GameCityNights is back on Thursday 30th May and we’re going to spill the beans about GameCity8! We’ll have lots to tell you on the night so start getting excited. Also, if you’ve got any brilliant ideas for how we can make this year’s festival the best it can possibly be, please bring them along. We really want your input this year more than ever before.

GameCityNights Season 4 Episode 3

GameCity8 Launch Special
With games and guests!

Thursday 30 May 2013
6pm – 11pm
Antenna, Beck Street, NG1 1EQ
£5 advance tickets available soon.
£6 on the door/£5 NUS
NTU/Confetti Students free with valid Student I.D.

18+ ID required.

On Friday, we went to the wonderful Bit of Alright and had a lovely day on a boat (the M.S. Stubnitz, currently docked at Canary Wharf). We saw/played/drank/ate so much good stuff! Some of our highlights included:

Cara Ellison’s impassioned talk about TWINE and being initiated into her totally awesome sorority. Mike Bithell’s ‘Write It Like It’s Die Hard’ talk. Drinking a LOT of tea from Dick Hogg’s tea bar. A short and very funny glimpse of Big Robot’s Sir, You Are Being Hunted. Mitu Khandaker’s look at designing the complex interactions that lead to love in her game Redshirt. David Hayward’s (Organiser of BoA) rousing introductory speech. Andrew Smith and Andrew Roper’s competitive hugging game, Hugatron.

We really, really hope that Bit of Alright happens again next year!

Our friends at IndieCade have opened up submissions for their 2013 Festival!

Calling All Indies:

Submit Your Games for IndieCade 2013!

 

When: NOW until June 30* 

Have a secret project in the works or any new game you want people to play? That’s what IndieCade is all about! Whether it’s a tabletop RPG, a traditional digital game, a maverick mobile adventure game, or an experimental installation of metal and glowsticks — bring it on! Our acclaimed international panel of judges is fearless and open-minded.

IndieCade is now accepting game submissions for its annual International Festival of Independent Games, “the Sundance of the video game industry.” Indie games and developers are the heart of IndieCade. Our goal is to fully showcase your work and to help you thrive, with past premiered games at IndieCade that include Johann Sebastian Joust and Skulls of the Shogun. We work to provide creators’ visibility, networking, and peer recognition from within the industry and around the world.

Works-in-progress are encouraged!

If chosen, your game:

• May be selected to be showcased at E3 (Deadline: May 15)

• Is eligible to participate in the IndieCade Red Carpet Awards

• Will be featured at IndieCade Festival’s GameWalk, October 4-6

• All submissions will receive one IndieCade Festival Plus Pass (valued at $250+) with access to festival, sessions, and IndieXchange • networking opportunities

• Will be promoted via IndieCade.com & social media.

Use this link to enter or to tell your dev friends to submit!

* Regular submissions close May 31. Late submissions run through June 30.

BAFTA are advertising for a Games Events Programmer. Sounds fancy!

It looks like a great opportunity to work with a wonderful advocate of videogame culture. We’ve collaborated with BAFTA on a bunch of great events so, if you’re successful, we’ll hopefully get to work together on something awesome soon!

For more information and to apply, head over to www.bafta.org

We posted the video of Phil Fish’s FEZ 2027 talk from GameCity7 last year. In which he disregards science and common sense to tell us about the future of the world, technology, videogames, FEZ, and what it’s like to live on the Moon.

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That’s all for now. Bye!

- GameCity

It was GameCityNights last night! We’ve just about recovered.

Thanks so much to everyone who came along. You’re the best. More huge thanks to One Life Left (Ste Curran, Ann Scantlebury and Simon Byron) who hosted, recorded their radio show live, made sure that jokes, fun and drinks kept flowing all night, and dragged us to the inevitable karaoke after-party.

Cheers to all the developers who came along to show their awesome work.

Ste Curran gave us a top secret, mostly unrepeatable, behind the scenes look at Way of the Dogg and told us about the hazards and joys of working with a superstar like Snoop. 

Greenfly Studios’ Stephen Morris brought along some super fun PS Move party games! Many rounds of the brilliant QuickDraw and GlowTag were played.

Photo via @greenflystudios

Francesco Abbonizio from DiXidiasoft brought along Steampunk League, which we first got a glimpse of at the Birmingham Nights tour date back in February. Neil Jones brought Toy Story inspired co-op game Toy Wars Invasion all the way from Australia. Graham Spence brought his puzzle/simulation/physics game, Swirling. Owain Davies was on fine form this month as our house one-man-band. Well done everybody.

Next GameCityNights:

Season 4 Episode 3

Full details coming soon.

Thursday 30 May

6pm – 11pm

Antenna, Beck Street, NG1 1EQ

£5 advance tickets available soon.

£6 on the door/£5 NUS

NTU/Confetti Students free with valid Student I.D.

18+ ID required.

We’re looking for someone new to join our team as Project Co-ordinator.

You’d be working on all of the projects we run here at GameCity, which is based within the School of Arts & Humanities at Nottingham Trent University.
We’ve got lots of new things that we want to get done, and we need someone amazing to help us do them.

We’d love to meet if you…

• Know a lot about working with arts organisations and creative people to put on wonderful events.
• Love organising ideas and people, solving problems, adapting to ever-changing challenges.
• Are able to see the biggest-possible picture – whilst still getting involved in the smallest possible detail.
• Are great at talking to lots of different people and organisations, and most importantly, understand how they all work together.
• Would love working with a really small team and helping to solve the wide variety of challenges that flow across our desks.
• Are also able to work really well by yourself without the need for micro-managing.

Interested, or know someone who’d be *brilliant*?

For full details and to apply online please visit www.ntu.ac.uk/vacancies.

If you have any specific queries in relation to this position, please contact Chloe Smith on 0115 9932 359 or via email chloe@gamecity.org.

Do you know any young people interested in digital creativity and learning about how to create games? Our friends at the wonderful Games Britannia festival have announced their lineup and you can reserve spaces at the huge range of workshops and lectures right now! All for FREE!

Head over to www.gamesbritannia.com/ and check out the schedule here.

The 2013 Games Britannia festival is on 10th-14th June at the Cantor Building at Sheffield Hallam University.

The thoroughly wonderful Anorak Magazine (the BEST magazine for kids) are “calling all doodlers from around the world” to contribute to their special GAMES themed edition that’ll be coming out this summer.

They’d like you to:

“…devise and draw a fun game, such as a counting game, spot the difference, a maze, a dot to dot or anything along these lines. You are free to choose any mechanic provided it is fun! We will publish the best six. And that’s not all, there are goodie prizes for the winners too!”

Sounds great!

For the full details head over to anorakmagazine.com. The cut off date for submissions is midnight on the 29th April. So not very far away! But you’re all super talented mighty creative folks and we BELIEVE IN YOU.

Dot to Dot by Evgenia Barinova (via Anorak Magazine)

ALWAYS BELIEVE IN YOUR SOUL

(Sorry, Simon)

More news next week,

- GameCity

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GameCityNights is back on Thursday 25th April!

Here’s a quick roundup of what’s happening:

ONE LIFE LEFT

We’ll be joined by everyone’s favourite radio/podcast/karaoke superstars of videogame culture commentary – ONE LIFE LEFT – who’ll be recording their latest show LIVE.

AND

Ste Curran’s going to be talking about the making of Echo Peak‘s latest game, Way of the Dogg. Brilliant.

GREENFLY STUDIOS

Greenfly Studios are bringing along a handful of their PS Move party games for us to try out. QuickDraw and GlowTag look like so much fun! Check out some videos of them in action.

BRING YOUR GAME!

Developers and creatives! Do you have a game or something else relating to videogame culture? Do you want to show it off to a bunch of nice people?  We’ve expanded our Open initiative to include the regular Nights gigs in Nottingham, hopefully making it easier for you folks to get involved and get your work seen. Head over to open.gamecity.org and send us some details.

GameCityNights Season 4 Episode 2

Thursday 25 April 2013

6pm – 11pm

Antenna, Beck Street, NG1 1EQ

£5 advance tickets coming soon.

£6 on the door/£5 NUS

NTU/Confetti Students free with valid Student I.D.

18+ ID required.

Head over to nights.gamecity.org for more details or Facebook to join the event.

Bit of Alright is back! The fantastic game design event organised by our dear friend David Hayward is happening on May 10th in London. We HIGHLY recommend that you go for several reasons.

A LIST OF REASONS WHY YOU ABSOLUTELY MUST ATTEND BIT OF ALRIGHT:

1. It’s happening on a BOAT! An actual Cold-War era fishing trawler currently moored at Canary Wharf that puts on lovely events.

2. The lineup is looking brilliant with Mike Bithell, Holly Gramazio (Hide&Seek), George Buckenham (Die Gute Fabrik), Cara Ellison (Littleloud/RPS), Ben Milsom (Mind Candy), Mitu Khandaker (The Tiniest Shark), Stephen Morris (Greenfly Studios), and Jonathan Whiting listed as speakers with more being added soon.

3. There will be games. So many games. Live games, screen games, board games, all the games plus a little bit of roughhousing! At last year’s BoA they were all excellent and we’re certain that will be a tradition that is upheld at this year’s event.

4. We’ll be there!

5. A BOAT. Come on people.

Get your tickets here: http://bitofalright2013.eventbrite.co.uk/ 

More news next week – featuring a Royal Visit. Fancy! We’re going to go shine our shoes and practise our bowing.

Bye!

- GameCity

Last week’s GameCityNights was ace! Thanks to everyone who came along. Ollie Clarke was a wonderful special guest speaker. His talk about design process, art theory and personal inspirations was…inspirational! He revealed Modern Dream, the new name of the creative team behind The Button Affair and The Cat that Got the Milk. He also spilt the beans on their next game, Abstract No.3 – Kandisky’s Violin. Read more about the game and the winner of the level design challenge set by Ollie over on indiegames.com.

Come back soon please Ollie!

The winning level design challenge entry!

James Coote brought his shiny new OUYA dev kit along and we all ooh’d and aah’d at it as he demonstrated his game Executive Star.

The chaps from Falchion Games brought along a Nights favourite Go To Hell Dave, their old school point and click adventure game.

Paul Butler was back with his Augmented Vision – hilarious tales of messing around with emergent gameplay and naming your characters all sorts of things unmentionable in civilised company. He’ll be back at Nights in a couple of months AFTER HE GETS MARRIED. Congratulations to you Paul!

Owain Davies was on form as always as our house band for the evening.

Good times.

Next GameCityNights, Season 4 Episode 2, is on Thursday 25 April. We’ll announce guests and stuff in the next couple of days. It’ll be a good one. See you there!

Thursday 25 April 2013
6pm – 11pm
Antenna, Beck Street, NG1 1EQ
£5 advance tickets coming soon.
£6 on the door/£5 NUS
NTU/Confetti Students free with valid Student I.D.
18+ ID required.

The National Union of Journalists are hosting a great sounding evening event focusing on writing for and about games featuring a bunch of great speakers.

GAME OVER? CAN VIDEO GAME JOURNALISTS STILL MAKE MONEY?

An evening of networking, drinking and thought-provoking discussion.

The video games industry is EXPLODING. But, as a journalist or a writer, can you still make money by writing about it? So many big-name magazines and Web sites have recently shuttered their doors and there are so many people wanting in and willing to work for free that it can sometimes seem impossible. Come and join some of the leading narrative writers, editors and journalists in the business to hear their opinions at this NUJ-sponsored event.

There will be three short panels/talks, with plenty of time for Q&A and chatting afterwards.

Full details and tickets can be found here.

Everyone’s welcome, not just NUJ members. Tickets are limited so grab yours soon!

Thursday, April 18, 2013 from 7:00 PM to 10:00 PM
Innovation Warehouse
1 East Poultry Avenue
EC1A 9PT London

Laser Dog Games brought along their lovely puzzle game PUK along to the GameCityNights tour date in Leeds.

It’s just been released! Take a look over at pukgame.com

That’s all the news for this week.

Now, a moment of contemplation for LucasArts.

….

Byeeeeee!

-GameCity

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We made a couple of GameCityNights announcements this week because of the imminent start to Season Four. Now, it’s recap time!

We’re delighted to be joined by Ollie Clarke, one of the team behind The Button Affair and The Cat that Got the Milk. Expect to hear Ollie talk about how he got into the games industry, his games, and what the future has in store. He’ll also be setting an exciting challenge to test your artistic talents.

Sometime after that, we’ll be joined by Talawa Games‘ Jesper Engström for a From The Desk Of… interview. Their latest game, Unmechanical, has just launched on iOS and we’re huge fans. HUGE. More details about Jesper’s appearance over on the Nights website.

Paul Butler’s returning with Augmented Vision, his unique slice of videogame culture commentary and Owain Davies is back as the House Band. It’s a nice big reunion!

Plus! There’ll be the usual food, drinks, games and fun!

Don’t forget, if you’ve got a game or something else you’d like to bring along to show off, let us know at open.gamecity.org.

Thursday 28 March 2013

6pm – 11pm

Antenna, Beck Street, NG1 1EQ

£5 advance tickets available here.

£6 on the door/£5 NUS

NTU/Confetti Students free with valid Student I.D.

18+ ID required.

Facebook Event
Lanyrd Event

We mentioned this last week but thought we’d mention it again because it’s great and happening TOMORROW. You should go.

Say, do you like SCIENCE? How about PARKS, do you like them?

If you’re fond of both of those things and think the idea of combining the two sounds like amazing fun, you might love SCIENCE IN THE PARK that’s coming to Wollaton Hall on Saturday 23rd March. There’s going to loads of fun, interesting things going on. All for free! We’re big fans.

Timed to coincide with National Science & Engineering Week, this free annual science fair shines the spotlight on how the sciences and engineering relate to our everyday lives.

Set in Wollaton Hall and Deer Park, a fabulous Grade 1 listed Elizabethan country house and it’s grounds, this year’s theme is ‘Invention and Discovery’. Once again the Nottinghamshire Branch of the British Science Association, the University of Nottingham and Nottingham City Council have teamed up to bring together the most innovative, fun and participative activities from Scientists, Engineers and Inventors across Nottinghamshire and the whole of the UK.

This year’s events include activities from the Bloodhound Super Sonic Car project, Open Air Laboratories, the Solar System in Notts, Nottingham Hackspace, the Natural History Museum, research groups from across Nottinghamshire, Physics Busking and much much more!

As in previous years there should be something for everyone with activities for families and schools groups, adults looking for entertainment and professionals interested in the latest research.

Science in the Park is completely free and happening from 11am-4pm on Saturday 23rd March at Wollaton Hall, Nottingham.

Some of the games that were brought along to the GameCityNights tour dates have started to be released into the wide world for you to purchase. It’s lovely to see that they withstood the scrutiny of the tour audiences and emerged beautifully. We thoroughly urge you to check them out.

Nils from Large Visible Machine brought The Battle for Hill 218 along to the Bristol gig. It’s is a strategy card game for two players based on the original board game of the same name and it’s out on the App Store now.

Jamie from VAMflax brought along Chopper Mike to the Birmingham gig. It’s a lovely little arcade-y flying game. Pilot a helicopter from A to B, collecting gems and navigating tricky courses. Much fun indeed. It’s out on the App Store and Google Play now and coming to various other platforms very soon.

We’ve got a whole load of news about our plans for the rest of the year that we’re saving up to announce properly really soon. Stay tuned!

We hope to see you at Nights next week (and at the rest of them of course).

‘Til next time.

- GameCity

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