One event done and another in the offing. The Games Fleadh festival is nearly upon us and the following is an outline of the planned events talking place. All roads lead to the Tipperary Institute in Thurles in March!

See the great line up of professional talks at http://www.gamesfleadh.ie/gamespro/ including people from Playfirst, Open Emotion Studios, Demonware, Nevermind, Havok and Microsoft.

************

9th March 2009

* 09:00 – 14:00 XNA Game Studio Ireland Challenge Colleges Cup, DirectX 11 Challenge, Gaming Tournaments
* 14:00 – 17:30 GamesPro Talks – http://www.gamesfleadh.ie/gamespro/
* 17:30 – 19:00 Christian Martin Counter Strike : Source Memorial Cup
* 19:00 – 21:00 Industry Meal (booking essential)
* 21:00 – 22:00 Games Trivia Quiz, The Monks (O’Gormans)
* 22:00 – till late Games Fleadh Ceili, The Monks (O’Gormans)

10th March 2009

* 09:00 – 16:00 Robocode Ireland
* 09:00 – 14:00 Gaming Tournaments

Full details of all events are available on http://www.gamesfleadh.ie/

General Enquiries:

Games Fleadh, ICT Department, Tipperary Institute, Thurles, Co. Tipperary, Ireland
Email : gamesfleadh {at} tippsoc {d0t} ie
Telephone : +353 504 28258 +353 504 28258

Update****4th March, 2011

Important update for teams applying from the Island of Ireland: you now only need to have one team member who is from the other region

– please read the full update on this and how you can find other team members at http://www.daretobedigital.com/applications/how.php . You should also take a look at this video http://www.thedigitalhub.tv/dare-to-be-digital-2011

************************************************

It is that time of year again. Dare to be Digital competition deadline is only one month away. This year the teams need to be a mix of NI and RoI members.

*********************************************

The Digital Hub Development Agency, with support from the Department of Education and Skills and Belfast City Council, in association with the University of Abertay, Dundee, Scotland are inviting students from the Island of Ireland to enter Dare to Be Digital 2011.

Dare to be Digital is an internationally renowned games development competition for talented computer science and art students to develop a prototype video game. Teams of 5 students, usually a mix of artists, programmers and audio, assemble in a development hothouse in Scotland for 9 weeks during June to August 2011.

Here they receive daily support and weekly training sessions from industry specialists to create their games. This year, teams applying from the island of Ireland will need to have a mix of students from both Northern Ireland and the Republic. Each team will need to have 1 member from each jurisdiction.

* 9 weeks based in Dundee

*Weekly stipend of £150 per student

* £200 team budget

This unique competition is open to students enrolled in further education and 3rd Level colleges on the island of Ireland who are interested in developing a new innovative product in the games sector.

Dare to be Digital presents a unique opportunity for students. Many of the contestants from previous years have been hired by games companies on completion of the competition.

Deadline for entries is Sunday 3rd April 2011.

Students may apply online at: http://www.daretobedigital.com

Please email any queries to: enquiries@daretobedigital.com

Find team members on: http://www.daretobedigital.co.uk/applications/2011-vacancies.php

The film festival may have started in town but we are going to see if a group of indie game developers can make indie games in one day.

Tomorrow, Sat. the 19th February, will see the first in a series of three “Indie Games Space” days between now and April organised by John O’Kane, indie developer, GameDevelopers.ie and supported and hosted by Filmbase, Temple Bar, Dublin.

A group of independent computer game developers are coming together for the first free event on Saturday 19th February in the heart of Dublin between 12:30pm and 5pm. The purpose of the events is to allow independent developers and teams in Ireland, working on computer game projects on any platform, to come together, share ideas and collaborate on small games together.

Attendees will need to bring your own computer, notepads and pens. The event is kindly supported by Filmbase who are providing a training room, internet access and facilities for the event. Filmbase is a not-for-profit resource centre for filmmakers to network, train and receive support. People interested in networking with other developers are also invited to meet up for show and tell in the Filmbase Cafe.

After the introductions and talks, attendees will all submit a game design challenge, and one will be chosen out of a hat. They can choose to work solo, or collaborate with other people and teams with one goal. Finish the game before the day is finished, or work on it and enter into a monthly challenge.

Indie developer Paul Conway will talk about his new modification for the hit game Dragon Age, and how he developed his “Craggy Island Mod”. See http://tinyurl.com/craggyislandmod.

With the first event already booked out, places for the next two events on 26th of March and the 30th of April will be made available two weeks beforehand and announced on gamedevelopers.ie and made available via http://indiegamesspace.eventbrite.com/.

This event is aimed at people who have some game development experience and can contribute either, or both, artistic and programming skills. It is not suitable for complete beginners. For more information see http://www.gamedevelopers.ie/forums/viewtopic.php?p=44713 or the Facebook page at
http://www.facebook.com/pages/IndieGameSpace/177419852299177?v=wall

FOR MORE INFO:

John O’Kane (Organiser and Indie Developer) – info@theshindig.org

Aphra Kerr (GameDevelopers.ie) – aphra@gamedevelopers.ie

Filmbase is a not-for-profit resource centre for filmmakers. Their building on Curved Street, in the heart of Dublin’s Temple Bar, is a public space where filmmakers can network, hire filmmaking equipment, take training courses and receive support and information about working within the Irish film industry. Filmbase also publishes the cultural magazine Film Ireland and administers a number of film and documentary production award schemes.

We have been sent the following call by the Science Gallery in Dublin who are looking for people to pitch ideas for the design, design, development and delivery of a visitor experience game for the new Science Gallery exhibition HUMAN+ The Future Of Our Species (April 14 – June 24 2011).

This is a commercial call and they are looking for commercial standard documents, ideas, budgets and potential to deliver.

We only received the call yesterday but the deadline is the 13th of Feb!

Contact the Science Gallery directly if you have questions.

**********************************

1. BACKGROUND TO EXHIBITION
Science Gallery [www.sciencegallery.com] in collaboration with The Long Room Hub and the School Of Medicine at Trinity College Dublin, and supported by Wellcome Trust, is currently developing its new flagship exhibition HUMAN+, running from 14-04-11 to 24-06-11.

The exhibition will be a participatory exhibition experience looking into how we might shape the future of the human race. Using cutting edge technology, immersive game play and art/science installations, HUMAN+ will challenge opinion, stretch the imagination and provoke ideas about our human future.

Will transgenic modifications become the norm? Why do we undergo plastic surgery for pleasure? What is our genetic future? HUMAN+ will explore the overlapping ways we define ourselves – from smart pills, personalised medicare and genetic manipulation – to exploiting converging research in [eg] robotics, biology, nanotechnology.

The exhibition aims to create a dialogue around the scientific, artistic and ethical implications of using technology to manipulate ourselves. An important part of the exhibition experience will be a HUMAN+ ‘Lab-in-the-Gallery’ experience – a pioneering research-led gallery experience where real research experiments involving large-scale visitor participation are conducted through open-ended experimentation.

We are seeking to develop a compelling game experience (reality/mixed reality) to draw visitors through the exhibition experience.

2. GAME INFORMATION

Aims of the game:
– Create a intuitive, personalized and engaging interaction for the audience to explore the themes of the exhibition relating to human enhancement and its ethical/social consequences
– Offer alternate ways of engaging with the exhibition as a whole, particularly to explore the social, psychic and emotional consequences of human enhancement
– Increase audience interest: Encourage prolonged/ongoing engagement with /exploration of the exhibition and its themes.
– Entertaining + informative
– Will encourage social interactions in the gallery
– Encourage people to visit HUMAN+ website following exhibition experience

Type of game:

Open to suggestion. For example: reality or mixed reality
There should be a component that drives visitors to explore the gallery. For example, one could envisage visitors trying out different “enhanced” identities and features, and experiencing some of the consequences of these identities as they move through the exhibits.

3. SPATIAL INFORMATION

The content of HUMAN+ will be made of 15 to 20 art/science installations – developed through open call and invitation.

Themes to consider are: Ageing, Bioethics, Enhancements, Survival, Evolutionary strategies, Population Dynamics.

There are three galleries [1,3, and 4 on the floorplan with an overall footprint of c.450m2] over two levels available for HUMAN+ all of these spaces are to be explored through the game.

Café and shop spaces can be considered in the overall game design. It is important to ensure a cohesive visitor experience in the game play.

Please look at the links for examples of current and previous Science Gallery exhibitions –
http://sciencegallery.com/visceral
http://www.sciencegallery.com/whatsgone_exhibits

Specifically please see the
See also brand guidelines and basic gallery layout attached for reference.

4. PITCH PROCESS
We are currently reviewing potential projects, commissions and invited works to include in HUMAN+ and we are now inviting submissions for a game proposal.

In your pitch please make explicit –

• Your overall approach to the project
• How you will address some of the content themes of Human+
• Your use of materials/technology
• Previous experience of delivering similar projects

Please also include –
• Draft timeline for delivery
• How you will resource the project
• A full breakdown of associated costs.

5. CREDENTIALS & QUOTATIONS
Any proposal submitted should clearly indicate your experience of similar projects, including samples of work where appropriate.

The proposal should include quotations for the work outlined above.

It will be evaluated on the following scale –

Creative Route – 30%
Your creative response to the above brief including your route to create an exciting visitor experience in the Gallery

Compatibility – 10%
Understanding Science Gallery and its Mission

Cost – 30%
Overall cost to deliver the game

Credentials – 30%
Technical and creative capacity / proven experience on similar gallery and/or game projects

5. PROPOSAL TIMELINE
13th February Deadline for submission of design proposals at noon on this date
14th February Designer appointed by Science Gallery
15th February Full design brief meeting at Science Gallery
28th February Draft designs presented
4th March Draft design revision
9th March Design sign-off

6. FURTHER INFORMATION
If you have any questions regarding HUMAN+ or further information about Science Gallery please contact Alison Carey on 01 896 4199 or e-mail alison.carey@sciencegallery.com

The first indie games space event which is to take place in Filmbase, Temple Bar in Dublin on the 19th of February, 12.30-5pm is booked out after only one day.

The event which is aimed at, and organised by, indie developers, is providing a social and work space for indie developers to collaborate on projects of their choice.

The event is kindly supported by Filmbase who are providing a training room and facilities for the event. Filmbase is a not-for-profit resource centre for filmmakers to network, train and receive support. Gd.ie is also supporting the initiative.

How it will work

After the intros the attendees will choose a theme for a game design challenge (audience suggestions out of a hat).

Collaborations and team formations are recommended, but working solo is also fine. You can aim to finish your game before the day is out, or you can continue and enter in a monthly challenge.

The first event will also include a talk by indie developer Paul Conway who will talk about his new Dragon Age mod “Craggy Island”.

Attendees are asked to bring their own laptop, notebook, pens etc. Internet connection, desks etc. will be provided.

Tickets

Attendance at the event is free and tickets were limited to approx 20 on a first come first served basis for this first event.

Tickets were released on thurs 3rd at http://indiegamesspace.eventbrite.com/ but by that evening they were all gone.

Attendees are welcome to come without a ticket but are not guaranteed a seat in the training room and thus may not be able to participate fully in the event. However, the cafe may have some room and you can chat with people there. The Filmbase cafe will be open all day.

Future Events

The organisers plan to hold two more events on the 26th of March and the 30th of April and depending on the response these may be moved to larger rooms.

This event is aimed at people who have some game development or related experience and can contribute either, or both, artistic and programming skills. It is not suitable for complete beginners.

For more information see http://www.gamedevelopers.ie/forums/viewtopic.php?p=44713

or the Facebook pg
http://www.facebook.com/pages/IndieGameSpace/177419852299177?v=wall