The following is the updated schedule for today’s Games Ireland event at the Aviva stadium Dublin. This is open to all.

9.30
Microsoft App Days
“Gaming: Re-Imagined”
(Featuring exhibitions by Start-Ups affiliated with Games Ireland)

See http://win8gaming.eventbrite.ie/# for details. This event is now sold out but there is a waiting list. Also the event will be live streamed at www.microsoft.com/ireland/app/event.html

17.00 – 17.10
CEO Address
Games Ireland: “Who we are and what are our activities.”
David Sweeney, CEO, Games Ireland

Government Address
Paschal Donohoe TD address

17.20 – 17:40
Keynote Speech
On gaming and social media platforms/The social graph
Nikki Lannen EMEA Gaming Advertising Sales at Facebook

17.30 – 17.50
Panel Discussion
“Encouraging further growth of the upstart ecosystem in Ireland”
Stephen Hegarty, European Business Operations, Big Fish Games
Paul Breslin, General Manager EMEA, Riot Games
Andrew Bowell, Head of Product Management, Havok

18.00 – 18.20
Game Showcase
Surprise Guest
+
Jordan Casey
12 year-old wonderkid developer on his latest game

18.20 – 18.30

Keynote Speech
Steve Collins, Founder of Swrve

18.30 – 19:00
“Presentation of Inaugural Incubator Participants
Two minute presentation and pitch from each game company if possible.

Powoww
BatCat
Six Minute
Bitsmith

This should be of interest to all start ups and small local companies. I am sure more details on how to apply etc. will emerge soon. (Aphra)

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Today Games Ireland has announced the establishment of a new game-specific incubator called ‘GamesSpace’ which will be based with Pulse College/Windmill Lane Recording Studios in the IFSC in Dublin.

The announcement came as the organisation runs the second Games Ireland Gathering (GIG 2013) today, the 28th of March, which is taking place this year at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin in association with Microsoft’s Gaming Re-Imagined event.

In order to encourage the growth of the thriving game start-up industry in Ireland, Games Ireland whose members include Digit Studios, Riot Games, Havok, Microsoft, EA, Activision, Demonware and Big Fish Games, has established GameSpace to provide a central development and meeting hub for exciting, young game companies.

It is with the support of these Games Ireland members and Enterprise Ireland that the initial pilot GamesSpace has been established.

The space will provide hotdesks for up to thirty companies as well as individual offices for anchor game companies, including the first start-up tenants of the incubator: Powwow Studios, Six Minute, bitSmith Games and Batcat Games (the last two of whom are co-located with Digit.)

Further co-located incubators with Games Ireland member companies will be established until a larger premises for all anchor start-up companies is available.

GameSpace also provides a meeting area for prospective publishers, partners and investors to meet with the most promising game companies. GameSpace will create greater synergy between start-up companies and further momentum for the burgeoning games development industry in Ireland who have been scattered in locations throughout the country until now.

The establishment of GameSpace is part of a wider framework envisaged by Games Ireland that will also encompass an accelerator programme, GamePad, which will seek to fast-track younger game companies for graduation to GameSpace. Games Ireland will look to attain greater support for this wider infrastructure and a larger home for GameSpace participants in the coming months.

The global trend towards multi-platform, online, browser and mobile device-based gaming platforms has opened up a market of upwards of a billion potential customers worldwide. Games Ireland hopes to encourage talented Irish start-up game companies to take advantage of this trend and enable them to become commercially successful enterprises.

GameSpace is a major, innovative step in providing the support needed. “The establishment of the pilot incubator GameSpace is an essential step in the development of the indigenous games industry and is key to Games Ireland’s number one goal – growing the Irish game sector at all its levels.’ said David Sweeney, Games Ireland’s CEO ‘

For more info:

To register your interest please contact mark@gamesireland.ie

To enter the GamesSpace you must be either an incorporated company or have released one game.

See http://gamesireland.ie/wordpress/games-ireland-gathering-gig-2013/

See http://win8gaming.eventbrite.ie/#

The Games Ireland LAN Party 2013 will take place tomorrow, Friday the 1st of March. The event will take place in Windmill Lane Studios, in Dublin.

This is an invite only event. If you have not received an invite from Games Ireland and think you should have you can contact events@gamesireland.ie to see if there is space for a few more people.

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14.00 – 14.20
David Sweeney, CEO, Games Ireland Welcome
Address by Minister Joan Burton, Cabinet Minister (Social Protection)

14.20 – 14.30
Start in Ireland – “Why choose Ireland and supports for new businesses?”
John Dennehy

14.30 – 15.00
Panel Discussion – “Marketing & the Community”
David Solari, Chief Marketing Officer, Jagex in Cambridge
Matthew Elliot, Riot Games EU Community Manager in Dublin
Bruce Bale, Facebook EMEA Gaming Manager in Dublin

15.00 – 15.15
Keynote Speech
James Whelton, Coderdojo

15.20 – 15.50
Panel Discussion – “Best Engineering Management Practices and Methodologies”
André Weissflog, Head of Development, Bigpoint Games in Hamburg
Jeff Dixon, Founder and Lead Programmer of Magic Pixel Games in Los Angeles
Sean Blanchfield, Founder of Scalefront and Techpreneurs

15.50 – 16.20
Keynote Speech – “People Development at Riot Games (with a focus within Engineering)”
Michael Saladino Director of Engineering, Riot Games

16.30 – 16.50
Panel Discussion – “Elements of games”
Neil Leyden, Director IDSC
Jeanne Kelly, Mason Hayes Curran
Paul Young, CEO, Cartoon Saloon (Oscar nominated for Book of Kells)

17.50 – 18.10
Panel Discussion – “The evolving business model”
Paul Breslin, General Manager EMEA, Riot Games
Tony Kelly, CEO, Demonware
Andrew Bowell, Head of Product Management, Havok

17:20 – 18.00
Start-Up Showcase
“Developing Game companies in Ireland”
Gary Leyden, Programme Director NDRC Launchpad
Josh Holmes of Microsoft and Startup Bootcamp
John O’Sullivan, ATC Venture Capital

Different Irish Start-Up Companies Highlighting Their Activities and Games
bitSmith Games
Batcat Games
Six Minute
Powoww

18:00– Onwards

LOL – LAN PARTY/ Drinks Party

Gamecraft is coming up fast this weekend, the 23rd, and you can travel with fellow participants from Dublin to Belfast by bus.

The cost per person depends on the numbers using the bus. They’ll need at least 14 people for it to make sense, but the more they get, the cheaper it’ll be.

Sign up at http://www.eventbrite.com/event/5394148042#

The 10th Games Fleadh is fast approaching and runs from the 13-14th of March. This year Games Fleadh will honour the 30th anniversary of Robot Tank (c) Activision Publishing Inc.

Team registration for the various competitions remains open until 5.00pm Friday 22nd February.

1) Robocode Ireland Challenge
http://www.gamesfleadh.ie/compete/robocode/enter/

2) Game Studio Ireland Challenge – theme: Robot Tank (c) Activision Publishing Inc.
http://www.gamesfleadh.ie/compete/game-studio/enter/

3) DirectX Ireland Challenge – theme: Robot Tank (c) Activision Publishing Inc.
http://www.gamesfleadh.ie/compete/directx/enter/

Don’t forget that you can also nominate a game for the Engineers Ireland Game Developer Awards.

Digital games or technologies must have been released between March 2012 and February 2013. One nomination per person. See http://www.gamesfleadh.ie/awards/

After the success of last years Market Study Visit Enterprise Ireland will be showcasing the best Irish games companies at the Games Developers Conference in San Francisco from March 25-29th 2013. www.gdconf.com/

THE OFFER

Enterprise Ireland is supporting The GDC All Access Pass at a rate of €1,200 plus 23% VAT per delegate for Enterprise Ireland clients.

Delegation package includes:

*Branded trade stand during the trade show – for your use
*Company logo included in signage on the stand and all branding materials
*Enterprise Ireland networking event Wednesday March 27th 5 pm – open to your network

Entrance & all-inclusive pass for GDC 2013:

*Over 400 lectures, panels, poster sessions and roundtables (Wed – Fri)
*All summits, tutorials, and bootcamps (Mon & Tues)
*All one-day and two-day sponsored developer days (Mon & Tues)
*All sponsored sessions (Wed – Fri)
*GDC Flash Forward (Wed)
*Game Career Seminar (Fri)
*GDC Expo Floor and Career Pavilion (Wed – Fri)
*GDC Play and IGF Pavilion (Wed – Fri)
*Independent Games Festival and Game Developers Choice Awards ceremony (Wed)
*GDC Business Matchmaking
*GDC Mobile App
*GDC Expo Floor Happy Hour
*All GDC Mixers
*GDC Vault subscription (provides metered access to recordings of sessions for select GDC 2013 events via GDC Vault)
*One-year digital subscription to Game Developer magazine (includes print version for qualified U.S.-based attendees)

PARTICIPATION FEE & REGISTRATION

The cost of participation is €1,200 plus VAT at 23% – €1,476 and includes your ALL ACCESS conference pass and participation in our networking event on Wednesday 27th March 2013. This payment must accompany your booking and is non-refundable.

Non Enterprise Ireland clients can participate at this event for a participation fee of €2,400 plus 23% VAT (€2,952). A non refundable deposit of €1,476 (this is made up of €1,200 plus 23% VAT) is due upon registration in order to secure a place on this event.

More information on the ALL ACCESS pass is here. http://www.gdconf.com/attend/passes.html

BOOKING

Please register and pay online at http://bit.ly/VhHnWP

Please note that the last date for registration is Friday, 15 February 2013 and registration for the limited number of places at this event is on a first come, first served basis. For further information please contact keith.byrne@enterprise-ireland.com

ABOUT THE CONFERENCE

The Games Developers Conference (GDC) is the world’s largest professionals-only game industry event. The GDC attracts over 22,500 attendees, and is the primary forum where programmers, artists, producers, game designers, audio professionals, business decision-makers and others involved in the development of interactive games gather to exchange ideas and shape the future of the industry.

With Silicon Valley and San Francisco still the heartland for games development and production in the United States, GDC 2013 in San Francisco will give Irish clients an opportunity to interact at the cutting edge of the industry. And that’s why we want you, Ireland’s best games companies, innovators and entrepreneurs to join the 2013 delegation.

It has just been announced that Gala-Net, Inc. and its subsidiaries, Gala Networks Europe Ltd. (including its Irish operation) and Gala-Net Brazil Ltd., a publisher of free-to-play online games and operator of the gPotato portals, has been acquired by the South Korean company, WEBZEN, Inc., one of the leading companies in the MMO market.

“During this period and afterwards, we will develop strategies and come up with decisions on the continuation and future of our and WEBZEN’s brands for the European, North and South American markets”, explains Nicolas Pajot, CEO Gala Networks Europe.

Following this acquisition, gamers can expect more MMOs from WEBZEN’s portfolio to be available in Europe, North and South America. Additionally, all gPotato games are planned to continue their operation.

Founded and established in Seoul in 2000, Webzen Inc. is one of the leading companies in the MMOG market. One of WEBZEN’s most-known brands is MU Online, with more than 65 million registered users. WEBZEN have acquired YMIR Entertainment in 2011, perhaps most famous for the Metin series.

Gala and the gPotato portals will give WEBZEN access to the European and North American markets, as well as to more than 20 million registered players, and free-to-play MMORPGs such as Allods Online, Rappelz, Flyff, SEVENCORE and the upcoming Martial Arts-MMORPG, Age of Wulin, which will launch 2013 in Europe, and which is scheduled to enter its Closed Beta Testing phase soon.

Webzen and Gala Networks already started cooperating before the acquisition, by recently channelling the action MMORPG Continent of the Ninth Seal on the gPotato.com and gPotato.eu portals in North America and Europe.

About Gala-Net, Inc. and gPotato
Founded in 2004, Gala-Net, Inc. is a leading publisher of free-to-play online games. In 2006, the European subsidiary Gala Networks Europe Ltd. was founded in Dublin, Ireland.

About WEBZEN Inc.
Founded and headquartered in Seoul in 2000, WEBZEN Inc. (KOSDAQ) completed the merger with NHN Games in July 2010, and acquired YMIR Entertainment in 2011. WEBZEN has become a leader in the MMOG market and has developed one of the world’s top online games and client/server technologies. WEBZEN is continuing the tradition of MU Online, which boasts more than 65 million registered users, with Soul of the Ultimate Nation, and ARCHLORD.

They are currently working to release more new games including ARCHLORD 2 and MU2 , which is under development. More information on ‘WEBZEN.com’ and its games can be found at www.webzen.com.

Lots of folks on the boards have been involved in this and it is a great opportunity for third level or further education students.

Aphra

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The Digital Hub Development Agency, with support from the Department of Education and Skills, in association with the University of Abertay, Dundee, Scotland are inviting students from the Island of Ireland to enter Dare to Be Digital 2013.

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 2013. Here they receive daily support and weekly training sessions from industry specialists to create their games. The students also receive a weekly stipend of £150 per student, free accommodation at the University’s halls of residence and a team budget of £200.

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.

At the end of the competition, the prototypes are displayed at talent showcasing event Dare ProtoPlay. The general public and industry experts get to play and vote for the games. At the Dare awards ceremony, three prizes of £2500 will be awarded to the three highest scoring teams based on the criteria of innovation and creativity, market potential and use of technology (none of the three will be specifically attributed to any particular criterion). Seven months later the winning teams attend the BAFTA Video Games Awards to compete for the coveted “Ones to Watch Award”.

We’re looking for a diverse range of original, innovative, ground breaking games for all platforms.

Sounds good, yes? If you’re still not sure, here are the benefits of taking part.

*Enhance your CV
*Get mentoring from the industry
*Produce a demo to take to interviews
*Hone your skills and get the experience that employers are looking for
*Expose your skills and work to games industry luminaries / potential employers
*Experience working as part of a team
*Weekly stipend of £150
*Team budget of £200
*Free accommodation at Abertay’s halls of residence throughout Dare
*Build industry contacts
*Work with friends and make new ones from across the globe
*Opportunity to start your own games studio
*Work on your own ideas
*Exhibit your game at Dare ProtoPlay where thousands will play it
*Chance to win one of three £2500 prizes
*Chance to win the BAFTA Ones to Watch Award

How to enter:

*You must be studying in further education and/or a 3rd level college
*You must be part of a team of five students with a mix of programmers, artists and audio with someone acting as Team Leader
*If you are an individual and wish to join up with others in order to form a team post a notice on the Ireland Vacancies Board at http://www.daretobedigital.com/88_How-To-Apply-Ireland.html
*Register to become a member of the Dare to be Digital Website.
*Once registered log in to the Dare to be Digital Website to complete the team application form.
*Sample Application Form available to view at http://www.daretobedigital.com/applications/uploads/ApplicationForm_Final.pdf so you have an idea of what information is required from you.

The deadline for receipt of completed applications is Tuesday, 9th April 2013.

To read the rules & terms, frequently asked questions, and for further information on how to apply, please read the pages in the apply section.

Digital Hub Development Agency
Digital Exchange
Crane Street
The Digital Hub
Dublin 8
t: +353 1 4806200
f: +353 1 4806201
e: learining@thedigitalhub.com