Author: Lauren Cole

Farset Labs will be hosting the Belfast site of the international hackathon Global Game Jam for its 8th year, with support from Northern Ireland Screen.

The Game Jam will run from Friday 31^st January to Sunday 2^nd February 2020, and is a great chance to meet people from the local games industry while making interesting games and experiences in a weekend.

Global Games Jam is a global simultaneous hackathon making games of all sorts, from full-scale console productions to mobile, web-based and embedded games, as well as table-top board and card-games. Some will be just for fun, others for charitable causes such as ‘Games For Change’, and none of them exist before this weekend!

The first Global Game Jam was run in 2009, and this year Northern Ireland’s Farset Labs joins over 100 other countries taking part for 2020. Some of Northern Ireland’s most notable games projects such as Supermarket Shriek and Paelo Pines were born out of previous Game Jams.

There will be live streaming video from sites all over the world during the weekend, and there will also be an opportunity to see and play other teams’ games at the end of the event.

There is no required skill level to take part – programmers, artists, musicians and enthusiasts are all welcome and are asked to bring whatever tools or experience they need to create games.

Registration is £6 per person which will reserve your seat for the weekend as well as providing you with catered meals for the full weekend and unique Global Game Jam Belfast goodies.

To register directly for the event click HERE.

More details and tips on the event and venue can be found HERE. 

‘How to Become an Immersive Creator’ is a bootcamp from The National Centre for Immersive Storytelling, in association with TRC. The bootcamp takes place on 26th and 27th February 2020 at InGAME, Dundee and is an exciting opportunity for creative professionals working in film, television, theatre or games who are keen to explore immersive storytelling. It will be a fast-paced intensive 2-day introduction to the skills and knowledge required to become an Immersive Creative. 

What’s on offer?

• Gain an understanding of the landscape and what is happening in immersive production
• Get up to speed with the potentials of VR/AR and MR, and the technologies, workflows, models and skills involved in production
• Experience and discuss some of the best examples of 360 and room scale VR pieces
• Examine how different immersive production companies approach building their teams and creating working models for new projects
• Get a flavour of how projects are both financed and marketed

The bootcamp will be a mix of presentations, simultaneous viewing of VR and immersive pieces followed by discussion and interactive exercises, along with industry experts sharing their insights and case studies.

Previous Bootcamps have led to creatives being funded to work at Maze Theory on Peaky Blinders’ venture into VR, on Top Gear’s first immersive stunt at REWIND and on a range of exciting immersive productions at Nexus Studios, Passion Pictures and Surround Vision.

Eligibility

The Bootcamp is for writers, producers and directors working in film, television, theatre and games who are interested in VR/AR/MR and are looking for an opportunity to move into immersive storytelling.
Participants must have at least 2 production credits, be keen to work in immersive and, if working with a company, be strategically placed to influence. Selected delegates will have the opportunity to go on a paid placement (for up to 10 weeks) with an immersive company. Priority in the application process will be given to those who are interested in going on to a paid placement.

Applications close 20th January 2020.

For more information and how to apply click HERE.

Northern Ireland video game company Italic Pig have been selected as one of five UK companies to be mentored by Industrial Light and Magic xLAB, a division of LucasFilm dedicated to the future of immersive storytelling.

StoryFutures Academy: The National Centre for Immersive Storytelling, jointly run by the National Film and Television School (NFTS) and Royal Holloway, University of London, recently announced a collaboration with the world-leading ILMxLAB to run a Creative Mentoring Scheme to advance the talents of a select group of UK companies working in Virtual and Augmented Reality.

Five projects have been selected to participate:
● The Infinite Hotel, by Italic Pig (Northern Ireland)
● Garden, by Biome Collective (Scotland)
● Gothica Episode 1, by Figment Productions (England)
● An unannounced project by Hyper Luminal Games (Scotland)
● An unannounced project by Severn Screen (Wales)

The five selected UK projects will benefit from a dedicated group of creative experts from the ILMxLAB leadership team to help develop best practices in immersive storytelling, promote knowledge sharing and provide access to an exclusive series of masterclasses.

ILMxLAB are the creators of some of the world’s most successful immersive entertainment experiences, including the award-winning Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire , Vader Immortal and Avengers: Damage Control .

“It’s extremely exciting to be working with some of the greatest storytellers in the world,” says Kevin Beimers, CEO and founder of Italic Pig. “We had our first call last night with ILM and the other selected teams around the country, and I was pleased that The Infinite Hotel received the high praise of ‘your idea is so perfectly simple that it’s frustrating’ from the ILMxLAB team.”

The “frustrating simplicity” refers to The infinite Hotel’s technical premise. Italic Pig determined early on that one of the major pitfalls of VR is the limitation of real-world space; putting on a headset and suddenly being in a vast field or high mountains is visually incredible, but three steps in any direction will put the player into a real-world wall. Instead, The Infinite Hotel but built from Day One as a “tall” adventure – the player is confined to an elevator, in a hotel with an infinite number of floors. The room stays the same size, but the characters, environments and tasks just outside the door keep changing, allowing for “A Grand Scale Adventure in a Room Scale Space”.

With a key focus on narrative and storytelling from the beginning, Italic Pig is well positioned to make the most of the opportunity. Over the past seven years, Italic Pig has twice been awarded the Creative Europe Media Sub-Programme funding for narrative-led video game development, and Italic Pig’s founder & CEO Kevin Beimers has been nominated three times for Best Game Script by the Writers’ Guilds of Great Britain and Ireland on two separate titles.

“Virtual Reality is a new medium, so we have to find ways to tell stories that take advantage of the best features of that medium,” adds Kevin. “If all you’re doing is repurposing the same old tricks from console and PC gaming, you’ll just find that most of your time is spent fighting against the worst features of the medium.”

The opportunity to work with ILMxLAB has come directly from Italic Pig’s collaboration with Future Screens NI, a Northern Ireland R&D initiative to push the boundaries of entertainment in film, animation and games.

Future Screens NI is running a free workshop on storytelling in the interactive sector (VR/AR/Gaming). Super Story World will take place on Saturday 30th November from 2-5pm in the Seamus Heaney Centre, Queens University and will be lead by author, Stephen Sexton.

In this workshop, you will analyse video games’ relationship to narrative, and the ways in which concepts of narrative might be used to invigorate and transform games. The discussion will consider relationships of text and image as well as plot, character and perspective as well as the potential of the video game to tell new and uniquely realised stories.

The workshop is open to anyone with a professional background in gaming and has limited spaces so attendance will be on a first come first serve basis. Please RSVP to r.brown@qub.ac.uk. 

Creative Europe is holding an information session about its Video Game Development Fund in The Pixel Mill on Friday 6th December 2019 from 10:00 – 11:30. The session will go through the opportunity in detail and those who attend will hear from companies who have received the funding in the past. To register for the session click HERE. 

The Creative Europe fund for ‘Development: Video Games’ is open! Through the MEDIA programme, Creative Europe offers grants between €10,000 and €150,000 for the development of narrative video games.The UK can fully participate in Creative Europe until it leaves the EU and our advice is to continue applications for the current calls.  For more information on Creative Europe and BREXIT see here.  Further information on the call itself including a handy eligibility check list can be found here.   If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to contact Rosie at the MEDIA desk in Northern Ireland – rosie.legarsmeur@britishcouncil.org.

What does this funding support?

The development of narrative video games (from concept to the first version of a playable prototype), regardless of platform or expected distribution method, which are intended for commercial exploitation.

Who is this funding for?

Be registered for a minimum of 12 months and have video game production as their main business activity.

Own the majority of the rights to the project for which support is being sought.

Must also be able to demonstrate that they have developed/produced one previous eligible video game that has been commercially distributed.

What types of games are eligible for support?

Narrative storytelling video games regardless of platform or expected distribution method. The story must be told or shown throughout the whole game (in-game storytelling) and not only as an introduction or an ending to the game. In all cases the video game must be intended for commercial exploitation.

When is the deadline for applications?

The deadline to apply for the next round of funding is on the 12th February 2020.

Specialist training and design thinking Consultancy Company, Rejig are hosting two highly interactive insight gathering sessions on behalf of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) about the Gaming Industry in Northern Ireland.

The main focus of the sessions will be on;

• What are the main challenges facing the development of the Games industry here?
• How might we do things differently?

During the sessions there will be ample opportunities to have personal views heard and considered all for the benefit of the development of the gaming sector.

The sessions will take place at the Catalyst Innovation Centre, Titanic Quarter on the following dates and times:

• Session 1: Friday 18th October 2019 1.00pm- 4.00pm (lunch served at 1.00pm)
• Session 2: Monday 21st October 2019 9.30am- 12.30 pm (lunch served at 12.30)

To register for either of the events, click here.

The outputs from this session will be reported back to the IET. 

On Saturday 5^th October, Ulster University is hosting an open day for the Games Design course at the Belfast Campus.

The open day allows prospective students the opportunity to experience life at Ulster by speaking to staff and students to find out more about the game design course, attend talks and workshops on various subject areas and check out what the campus has to offer.

The Games Design course focuses on the skills, knowledge and creativity for the design and development of games using specialised tools and practices.

The video games industry is the biggest entertainment market in the world. Game Designers are an integral part in the development of games and often develop the initial game ideas, structures, rules and gameplay features.

To attend the open day, register for talks and tours on the Ulster University website.

Northern Ireland’s Italic Pig’s, The Infinite Hotel, game has been nominated for Best Immersive Game at the upcoming Raindance Film Festival.

The Infinite Hotel is a character-driven VR adventure that boasts “a grand scale adventure in a room scale space”. Set in a hotel with an infinite number of floors, the player takes on the role of elevator operator to the weird and quirky staff and patrons of the universe’s most luxurious holiday resort.

The first event of the Immersive Summit, an annual symposium of eye-opening talks and panel discussions, shining the spotlight on leading creators and emerging voices from around the world, will take place at Vue Piccadilly Cinema on 26^th September between 10:30 – 5:30pm. As part of the Immersive Games Panel, Kevin Beimers will be talking about the creation of The Infinite Hotel and the challenges and opportunities that VR presents for storytellers.

Kevin Beimer, CEO of Italic Pig said: “What interests me in VR is that it hasn’t had its ‘Fruit Ninja’ moment yet. I’m not saying I’m looking for Fruit Ninja VR, but Fruit Ninja as a metaphor representing a new game mechanic that truly embraced and catered to touchscreen mobile. VR is still in its infancy, and as far as I can tell, people are still searching for the new mechanic that is ‘special’ to VR – not a port, not a reskinning, but a unique, purist experience for the medium. As someone who likes to mess with expectations and experimentally mash genres together, it’s the absence of hard rules that excites me most.”

The project originally entered development through the support of both the Creative Europe MEDIA Sub-Programme and Northern Ireland Screen, and has most recently been supported by Future Screens NI and HTC Viveport. Italic Pig is currently looking for adventurous partners to help fund and support the completion of The Infinite Hotel.

The Raindance Film Festival takes place from 19^th to 26^th September.

Hytale from Derry-based Hypixel Studios has been nominated in the Most Wanted Game category at the 37th Golden Joystick Awards. These are the world’s longest-running public-voted games awards and hold a special place in the gaming calendar.

Hytale is a blockgame built around three pillars: going on adventures in a procedurally-generated fantasy world, playing minigames with the community, and building and sharing mods and custom content using an accessible set of browser-based and in-game tools.

The Most Wanted Game category is all about the future: the games the public is most looking forward to in the coming years. Hytale is one of twelve games shortlisted in this category with Awards organisers commenting:

It’s unlikely we’ll ever get a Minecraft 2 in name, but Hytale is essentially that in nature. “The scope of a sandbox with the depth of an RPG”, Hytale has the familiar blocky aesthetic with so much freedom, the possibilities will be endless.

You can vote for Hytale here: https://www.gamesradar.com/goldenjoystickawards/#most-wanted-game

The Golden Joystick Awards take place in London’s Bloomsbury Big Top on 15^th November and are hosted by comedian and Assassin’s Creed star Danny Wallace. The event will be livestreamed and viewers will get to enjoy the ceremony as well as interviews, trailers and more.