green capital

November Newsletter – How to Start a Games Studio…

Posted on November 19, 2014 Updated on November 19, 2014

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

SW Freelancer/Company Dev Directory
If you’re looking for people to help on a project, or you are available for work, just add and update your details. Please only list info you’re happy to have in the public domain: http://bit.ly/bghdirectory
SW Game Dev Jobs Facebook page – Find and post new opportunities here…

Next Games Hub Anti-Social: 27th November, 7.30pm – New Starts! level 1 Begins! Four amazing talks about kicking it all off!

How to Start a Games Studio
Auroch Digital’s Tomas Rawlings will share his top tips for how to start your own games development studio. Whether you’re thinking of taking the leap or already on the road to Indie Stardom, there will be pointers from over 10 years running his own studios to help you along.

Green Capital Digital Challenge – Find out all about it!
Debbie, producer of the Digital Challenge, will talk about this great opportunity to take part in an amazing gamejam/hack event where the best game/app will win £50,000 to develop it. More info here too.

WebStart Bristol
Mike Jackson, Founder and CEO of Bristol based incubator WebStart Bristol will talk about his programme based at the Engine Shed and the challenges and opportunities of getting further investment.

Kickstarter Top Tips
Constance Fleuriot will share her knowledge on using crowdfunding to support your game project, after attending a Kickstarter presentation organised by TIGA in London. Constance is about to launch her own call for funds to develop a game, Lux & The Shadowmaker, as part of Creative England’s Queen Of Code initiative with Crowdfunder UK.

Unity Developer Group – 24th November, 7.30pm

For this month’s talk, Unity meetup members David and Jeremy have stepped up to take you on a whirlwind deconstruction of the development of their kids App: Alpine Train 3D “We are going to whizz through loads of topics from Unity techniques and bespoke tools to monetisation. We want to share with you all that we have learned along the way and hopefully inspire you to get your idea out there too. There will be something for everyone in this talk, as we cover the whole process of development, publishing and marketing all within about an hour” Ambitious!

P.S. If you’d like to give a talk at a Unity meetup, just get in touch.

Dev Scene News

Join Bristol Games Hub!

The Bristol games hub is a non-profit that offers very cheap & flexible dev space – £110 per desk per month. That’s everything – rates, internet, desk itself, tea, coffee, access to meeting rooms, events etc. Plus you’re in a supportive community of fellow devs to chat with and share knowledge. There is no contract and you can expand/contract the number of desks on a per month basis as your project needs change. Contact geoff at aurochdigital dot com for more info or to book a time to visit the space.

Don’t Die, Mr. Robot! for PSVita – made in Weston-super-Mare

The game was released on 29th October for PSVita in the EU, and 4th November for the Americas. It’s an arcade style dodge-em-up with loads of game modes, unlockables and a rather tasty soundtrack made by us too. You can learn more about our game here: http://infinitestategames.com/games/ddmr/Infinite State Games is a two man team based in Weston-super-Mare. We have developed the game and published it entirely by ourselves, and hope to bring it next to iOS platforms while working on our next release for PSVita. If you want any more information or maybe would be interested in a talk from us don’t hesitate to ask. All the best, Team ISG.

Victory at Sea TIGA Win!

Evil Twin Artworks’ WWII Naval battle game – Victory At Sea was nominated in two categories at the 2014 TIGA Awards. The game ended up winning the Best Action/Adventure by a Small Studio Award at the event on London’s Southbank.

Auroch Digital

One of our newsgames, NarcoGuerra, has been nominated for a Media Innovation Award. Fingers crossed! Full info here
We have also announced our latest Games Workshop collaboration – Chainsaw Warrior: Lords of the Night. More info here and a nice article on RPS! We also have other exciting news but that’ll have to wait til next month when we can talk about it publicly 😉 Auroch is thriving and now has a permanent staff team of 13.

Force Of Habit

We’ve released two updates to Friendship Club since the last newsletter, adding a new character and the ability to play in teams. Get your 2 vs 2 or 3 vs 1 (or even 2 vs 1 vs 1) on everyone! We may be hosting a small gathering in our studio for the next Ludum Dare. Shoot me an email if interested as we have limited space: ashley@forceofhab.it

Opposable Games

Opposable Games have had an exciting month, starting with winning 2 awards at the Sparkies: the ‘Good’ Award for Pesky gNATS, which uses game environments to assist adolescents with anxiety issues, and their managing director Ben Trewhella winning the ‘Individual Contribution to Technology‘.

Opposable also announced a partnership with Motion Experiential to create some awesome Virtual Reality experiences, and are in the early stages of organising the SouthWestVR conference that will take place on February 26 2015, showcasing everything that is most awesome with Virtual Reality, and put Bristol and Bath in the center stage of this new exciting technology. They have also begun full production of their multi-screen (and now Virtual Reality based) game Salvaged, and in doing so welcome three new members to the team – Thomas Greener and Rob Brooks as developers, and Mike Parker who is joining the 3d team. Opposable are on the lookout for volunteers / temp staff who are able to help out with virtual reality events, and thinking about hiring for a sales manager if the right person came along, interested people please get in touch via jobs@opposablegames.com

RTS Awards Open for Entries

The Royal Television Society in the West of England is calling for submissions for the 2014/15 RTS WoE Awards. There are interactive/games categories. All entries must have been broadcast or published between 1st December 2013 and 1st December 2014. Submission forms and a list of categories can be downloaded from the RTS website: www.rts.org.uk/bristol DEADLINE for submissions is Monday 1st December 2014. The Awards Gala will be held on Sunday March 8th 2015 at Bristol Old Vic, more details in the New Year.

Jobs & Opportunities

Green Capital Gamejam/Hack Event – £50,000 for best game/app! (Application Deadline 4th December)

Bristol 2015, the company established to facilitate Bristol’s year as European Green Capital, is asking Europe’s brightest minds to identify new ways that software can be used to tackle environmental challenges in cities in the European Green Capital Digital Challenge. This will include a 48-hour Digital Challenge Hack Weekend on the 6-8 February hosted during Digital Bristol Week, produced by the BBC. This two stage challenge will see teams of developers compete for the chance to scoop cash prizes of up to £50,000 to stimulate innovation in the development of software applications and games, addressing five environmental challenge areas: energy, transport, food, resources and nature.

Teams can find out more information and register to take part now at:www.bristol2015.co.uk/digitalchallenge to express your interest in being selected to attend as a team. The deadline for expressions of interest is 1 January 2015 and the selected teams will be notified by 16 January 2015.
For moreinfo see http://www.bristol2015.co.uk/digitalchallenge or emaildebbie@aurochdigital.com

The Writing Platform Bursary 2015

There are two bursaries of £4000, available for writers and technologists to embark on a writing – or writing-related – collaboration over a period of three months. This is a fantastic opportunity for writers and technologists to collaborate, experiment and learn together, and to make work they wouldn’t be able to make on their own. Writers and technologists can apply individually or in pairs. The programme is open to UK residents aged 18 and over. The deadline to apply is Thursday 4th December. More info:http://www.thewritingplatform.com/bursary2015/

Develop.me Training Courses

</develop.me> are providers of web design and development training for businesses and individuals, from beginners through to industry professionals. Founded by industry experts they are funded by Creative Skillset and supported by Creative Skills Hub. They will be running workshops and short courses focusing on the many facets of web development. From introductions to the fundamentals of web development through to specialist tools of the trade for professional developers. Up coming courses/events are:
– Introduction to Web with HTML & CSS
– Getting Started with WordPress: Installing, Theming and Plugins
– Version Management with Git and GitHub

Events

Green Capital Digital Challenge Informal Chat (20th Nov, 6pm)

Bristol 2015 has just launched the Green Capital Digital Challenge. The Challenge is seeking professional teams to develop new software to address 5 environmental themes. More details can be found here. This meetup is for individuals looking to form a team to take part. If you have creative, tech, project management or green skills and experience this should be a great opportunity for you. Come along and meet other interested people over a beer or coffee at the PM Studio. More info here.