Brought to you by BAFTA and Screen WM/Game Central, the workshop is part of the BAFTA Young Game Designers competition, which is open for entries until 18 October 2010. Designs will be on paper only, so no programming experience is required, and you’ll be working in teams of three, so tell your friends about this exciting opportunity to get the first-hand advice from an industry expert. You don’t have to enter the competition to attend the workshop, but you could win work experience at a UK games studio, and have a prototype of your design developed by Abertay University – for further details, see the BAFTA Young Game Designers website.

How to Book: The workshop is free for 11-16 year-olds to attend, though places are limited and you must apply in advance via your school. For further details, please email ygd@bafta.org with “Birmingham” in the subject line.

Game Central is the regional game network for the West Midlands, established by Screen WM and Producers Forum and supported by AWM to help support the West Midlands game industry. Find out more at gamecentral.org.uk

& get ready to dust off your DJ mixing skills to take part in the Game Central 2010 DJ Hero Tournament

As always Meet ‘em Ups are free and open to all those working in and/or with a passion for games. Simply sign up on the eventbrite page and come join us for free drinks, pizza and DJing on Wednesday the 29th.

Taste the Game: Sunday 15th August. 2-4pm The MAC, Birmingham.
Enter the Arena: Sunday 29th August, 2-4, The MAC, Birmingham

For full details and to sign up head over to the respective events eventbrite pages linked to above.

“This mission is ideal for companies who are new or have limited experience of the Japanese games market. The aim is to  provide in-depth briefings covering the challenges of working in Japan and the opportunities to work leading organisations in the Japanese game industry.

The trip is centered round the Tokyo Games Show and is designed for both traditional games development companies and those focusing on social gaming, mobile gaming and serious games.”

The deadline for applications is next Friday 30th of July. For full details and to make an application visit the Chinwag site here.

Who’s it for? We hope to attract hacks and hackers from all different types of backgrounds: people from big media organisations, as well as individual online publishers and freelancers. 

What will I get out of it? The aim is to show journalists how to use programming and design techniques to create online news stories and features; and vice versa, to show programmers how to find, develop, and polish stories and features.

The event is free to attend, and I’m told games developers and journalists are more than welcome, so for more details and to sign up visit their eventbrite page hacks-hackers-birmingham.eventbrite.com

“Game Horizon is Europe’s leading conference for international game executives. A two day conference featuring the most creative, entertaining and inspirational speakers from the games and entertainment industry.”

• Peter Molyneux, Creative Director, MGS Europe

• Ian Livingstone, Life President, Eidos

• Nils Holger-Henning, CCO, Bigpoint

• Jesse Schell, CEO, Schell Games

• Michael Acton Smith, CEO Mind Candy

• Mark Schulman, P!nks Drummer and Inspirational speaker

This offer is only available until Tuesday 22nd June. To benefit from this please use promo code ghc_promo, click here to register

This will be the last Meet ‘em Up before we take a short summer break, but to see you through those lonely Summer days without a Meet ‘em Up we’re going out with our biggest MEU to date showcasing the winning games from this years X48 XNA game camp.

www.meetemupx48.eventbrite.com

X48 2010 was a Pixel Lab project run in Birmingham and Huddersfield in which games design students and indie developers were tasked to develop a game in less than 48 hours (27 to be exact). Despite the gruelling conditions, sleep deprevation and pizza were clearly the magic ingredients as there were some magnificent games developed. A selection of the winning teams from X48 will be ’show and telling’ their games and fingers crossed for some playable demos to get your thumbs around on the night.

As always the event is free to attend, but you need to rsvp to attend on the eventbrite sign up page at www.meetemupx48.eventbrite.com. Also a very big thank you this month to our sponsors bluegfx and to the Zellig.

]]> http://www.gamecentral.org.uk/?feed=rss2&p=198 0 http://www.gamecentral.org.uk/?p=194 http://www.gamecentral.org.uk/?p=194#comments Fri, 28 May 2010 12:15:24 +0000 Marie F http://www.gamecentral.org.uk/?p=194 Employers and workers in the creative industries, including those working in the games industry are being asked to help Skillset shape the future of the sector by taking part in the largest consultation of the Creative Media Industries.

The 2010 Creative Media Workforce and Employer Surveys, which launched on Monday (24 May), will help Skillset to provide the most comprehensive profile of working life in the UK’s Creative Media Industries. They will also provide an assessment of how the industry is faring in the current global economic climate.

Those taking part will be asked about their skills needs, experience of training and recruitment, future plans and working patterns. Findings will be used to directly inform Skillset’s ongoing work with the Creative Media Industries – and make sure they remain a world leader.  To take part, people should visit www.skillset.org/playyourpart. If you would prefer to be contacted by phone, please email research@skillset.org

Pervasive games, also known as augmented reality games, city games or big games, are old forms of play fused with new technological possibilities. They can vary from scavenger hunts to imaginary tours of Baghdad to games of benevolent assassination.  Pervasive games have recently exploded on to the mainstream with events such as Nike Grid, and as smartphones continue to proliferate, are a major creative and commercial opportunity for smart, innovative creators.

Speaker: Alex Fleetwood, Hide&Seek
Makers of social games and playful experiences. Hide&Seek founded the UK’s first festival of pervasive games in London in 2007 and recently worked on the sucessful ‘221B’ game which promoted the film release of Sherlock Holmes

Also keep your ear to the ground as very soon we’ll be announcing forthcoming exciting opportunities to work with Hide&Seek to create unique new pervasive games in the region!

As Always Meet em Up’s are free to attend (we even throw in a free drink cause we love you that much), simply sign up above, tell your friends and come along on May 26th.

(Stag Hunt image c/o Nikki Pugh co-founder of BARG)

Just some of the sessions include:

Mentoring Graduates the Realtime Worlds Way
Carol Clarke, producer at Realtime Worlds will be discussing the way in which they handle graduate training, mentoring them right out onto the studio floor to take ownership of work.

A Modest Proposal: TIGA’s Battle-Plan for UK Games Education
Richard Wilson, CEO of TIGA, will be speaking about their ambitious battle plan for education. Make yourself heard at this important, and possibly controversial, session on the future of games education and interaction with industry.

How FE Game Courses Can Support Higher Education
David Brockbank, from Northern Regional College, Northern Ireland. David has been instrumental in drafting new FE qualifications designed to lead into game development related HE courses. Join him for this important discussion on influencing the quality of applicants that universities receive.

Plus…

• Debate the key issues facing the sector at the roundtable sessions moderated by prominent figures from Skillset, the University of Wales Newport, and the University of Abertay.
• Discover what you can do to ensure that today’s students are the developers of tomorrow.
• Learn how to optimise your resources to deliver leading edge courses.
• Network with fellow academics at the end of day drinks and dinner – included FREE as part of your conference pass.
Book before 29 April and save over 20% off the standard ticket price

So make sure you reserve your place and help shape the future of UK Games Higher Education:

To find out more and book your tickets visit www.gamesedu.co.uk