship Club. The latter of which is available now for FREE:http://forceofhab.it/games/#timmy-bibbles-friendship-club

Also, as we’re sure you’re all aware, this Thursday (28th Nov) is National French Toast Day. To mark this most gloriously pointless occasion we will be putting Toast Time on sale for a day and giving the soundtrack away for free. So check inon Thursday to grab a couple of bargains:

Toast Time OST: http://forcehabit.bandcamp.com/

Finally, Nick was part of the indie contingent invited to attend Minecon for his work on Maia, which will be hitting Steam Early Access soon. He has now fully recovered from his hangover.

Opposable Games 

Opposable Games beat 95 other entrants to win the ICTomorrow Second Screen competition in partnership with Sony.  The prize was funding for their first major own IP game Salvaged, which will be released in Q3 2014.  Opposable also had 2 teams attend the recent TIGA game jam, creating 2-4 player physics based beat-em-up called Placenta the Dragon, and their first own Oculus Rift game TearBears, all in 24 hours.

PM Studio
DCRC Presents: Learning from Digital Lives – Nicole Matthews
Wednesday, 27 November 2013 4:00pm – 5:30pm, Pervasive Media Studio, FREE
The Digital Cultures Research Centre is delighted to welcome Nicole Matthews (Macquarie University, Sydney) for a special Wednesday afternoon talk
Workshop: Data Visualisation with WikiVOIS & Data Unity (only a few places left)
Thursday, 28 November 2013 10:00am – 3:30pm, Pervasive Media Studio, FREE
To celebrate the launch of Data Unity, we’re hosting an Open Data workshop with its founder, Kev Kirkland on 28 Nov and you’re invited to attend. The event will be held alongside Nominet Trust and WikiVOIS. The workshops will start with a brief introduction to the new products then we’ll go hands on to discuss any data that attendees bring along. We want the workshop to be user focused and we’ll suggest ways to overcome any data issues the attendees are facing.
Lunchtime Talk: Parasitic Products and Designing Deviance
Friday, 29 November 2013 1:00pm – 2:00pm, Pervasive Media Studio, FREE
Parasitic Products explores an alternative route to product design through deviance, trickery and parasitism. Inspired by parasitic organisms, and their role in nature, Studio PSK created a number of radios which behave as parasites, surviving at the expense of other domestic products. As we move into a time of more and more connectivity between objects, how might parasitic devices fit into this product ecology, and what is their role?
Lunchtime Talk: Door Into the Dark
Friday, 6 December 2013 1:00pm – 2:00pm, Pervasive Media Studio, FREE
Join brand new Pervasive Media Studio residents Amy Rose and May Abdalla from Anagram as they introduce their company and the big ideas behind their new immersive documentary project Door Into the Dark.
Lunchtime Talk: What Can You Do with a Shadow?
Friday, 13 December 2013 1:00pm – 2:00pm, Pervasive Media Studio, FREE
Can you innovate with something as simple as a shadow? For centuries people have told stories with shadows, but they are less used today in our world of digital projectors. For the last 5 years, Tom McDonagh has been casting shadows in new and weird ways to re-imagine how we can tell stories. By experimenting with the light source, the shadow puppets and even the screens, he has found unique ways to bring characters and the environments they inhabit to life.
 
Thought Den
Deskspace available at 25-27 Stokes Croft! For freelancers or small companies, charged per desk per month. Incredible rates, super fast broadband, balcony, courtyard and back deck all in the heart of Bristol’s creative quarter.
Contact ben@thoughtden.co.uk for rates and to book a viewing.
–
Opportunities…
Remode in Plymouth are looking for a junior/grad programmer: http://remodestudios.com/assets/files/Remode_JobOpp_JuniorProgrammer_2013.pdf
AppCampus with Microsoft and Nokia are offering grants to develop games for their platform: http://www.appcampus.fi/about/appcampus
There are 10 lumps of 10k on offer for new web-startups (deadline 2nd Dec!) http://www.webstartbristol.com/
 –
That’s all folks!
Merry Christmas from everyone at BGH :*)

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Bristol Games Hub October Newsletter

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Firstly, we will not be holding a social this month as its Explay Festival and we’re hoping you’ll all be there instead!  Go here for tix if you don’t have yours yet; http://www.explay.co.uk/book-a-place.php
So Bristol Games Hub is holding its first game jam at the new offices on the 3rd floor of 77 Stokes Croft and we’re kicking off with a 24 hour boardgame jam onFriday 22nd November at 6:30pm. You might want to do pure analogue with dice and card or look at ARG tech to mix the physical and digital – this will be an exciting game design challenge. Here’s the link to Eventbrite sign up and I’d advise you get in quick as there’s a lot of interest already; https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/event/8997510797 There is an article about boardgames by hub resident Tomas on this topic.
BGH is also hosting Global Game Jam 2014 in January, deets to follow in the next newsletter.
Huge thanks to all who attended the SW Mobile crossover event and also the talk by Hanna Wirman – both were great events!  We’re lining up more interesting speakers for the November anti-social so watch this space! Follow us on Twitter @bristolgameshub if you’re not already to stay in the loop.
Much to her surprise Debbie Rawlings received the highest award this year at Bristol Media Brand You Awards for Outstanding Achievement to the Games Industry, for her work setting up and running the Hub.  Thanks to everyone that voted and in particular to Ben Trewhella for the nomination 😉
Congratulations also to Peter Simon, our Hub resident for being short-listed in the games category this year, and to Daniel Twomey of Mobile Pie for being short-listed too. Huge congrats go to Ben Templeton of Thought Den as the winner in the games category.
Nils Hellberg
Big Brother Bundle live at VODO!
The word is out: we’re all being watched. It’s never been more important to think about our privacy — and how governments and corporations are invading it. The Big Brother Bundle is a unique “pay what you want”, multimedia bundle containing games, films, graphic novels, books and music all related to privacy, surveillance, and “Big Brother” state control, put together by Nils at Large Visible Machine and VODO. Please check it out and help spread the word:https://vodo.net/bigbrother
Auroch Digital
Chainsaw Warrior on Steam, iOS and Android
Auroch Digital has now released Chainsaw Warrior on Steam as well as Google Play, Amazon Apps and Samsung – you can find out more about the game at the new site promoting the game:http://chainsawwarrior.net
PS. this new site was developed by hub resident Nils Hellberg so thanks to him for his great work!
Nine Worlds Geekfest Talks on Games Writing and Crowd Funding
Auroch Digital worked with the Wellcome Trust to curate events at the Nine World Geekfest in London recently and some of those are online and might be of interest to developers:
– How to Write for Video Games – featuring Rhianna Pratchett (Tomb Raider) and James Swallow (Deus Ex:Human Revolution) – http://bit.ly/17iUn4T
– How to Fund Your Game via Kickstarter and Crowdfunding – Featuring Jan Wagner (Shadowrun Online) and Alex Harvey (Tangiers) – http://bit.ly/1691Ous

This entry was posted in Bristol Games Hub News, Newsletter, of interest.

September 2013 Newsletter

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Bristol Games Hub has moved into its lovely new office, events and meeting space on the top floor of 77 Stokes Croft.  If you haven’t yet visited us, please feel free to come along to our monthly social on the last Thursday of every month from 7:30pm.  So the next one is this Thursday, 26th.
Many thanks to Unity for kindly funding 60 brand new chairs for our events space, which is now up and running.  If you have any ideas for events to support Bristol and the South West’s games development community, please get in touch.
Bristol Games Hub Events
The next Unity meet-up is Wednesday 9th October with Unity’s trainer, Ben Pitt attending to chat to the group about the community’s needs and we’re hoping to address the recent issue of too many jobs, not enough Unity devs at that so please sign up here; https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/event/8451301069
Anti-Social Talk: Chris Roberts of Survivalist Games on ‘Shelter’
At this weeks anti-social we’re happy to welcome Chris Roberts, creator of the excellent indie zombie survival game ‘Shelter’ who will be coming along to talk about his work. Check it out at: http://www.survivalistgames.co.uk/
Bristol Games Hub Life Drawing Classes
We are looking at running a regular life drawing class for the South West games development community so we’d like to gauge interest. The class would run one evening per week from 6:30 to 8:30 at the Bristol Games Hub Event Space. Each session would cost £5, with 2 models doing an hour each and we’d be looking for you to sign up to 4 weeks at a time. If you’re interested in attending these sessions, please send Chris Raadjes an email asap with your details to chris.raadjes at gmail.com. The sooner we know numbers, the sooner we can start.
Auroch Digital Launches Chainsaw Warrior on iOS Today (more platforms in the next couple of weeks)
Auroch Digital is pleased to announce the Games Workshop boardgame we’ve been converting into digital is now out on iOS http://bit.ly/CW00NYios and will be coming to more platforms very soon. We’d really appreciate any reviews, tweets and postings about it.  Here’s a tweet you can chainsaw-n-paste if you want:
Chainsaw Warrior rips into the App Store today! http://bit.ly/CW00NYios RT now as you only have #60mins to save New York!
TEDxBristol
This year’s TEDxBristol is centred around the theme of ‘Failure’. Local speakers with a wide variety of experiences and backgrounds will share their tales of all manner of failures, and how failure has shaped their ideas, outlooks and businesses. Our very own Tomas Rawlings at Auroch Digital will be speaking about failing to get a game into the App Store (Endgame:Syria), and Opposable Games’ Nat Al-Tahhan is this year’s curator & host.
The event will be on Monday 11th November from 10am – 6pm. Nat can organise a discount for group bookings for South West games developers, so let her know if there are a few of you planning to come: nat@opposablegames.com. Links to tickets and further event info can be found at TEDxBristol.com.
PM Studio
Lunchtime Talk: Richard Adams – The illiterate of the 21st century
Friday, 27 September 2013 1:00pm – 2:00pm, Pervasive Media Studio, FREE
Digital polymath and senior academic program manager at Microsoft Studios Richard Adams tells us that “The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.” Come and find out why he thinks that education needs to radically change to have a chance of being relevant in the 21st Century.
Lunchtime Talk: Magicians in residence
Friday, 4 October 2013 1:00pm – 2:00pm, Pervasive Media Studio, FREE
From finding connections between magicians and makers, to mind-reading robot pets, Kieron Kirkland and Stuart Nolan will share with us some of their ideas and inspiration for their impending residency.
Lunchtime Talk: Designing for touchy subjects
Friday, 11 October 2013 1:00pm – 2:00pm, Pervasive Media Studio
For 18 years Aerian has made some of the biggest and best web products in the world.  Managing Director Paul Goodenough and S’unya Dickman Head of Client Side Technology will be telling us all about their adventures and sharing what is involved from a creative and technical perspective when designing for touchable interfaces.
Objects Sandbox
Exploring Human-Experiences Within the Internet of Things
Objects Sandbox will fund six ground-breaking collaborations between creative companies and academic researchers around human-experiences within the Internet of Things.  Each collaboration will receive £50,000 and the opportunity to work intensively on their idea over three months, starting in March 2014. The scheme has extraordinary advisers from across the world of design, technology and Internet of Things and REACT is anticipating some brilliant competition.
Job Opportunities
 
Opposable Games
Opposable Games are hiring! We are currently looking for a full-time project manager, a full-time Unity developer, and a part-time marketing manager.  For more information see http://opposablegames.com/opposable-are-hiring/
Creative Technologist – £25k, full time
Watershed’s Creative Technologist works on a constant and wide-ranging stream of projects: from remote controlling pico projectors to international sprints, tracking balloons across London to a storytelling jukebox, and combining magicians and technology to tweeting dead people. This role requires the ability to understand and inspire, listen and communicate and then make brilliant ideas happen.
Red7Mobile is looking for experienced Mobile Developers to join our team at Temple Studios. If you have a solid computing background and have built apps and games for iOS, Android, Windows and Web we’re interested in talking to you. Its a vibrant creative environment, and our developers are encouraged to hone their skills across multi-platforms. To find out a more contact matt@red7mobile.com

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August 2013 Newsletter

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Anti-Social – Thursday 29th Aug at 7.30pm
Thursday 29th Aug at 7.30pm is the next anti-social.  We’re really happy to say that Ionage (brilliant space RTS) developer Tim Wicksteed will be joining us to talk about his game – don’t miss out!
Opposable Games
Opposable are pleased to announce that the Bottom Knocker Street website is live, with the game to be launched early September.  Bottom Knocker Street is an odd-ball 52 episode kids TV show that starts airing on ITV next weekend.  The extended Opposable team produced a Paperboy / Jetpack Joyride style game featuring the characters of the show, and an accompanying responsive html5 website (www.bottomknockerstreet.com) in a very short timeframe.
Opposable are also looking for beta testers for their OneTouchConnect device connecting technology – more details will appear soon on their website.
Mobile Pie 
Mobile Pie are pleased to announce the launch of their latest game for the BBC – the CBeebies Playtime App! Available on iOS, Google Play and Amazon it’s a must download if you have little ones 🙂 You can read a great write up here: Guardian

Thanks to Nick Dymond and Tom Waterhouse for their help – and of course to the entire Mobile Pie team!
Auroch Digital
Auroch Digital to Release Chainsaw Warrior

We are releasing our Games Workshop title, ‘Chainsaw Warrior’ in the next couple of weeks – you can follow the game’s release on email, twitter and Facebook – http://chainsawwarrior.net – any RTs, likes, ratings and reviews would be very welcome!
Sun and Moon Studios
Dylan from Sun & Moon Studios will be showing a nearly finished version of “The Land of Welsh Tales” at the Hub social on Thursday, a series of five 2d games Sun & Moon made for South Wales police. The games are all based on “Stay Smart” (http://sunandmoonstudios.co.uk/our_work_animation.html#gwent_smart) an animated film S&M made for South Wales Police last year.
Thought Den
Thought Den and the National Portrait Gallery battle to bring 16 Century portraiture to the smartphone and desktop masses! Using HTML5! Wahey!
OK, fine. HTML5 and Javascript are a total pain. We need your help. Hit this Beta version and let us know what you think.
Email any screen grabs of dodginess to testing@thoughtden.co.uk. Thoughts on improvements and extra features also welcome. Hugs for all submissions.
Force Of Habit 

Busy month, here goes!
Dysbiosis – which some of you might remember from Wellcome Trust’s Gamify Your PhD event last year – has been released. You can play the game here http://www.kongregate.com/games/forcehabit/dysbiosis and view the release trailer here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qglzvn-frMg.
We teased everybody with a Toast Time teaser trailer and website update this month. View the trailer here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOLcUEcHrFU and keep an eye out for the release date being announced shortly. You can see it first by subscribing here https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1HMq5GVWpH6frDAn7qkj1O-mr3koWhKzqcn_5mDjNWHM/viewform
We featured in Develop magazine this month in the “New Studio” section. Check it out, we have big faces. http://www.develop-online.net/digital-edition
We wrote an article for Creative England’s “One Thing I Know” website. It’s about how we haven’t killed each other yet, kind of. http://www.onethingiknow.co.uk/making-your-friend-a-business-partner-and-not-killing-him/
Creative England’s Games Lab

Round 1, The Development Fund, is available for SME’s to apply for Grants between £10,000 and £50,000 to completely develop a new Game IP for commercial release. The Development Fund is open now for applications and the deadline is 16th September.  See here for more info; http://www.creativeengland.co.uk/index.php/portfolio/games/

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BRISTOL GAME DEVELOPERS NEWS 23rd JULY 2013

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It really doesn’t feel like a month since our last newsletter but they say time flies when you’re having fun.

The next Unity group meet-up is Wednesday 14th August from 7-9pm at the Hub. Register attendance here: http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/event/7561758423

Antisocial this Thursday from 7:30pm at the Hub.  Strictly people working in and studying games development at these meet-ups.

Large Visible Machine

Hill 218 gets universal support and async multiplayer
iOS game The Battle for Hill 218, a collaboration between Games Hub residents Large Visible Machine and Opposable Games, was recently updated to include universal support and much-requested async multiplayer. It is now easier than ever to find an online opponent and with some real pros sitting at the top of the leaderboards anyone who gives it a go should be in for a challenge even greater than that of the “unbeatable” hard AI. With the release we’ve also seen some interesting discussions on strategy emerging and anyone who is interested should check out this fan-made guide which proves there is quite a bit of depth to the game despite the very simple ruleset:
http://bit.ly/15PsZJZ

Thought Den

New release from Thought Den in collaboration with Splash & Ripple! Capture The Museum is live team-game for up to 50 players inspired by Risk and Trivial Pursuit. But it takes place throughout the museum. Find out more and watch the lovely promo video at capturethemuseum.com Read an analysis of what the game means for the arts and culture sector here on the Guardian http://gu.com/p/3gt4d

Twice Circled

Ionage is an Android exclusive, space RTS game where you use giant floating space platforms to do battle in a steampunk themed galactic treasure hunt. The game is out on Friday 26th July, for more information and to sign up for a reminder when the game is out head to www.ionage.co.uk.

Auroch Digital

Games Workshop’s 80s Classic Chainsaw Warrior is Back

We have today released the news that we are bringing Games Workshop’s classic, Chainsaw Warrior, to mobile and desktop platforms very soon. The seminal hit board game Chainsaw Warrior, made by Games Workshop back in 1987 is set to return this year in a digital form. The original game was a notable rarity in that it was a solo board game that pitted the player not against others but against the clock. The game saw New York balancing on the precipice of darkness as twisted forces from another reality attempted to rip the city from this world into theirs. Standing between them and the destruction of the city was a lone figure, the brutal and mysterious Chainsaw Warrior. As the eponymous hero, the player had to delve into a zombie infested New York tenement to locate the source of the evil spewing through the spatial rift and destroy it before he was destroyed. Spread the word! http://chainsawwarrior.net and #chainsawwarrior

Jack the Ripper 125

We’re over the moon to have been awarded the commission for the iDocs REACT sandbox, for which we’re making an interactive documentary called JtR125 – as November this year is the 125th anniversary of the last of the Whitechapel murders.  We’ll be working in partnership with the DCRC and University of Middlesex on the project.

Shakespeare’s Globe Games

We’ve also just completed 3 new kids games for Globe Theatre ‘Playground’ and given the interesting fact that two of them are built from the same system as some of our GameTheNews.net games; means Endgame:Syria now has 3 incarnations – Endgame:Syria, Endgame:Eurasia and now Hemmings’ Play Company.  Thanks to Red Panda Audio for working with us on the sound for the Globe games.

“Developed in Bristol, UK.” 

Tomas from Auroch Digital says; “Apple have been making a big thing of their new slogan, ‘Designed by Apple in California‘ and I thought that we could also show pride in the games we make and where they are made?  So for the next release of ours we’re adding to the credits of the game, ‘Developed at Bristol Games Hub, Bristol, UK.’  We’ll also be adding it to any titles we update.  So I’d like to encourage others to add ‘Developed by Your Company in Bristol, UK’. Thanks.”

iNet/Creative England

Very last chance to apply for the vouchers for strategy and innovation.

This is a simple scheme designed to help you get the support you need to move your business forward.

The ‘voucher’ means Creative England will pay £1000 to subsidise the cost of employing an expert to provide advice or support to your company.

http://www.creativeengland.co.uk/index.php/portfolio/business-support/#vouchers

JOB OPPORTUNITIES

Complete Control – based in Bath

Complete Control is hiring a games dev to work on Flash games, HTML 5 and apps. Check out the ‘We’re Hiring’ section on completecontrol.co.uk for full details.

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Bristol Game Developers News 27th June 2013

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In no particular order, here is this month’s developer news;

Tom Melamed
I have no idea who this person is (and I can’t remember who tweeted the link) but I really like the idea of a full 3D model of Bristol in 1820. How cool would it be, to be able to walk down your road almost 200 years ago. If anyone wants to help out then it could be a fun project, I don’t have the required skills.

http://www.bristol-venice-of-the-west.blogspot.co.uk/2013_04_28_archive.html

Slingshot
Award-winning game designers, Slingshot, are marking ‘the year of the zombie’ by announcing the launch of Asylum, the sequel to their smash hit city wide zombie chase game, 2.8 Hours Later.

2.8 Hours Later: Asylum is a terrifying night-time zombie street game for hundreds of players. Four years into the outbreak the infection is at pandemic stage and UK cities are on lock down, isolated by the Government from the zombie-infected badlands around them. When these measures fail, the authorities abandon the city, and the once safe zone becomes a prison, overrun with zombies, vigilantes and scavengers. Can you escape state collapse before you are quarantined or infected?

2.8 Hours Later: Asylum will be in Bristol 6th and 7th September and tickets can be bought via http://2.8hourslater.com/tickets-and-dates

Keep an eye on the Facebook page for latest news and updates: http://www.facebook.com/2.8HoursLater

Auroch Digital
Gamify Your PhD Article Published

The Gamify Your PhD project produced by Auroch Digital and involving a number of South West based developers including Opposable, Force of Habit, Remode and Clockwork Cuckoo, had an article by Vickie Curtis of the Open University about the project published in the journal Science Communication.  The abstract can be found here:
Auroch at Games for Change
Auroch Digital’s Tomas and Debbie were at Games for Change in New York, thanks to the support of Bristol City Council and UKTI were they flew the flag for Bristol developers.  Tomas has written a summary of some of the interesting things that came out of the event on his blog:
And watch this space for some very exciting developments coming from Auroch!
Fayju
Fayju went to Los Angeles in June for the “OUYA park” to show Amazing Frog, meet the OUYA team and other indie devs. OUYA Park was a controversial, car park show outside E3. Hilariously, it was blocked by a big Semi truck and security guard courtesy of the mighty ESA (organiser of E3). Indies fought back and the turn out was huge. In short, it was an Awesome 3 Days and we were so glad to have been invited.

OUYA has now launched and Amazing Frog is available on it  – our Frog based, rag doll, ‘hardcore parkour’, unity based, physics game set in Swindon. If you get to play it, let us know what you think.

For now, aside from a serious amount of updates we are working on Amazing Frog, we are gearing up for Gamescom in August where we intend to launch ‘Cascade” and show a demo of it on Hal’s Oculus Rift.

Also check out our videos at http://www.youtube.com/fayjugames

Will Luton
Will Luton’s book Free-To-Play: Making Money from Games You Give Away is now out, covering everything you need to know on building, running and profiting from F2P game. There’s also a lot there including design and marketing theory that applies to non-F2P games. It’s available to buy at http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0321919017/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=0321919017&linkCode=as2&tag=will_luton-21

Opportunities

Auroch Digital are looking for a voiceover actor who can do an American accent, for some recording on a current game they’re developing.  If you know someone suitable please get them to contact me asap.  We only need an hour with them in a studio.  The project is under NDA currently though we will be making an official announcement soon.

Opposable Games are hiring a junior artist and part time marketing manager – for more details see
http://opposablegames.com/job-opposablertunities/

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BRISTOL GAMESDEV NEWSLETTER – 28TH MAY 2013

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May Antisocial – this Thursday 30th May
Jaz Wilson is coming to show off his Oculus Rift, not a euphemism!  He says “Come try a Rift, if you want” at the Hub from 7.30pm. BYOB
Knowledge Share – free events
We held our first Knowledge Share at the Hub last month on Unity and it was a such a success, the group will become a monthly get together for anyone that wants to learn more about Unity and to share what they know already.  It was great to see so many of Aardman’s guys there too!
The Unity group will meet on the second Wednesday of every month, starting on 12th June from 7-9pm at the Hub. BYOB.
June’s Knowledge Share is on Kickstarter and Crowd Funding and is kindly being hosted by the PM Studio (our sister studio), within the Watershed if you haven’t been before. That’s on the first Thursday of the month, so 6th June from 6-8pm and we have a couple of people with real experience of successful and failed campaigns so a fountain of knowledge. Please sign up for this free event here; http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/event/6511288439
 

Pervasive Media Studio

Good for Food: Good for Nothing 48 hour social innovation hackathonFriday, 31 May 2013 6:00pm – Sunday, 2 June 2013 4:00pm, Pervasive Media Studio

A different kind of jam – Good for Nothing is a community of thinkers, do-ers, makers and tinkerers applying their skills and energy to accelerate the work of cause-led innovators and change makers; it’s about diverse groups of people collaborating together, working in new, faster, fun and better ways by supporting ideas and people that are leading the way to what a flourishing 21st century society might look like. This year the theme is food and the weekender will be supporting great local community growing schemes, The Severn Project and Fareshare.  www.goodfornothing.com/gigs/good-for-food

Auroch Digital
NarcoGuerra Launched!
The latest game from Auroch Digital’s GameTheNews.net project was released last week which looks at the war on drugs.  The press info is here:  http://bit.ly/1243tlE
The trailer is here: http://bit.ly/narco1youtube
Tweets about #NarcoGuerra, reviews of the game and any mentions gratefully received!
Cheltenham Science Festival – (Auroch Digital helped to curate this event)
Coding the Game – 6th June at Cheltenham Festival
From the ‘bedroom coders’ of the 80s to the studios behind many of today’s most popular international video games, the UK has always been at the forefront of games development. Dara O Briain joins Alex McLean, a 20-year games veteran most recently CTO at Codemasters and former head of their Bafta winning Birmingham studio, Chris Cummings, Senior Gameplay Programmer at Media Molecule and lead coder on the Playstation Move Content for Little Big Planet, and neuroscientist Luke Clark to get into the detail of modern video game
Game Connection Group Discount
Game Connection is on 3rd-5th December in Paris and is a meeting place for developers and publishers.  We can get discount on lots of us going, so let Debbie know if you are interested and we can gauge interest about getting a discount.  More on the event here: http://www.game-connection.com/gameconn/content/badgeprices-europe-2013
 
Mobile Pie
Mobile Pie are proud to announce the launch of Mint Master, our latest project for Historical Royal Palaces and the Royal Mint. It’s on iOS, Android and Web and can be played here: http://www.hrp.org.uk/TowerOfLondon/stories/palacehighlights/CoinsandKings/MintMaster?ns_campaign=CoinsandKings&ns_mchannel=web&ns_source=carousel&ns_linkname=playgame&ns_fee=0
Thanks to members of the Bristol Games community for their help on this one, including Nick Dymond, Tom Waterhouse and James Parker.

Job Opportunities

Calvium – We are hiring! We don’t make a lot of games but we make fun projects and could really do with a good junior front end developer. The full job spec is here: http://calvium.com/front-end-developer-job-2013/

Red7Mobile – Red7Mobile is looking for a Web Developer to join their mobile games team at Temple Studios. Essential skills include HTML5/CSS3/Javascript with previous games development experience desirable. To find out more contact matt@red7mobile

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Bristol GamesDev Newsletter – 29th April 2013

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Bristol Games Hub
Bristol Games Hub is thriving and we’ve had some more space opened up to us recently so we have some desks available to rent on a daily, weekly or monthly basis.  Contact Debbie for more info.
Our first monthly Knowledge Share is happening on Thursday 2nd May from 6-8pm and we’re kicking off with a session on Unity. These are free events and pizza will be provided for this one. Sign up on Eventbrite here!
Force of Habit
Along with a sizeable Bristol contingent, Force Of Habit attended the Launch conference up in Birmingham last Tuesday. In the unlikely (borderline irresponsible) event that you missed it, we put together a write-up of the day, offering all sorts of advice covering how to deal with the press. That’s right, we’ve also got a blog now. Head along to http://forceofhab.it/ for some juicy language snacks.

Will Luton
Will Luton’s book Free-to-Play: How to Make Money From Games You Give Away is now available for preorder on Amazon: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0321919017/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=0321919017&linkCode=as2&tag=will_luton-21 and will be published by Pearson on 16 June. He has also just launched a new blog at http://www.will-luton.co.uk/

Auroch Digital
XX Game Jam Workshops
Following on from the highly successful XX Game Jam which Debbie produced back in October 2012, the first all female game jam in the UK, Auroch Digital are running a number of workshops in May for women with tech and/or creative skills to make the crossover from other disciplines into games.  The workshops are free to participants and funded by the DCRC and FiG (Females in Games) to encourage more women into the games industry.  There are currently only 6% of women working in games when you take out the supporting roles.  UKIE along with many other partners are now working to change that!  Please contact Debbie for more info.
 
Get £2K+ to Game Jam Cutting Edge Science into Fun: Deadline 1st May
The Royal Society is looking for experienced games development studios to take part in a new initiative that will turn some of the research on show at its annual Summer Science Exhibition into video games. The Royal Society will host a 12 hour game jam on 24th May that will see developers work with the scientists behind exhibits to produce five exciting new games. Five development teams of up to 4 developers will be partnered with the selected exhibitors for an all-day game jam from 10am – 10pm. Each development team will receive £2,000 to further develop their games after the game jam so that they are ready to be played at the Summer Science Exhibition which runs from 1st – 7th July. The games will be available free online and at the exhibition itself so that the public can cast votes for their favourite game. The team that receives most votes will receive an additional £2,000 to further develop their game once the Exhibition closes.  This is a great opportunity to get your name known, make some amazing games and get paid too!  Reasonable travel costs, food and refreshments will also be provided. Interested developers can find out more about the competition and how to apply from the Royal Society’s website at http://bit.ly/RSgamejam
Pervasive Media Studio
Ken Eklund – Transmedia For Change
Tuesday, 30 April 2013 1:00pm – 2:00pm, Pervasive Media Studio, BS1 5TX, FREE
The Pervasive Media Studio and UWEs Digital Cultures Research Centre present a very special, one-off lunchtime talk with game and experience designer Ken Eklund.
From World Without Oil to Ed Zed Omega and Evoke (and Future Coast, upcoming), much of Ken’s work enlists the hypothetical context of Alternate Reality Gaming (ARG) to pose questions about social change and societal challenges. He’ll discuss “authentic fiction,” the art of designing for mass participation, and the potential of play in social change.
Lunchtime Talk: Mitch Altman on Hackerspaces, and the Pluses and Minuses of Technology
Friday, 10 May 2013 1:00pm – 2:00pm, Pervasive Media Studio, BS1 5TX, FREE
Godfather of hackerspaces, pioneer of VR and creator of TV-B-Gone Universal remote will be joining us for a good chat/rant/argument about who owns technology, global open developer communities, and what happens when profit drives progress.  Will this change be good?  Can we have influence over it?  Will hackerspaces be an ameliorating and positive influence?
Mobile Pie
We’re proud to announce the launch of Mobile Pie Stockholm! Read more about our second studio here: http://www.mobilepie.com/2013/04/mobile-pie-sweden/
With Pavilion Dance South West and UWE we’re working on an innovative new social game and are looking for a freelance community manager. If you happen to know anyone who might be interested there’s more information here: http://www.paviliondance.org.uk/page/3312
Job Opportunities
 
Rumpus Animation

Rumpus Animation are looking to take on a Unity developer for a point and click game we are making. If anyone is interested email seb@rumpusanimation.com

Opposable Games

Opposable are looking for some Uni interns / recent grads to help with 3 things: some networking tech which requires Android chops, then some Unity and web work. Students are initially preferable, but if we don’t hear anything by end April then it’s open to everyone. Please pass on to any students you may know!

 
Geek Beach

We’re looking for a full-time 3D artist to come and help make cool mobile games at Geek Beach in Bristol. If you are, or know someone, who has lots of experience creating low poly characters and environments as well as animating them (as an example see our game Battle Monkeys) then please get in touch. You can find more info here –http://geekbeach2.squarespace.com/3d-designer/ Thanks!

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