In the past week there have been two major news statements from Digit Game Studios in Dublin. First, we heard that they had signed a strategic partnership with Scopely, a leading touchscreen entertainment network. The deal is described as ‘a multi-million dollar investment in Ireland’s largest game developer as part of the multi-game[...]
We have just heard that ‘Curtain’ by Llaura McGee (@dreamfeeel ) has won the 2015 Best Game Script Award from the Writers Guild of Ireland for ‘Curtain’. This comes on the back of the Grand Prize for The Most Amazing Game at Amaze, Berlin, 2015. ‘Curtain is a first person narrative that deals with a complex and[...]
It is that time of year again and the, by now annual, State Of Play is almost upon us.The ‘State Of Play’ is a chance for new and experienced game developers to network with each other, demonstrate and showcase their work to their peers and get a sense of whats[...]
The Bridge 2015 is seeking applications from recent graduates (animation/games/vfx) and older graduates (animation/games/vfx) for the 2015 Bridge programme, an intensive 8 week programme (between June and August) that aims to take graduates and make them “Industry Ready” by placing them in studios and offering them onsite and offsite training. This year[...]
Refrigeration Training has been in touch to say that they are doing to be offering a Beginners Game Development Programme. It is currently a non accredited course, but if they get enough interest, they will put it through the FETAC/QQI QA procedure. This is a crash course in Unity3d development. Learn the basics[...]
The 5th Irish Symposium on Game-Based Learning (iGBL2015) will be held at IADT on 4th and 5th June 2015. There will be presentations and workshops from a wide range of topics related to the use of games and game-based approaches for formal and informal learning. Teachers/developers/researchers who are interested in presenting and[...]
StoryToys, based in Dublin, have been awarded the prestigious Bologna Ragazzi Digital Award 2015 for ‘My Very Hungry Caterpillar’, an app for children based on the work of renowned illustrator and author Eric Carle. The BolognaRagazzi Digital Award is given by the organisers of the Bologna Children’s Book Fair, the world’s[...]
The ICT in Education conference will take place on the Thurles campus of LIT on Saturday 25th April. The theme for this year’s conference is ‘Make, Bake, Take’. The theme places an emphasis on creativity and a series of presentations and workshops will showcase how technology can be used effectively[...]
A number of the following short courses may be relevant to readers here. DUBLIN 1) Python and CG Pipelines (5 Wednesday Evenings) – 2) Production Management for 2D Animation (One Day – Saturday) – 3) Introduction to Grooming with XGen in Maya (5 Tuesday Evenings) – 4) Creating Great Children’s Content (5 Tuesday[...]
Algebalance is an iOS game aimed at teaching young kids the basics of Algebra. It does so through a fun puzzle game where the player has to rearrange colourful “Vumbles” around on a set of scales, and ensure that they still balance. We have just heard that the game is[...]
At a meeting last week a group of Irish based game creators, supported by Brenda Romero, announced that they are going to develop a new organisation to build awareness of games made in Ireland. The core goal as currently formulated is: ‘Improve awareness of game creators in Ireland. A core goal is to[...]
Two Irish game creators have been nominated for the A MAZE festival which will take place in Berlin, Germany, this coming weekend, the 22-25th of April. The first is Curtain by LLaura Dreamfeel. The second is Deep by Owen Harris and Niki Smit. This is the second year in a row[...]
Applications to be an IGDA Scholar at GDC Europe & Gamescom 2015 are now available! GDC Europe will take place 3-4 August and Gamescom from 5-9 August, 2015 in Cologne, Germany. Students from undergrad to PhD programs interested in going into the games industry are eligible for this opportunity. The[...]
So we had a message from the folks over in the European Game Developers Federation. They noted that there were only a few applications from Ireland to the last Creative Europe call for funding and wanted us to send around the information. This programme allows for up to 50%[...]
Third International Competition on Educational Games will be held this year in conjunction with the European Conference on Game-Based Learning (ECGBL), which is being held in Steinkjer, Norway on 8 -9 October this year. The aims of this competition are: · To provide an opportunity for educational game designers and[...]
Studio POWWOW has informed us that they have just released Puppy Cuts – My Dog Grooming Pet Salon. They developed the game for The Kindly Ones Ltd. from concept right through to full release and it is published by Dublin based, StoryToys. It is out now via the App Store (see below). ‘Go from scruffy to fluffy[...]
** Screen Training Ireland and Animation Skillnet are seeking applicants for a pilot one-year Traineeship Programme for Animation and VFX. The Traineeship programme aims to partner 10 trainees with 10 animation/VFX studios for one full year. Over the course of the programme, the trainee will work in-house in the studio[...]
The IGDA Scholarship Program is a 14 year old program that kick-starts careers of the best and brightest students entering the games industry. This program awards scholarships to select individuals who apply. Scholarship winners who attend E3 will receive: 1. E3 Pass: A Conference Pass to E3. 2. Mentorship: A[...]
In 2013 Geoff Newman (aka krudd) of EndLife Studios produced a number of podcasts interviewing people in #Irishgamedev. We also posted before Christmas that he was working on a film on gamejams. This week he released an interview with Colm Larkin, founder of Gambrinous and creator of Guild of Dungeoneering – which[...]
Casual Connect is taking place shortly in Amsterdam, the Netherlands and we are delighted to announce that two Irish indie games have been selected as finalists for the Indie Prize. Hay Ewe by Rocket Rainbow Studios Founded in 2012, Rocket Rainbow is an indie developer based in Galway. Last Autumn they[...]
In late 2014 we announced that Galway games studio 9th Impact had released NinjaGo Endless Runner on Google Play. It is still on our frontpage banner. In the 2 months following launch, the app has been downloaded more than 15,000 times from Google Play with over half a million games[...]
It is January and that time of year when secondary school students, people thinking of a career change, and those interested in further training, are galvanised by the CAO deadlines in the Republic of Ireland and the UCAS system in Northern Ireland (which has different deadlines!). Here on gd.ie we usually get[...]
Following in the wake of two articles in the Examiner newspaper which we have linked to in our forums, Róisín Burke from The Sunday Business Post (SBP) wrote two articles in yesterday’s paper (18th of Jan. 2015) on the Irish games industry. One focused on asking what has happened since the government[...]
My name is Pascal Luban. I am a game designer with 19+ yrs of experience. I have worked on both triple-A console titles like Battlefield – Bad Company or Splinter Cell (I was their lead level designer on the multiplayer version) and mobile games. I have compiled all my experience[...]
The Global Game Jam (GGJ) is the world’s largest game jam event (game creation) taking place around the world at physical locations. Think of it as a hackathon focused on game development. The weekend allows you to explore the process of development, be it programming, iterative design, narrative exploration or artistic[...]
A call has opened for speakers and panellists to speak at the annual Women in Games industry event on September 10th, 2015 in London. This is a European conference and it welcomes speakers – men and women – from Ireland and outside of the UK. There is a deadline of July 11th for all[...]
Fuzzy Flyer is a new 2D physics based arcade/puzzle game released by Dublin based indie developer Cian Kearney, with assistance from Cian McNabola (Artist) and G. Owens, Black Bag Music. Some of you might remember seeing an early build of this at a dubLUDO event earlier in the year. In the[...]
It is that time of year when prospective students and parents are researching potential college courses for an application deadline in January. We will be posting up more information on the site in the next few weeks for these readers.For now, Limerick Institute of Technology (LIT) and the Limerick School[...]
To celebrate the release of Chapter 2, creators Studio POWWOW have made Chapter 1 available for FREE worldwide n the App store now, with Chapter 2 available as a simple in-app purchase. Chapter 1 ‘ShipAntics – The Legend of the Kiki Beast’ was originally released in the summer of 2014. Studio POWWOW[...]
Squeazy: The Game has just been released by a group of Irish teenagers from ManorHamilton in Co. Leitrim. If you have heard the name before that might be because you heard about them after they won the Senior Category of the National Student Enterprise Awards and they were on various national[...]
Last weekend saw the Jolly Gamecraft take place in Microsoft Ireland, Sandyford Industrial Estate in Dublin. Gamecraft is a games jam event designed around building the gaming community. They allow game-makers to meet, share ideas, have fun, compete for prizes and most importantly make games! Usually they take place at weekends and[...]
Physical Liquid Software, based out in the Nova UCD Innovation park, is a game and app development company primarily focusing on android and ios devices. They are currently working on “Advergaming” projects but as part of this work they have just released an asset for the Unity3D game engine called[...]
We have just received advance notice of the date and theme for Games Fleadh 2015, Wed., March 11th! Games Fleadh 2015 will consist of the Game Studio Endless Runner competition, Direct X Endless Runner challenge and Robocode as well as Games Pro talks by Industry veterans (including a video[...]
Those of you who were at the recent Prototype Play festival in the Project Theatre in Dublin will have had a chance to playtest this new game/theatre event created by Dan Bergin, who also works for SixMinute, an independent game design studio in Dublin. FUSED is an immersive work of fiction,[...]
The European funded MEDIA sub-programme provide supporst for the following measures: the development of European audiovisual works in particular films and television works such as fiction, documentaries, children’s and animated films, as well as interactive works such as videogames and multimedia with enhanced cross-border circulation potential. A new Call has been[...]
At the recent Eircom Spider Awards EyeSodic Games won the best digital game against formidable competition. The competition was looking for ‘entries from game developers who have created an online game that is well designed, (original artwork, environmental design to be well considered, character motion to be well[...]
In 2013 Geoff Newman (aka krudd) of EndLife Studios produced a number of podcasts interviewing people in #Irishgamedev including Jamie McCormick from gd.ie, Diarmuid Murphy from Microsoft, a Dare to be Digital Special with James Sadlier and Alan Boyce from NeverMind Games and Andrea Magnorsky from BatCat Games. He has[...]
9th Impact, a company based in Galway, has released a game on Google Play. NinjaGo Endless Runner is a fast paced ninja adventure as you jump, slash and somersault through various terrains. It tests your ninja jumping skills as you soar from branch to branch through the trees of Kuroi[...]
The IGDA Scholarship Program is a13 year old program that kick-starts careers of the best and brightest students entering the games industry. This program awards scholarships to select individuals who apply. Here’s the full list of what award winners receive: Conference Passes: All access passes to GDC, GDCE, Gamescom, E3,[...]
Screen Training Ireland, Animation Skillnet and Enterprise Ireland are supporting the second Irish VFX and Animation Summit, taking place in the Science Gallery on Saturday 29th and Sunday 30thNovember. This event is open to students, graduates, educators and professionals working across VFX, animation and games, and will include presentations, panel discussions,[...]
Coming to PC, Mac OS and Linux in April, Irish developer Starcave Entertainment (Galway) has taken to kickstarter to increase funding for its latest project, a hybrid FPS/ RTS called T.E.R.R.A. This link will take you to the Kickstarter Page. Also greenlit by the Steam Greenlight program, T.E.R.R.A. supports instant[...]
November the 15th will see the launch event in Cork for the ‘This Is Not A Game Ocean Challenge’ (www.thisisnotagame.org). ‘This Is Not A Game’ allows 10 to 18 year old students to partake in the creation of video games that have far reaching results – games that have real impact[...]
The Guardian were at GameCity 2014 last week in Nottingham and they conducted a short interview with Owen Harris (bitSmith Games) about this new project, Deep. Enjoy!
Another big day for #IrishGameDev, as ex-Popcap Rocket Rainbow Studios, based in Galway, have gotten their game, Hay Ewe, published via Team 17 indie publishing program (yes, those of Worms fame). You can pick up the game over at https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/hay-ewe/id895730729?ls=1&mt=8 and show your support for this great looking game. Press release is[...]
The Bridge programme was set up to run short training courses to address or ‘Bridge’ the skills gap evident in the Games, Animation and VFX sectors between what education currently provides and emerging trends in the corresponding industry demands. As part of the programme, participants get to work in-house on[...]
In 2013 Geoff Newman (aka krudd) of EndLife Studios produced a number of podcasts interviewing people in #Irishgamedev including Jamie McCormick from gd.ie, Diarmuid Murphy from Microsoft, a Dare to be Digital Special with James Sadlier and Alan Boyce from NeverMind Games and Andrea Magnorsky from BatCat Games. In fact[...]
Sponge It has received some great input to date for their research into the digital content sector in Ireland. They are organising a discussion evening on the Digital Content Sector in Ireland in Dublin 4, this week, on Thursday the 23rd of this month at 7pm and a few places[...]
“It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane, It’s Superman” The erosion of the lines between books, apps, games and tv shows. The lines between conventional media sectors have eroded and the definition of a book, a game and a TV show are no longer clear and dry. There are many different[...]
We have had Games Live music events before in the city and this week tickets went on sale for the Dublin International Game Music Festival, 2-4th April, 2015. This is a Three Day Celebration of Video Game Music Including: Video Games Live Concert: April 4th 8:00pm A “Red Carpet” costume contest Multiple[...]
An Post announced the release of a brand new stamp set on the 16th of October, and Mario, Pac Man, Sonic and Space Invaders will be going around the world on snail mail letters. You can buy the stamps (minimum purchase €5.00) at http://www.irishstamps.ie/shop/c-190-game-icons.aspx, from major post offices or if you’re around Dublin,[...]