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Bristol Games Hub Newsletter

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Next Games Hub Anti-Social: 26th Feb, 7.30pm

We’ve got two demos! Infinite State Games and Lukas Roper from Opposable Games.

Lukas will be showing a short presentation (or possibly a demo) on a VR hardware, technical side project that he’s been working on.

Mike from Infinite State Games is going to show us his Frutorious HD on iOS.  It is a completely re-designed and re-polished remaster of Frutorious SD.  The SD version released in 2012 was nominated for two TIGA awards. This version has totally HD art, every single level has been polished and re-balanced to within an inch of its life, and has had innumerable tweaks and improvements made over the last 3 years. It has 144 levels of goofy puzzle platforming action and NO IAP!  Oh also, the voice of Frutorious F.I.G. is provided by Bristol based rapper ChetMega. Come and have a play and give feedback & ask questions….

So join us on the 26th Feb at 7.30pm – we’ve got a buzzer! The entrance is off Thomas Street, just up from the junction of Thomas St/Stokes Croft, above what was DHS Heating.

Games Hub News:

We’ve got the new board games night on 4th March at 7.30pm – full info below in ‘Diary’ section…

Dev Scene News

Knowle West Media Centre – Visible You

A group of 8 Junior Digital Producers at KWMC are creating a documentary to address the issue of reported increased numbers of 13 – 19 year olds who are socially isolated. The team has started a Made Open crowd funding campaign here to contribute towards equipment that they need and promoting the project. You can read more about it here and get in touch with them on Twitter and Facebook.

Allicorn Games

Bristol based Allicorn Games proudly launches their first title this month. “Heckabomb”, a twin-stick shooter for PC, will be available on Steam and other stores from Feb 27th.
http://store.steampowered.com/app/344300

Auroch Digital – Chainsaw Warrior: Lords of the Night hits Steam!

Our 2nd title with Games Workshop has just hit Steam. It can be found here: http://store.steampowered.com/app/307600/ – if you are a reviewer and want a review copy, drop us an email to geoff at aurochdigital.com. We’d appreciate if you could Like this Facebook post, Upvote this Reddit post and/or RT this tweet!  Thanks 🙂

Barbara-ian Hits Greenlight

Barbara-ian is a super fast paced twin-stick dungeon crawler focused on pure action. Using a physics-based combat system where 1 hit kills kills anything and everyone (including you), collect randomised weapons and master the procedurally generated dungeons. Unlike other dungeon crawler heroes, Barbara-ian has no inventory, no skill system, no health bars. She doesn’t want to duel with her enemies, doesn’t want to carry a bag full of calipers OR tongs, and she doesn’t need a spreadsheet to tell her how to kick ass. She just wants to smash.  Our greenlight page is here. There’s a beta-testing build available here (which everyone is welcome to)  Aaaaand the trailer, featuring a beautiful rendition of O Fortuna with the lyrics… adjusted, performed by myself, Sam Chester & colleague Kristian Andrews, is here  (Watch the volume on that one). Follow us on twitter for more updates! @SamChesterD & @KristianAndrews

Force of Habit

Busy busy busy! Let’s go with bullet points…

  • We released a mobile mini Sinking Feeling to iOS and Android. It was featured for a bit, which was awesome.
  • Our long-awaited bullet hell party game Friendship Club is coming to Steam Early Access very soon!
    • We’re announcing everything tomorrow Tuesday 24th. Stick your email address in here if you want the big notification. Or, you know, keep an eye on Twitter.
  • Finally, we’ve been working on a tool to help indie devs and small studios (like you!) manage their PR and marketing. More info on that in the next newsletter!

Jobs & Opportunities

2 Roles at Play Nicely

Play Nicely (www.playnicely.co.uk) are looking for an experienced freelance Unity 3D developer & a3D character animator. Experienced freelance Unity 3D developer to work in-house for an exciting project starting in the next couple of weeks. 3D character animator for rigging and animating high res human characters, AAA game quality. Can anyone interested in this role email megan at playnicely.co.uk with your availability, day rate and a link to your most recent portfolio please?

Unreal Offers Dev Grants

More info here.

EU Fund for Games is Open

More info here.

Bristol Anime & Gaming Con – Looking for Devs

…to show their games off at the event. Find out more and get in touch…

Events Diary

24th Feb: South West VR Conference

On Tuesday, 24th February, Opposable Games will be hosting the SouthWest VR Conference. Tickets have now sold out and the office is buzzing with excitement. We’ve got some incredible speakers coming to talk about aspects of narrative, storytelling and the way virtual reality will shake up the entertainment industry. After three months of hard work, planning and late nights, the team is almost ready for the event. As you can imagine, the event’s organiser Dan Page is over the moon! All the hard work is now paying off and in just under 4 days time, the fruits of the team’s labour will be realised.

Recently additions to the lineup include local tech start up Ultrahaptics, which has been continuously making headlines with its award-winning tactile technology. Delegates of the South West VR Conference will be given the chance to try out this impressive technology. Another recent addition is the mindbogglingly impressive company Nozon, who’ve somehow managed to add positional tracking to 360 videos.

Adding to our great features, exhibitors and speakers, we will be live streaming the event in virtual reality in Riftmax Theatre! This means viewers can put on their DK1 and DK2 Oculus Rifts, meet up with the rest of our virtual reality community and watch the event’s talks for themselves. In addition to this, we’ll be filming the event in 360 with the help of immersiv.ly, and making the talks available and viewable in VR at a later date.

During the day we will also be fundraising for UK charity GamesAid, a great organisation that helps disadvantaged and disabled children and young people. We’re on the lookout for volunteers to help out with the running of the conference. If you’re interested in virtual reality and want a chance to brush shoulders with some of the most influential people in the industry, this weekend is your last chance to contact us! It’s going to be an amazing day, we’re looking forward to seeing you.

26th Feb: 7.30pm – Games Hub Anti-Social

See above for details.

26th Feb: New European Media Meeting

New European Media is an industry association that advises the European Commission on its funding programmes. Its constituency includes all major European organisations working in the networked and electronic media area: content providers, creative businesses, broadcasters, network equipment manufacturers, network operators and service providers, academia, standardisation bodies and government institutions. NEM is currently developing a proposal for a major European fund to accelerate the development of ‘immersive entertainment technologies’. On February 26th the organisation is hosting its General Assembly in the UK for the first time. This will be a major event, featuring leading figures in the fields of media and entertainment technology including a presentation by Colin Davidson, Chief Scientist at The Imaginarium Studios. Colin is a double Academy Award winner and a world expert on 3D, computer vision, VFX, performance capture, and image-based modelling. You can get more information and register for the event here: http://nem-initiative.org/19th-nem-general-assembly/

4th March: BGH Board Games Night

Join us on 4th March from 7.30pm at Bristol Games Hub to play board games! We’ll have a few here but also bring yours along to play. Last event was great fun and lots of new and classic games were played… Email tom at aurochdigital dot com if any queries…

4-6th March: GDC

GDC is here again in San Francisco, USA. You might want to support Dames Making Games going there to show off dames making games?

Quick Links

Thanks all!

Ye Hub of Games Bristole 2015 Newsletter for all Things New!!

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Bristol Games Hub Newsletter

Below is news 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 news letter, host events and also rent desk space at a cost price with no strings attached so you can get on and create amazing games. Contact geoff at aurochdigital.com for more information or with news items for the next newsletter and let us know news for the next one by 15th February please!

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 your information in the public domain: http://bit.ly/bghdirectory

SW Game Dev Jobs Facebook pageFind roles and post new openings here…

Next Games Hub Anti-Social: 29th January, 7.30pm

This month we’ve got:

Jack the Ripper: Shadow Over Whitechapel – An Anatomy of our Crowdfunding Campaign so far..

Auroch Digital and their GameTheNews.net project are about to launch their crowd-funding campaign for the playable documentary title on the Jack the Ripper murders. Auroch’s community manager @AurochJake & designer @TomasRawlings will give a tour through the extensive prep work that has gone into the campaign and the particular challenges with launching a campaign based on real events.

So join us on the 29th January at 7.30pm – we’ve got a buzzer! The entrance is off Thomas Street, just up from the junction of Thomas St/Stokes Croft, above what was DHS Heating.

Plus – if people are good, there will be a special post-social bit of gaming (shhh)…

Unity Developers Group

The first Unity meetup of the year is to take place on 28th January 7.30pm. A new year awaits and with Unity 5 looming in the horizon it is going to be an exiting one. The meetup will follow the traditional format with us gathering at the Games Hub, showcases of what people have made or a chance to ask for questions to the problems the members are facing in their current development. Signup for the meetup can be found here: http://www.meetup.com/Bristol-Unity-Game-Developers-Meetup/events/219916255/

We hope to see a lot of cool prototypes since the meetup lies after the Global Game Jam. As always we will be heading to a nearby pub at around 10pm after we finish..

Dev Scene News

On 24th February, 2015, Opposable Games will host the SouthWest VR Conference at the At-Bristol Science Centre

SouthWest VR Conference is a one-day event with a focus on narrative and storytelling within virtual reality. The format will consist of quick-fire talks from significant industry-leading figures with plenty of time to network and try out the hardware, software and 360 degree movies on show.

Taking place at the At-Bristol Science Centre in Bristol on February 24, the conference has already attracted big-name official guests such as Oculus, the developer of the Oculus Rift virtual reality head-mounted display, Aardman, Pinewood, The Imaginarium and Yogscast, with quick-fire talks by Atlantic Productions’ Alchemy VR, Unity 3D, nDreams and Innerspace lined up. Other high profile speakers will be announced in the coming weeks.  We’ll touch upon the challenges and lessons learnt telling stories and making games, experiences and films for virtual reality devices, but don’t plan to be too hung up on the technical side of things in the main track. For those that would like to talk tech however, a second track will feature demos and talks on VR input, gesture, facial recognition and more from some of the smartest minds in the business.

SouthWest VR, which is to be hosted by renowned games journalist Will Freeman, will also provide delegates with a chance to try out the latest in virtual reality technology including the Oculus Rift Development Kit 2 and Samsung’s Gear VR Innovator Edition, powered by Oculus along with a few special surprises. The line-up of speakers and guests at SouthWest VR includes: Callum Underwood, European developer relations manager at Oculus; Phil Harper, creative director at Atlantic Productions’ Alchemy VR; Patrick O’Luanaigh, CEO of virtual reality-focused games studio nDreams; and Nick Pittom, director of critically acclaimed VR studio Fire Panda.

SouthWest VR will be fundraising for UK charity GamesAid, which will be running a GamesAid Tenner collection. Attendees are asked to bring £10 with them to donate to GamesAid.

The conference is supported by Invest Bristol & Bath, Creative Skillset, the Digital Cultures Research Centre, Webstart Bristol, the Centre for Digital Entertainment, the BMT Group and Unity 3D.  For more information, tickets and links to our social media visit www.southwestvr.com

Skills empowerment workshop for women working in the games industry – 3rd Fed 10am-5pm in Bristol

Following on from the UK Gender Balanced Workforce Survey last month, which had an overwhelming response of over 300, this series of workshops across the UK supported by renowned industry speakers is set to empower women involved in the games industry by focusing on the skill areas women identified as wanting to advance in more… Sign up to take part here:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/skills-empowerment-workshop-for-women-working-in-the-games-industry-bristol-tickets-15251731339

Global Games Jam 2015

We’ve had this at the Watershed, Creative England and Bristol Games Hub. This year UWE is hosting the event and it’s FREE to enter! – UWE is hosting GGJ15 Bristol! Registrations are now open! The Global Game Jam 2015 is taking place around the world on the 23rd January with UWE as a registered site. Doors open from 4pm at Frenchay Campus. It is a chance to come together, be creative, share experiences and express ourselves in a multitude of ways using video games. Be it programming, iterative design, narrative exploration or artistic expression, after a 48-hour development cycle you will have taken part in the world’s largest game creation event. Many participants have gone on to release their titles, but taking part is also an excellent way to expand your portfolio of work. We encourage people with all kinds of backgrounds in game development and creativity so if you are interested please register at the UWE Global Game Jam Site with your team details at the following link: http://globalgamejam.org/2015/jam-sites/gamestech-university-west-england

Auroch Digital

First off we’d like to say congratulations to our Director of Operations (and hub director) Debbie Rawlings as she’s been listed in the Top 100 Women in Games! Also we’re gearing up to launch our first Kickstarter in Feb – our project on the Jack the Ripper murders. You can get a flavor of it here. We’re also giving a talk about the project at the next anti-social to share our planning process.

Pretty Digital

Have been awarded support by Creative England after successfully meeting the crowdfunding targets in the Queen of Code competition. Work on their first game has begun! http://www.prettydigital.co.uk/

Jobs & Opportunities

Aardman Opportunities

Aardman Digital are looking for talented Flash Animators and HTML5 Developers to work on a number of exciting new projects looking to kick off around early February! If this sounds like your cup of tea, and you’re interested in joining the best team EVER, please contact digital at aardman.com for more information.

Game Jam Co-ordinator

As part of the GamesLab South West programme, Creative England are looking for a delivery partner to organise a 2-day Game Hack for indie devs in the region. If you are interested in applying to run the jams, please email ella.waving atcreativeengland.co.uk for more info. Do so quick as the final deadline for completed applications is 30th Jan.

PlayWest/UWE

Our Game Simulation Post for Bloodhound SSC is now live, and has a closing date of19th January, so if this is of interest, act quickly. £24k / 1 year fixed term with possibility of extension. Looking for experience of making things pretty and go FAST in Unity. Click through to Computer Science & Creative Technology. See here: http://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/AKH006/games-technologist-vehicle-educational-simulator-project/

Events Diary

23rd Jan, 4pm+ GGJ15

Global Games Jam! It’s at UWE – see above.

28th Jan, 7.30pm Unity Developer Group

At the hub – see above.

29th Jan, 7.30pm – Games Hub Anti-Social:

Auroch Digital will give a tour though the extensive prep work that has gone into their new crowdfunding campaign – see above.

30th Jan, 1pm: Syncself 2 – How Tech can enhance the Storytelling Experience (PM Studio)

Friday, 30 January 2015 13:00 to 14:00: Karen Palmer will introduce us to SYNCSELF 2, a Transmedia Parkour Neurogame, an immersive storytelling experience in which the obstacles that the freerunners face within a film are determined by the user’s mental focus. http://www.watershed.co.uk/pmstudio/events/fri-30012015-100pm

24th Feb – SouthWest VR Conference

Full info is above!

Quick Links

Thanks all!

Chrimbo Newsletter

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Special Offer on New Desks! Bristol Games Hub is offering 5 desks to new residents at half-price for the first month i.e. just £55 (that’s internet, all bills, tea &coffee and of course a desk and chair). Please email Debbie if you’re interested debbie at aurochdigital dot com (Update! Four desks have gone now – so just one left!!)

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 pageFind roles and post new openings here…

Next Games Hub Anti-Social: 29th Jan 2015, 7.30pm

We will be giving more info about what is in the session in the January newsletter. There is a lot happening in early 2015, so do watch this space! If you want to do a talk – drop us an email to geoff at aurochdigital.com with the idea and info.

Dev Scene News

Siobhan Reddy to Judge Digital Challenge

Siobhan Reddy of Media Molecule is confirmed as a judge for the Green Capital Digital Challenge! Time to get in the action before the deadline closes and the spaces fill up! https://www.bristol2015.co.uk/digitalchallenge/

Peter Simon (Demon Apathy) – Silly Village

Hey everyone! My interactive children’s book, Silly Village is finally finished! Check it out if you have an iPad and a kid. Or just an iPad.
It’s a tiny tale about a bunch of forest animals who are…well, not the brightest.
Hope you’ll enjoy!
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/silly-village-tale-brainless/id944638587?ls=1&mt=8

Auroch Digital’s GameTheNews.net Listed in Nominet 100

Auroch Digital are honored to have been included in the 2014 Nominet 100 – a list of technology organisations, companies and individuals doing amazing things for the social good with tech. Auroch Digital were included for our GameTheNews.net project, which is exploring newsgames as a means of engaging people with real-world issues via gaming. There is more information on the nomination here and the full list is here.

Make It: Technobabble – Online free game maker for kids

Aardman have just released a public beta version of a game making and digital creativity tool they are making for the BBC: http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/games/make-it-technobabble-game-maker
We’ve been doing lots of user testing which going to feed into the release version to be launched in February. All thoughts from Bristol Games community appreciated, please email: George.rowe@aardman.com

Queen of Code – Lux and the shadowmaker Crowdfunder

Constance Fleuriot is one of the women making games who have joined the Queen of Code initiative recently launched by Creative England and Crowdfunder UK to encourage more women into developing their own game projects. Now live on Crowdfunder UK, her game, Lux & The Shadowmaker, has until December 22nd to hit its target of £5000 – achievable if 172 people each pledge £20!
http://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/lux-and-the-shadowmaker
There’s more information about the game itself on PrettyDigital.co.uk or follow@prettydigi for updates. The first phase of development of Lux & The Shadowmaker will focus on making the mac/pc game, with plans for an immersive VR/Oculus Rift version as soon as possible.
Constance is more than happy to talk non-stop to anyone who is interested in the story of the game and how it will look, feel and sound.

Jobs & Opportunities

Creative Industry Finance Loans

Creative Industry Finance is an Arts Council England initiative, delivered by Creative United, offering business development support and access to finance for creative industry enterprises – including games! Find out more at https://www.creativeindustryfinance.org.uk/

Reach Robotics

Adventurous Android and software developer position open at Reach Robotics, we’re developing the world’s first gaming robots. Have a look at our main site here: www.reachrobotics.com for context and job description here:www.reachrobotics.com/openings

Playwest/UWE Games

PlayWest / @UWEGames have an exciting opportunity for a Unity dev to work modelling (bringing to life) live data from Bloodhound SSC and it’s world land speed record. Full ad. will be live imminently and I’ll update this post with details, but until then, if you’ve done “pretty” or “realistic” or even “FAST” In Unity there could be a 24k fixed term post at Frenchay campus with us, with potential for more work with PlayWest in future….oh, and access to the 1000mph car, the team and the achievement of involvement with this prestigious project itself! Any questions, tweet @andy_m_k / @playwesthq

Daredevil Project

The Daredevil Project is a venture-backed start up based in the PM Studio building a competitively social mobile app. We’re on a fast paced journey and looking for a Backend Developer to make a significant contribution to our team.
The ideal candidate will be managing all of the backend requirements for the app and our online presence. We’re after an excellent communicator who wants to help define the business, own the backend development and work closely with our frontend team. Contact us: mark@daredevilproject.com

Events

What an adventure! Bertram Fiddle launched on iOS.

Rumpus is proud to announce that the first episode of our point and click series staring Bertram Fiddle, leading Victorian explorator can now be found on the App Store. To our delight we even got featured on the front page!
The game is currently on launch sale at £2.99 for the rest of December so if you fancy a bit of adventure then now’s the time to get our little quirky game.
Get it here.

Opposable Games to host South West VR Conference

On February 24th, 2015, Opposable Games is to host the inaugural South West VR Conference at the At-Bristol Science Centre with guests including Oculus, Alchemy VR, Unity, The Imaginarium, Bossa, nDreams, Tammeka Games, Ana Ribeiro, Fire Panda, Triangular Pixels and many more to be confirmed. With a large focus on narrative and storytelling, SouthWest VR will look at the ways in which virtual reality is set to shake up the entertainment industry by completely transforming the way we interact with films, games, TV and animation. Early bird tickets are on sale via Eventbrite until 24th December, visit SouthWestVR.comand follow @SouthWestVR for more info, or get in touch with Dan Page if you’d like to speak, sponsor or exhibit.
We recently worked with local firm Simpleweb on a prototype augmented reality game for McDonalds by the name of Picca Pirates, you can read all about it from Simpleweb’s perspective here. Make sure you check out the presentation for an interesting look at how social games in “restaurants of the future” can feed useful data into a CRM.

Quick Links

Thanks all!

Gaming and Tech Camps for Kids and Teens

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Young gamers are invited to get creative this summer holidays with Fire Tech Camp. On 5-day courses at UWE, 9-12 year-olds can build their very own video games while teenagers can learn the fundamentals of Java coding through game design. Fire Tech Camp, whose mission is to empower young people with digital technology, are celebrating their Bristol launch with £75 off all local summer camps.
 
Link
More information and online booking: http://www.firetechcamp.com/courses/?location=bristol

Unity Game Devs Monthly Meet-up on 23rd April

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Monthly Unity Game Devs Meetup at Bristol Games Hub Restarting on Wednesday 23rd April from 7:30pm.
Unity is a powerful and easy to learn game engine for 2D and 3D development that is becoming more and more popular. On top of that it offers a very capable free version and can build to a wide range of platforms including, desktop, mobile and web.

This free monthly meetup is to support the sprawling community of game developers that use Unity in Bristol. The goal is to create a place where new and experienced Unity users can share their experience and knowledge with each other. The programme for each session will roughly be:

19.30-20.30 Talk on a Unity related topic. The first one will be an introduction to Unity for programmers and non-programmers alike.
20.30-22.00 Mingling and mind sharing between the attendees. If you are facing any issues or have made a cool game prototype this is when we would like to see and talk about it!
22.00-??.?? We end the event with a trip to the local pub for those that fancy a pint or two.

The meetup is run by Alexander Birke and Sam Chester, both local developers that use Unity in their daily work. On top of that Alexander has been teaching and given talks on Unity for over 4 years. The talks at the first couple of sessions will therefore be held by Alexander on a variety of topics.

Please sign up on Eventbrite here as we’re expecting a good turnout;  http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/monthly-unity-game-devs-meetup-tickets-11268569595

 

 

Popathon Creative Jam at PM Studio on Saturday 22nd March

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Calling all JavaScript coders/hackers & Graphic/UI designers!
 
Popathon – Saturday, March 22
 
PM Studio 
10:00 – 17:00
£5 (to cover all day refreshments)
 
On Saturday, March 22nd Bristol’s first Popathon will take place at the PM Studio. A day-long creative hack-jam giving participants hands-on experience creating interactive stories on the web. Visual storytellers, JavaScript coders and Graphic & UI Designers get together to exchange skills and collaborate on real-world projects.
 
We’ll introduce open source tools like Popcorn.js, a JavaScript library that integrates the web into media production. You team up to design interfaces, create new open-source code and demo prototypes of your own interactive web-native stories.
 
Teams compete against the clock, not against each other. The hack jam is a great opportunity to learn about new tools and tricks by creative collaboration.
 
The event will be run by Philo Van Kemenade and Gilles Pradeau – who present the FridayLunchtime talk at PM Studio on March 21st. 
 
To find out more and sign up for spot, visit: http://bit.ly/1i3sFh2
 
Please feel free to circulate at will – this is an open call to participation. 

February Bristol and South West Game Developers 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.
And I’m 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 Mongoose

Other 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! 

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!
 
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.

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
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/

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!

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/
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

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/

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 want to get ahead of the crowd, please do send us your CV if you are a Unity coder or Unity artist looking for work; debbie at aurochdigital.com
 
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

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

 

Auroch Digital Job Opportunity for a Book-keeper

Posted on

Auroch Digital have an opening for a qualified, experienced book-keeper, initially for 2 days per week for an immediate start. Please send CV and a covering letter to debbie at aurochdigital dot com

The Wellcome Trust Funding Opportunities

Posted on Updated on

The Wellcome Trust have a few funding opportunities with deadlines for the end of January;

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
31st January  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:
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.

Job Opportunity at Auroch Digital for an Experienced Designer/Producer

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Auroch Digital have an opening for an experienced designer/producer for a 3 month contract initially, starting in January. Be part of a growing indie studio working on a wide variety of games projects. This role will be based at Bristol Games Hub. Please send CVs and a covering letter to debbie at aurochdigital dot com by 5pm on Wednesday 18th December, with interviews taking place on Thursday 19th, although do please get in touch if that’s an issue. Feel free to share far and wide. Thanks

No recruitment agencies, thank you!