The team behind Games Fleadh have announced that Games Fleadh 2011 will honour a classic from the ‘Golden Age of Video Arcade Games’, Frogger © Konami Digital Entertainment.

Frogger was released by Konami in 1981 and is still recognised as one of the iconic games from the past three decades. In fact, Frogger is such an icon that it has featured on TV programmes, cartoons, car bumper-stickers, T-shirts and celebrated its 25th anniversary with the release of a special edition on games consoles such as Xbox 360.

With the approach of the 30th anniversary of Frogger’s original arcade release, students from all over Ireland will be preparing their own interpretations of classic game, under licence from Konami.

James Anderson, Head of Amusement Business in Europe for Konami Digital Entertainment, said “Konami are delighted to endorse this student portfolio event and we look forward to reviewing the best interpretations of Frogger that spring from Games Fleadh. Frogger truly is one of the fore fathers of the games industry and it’s good to see its iconic classic brand status recognised”.

Completed work will be judged by game studio executives during the Games Fleadh finals at Tipperary Institute in March 2011. The annual event is Irelands’ main games design and development student showcase for the hugely influential video games sector.

Students re-interpret classics using the latest technology and are challenged to conceive innovative art, audio and gameplay for highly regarded titles – such as Konami’s Frogger. Games Fleadh 2011 includes two challenges, XNA and DirectX 11, which target platforms such as Xbox 360, Windows 7 and soon to be released Windows Phone 7.

James Greenslade, Head of ICT Department for Tipperary Institute said “the games industry is a highly rewarding and challenging sector. Taking part in Games Fleadh and honouring Frogger will give students first-hand experience of working within the confines of an intellectual property licence. This is a unique opportunity to work on a famous title from a leading developer and publisher such as Konami Digital Entertainment”.

Previous entries, having impressed the professional community, have been exhibited in art galleries” (under licence)”and even more importantly to games industry hiring executives”.

Details for Games Fleadh 2011 are available on GamesFleadh.com.

Games Fleadh finals will take place on March 9th and 10th 2011.

Students can get started by downloading a Starter Kits available for the site.

If your school or college is interested in becoming involved they should contact Philip Bourke, Programme Chair: BSc. Games Design & Development, Tipperary Institute on 0504 28258 or via email at gamesfleadh@tippinst.ie.

Please direct Games Fleadh queries to:

Philip Bourke
Programme Chair: BSc. Games Design & Development
ICT Department
Tipperary Institute
Nenagh Road, Thurles
Co. Tipperary
IRELAND
Direct Dial: +353 – 504 – 28258
email: pbourke@tippinst.ie

Those near the capital might be interested in taking a look at the Irish Human Computer Interaction conference which this year takes place in DCU from the 2-3rd of Sept.

Registration for iHCI 2010 is now open and details can be found on the conference website: http://www.clarity-centre.org/iHCI2010/

Friday will showcase a series of peer-reviewed short and full paper presentations throughout the day, as well as a poster and demonstrations session.

Professor Richard Harper of Microsoft Research will deliver the opening keynote address and discuss the question ‘Do we communicate too much?’ See http://www.clarity-centre.org/iHCI2010/program/keynote/

Previously available as a facebook game Farmvillian is available from this week as an iphone app.

Below is the press release from our friends in Jolt.

Aphra.

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08/10/10 – Dublin, Ireland

After four submissions to the App Store, including one rejection from Apple on the basis that Chuck Norris wouldn’t like it (we’re really not making this up-check the story here: http://blog.joltonline.com/2010/08/09/us-vs-chuck-norris/ ),

Jolt Online Gaming is very proud to announce that FarmVillain is now available on the iPhone App Store.

Download the FarmVillain app and you can take revenge on all the online farming apps and games out there with its oh-so-amusing stories and borderline offensive jokes.

Trust us here at Jolt, the FarmVillain app will make you far less likely to murder your friends for *once again* asking you to harvest their Dingleberries while they’re on vacation.

FarmVillain. We’re sort of trying to save the world. By selling you funny crap one 99c download at a time.

http://itunes.apple.com/ie/app/farmvillain/id377009471?mt=8

About Jolt

Jolt Online Gaming (a subsidiary of GameStop, NYSE: GME) is one of the leading publishers of free online games in North America and Europe.

Jolt develops, licenses and publishes online games that are free-to-play and can be accessed from any Internet browser in the world.

Every day, millions of players who should really know better play games like Legends of Zork TM ( www.LegendsofZork.com), Gangsta Zombies ( http://apps.facebook.com/gangstazombies/), FarmVillain ( http://apps.facebook.com/farm-villain/) and Utopia Kingdoms ( www.UtopiaKingdoms.com).

In a fit of immense generosity, we recently launched the GameOffers app for iPhone, which provides game recommendations, discounts and cheat codes for all our iPhone-owning gamers ( http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/game-offers/id375964405?mt=8).

It’s completely free so there’s no reason that you don’t already have it.

More information is available at www.JoltOnline.com or you can follow the hilarious daily Jolt commentary at www.twitter.com/JoltOnline.

For more information, incredibly witty interviews and charming pictures of the Jolt team going cow-tipping, please contact David McGovern, Jolt Product Marketing Manager: david@joltonline.com

Dare ProtoPlay takes place in Edinburgh in Scotland from 13-15 August between 10am-6pm.

The main aim of Dare ProtoPlay is to showcase the finished prototypes created by the teams who take part in the prestigious Dare to be Digital video games development competition each year.

Other activites are also created every year to educate and interest the public about video games creation.

Dare ProtoPlay 2010: Programme of Activites

15 new Dare games: created by young talent from across Europe, Asia & America. Creativity, market potential & use of technology are the primary objectives for the young developers, which the audience will see all reflected in games produced for iPad, PSP Go, Android Phone, Windows 7 phone, Wii, Xbox and PCs. Visitors can play and vote for their favourite games at Dare ProtoPlay.

Studio games & technology showcase: Members of the public will be able to play for free: Kinect Sports by Microsoft; Adult Swim by Turner Broadcasting; Realtime Worlds’ APB; Blitz 1UP’s indie games, Denki’s new Xbox 360 game Juggle! alongside Quarrel and Denki Blocks! and LittleBigPlanet, WipEout Pulse, MotorStorm: Pacific Rift by Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE).

Intel partnered with SCAN will bring TEAM DIGNITAS, a SCAN/Intel sponsored gaming team to Dare ProtoPlay and the public will be able to play against some of the best e-sports champions on the latest 3XS custom gaming PC’s.

Dare /BAFTA Video Games Workshop 13/14/15 August:
For serious young participants, Dare ProtoPlay is offering 12-16 year olds the chance to learn the skills of developing a video game in a mock-up studio. A 2.5 day workshop partnered with BAFTA will see teenagers working as a team, creating their first title.

Dare ProtoPlay Bamboo: The world’s largest graphic developer Wacom will showcase the Finalists work from the Dare with Bamboo competition.

Industry talks: Industry leaders will introduce the audience to the latest technology including Kinect from Microsoft, development tools from Adobe and the most powerful gaming machines from Intel. BAFTA will discuss how to get into the industry and the vital role that education plays through the UK’s first Centre for Excellence in Computer Games Education at Abertay University. Book in advance to avoid disappointment.

How to get into games: Representatives from Abertay are offering assistance through the Support for Business programme, which will provide prototype grant funding to small games development companies. Students and graduates will be employed to undertake part of the grant-funded projects. There will also be a chance to look at some of the games created by the students from UK’s first Centre for Excellence in Computer Games Education in Abertay University.

Scottish Game Jam at Dare ProtoPlay: Scottish Game Jam is the Scottish venue for Global Game Jam – a 48hr competition to develop video-games. Join us at protoplay to experience the best games from this years Jam. Come check out what you could build in 48hrs We are expecting many people from the games industry to be at Dare ProtoPlay, so, asides from having fun, it’s a really good networking opportunity! Hope to see you there.

Date: 13-15 August
Time: 10am-6pm
Venue: Edinburgh International Conference Centre

Except the Video Games Workshop, everything is free!!

Awards Ceremony: 15 August Sunday (5pm) at Dare ProtoPlay

see http://www.daretobedigital.com/protoplay/