The Wellcome Trust Funding Opportunities

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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.

Bristol Games Hub December Newsletter – News, Jobs,Games and More!

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Bristol Games Hub Directors and residents wish you all a happy festive season and all good things in 2014!  
 
Firstly, we have a couple of tickets spare for our Christmas party at the Spiegeltent this Thursday so if anyone would like to join us, please get in touch with me asap. Tix are £55 each and includes bubbles on arrival, 3 course meal, crazy entertainment, a swing band and lots of dancing! 26 of us are going so it’ll be a great night and I’d really like to sell these on for a couple of our friends that have had to drop out due to a family bereavement.

 
There will be no December social so the next anti-social will take place at the end of January now.  We’ll also be announcing how we’re planning to take part in the Global Games Jam 24th to the 26th January at the Hub – so keep the date free! 
 
 
Auroch Digital – Bristol
Auroch have a couple of openings. Please see Job Opportunities below for deets 😉
 
Nine Worlds Geekfest Talks All Online Now…
Auroch Digital worked with the Wellcome Trust to curate events at the Nine World Geekfest and all of the videos are now online:
– 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
– Cyberpunk 2077 Developer Session
– Cyberpunk – The Dystopian Prism (with Cory Doctrow and Charles Stross & more…)
– Why we are fascinated by Disease (with Plague Inc & Project Zomboid Developers)
 
Explay Festival
The ExPlay 2013 movie is now uploaded! We also have our official pictures online, so please share if you care. Many thanks for all our supporters, sponsors, speakers and of course visitors this year! It really was our best year to date! Have a great festive break and see you again in 2014… oh, and if anyone has any ideas or comments about what they might want to see at next years festival, then please email info@explay.co.uk 
 
ExPlay 2013 in film – http://youtu.be/PKLzi4-RRmo
ExPlay 2013 in pictures – http://www.flickr.com/photos/111421995@N04/
 
Force of Habit – Bristol
Over the past eighteen months we’ve been part of the team working with Simon Roth on his game Maia and are happy to announce that it is now on Steam Early access. Sales this first week have been amazing and the game is now funded to completion.

As a bit of a wind down for Christmas we’ve been experimenting with ZX Spectrum graphics emulation in OpenGL. If you’d like to read about how we’ve done it, Ashley has written a blog post.

Have a lovely Christmas everybody. Big hugs. Kiss. xoxo etc.

Mutant Labs – Plymouth
Mutant Labs has released a version of their game, half-inch heist, for the Leap Motion. Called Half-Inch Heist Turbo, it uses the Leap Motion controller. a video can be found here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zN3DrVq06zg

A press pack can be found here: http://halfinchheist.com/turbo/press_pack.zip

Static Games – Bournemouth                                                                 – Static Games Ltd. gets an honourable mention in Microsoft’s Imagine Cup Pitch Video Challenge with a new, as yet unannounced title! The next step is stage two, the Project Blueprint Challenge.

(link: http://staticgames.wordpress.com/2013/12/09/microsoft-imagine-cup-pitch-video-challenge/)

– Static Games’ fun farm and genetics simulator, “Mendel’s Farm” is now on Valve’s Steam service as a Greenlight concept! This is the first step in getting a title “greenlit” and will introduce the game to a huge audience worldwide who can comment, rate and make suggestions about what will appear in the final game — we would love to hear from everyone!

(link 1: http://staticgames.wordpress.com/2013/12/02/mendels-farm-steam-greenlight/)

(link 2: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=158549153)

Pocket Gamer Connects: 20-21st January 2014 – Vinopolis – London

Brand new for 2014 comes Pocket Gamer Connects, a global mobile games conference from Steel Media, the publisher behind Pocket Gamer and PocketGamer.biz.

Building on our experience of running the leading mobile games industry portal alongside some of the best industry networking events, we believe we can bring something fresh to the conference scene that will be genuinely useful, engaging, and enjoyable.   

What is PG Connects?

  • Two Content tracks – “East meets West” global publishing stage and our How to be an Indie Rockstar stage
  • Stunning location in the heart of London
  • A jam packed day of fringe events including our Very Big Indie Pitch and a Pocket Gamer Drink up
  • Interactive workshops
  • Exciting exhibition area and top notch networking
  • Awesome Pocket Gamer Party – to end all parties!

Who should attend?

Like most of the activities under the Steel Media banner, Pocket Gamer Connects aims to be an inclusive event, providing something of value to a wide range of industry players.

However, the two core focal points are global game publishing strategies (particularly in key Asian markets) and providing a survival guide for indie development studios. All of which means it’s especially useful for the following groups.

The Very Big Indie Pitch – 20th January 

Following the success of our three Big Indie Pitch events in 2013, we’re bringing an even bigger and better version to the PG Connects schedule.

The Very Big Indie Pitch will be exactly what it says on the tin: a mammoth developer pitching competition open to all types of independent developers, wherever they are.

We have 80 big name speakers from the global mobile world inclusing representatives from Tencent, Kakao, Perfect World, Halfbrick, Rovio, and King for what promises to be an unmissable mobile games conference. ready to take to the stages onTuesday 21st January

On the content side, speakers from platform holders Amazon and NTT Docomo should guarantee a fresh perspective to the global publishing track, while cool indie studios such as I Fight Bears, MediaTonic, Lemon Moose Games, Remode Studios, and Remote Control keep things game-centric.

Elsewhere, Berlin-based Wooga, St Petersburg’s Nevosoft, Lisbonian Miniclip, and Metaps of Tokyo further add to the international credentials, whereas representatives from Channel 4 and UKIE ensure the British end is kept up.

PM Studio
Squidsoup: A light work in progress

Mon 16 – Tue 17 Dec, 16:00 – 22:00, The Eye, FREE

Following the huge success of their captivating Submergence installation, Award-winning international artists Squidsoup have continued in residence in Bristol Temple Quarter’s The Eye, using the same hardware system to explore digital materiality, decay, granularity and movement in physical space.

As a special Festive treat, for two nights only, Watershed and Squidsoup are inviting audiences to step back into 8,064 dynamic points of light to experience this new work in progress.

Like Submergence, visitors will walk into a virtual world where pixels on a screen are replaced by thousands of points of light floating in space. Shapes and images will slowly appear, wrap around and dissolve, suggesting form, presence and movement within physical space.

http://www.watershed.co.uk/whatson/4588/squidsoup-a-light-work-in-progress

The Pervasive Media Studio will be taking a break from our lunchtime talk and Open Studio Friday programme over the Christmas period but will be back with a vengeance in the new year.

Lunchtime Talk: Kim Plowright

Friday, 10 January 2014 1:00pm – 2:00pm, Pervasive Media Studio, FREE

Drawing on her experience of working as a Producer and New Media Consultant for Channel Four, Hide&Seek and Storythings, Kim Plowright will be talking about the life cycle of projects – from development to post-release.

http://www.pmstudio.co.uk/events/fri-10012014-100pm

Lunchtime Talk: ‘Recife: The Playable City’

Friday, 17 January 2014 1:00pm – 2:00pm, Pervasive Media Studio, FREE

In an exciting change to our usual format, this week’s lunchtime talk will showcase ideas in progress from Watershed’s collaboration with the Brazilian city of Recife.

In partnership with the British Council and Porto Digital in Brazil, we are bringing together artists, creative producers and creative technologists from Pernambuco (Brazil) and the United Kingdom, to develop new ideas that use creative technology to explore the theme of the Playable City.

http://www.pmstudio.co.uk/events/fri-17012014-100pm

 
Job Opportunities
 
Auroch Digital
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. The 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. 
 
We also may need a HTML5 programmer for a spot of contract work starting very soon… please let me know if interested.
 
That’s it for 2013!  We look forward to working with you all in 2014 😉

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!

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
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 :*)

Board Game Jam a Huge Success!

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We’d like to thank all who took part in our first ever Board Game 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 traveled from Brighton and Cambridge to join in!).  We have 5 team of developers who created 5 amazing games made on the theme of ‘Winter’ created and a huge amount of energy, creativity, meeples and sweets to go around.  There are photos from the day on our Tumblr account.

We’d also like to thank our sponsors for the event:

Plus thanks to Excelsior Comics and boardgameextras.co.uk

Board game jam is in effect!

The consensus seems to be that the event went really well and more would be welcome so we’ll be looking to do another one – as well as the Global Game Jam in January – so watch this space!

Tickets Available for our First Ever Boardgame Jam!

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There are a few tickets available for Bristol Games Hub’s first ever boardgame jam! Starting on Friday 22nd November at 6.30pm and on Saturday the 23rd, the jam challenges game developers and other interested participants to create a new board, card or other non-digital game in just 24 hours. While the games need to broadly be non-digital, using digital to augment the real-world experience is also encouraged. Prizes will be awarded for the best creations. The event gives an opportunity for those interested in finding out more about the games industry to work alongside experienced developers and together create a new game.

Dice, card, counters, meeple and other helpful props as well as food and refreshments will be provided for all participants. Tickets for Bristol Games Hub’s Boardgame Jam are free, but going going fast – you can sign up here.

This event is very kindly sponsored by UKTI and Aardman Animations.

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

Games Jams with Orangutangs – Thurs 24th 1pm

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We’ve organised for an interesting speaker to come to the hub next Thursday (24th) at 1pm, Hanna Wirman.
She’s got all sorts of stories from her recent work in Hong Kong, running Games Jams with Orangutangs, and other crazy stuff.
You can of course just come along, we’ll also have people from downstairs and the Pervasive Media Studio but it’s open to all so if interested you might want to book a seat at
http://hannabristolgameshub.eventbrite.co.uk/ – Tickets are free but places are limited!
There may be tea and cakes provided by the downstairs lot as well, in case you need another reason to come along.
See you there!
(This is a joint event with the Digital Cultures Research Centre)

Bristol Games Hub/SW Mobile Crossover Event

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Join us at Bristol Games Hub on Wed 16th October from 7pm to 9pm for an amazing event where the communities of game and mobile developers are going to be coming together to share idea, technologies and experience. Jointly organised by Bristol Games Hub and SW Mobile it promised to be a fascinating evening, including:

  • A talk by Natalie Griffith. Natalie runs Press Space, a provider of affordable, bespoke PR and brand-building for indie game developers and technology start-ups, will be giving a talk on the subject of “Demystifying PR”
  • Tomas Rawlings, cofounder of Bristol Games Hub and Auroch Digital will be giving a talk on “How to be an indie games developer”.
  • A 15 minute ‘Demo Camp’ where members of both communities SWMobile can share things they’ve been working on, provide tips on games development and generally shout about what’s interesting to them! Including brief demos of games from Survivalist Games with Shelter and Large Visible Machine with The Battle for Hill 218.

Tickets are free but going fast….

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