The Wellcome Trust Funding Opportunities
The Wellcome Trust have a few funding opportunities with deadlines for the end of January;
Bristol Games Hub December Newsletter – News, Jobs,Games and More!
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.
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.
Job Opportunity at Auroch Digital for an Experienced Designer/Producer
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!
Board Game Jam a Huge Success!
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:
- 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
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!
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.
Games Jams with Orangutangs – Thurs 24th 1pm
Bristol Games Hub/SW Mobile Crossover Event
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.