Why is UK price inflation rising? Here’s the ONS table. The rise in “other recording media” is largely videogames, according to the Office of National Statistics. So if you’re not a regular reader of new books, or playing lots of new games purchased in the High St. on DVDs, or steering your new gas-powered boat […]
Archive for the ‘Gaming’ Category
Senior Lecturer in Games Art
05 Jun 2017 at 13:28
David Haden
Birmingham, Creative industries, Gaming, Teaching
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Lovely job… Coventry University wants a Senior Lecturer in Games Art, at up to £52k full-time. Ref: REQ005098.
Drone Races
17 Aug 2015 at 10:33
David Haden
Entertainment, Gaming, Mapping, Techie, Zeitgeist
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The new, underground sport of first-person drone racing. Don’t forget to take the air-sickness tablets, guys…
Surprising ways to improve your eyesight
31 May 2015 at 15:18
David Haden
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Interesting New Scientist special supplement (23rd May 2015) on improving one’s sight, “Good looking: 6 surprising ways to improve your eyesight”. The measures suggested, as well as innovative lenses and surgery, include… * Veggies. No, not carrots. “Trials have shown that people in the early stages of the disease [yellow spots in the eyes of […]
“Thissen’s a tunky haiver”
A £31,800 Lottery grant… “to enable a group of young people from the Foundation to create a film and online game exploring the history and heritage of the Black Country dialect.”
Two-year videogames production degree
17 Aug 2014 at 09:04
David Haden
Birmingham, Creative industries, Gaming, Techie
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A new two-year ‘intensive’ videogames production course, in Birmingham: B.Sc. degree in Interactive Entertainment (Games Development).
A little credit…
29 Apr 2014 at 13:32
David Haden
Birmingham, Creative industries, Gaming
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2nd May 2014: How to get your UK Games Production Tax Credit. Birmingham.
Welcome to the Pleasuredome…
23 Mar 2014 at 19:59
David Haden
Birmingham, Creative industries, Entertainment, Gaming, Techie, Zeitgeist
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Nice to see that the social equivalent of the Oculus Rift is right here in the West Midlands (Shropshire, to be precise). Igloo Technology make HD immersive media domes from 20ft across and larger, complete with special media players and all the kit needed…
Tortoise racing in Birmingham
17 Mar 2014 at 16:33
David Haden
Birmingham, Entertainment, Gaming
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Tortoise racing in Birmingham, 1957.
Blitzed
Sad to hear that Blitz Games, always a big name in Midlands videogames, is closing down… “Blitz Games Studios, a major video games maker based in Leamington Spa, has shut down. The firm had been creating games for 23 years, and employed 175 people — 50 of whom will be kept on to work on […]
LAUNCH Gaming and Digital conference
23 Aug 2013 at 17:48
David Haden
Birmingham, Creative industries, Gaming
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LAUNCH Gaming and Digital conference for new student developers and indies, in Birmingham on 21st – 22nd November 2013.
GameDev Midlands 1
20 Feb 2013 at 13:41
David Haden
Birmingham, Creative industries, Gaming
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GameDev Midlands 1: Insert Coin to Begin. Birmingham, 9th March 2013. Free. The first informal networking get-together for creatives and developers in the Midlands videogames industry.
The Future of Identity – new UK report
21 Jan 2013 at 10:43
David Haden
Creative industries, Gaming, Zeitgeist
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Interesting new British evidence-based research review, The Future of Identity by the government’s Chief Scientific Advisor Sir John Beddington… “The Future of Identity project has utilised over 20 independent papers, providing a wide ranging evidence base for the project. You can access each of these driver review papers below, as well as both the full […]
Riding the niches
A hat-tip to Chris Unitt for the news that NASA has teamed up with a videogames company, to bring what’s said to be a fascinating level of realism to EA Sports’ new snowboarding sim adventure SSX videogame (PS3 and XBox only – review). All the mountain snowboarding courses in the game are built on top […]
TIGA attacks
New figures from TIGA on the videogames industry in the UK. TIGA’s new figures show that between 2008 and 2011, 197 videogame studios and development firms closed in the UK. While film is lauded and lavishly funded with tax breaks pick-ups, training health-boosts, and cool overseas marketing weapons… the animation and videogames industries are allowed […]
Make Something Unreal Live – finals in B’ham
04 Nov 2011 at 04:45
David Haden
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Epic Games have announced their “Make Something Unreal Live”, an independent game development competition using the leading Unreal Dev Kit. It’ll take place over the six months, and then land in the West Midlands for a “spectacular real-time conclusion” on 11th-15th April 2012 in Birmingham, UK.
To the Moon, sans gameplay
02 Nov 2011 at 06:57
David Haden
Entertainment, Gaming, Zeitgeist
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What if… you could have games without the gameplay? “If you took a classic Japanese-style role-playing game and stripped it of all the traditional gameplay mechanics—experience points, equippable weapons and armor, usable items, and even combat itself—what exactly would you be left with? And more importantly, could this-stripped down experience actually be compelling? In the […]
“No-one here but us chickens…”
The Facebook social games arms-race is over — so declares Tadhg Kelly of Games Brief, who goes on to give an informed journalistic analysis of the winners. The unbeatable 800lb gorilla (or should that be chicken?) is Farmville and its parent company which is currently going for a $1 billion IPO, but which most sane […]
Machinima bibliography 2007-2011
23 Jun 2011 at 18:00
David Haden
Creative software, Entertainment, Gaming, Teaching
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My new machinima bibliography (PDF link), primarily covering the years 2007-2011.
Fear, Horror and Terror at The Interface
18 Mar 2011 at 14:16
David Haden
Entertainment, Gaming, Teaching
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Fear, Horror and Terror at The Interface, a major two-day conference at Oxford in September 2011. By interface they mean “at the interface of fear, horror and terror”, rather than that such might be implicit in the web/digital/software/games interface that sits between the user and the Web/virtual-world. Although they do also say that… “We are […]