#ScreenScot Saturday – March

Posted on 02/04/2018 by | Comments Off on #ScreenScot Saturday – March

NV Casino – An In-Depth Look at a Thriving Online Casino

https://twitter.com/IGDAScotland/status/969901203487326208

March was a busy month – the weather had an identity crisis, and GDC took over our calendars as usual. This didn’t stop you though, and this month’s #ScreenScot images have been wonderful to look over! Thank you to all our returning posters and to the new contributors too, it’s been great seeing your work.

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https://twitter.com/RaoDaoZao/status/975058478149591045

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Posted in #ScreenScot, Community

Mini Game Jam – call for volunteers & sponsors

Posted on 21/03/2018 by IGDA Scotland | Comments Off on Mini Game Jam – call for volunteers & sponsors

A guest post from Amanda Ford. Read on!

Well it’s that time of year again everyone. Mini Game Jam will soon be upon us again and this post is a call for help.

My Jam has been growing slowly over the past couple of years and I am now in year 6 of it and so far over 1000 schoolchildren have participated. With support from Glasgow City Council Education Services and Renfrewshire Education at least 13 Learning Communities across both will be taking part with their associated primary schools and I am super excited about this. Winners from each Learning Community will go on to a final on the 20th June (tbc).  The game jam is becoming increasingly popular with primaries and I know how much the kids love the actual event. However teachers too also see the benefit of making games and I hope by taking part in this the kids not only get to spend time making a game but get to meet new friends and get inspired by mentors helping out and realise that there are careers out there in the games industry.

I am looking for volunteers who are interested in helping encouraging children with their game ideas and supporting the on the day, no prior knowledge of Scratch programming is necessary (I can provide some training on it if need be). Each event runs from 9.30am until 2.30pm and I will confirm dates asap however they are all during May & June.  It’s basically based on the Global Game Jam idea just I condense that into a school day for the kids.  See here for some more background & info on the jams

Provisional dates still a couple of events to be added.

2/5/18             Lochend

10/5/18           Holyrood

11/5/18           Cleveden

17/5/18           Bellahouston

24/5/18           Notre dame

30/5/18           Smithycroft

31/5/18           St Pauls

1/6/18             St Rochs

8/6/18             St Thomas Aquinas

13/6/18           Whitehill

If you can spare some time doesn’t need to be a full day please email [email protected]

As well as volunteers I am also looking for sponsors for the final event. I try each year to provide a prize (nothing big normally a DIY gamer kit for each child in the team for 1st and gift voucher for 2nd place) and this year is no different so please get in touch if you can help  it would be much appreciated.

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Posted in Community, Glasgow

Steven Taarland – Scholars @ GDC 2018

Posted on 21/03/2018 by | Comments Off on Steven Taarland – Scholars @ GDC 2018

With GDC finally here, we’ve dedicated this week to all representation from Scotland attending the conference thanks to IGDA Foundation programs. To round up our celebration of scholars, we have an interview with Steven Taarland. Steven is one of this year’s recipients of the Next Gen Leaders Program.

Hey Steven – What do you do?

I am a associate producer at Abstraction Games in the Netherlands. Prior to 2018 I was a associate producer at Tag Games in Dundee, Scotland. I am also currently a board member of IGDA Scotland.

Where are you from and what is your connection to Scotland?

I moved to Dundee in 2010 to study Computer Game Application Development at Abertay University. After graduating I took part in Dare to be Digital. After Dare i continued to live in Dundee and took a job as a junior programmer at Tag Games. In 2016 I started the Scottish Rainbow Game Developers Group, a group for LGBTQ+ developers and students in Scotland to network and connect. This eventually led to running Rainbow Game Jam, an LGBT+ Game Jam.

Why did you choose to apply to IGDA Scholarships specifically?

During my time at University I attend lots of IGDA Scotland events, and saw the opportunities IGDA Scholarships opened up for individuals over the years. Since the IGDA Next Gen Leaders scholarship is essentially aimed at individuals like myself, I jumped at the opportunity.

What are you most looking forward to at GDC?

I’m looking forward to meeting new people and old friends, to see some of the great talks and panels that have been lined up, and to generally just enjoy the week.

Is there a specific goal you’re hoping to achieve at GDC?

Over the last few years i have switched from Programming to Production in my career, and I applied to the IGDA Next Gen Leaders scholarship as it will allow me the opportunity to further grow my skill set as a producer, to meet and learn from my fellow scholars, as well as be able to meet other incredible developers from all over the world.

Anything else you’d like to add?

If anyone out there is interested in getting involved with IGDA or IGDA Scotland please reach out to anyone on the board and consider volunteering. For me volunteering and being part of the board have been huge stepping stones, and I imagine incredibly helpful in my application. For anyone attending GDC this year, have fun! Its a great opportunity, try not to burn yourself out doing too much. Finally if anyone reading this would like to join the Unofficial GDC Scottish breakfast please message me on Twitter (@steventaarland) 😀

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Posted in Community, GDC

Alice Bowman – Scholars @ GDC 2018

Posted on 20/03/2018 by | Comments Off on Alice Bowman – Scholars @ GDC 2018

With GDC finally here, we’ve dedicated this week to all representation from Scotland attending the conference thanks to IGDA Foundation programs. Alice Bowman is today’s featured scholar! Alice has been selected as one of 2018s IGDA Scholars.

Hi Alice! First off – What do you do?

I’m a PhD student at Abertay University, the project I’m working on is researching ways that games and interactive storytelling can help cancer patients. I’m passionate about telling stories, and I’m so lucky to have this very unique opportunity to develop new ways that storytelling will be able to help people. Aside from my research I’m a writer and a designer; I’m fascinated by branching and interactive narratives and most of my projects incorporate this.

Where are you from and what is your connection to Scotland?

I moved from London to Scotland in September 2016 to take a Designer role at Outplay Entertainment. Working at Outplay for a year gave me my introduction to the Scottish games industry, and helped me settle in Dundee. I loved working at Outplay, but when Abertay began recruiting designers for a PhD project to develop interactive narratives to support cancer patients I knew it was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up!

Why did you choose to apply to IGDA Scholarships specifically?

During my undergraduate degree at the University of East London my lecturers encouraged me to become involved in IGDA’s community, so I’ve had my IGDA membership for some time. The opportunity to go to GDC is huge for me, so I was keen to apply when I found out about the IGDA Scholars programme. Aside from it being an amazing opportunity in general, the focus on mentorship, and helping the scholars to develop really appeals to me, it’s great to feel so supported at this early stage in my career.

What are you most looking forward to at GDC?

There’s so much I’m looking forward to, its hard to narrow it down! There are so many talks that I’m really excited for, all of the ones that focus on narrative and storytelling in particular. But to choose one thing, I think I’m most looking forward to meeting people. There’s so much talent and enthusiasm somewhere like GDC, and I’ve only ever been able to participate in UK industry events before, so it’s really great to have this opportunity to meet experts from further afield.

Is there a specific goal you’re hoping to achieve at GDC? 

I want to learn as much as possible while I’m there, and get as much from the experience as I can. My PhD research is at quite a formative stage, so I think I’ll hugely benefit from talks and discussion around serious games, interactive narrative and similar topics, and I’ll be trying to make sure I go to as many talks as I can on those subjects.

Anything else you’d like to add?

I have a confession to make – I almost didn’t apply for the scholarship as I thought there was no chance of me being chosen. Then I decided that applying would at least give me a very small chance, whereas not applying was a definite no. So, to anyone else in a similar position, make sure you take every opportunity that comes by as you never know which one is going to work out amazingly well!

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Posted in Community, GDC

IGDA Scotland Scholars @ GDC 2018

Posted on 19/03/2018 by | Comments Off on IGDA Scotland Scholars @ GDC 2018

promo

This week the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco kicks off, and we hope you’re as excited as we are! Over the years we’ve had a multitude of scholars that have represented Scotland at GDC and this year is no different. We have 2 scholars across the IGDA Foundations IGDA Scholars, and Next Gen Leaders programs.

Over the next few days we’ll be doing feature interviews with each of our scholars – Alice Bowman and Steven Taarland – so that you get a chance to know them a bit better and what this opportunity means to them.

We’re extremely lucky to have such a close and thriving development community here in Scotland, and we’d like to thank Alice and Steven for agreeing to be interviewed.

Are you at GDC this year? The IGDA have a schedule of events available here. Our next monthly event will be a GDC themed event in Glasgow in April. If you’d like to speak, get in touch with us at [email protected].

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Posted in Community, GDC, Glasgow, IGDA Scotland

Headline Sponsor 2018 – Henderson Loggie

Posted on 05/03/2018 by | Comments Off on Headline Sponsor 2018 – Henderson Loggie

We are excited to announce that our headline sponsor for 2018 is Henderson Loggie Chartered Accountants. Henderson Loggie will be supporting all our events for the year, so that we can focus on bringing you interesting content.

Henderson Loggie have sponsored numerous events in the past and they’ve always been extremely supportive of IGDA Scotland’s endeavours, whether that being through providing food and drinks, hosting us at their offices, or coming to talk to you all about how best to finance your game.

Steve Cartwright from Henderson Loggie had the following to say: “We are delighted to sponsor the IGDA event programme for 2018. IGDA provide a fantastic calendar of events for the games industry, which includes; demonstration showcases, learning and development and roundtable discussions and a good helping of fun thrown in too.”

It’s an exciting time for Scotland’s Video Games industry, with recent stats showing that the sector has grown by 27% in 2016-17. We are proud to be a part of this exciting and thriving sector”.

We hope you’ll join us in thanking Henderson Loggie for their continued support.

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Posted in Community

#ScreenScot Saturday – December – February

Posted on 04/03/2018 by | Comments Off on #ScreenScot Saturday – December – February

Happy (very belated) new year #ScreenScot! We’re glad to be back after our AGM, and wow have you all been busy! Here’s our #ScreenScot round up for December right through to February, covering festive games, Global Game Jam, Chill Jam, our Play Parties, and various other events in 2018. We’ve loved seeing the games and projects you’ve been working on, and we think you’ll agree that being able to see the development over the last 3 months of these projects is extremely exciting!

We’ve grouped each post by user, in order of the date they first posted. Massive thank you to Stuart Adams, Christos Michalakos, Pete Shea, Rao Dao Zao, Made With Numbers, Natalie Clayton, Rebound, Jess Hider, Amicable Animal, Kirsty Keatch, Blooming Code, Dickie, OIL / wee door, Alexander MacDiarmid, Tiago Martins, Ant Workshop, Kenny Creanor, Yarn Spinner, Aetheric Games, Terminal Transmission, tom Haygarth and Wrench Games for displaying amazing creations and making #ScreenScot so interesting to follow. If you want to join them and have your work displayed, be sure to use #ScreenScot on any of your posts!

https://twitter.com/cmichalakos/status/957715118640558080

https://twitter.com/kirstykeatch/status/944560900610064385

https://twitter.com/BloomingCode/status/952140005350297600

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https://twitter.com/wee_door/status/961520946820599808

https://twitter.com/AethericGames/status/964934701193588738

https://twitter.com/AethericGames/status/967383890188034050

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Posted in #ScreenScot, Community