Month: February 2022

Kippie CIC is excited to announce another round of its successful course, Girls Make Games, for girls aged 10-13 starting from Monday 28th February.

This free 8-week course covers all aspects of game development in a fun and no pressure environment.

If your daughter / niece / grand-daughter is obsessed with Roblox or hooked on Among Us, sign up today.

There is a misconception that girls don’t play games, but 45% of all European video game players are female, and women make up 51% of all European mobile/tablet players. But that is not reflected in the game making industry.

NI Direct’s website states that the top 2 skills that ‘are extremely important to the Northern Ireland economy’ are ICT and Creative Digital Media. The site continues to say, “Digital is everywhere and is at the heart of the UK economy”, and “All national trends and forecasts predict the continuation of demand for high level skills in the sector.”

However, in the UK tech sector only 17% of employees are female, and in NI only 15% of A level computing students are female.

Katherine Rowlandson, co-founder of Kippie said: “When girls come to our class they will get a chance to learn how to design, make graphics and code their own game, and get hands on with graphics packages and games engines! We like to focus on creativity and fun, and of course they will also get to meet and make friends with girls their age with similar interests.”

Click HERE to register.

The Pixel Mill Trainee 2022 – Trainee Producer (Video Games) is an entrant scheme for aspiring video game producers. We are looking for motivated individuals who want to develop a career in Northern Ireland’s thriving interactive sector. Do you enjoy working and communicating within a team to deliver projects? Are you a planner with an eye for detail? Are you passionate about video games?

There is one place available for a Trainee Producer and we expect a high level of competition. If you gain a place as a trainee at The Pixel Mill, you will be given an 18-month contract (Real Living Wage) and have the opportunity to work on a range of video game projects. We will train and develop you for a career in the video game industry and you will be assigned a senior industry mentor. You will be expected to work closely with video game studios to support them tracking projects and identifying bugs within games.

This is a fantastic opportunity to join the professional video game development industry in Northern Ireland and gain hands-on experience in producing and QA. This position would be of interest to those who want to pursue a career in producing in the video games industry.

The duties of the Trainee Producer may vary from company to company. Administrative skills and being organised will be a key part of the role. The candidate will need to work well as part of a team to support the management of projects so that they can meet milestones.

Individuals applying should come from a creative media production or administrative background, but no specific academic qualifications are required. However, you should be able to demonstrate your ability and knowledge of how to plan and manage a project. This can be done through professional experience and personal projects. More importantly, we want people who are passionate about the video game industry, have the ability to manage projects and are enthusiastic about working with teams.

Deadline for applications is 12 noon on Friday 4^th March 2022.

For more information and to apply, visit the Company Placements section on Northern Ireland Screen’s website.

The Pixel Mill is hosting a Community Strategy for Indie Studios workshop on Thursday 3rd March at 10:30am. The session will be delivered online by Matt Knott, Community Director at Future PLC.

At Future PLC, Matt oversees community strategy for some of its best known brands, including PC Gamer and Space.com. Prior to this, he was the English Language Community Manager for Riot Games in Europe, being a key point of contact for players and press before taking point on product releases for the Player Behaviour Team. He worked alongside developers to craft projects and messaging plans for feature launches raising awareness among the game’s fan base and making them part of the event.

The workshop will focus on strategic planning of campaigns for indie studios to engage and develop communities around their games. The workshop will cover best practice of how to develop a campaign, for example feature announcement, launch, new character reveals, and give practical tips of how to best implement and manage campaigns.

If you would like to attend the workshop please email rory@northernirelandscreen.co.uk to book a space.