desks

June Newsletter

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Bristol Games Hub Newsletter

The latest updates from the hub, news from Bristol & SW developers, jobs, opportunities & events.

Bristol Games Hub is a non-profit space for games and play. We run this newsletter, host events and also rent desk space at a cost price with no strings attached so you can get on and create amazing games. Contact debbie at aurochdigital dot com for more information or with news items for the next newsletter and let us know if you have any news you would like sharing in the next one by 15th July please!

Next Games Hub Anti-Social: 27th August, 7.30pm

We’ll give you more info on what they will be closer to the time, but stick the date in your diaries! If you have a suggestion for a talk, drop us an email!

Games Hub News:

BGH Marketing Group Meetup
The Hub marketing group, an informal meet-up of people to talk about the means and ways to market games, is meeting on Wednesday 17th at 7.30pm. We’re talking Reddit & Facebook this time plus a general chat. If you want to come along, please email tom at aurochdigital dot com so we know you’re coming as numbers are limited! If you can’t make it, we’ve got an email discussion group too here.

Going to Develop: Brighton?
We’re putting together an informal dinner for developers, on the evening of the Tuesday 14th. If you are interesting in coming for some food, drop us an email to debbie at aurochdigital dot com. Spaces are limited, so we can’t promise anything!

Monday 22nd June: Unity Meetup – More Procedural Meshes!
Full info is below in events. Info page is here.

SW Freelancer/Company Dev Directory
If you’re looking for people to help on a project, or you are available for work – put your details in. Please only list info you’re happy to have in the public domain:http://bit.ly/bghdirectory

SW Game Dev Jobs Facebook page – Find roles and post new openings here…

Dev Scene News

Pocket Gamer Connects – San Francisco

After successes in London, Helsinki, and Bangalore, Pocket Gamer Connects is going stateside and bringing the premier mobile-focused B2B event to San Francisco on the 7th and 8th of July. More information is available at pgconnects.com, and you can keep up with the event on #PGCSanFran. If you’re headed out there, contact Bristol-based journalist Peter Willington, who will be in attendance.

More info links:
http://www.pgconnects.com/
https://twitter.com/search?q=%23pgcsanfran
Or contact Peter on; peter.willington at steelmedia dot co dot uk

Creative Gaming Award

PLAY15 festival introduces the new ‘Creative Gaming Award’ You can submit concepts, alpha and/or beta for any game that deals with the medium in a creative way. Categories are;
– Most Creative Game
– Most Innovative Newcomer
Deadline is 15th July and there is no cost to enter and winner gets €3000! Full info on this PDF.

Auroch Digital

First off, a huge thanks to all who have signal-boosted the news of Dark Future: Blood Red States. We had great coverage from PC Gamer, Kotaku, Game Debate, Rock Paper Shotgun, Pocket Tactics and many more! We’ve also announced the winner of our Chainsaw Warrior: Lords of the Night competition – to write the best 80s action movie style review!  We’re also recruiting and have a jobs page on our site now, which can be found here and below.

Twice Circled

Twice Circled, “I released the Big Pharma beta earlier this month. It’s a game about running your own pharmaceutical company. I’ve been astounded by the response from Youtubers/streamers with some really high profile people covering it, including Northern Lion and Sips from The Yogscast. Despite a few graphical bugs and some performance problems, the general reception has been overwhelmingly positive and I couldn’t be happier. The full release on Steam is planned for later this year. For further information, head over to the official website.”

Jobs & Opportunities

Auroch Digital

We have now filled the Producer role (and welcome Kelly Venables to the team!) We’ve still got open vacancies for an experienced programmer and an office manger/book keeper! http://www.aurochdigital.com/jobs/

Creative Youth Network

Creativeyouthnetwork.org.uk do great work with young people and are looking for a paid mentor to help a talented upcoming game developer – anyone interested?

Events Diary

Games Hub Marketing Group (June 17th 7.30pm)

Join us at Bristol Games Hub for a peer learning session about how to tell fans about our games. We’ll be looking at social media and Reddit. Email tom at auroch digital dot com if you want to come along!

Lunchtime Talk: Bringing computing into the real world (1pm Friday 19 June – Pervasive Media Studio)

We all love our computers, but generally they are mostly something we keep indoors. In this week’s talk, the PM Studio are delighted to welcome digital artist and creative coder Seb Lee-Delisle to the Studio. Seb will be showing us that really amazing things can happen when we take our computers into the elements.
http://www.watershed.co.uk/pmstudio/events/fri-19062015-100pm

Wales Games Developer Show (June 19th)

Pop over the border to see what the great devs in Wales have been up to and make some new connections! Info is here: http://www.walesgamesdevshow.org/

Unity Meetup – More Procedural Meshes! (June 22nd 7.30pm)

At Bristol Games Hub: The Unity meetup is back, on a Monday no less! This time around we have the second instalment on how to create 3D models from code ready for you. In this final part of his talk, Alexander will cover the following topics:

  • A short recap on creating procedural meshes to introduce newcomers to the topic and provider a refresher to everyone who attended last time
  • UV coordinates & Texturing. How to put pretty pictures on the surfaces of your meshes.
  • Bezier curves. Create smooth curves to define surfaces or paths
  • Delaunay Triangulation. Turn an arbitrary series of points into a surface with Triangle.Net

Signup to the meetup can be found on our meetup page:
http://www.meetup.com/Bristol-Unity-Game-Developers-Meetup/events/223161687/

Board Game Night (1st July, 7.30pm)

Join us at Bristol Games Hub on 1st July to play amazing board games. Bring a title along and/or join in another game. All welcome – email tom at aurochdigital dot com if you want to come along.

Lunchtime Talk: Hardware Startups, Manufacturing, and the Far East: a how to (1pm Friday 17 July – Pervasive Media Studio)

This week the PM Studio welcomes back product designer, maker, manufacturing engineer and 3D printing enthusiast Richard de Lancey. He was nominated for Stuff Magazine’s Design of the Year award for his work on AlphaSphere and is currently running his third startup business; DELCO – a design and manufacture agency based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
http://www.watershed.co.uk/pmstudio/events/fri-17072015-100pm

Quick Links

Thanks all!

Bristol Games Hub Newsletter October 2014

Posted on Updated on

Below is news from the growing Bristol & South West games development scene. Bristol Games Hub is a non-profit space for games and play. We run this newsletter, host events and also rent amazingly cheap desk space at a cost price with no strings attached so you can get on and create amazing games. Contact geoff ataurochdigital.com for more information or with news items for the next newsletter and let us know any news for the next one by 15th November 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 in the public domain: http://bit.ly/bghdirectory

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

Bath Digital Festival 27th Oct – 5th Nov

There is no social this month as many of us are taking part in Bath Digital Festival. So please come along and support the two games events at the festival, both on the 29th Oct:

Gaming for Good (29th Oct12.30pm-1.30pm @ The Auditorium, City of Bath College)

Games are doing much more now than just fun – they are educating, becoming therapy and helping to tackle serious problems. Non-gamers often only see games in over-hyped tabloid headlines casting them in a bad light. However with around one in three of our fellow citizens now playing games, this session takes a second look at an industry that has grown in scope, subject matter and relevance. Join us to find out how Auroch Digital have been turning news into games, how Knowle West Media Center used games to talk about domestic violence and accessibility expert Ian Hamilton on how technology can be built to open them up to wider audiences.

Tickets: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/games-for-good-the-panel-tickets-12707294861

Virtual Reality : Oculus Rift (29th Oct, 1.30pm – 5pm @ Roper Reception, City of Bath College)

Virtual reality is a buzzword once more, but this time round the technology is there to back it up. Ever since Oculus VR took to Kickstarter and raised a record-breaking $2 million, interest has been steadily rising in a vast and eclectic range of fields. Psychologists, therapists, games companies, developers, architects, movie studios and some company called Facebook, who paid a modest $2 billion for Oculus VR this year, have been significantly adapting to the incredible advantage offered by VR.

SouthWest VR will be giving you the chance to see for yourself just how powerful and immersive this technology is by demoing games and experiences from a range of developers including Opposable Games.

Tickets: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/virtual-reality-oculus-rift-tickets-12707349023

Other Hub News

Games Tournament Idea
Who’s the best gamer? We’re looking to try out a games night or two at the hub. We’re also taking suggestions for games people would like to see played at these LANs and tournaments – or even board games.  Please email matt@voondaba.com with game suggestions under Subject ‘LAN Game Suggestion’.  Ideally with fairly short rounds to easily allow a tournament to occur in one night. Plus let us known when we should run these events! http://strawpoll.me/2786226

22nd October – U, I & Unity: Hands-on the new UI system:

This months Unity meetup will feature super-special guest presenter Alejo, who will be taking us through the in-beta GUI features in Unity. He has this to say When the 4.6 beta was released I jumped on it viciously to try out the new, long awaited, UI system. After some tinkering I’m ready to share some of it’s wonders for those of you that are lazy or busy enough no to try it for yourselves. That’s ok buddies, the new UI system is easy to use and likes lazy and busy people. Also likes beer (so bring some).

I’ll be making a tour more than an extensive explanation. Showing some examples on the shiny new buttons, the event system, input module and other sweet treats it has to offer. Also some things that are not working yet and features that are still changing across the beta sub-releases.  If you already have any specific suggestion for a use case or an example you would like to see shown, don’t wait until the show is on. You can do it right now, here in the comments

As usual we will be at the Bristol Games Hub, 77 Stokes Croft BS1 3RD, on 22nd Oct at 7.30pm, where we will talk, laugh, cry, share tall tales of life and love, and then do a meetup about Unity or something….

Dev Scene News

BGH Games Marketing Group

We just had the first meeting of the games marketing group and it was a great success! Lots of great ideas exchanged for marketing our indie games. There is now a discussion list for the group: http://bit.ly/BGHmarketing – which you are welcome to join. Sam has already, very kindly, adapted his thoughts into a document, on building a content strategy. There will be another meet-up soon too: watch this space!

Aardman Animations

Sheep Stack – A new official Shaun the Sheep game from Aardman Animations!
Sheep Stack is the new game from Shaun the Sheep, where flying by the seat of your pants has never been so much fun! Using a pair of massive pants, launch Shaun’s flock into the sky and stack ‘em high to help them reach a plate of doughnuts waiting at the top. But watch out – the slightest wobble and your woolly wonder will crash to the ground!
For the trailer please visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fFhPJlaD04 Available at iTunes, Google Play and Amazon

Auroch Digital

We recently celebrated a year since our first Games Workshop & Steam title,Chainsaw Warrior, was released. To celebrate we made a Zombie Gif Party! Plus there is a video of Tom’s keynote at #NewsGamesHack this year.

Twice Circled

Last month I announced my latest game Big Pharma – a game about running your own pharmaceutical empire! Just days later we took it to EGX London and gave punters their first experience of the game. The response so far has been really positive and I’ve been inundated with feedback and suggestions for things people would like to see in the game. For more information, check out Episode 1 of the Official Video Blog. It’s a bit of a slow start so if you’re just interested in pretty graphics then jump to around 15 minutes in.
http://www.twicecircled.com/2c/

Force of Habit

A new release of Timmy Bibble’s Friendship Club is coming this Friday. Character select and other gubbins. We’ll post a blog up when it goes live, and probably take it to the next BVGS Main Quest if you want to try it yourself! Oh, and Ashley has been shortlisted for “Best Coder/Developer” in this year’s SPARKies awards – huzzah!

Sparkies Shortlist Announced!

Huge well done to all the games companies and individuals shortlisted in the Sparkies awards. It’s great to see games so well represented. Also a well done to… US!!! We were shortlised for best service provider.

Bertram Fiddle launching on iOS the 4th December

At Rumpus we are currently busy finishing the first episode of The Adventures of Bertram Fiddle, an episodic point and click game for mobile and desktop. So if you fancy a quirky take on Victorian London inhabited by strange characters with even stranger noses then check out the App Store at the start of December to get your fix of dark humored murder mystery.

 

Jobs & Opportunities

Greenshoots Round 2 – DEADLINE MONDAY (Oct 20th)

Creative England are still accepting applications for Greenshoots Round 2, giving up to 10 studios the chance to work with Microsoft to get their game off the ground. With a cash injection of up to £25,000 per studio, the fund aims to help studios develop original IP into a money-making reality. In a change to the first iteration of Greenshoots, investors and publishers are now involved from day one which means the supported studios have the potential to receive additional investment from the start of their project. Applicants can now also apply to develop for Xbox One with the programme no longer limited to tablet and mobile development. For more information and to apply click here. For any questions on the application process, contact ella.waving@creativeengland.co.uk

 

Events

U, I & Unity: Hands-on the new UI system (22nd Oct/7.30pm)

Great guest speaker! See the top of this newsletter or here.

Creative Territories (11th Nov)

The Creative territories project about gamemaker collaborations that has the Bristol Games Hub as a partner is having its final event in November 11th at the Watershed. If you’re interested in coming along to take part in the discussion email Patrick.Crogan@uwe.ac.uk
Full info here: http://creativeterritories.dcrc.org.uk/mapping-the-collective-potentials-of-indie-game-collaborative-dynamics/

Board Games Night (13th Nov 7.30pm)

We’re looking to have another board game night on 13th Nov. Email tom at aurochdigital.com if this date is good for you!

Quick Links

Thanks all!

Bristol Games Hub August Newsletter

Posted on Updated on

Below is news from the growing Bristol & South West games development scene. You find news from the hub, news from Bristol & SW developers then 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 news for the next one by 15th September 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 that 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: 28th August, 7.30pm

Join us for 2 fascinating talks!  

POPBOX #shareyourtalent

Calum Yuill from Picton Street Media will be demoing a user generated social video gaming platform prototype/wireframe with a view to seeking criticism and feedback from the development community.

Automate, Streamline, Win! Creating custom workflows for content heavy games

At Rumpus we are currently creating The Adventurers of Bertram Fiddle, a point and click adventure game with tons of animation and dialogue. Since we are a small studio, a big focus has therefore been to reduce the workload when working with so much content. The topics covered include good workflow methodologies, automation, creating custom juicy workflows and doing other kinds of editor magic to accelerate your development.

So join us on the 28th August at 7.30pm – we’ve got a buzzer now! The entrance is off Thomas Street, just up from the junction of Thomas St/Stokes Croft, above DHS Heating.

Dev Scene News

Force Of Habit

Er, so much has happened! Earlier on in the month we released The Wonky Wagon update for Friendship Club (link), then last week we announced and released a game for OUYA called Neon Caves (linklink), and now today we’re announcing that our appetising debut Toast Time will be coming to Steam on August 27th!

We’re going to be at Insomnia 52 this weekend, and then flying over to Seattle for PAX Prime and releasing the game from there! Crazy. We’ll sadly be missing the next anti-social, so how about we throw Bristol a big games party when we’re back? Yeah? Cool. Ashley & Nick

Opposable Games

It’s Pesky gNats aplenty over at the Opposable Games side of the hub, so if you’ve got an interest in serious applications of the holiest of art forms (yes, we mean video games), then make sure you’re stalking for updates over at the Pesky gNats Twitter as there’s some really great content soon to come.
 
The first of our SouthWest VR events kicked off to great fanfare and glorious cupcakes complete with suitably jaw-dropped attendees. Drinks were drunk, talks were talked, wares were flaunted and hopefully some useful contacts were made by all. Luckily, nobody did any damage to themselves, gear or beer while flailing around on virtual rollercoasters, and that dreaded sim sickness didn’t rear its ugly head too much. The next event, planned to be bigger-er and better-er, will be announced through the SouthWest VR TwitterFacebook and meetup group.
 

Opposable Games and SouthWest VR continued to fly the proverbial flag of virtual reality at the actual (real life) Balloon Fiesta, demonstrating just how much fun it is to be an elephant in a magic land of bouncy policemen (really). Further appearances from SouthWest VR and Opposable Games can be expected at OpenCO on 2nd October right here at the Bristol Games Hub, Bath Digital Festival on 29th October and as part of the Watershed’s Family Arts Festival on 25th October.

Auroch Digital

We’ve been asked to comment for some articles in the Guardian of late, coming off the back of our GameTheNews work:

iBeacons

We set up 100 iBeacons around Bristol – they’re in all of the major attractions (SS GB, Suspension Bridge, Bristol Museum etc).  Happy to let any dev’s have access to the network to try a game related exercise. Network was featured in the Evening Post and a few other online PR avenues. Do let me know if you want any further info etc. Additionally – do you want a beacon or 2 in there/ your office.  We’re building up a social networking/ discovery app for business too. Simon – simon at cpagroup.co.uk

Jobs & Opportunities

Aardman Digital

Aardman’s Digital team are on the look-out for talented, freelance developers with experience in the games and web industry. Specifically: Unity and Haxe Developers experienced in producing high-end mobile games and apps; and Drupal/ PHP developers. Please contact digital@aardman.com with your CV and examples of your work.

Playniac Needs an Artist

It’s not SW based, but they are lovely people! http://www.playniac.com/jobs/2d-artist/

Events

Monthly Unity Meetup

You now the drill people. It’s meetup time again! This month’s Unity meetup will again be of a more open format (unless someone have a talk they are burning to give in which case you are more than welcome!) So come and show of your new cool ice shader, that randomly generated level creator that will bewilder players for hours or your new VR 5D flight simulator. As always you are also welcome to bring up any Unity related issues you are having and see if the wisdom of the crowd can’t help you. As always at around 10pm we will head to the local pub so any problems we have not been able to help you with at least can be temporarily forgotten. Join us the 20rd August 7.30pm at Bristol Games Hub 77 Stokes Croft BS1 3RD. Signup happens through our meetup page. Hope to see you there!.

28th August @ Bristol Games Hub – POPBOX 

Calum Yuill from Picton Street Media will be demoing a user generated social video gaming platform prototype/wireframe with a view to seeking criticism and feedback from the development community. 7.30pm at the Game Hub, entry is free.

Playable Cities Conference – 10th/11th Sept

Featuring Google Creative Lab’s Tom Uglow, architect Usman Haque, artist Luke Jerram, Ogilvy’s Tara Austin and academics from the University of the West of England, this two-day international conference will explore the theme of the ‘Playable City’, asking what it might mean for citizens, urban planners, tech giants, small companies, artists and designers in imagining and making the cities of the future. On10 and 11 September, we will be bringing together a brilliant group of thinkers, makers, planners and civil disobedients to look at cities as playable places and ask the question: how do we make and unmake our future cities? The conference will feature playful interventions, networking, debate and discussion, artist commissions and an academic strand convened by the Digital Cultures Research Centre at UWE. For more information on the conference programme and speakers see; http://www.watershed.co.uk/playablecity/conference14/

VR TGO 2014 – 11th Sept.

A future gazing conference that will inspire and inform developers and businesses using and looking to use VR on its potential.  The conference will be looking where the future of VR is taking the entertainment and games industry while also looking see at this cutting edge technology can do for serious applications for automotive, modelling, training, marketing etc. Attendees will have the oppotunity to go hands on with both Sony’s Project Morpheus and Oculus Rift.  More info here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/vrtgo-2014-vr-conference-tickets-11583525637

OpenCo – With Bristol Games Hub! 2nd Oct

What this space as the hub becomes part of the OpenCo national event – he’s the info so far! OpenCo is a community event spread across an entire city. Instead of going to a sterile hotel ballroom, attendees fan out to visit their selected companies’ headquarters. These “HostCO’s” are companies that are driving innovation through new business practices of open collaboration, open platforms, and an openness to new ideas and new business models. Hundreds of these companies open their doors during our festivals and share how they are trying to change the world and why.

Quick Links

Open for Business! Bristol Games Hub is Go!

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Bristol Games Hub logo

“I achieved more in my first day at the Hub than I did in 2 years working from home.”                                              Peter Simon, Hub Resident

Bristol Games Hub is a non-profit organisation that runs shared office space in Bristol, where game development studios, freelancers and academics share resources, skills and expertise, while they create and study games.

We are based on an open and collaborative model of participation, which means residency in the Hub is about being part of the wider gaming community.

We run game-related events including game jams and hacks, socials, training and networking, talks, presentations and unconferences.

We have a large open studio at 77 Stokes Croft, Bristol, the home of a few Banksy’s and an open air street art gallery.

Desks are priced from £90 per month all inclusive.  There are options available for hot-desking from day rates to a weekly or fortnighly basis.  Contact us for prices.

If you would like to talk to us about commissioning games, running an event or any game-related activity, or to rent desk space, please contact Debbie Rawlings; debbie at aurochdigital dot com

ogmo_level
A screenshot of the OGMO level editor, from a game jam in Bristol