MyUK Launches to Teach Parliamentary Democracy
There is an interesting game/experience application by the Parliamentary Education Service and Preloaded called ‘MyUK‘ just gone live. Its aimed at young people and is about teaching them the core ideas of parliamentary democracy. I did have a look at a beta version of this while doing a bit of work with the PES, so its great to see it out in the wild. It has lots of fun little mini-games within a wrapper about running your own political party. One of the things I like about it, is that there are elements of compromise in the overall experience, something important in the democratic process but that rarely feature in games, which are about winning or losing.
Here’s a screenshot of me starting to bore the MPs as I try to rally support for a new bill about stopping people being noisy in train carriages (an issue close to my own heart 🙂 ) Well worth checking out!
MyUK speech gameplay
Cthulhu Thursday: Inside the Mind of an Artist
While travelling the web researching for The Wasted Land, I came across this great article on io9.com about Lovecraft and art:
[Artist Harry.o Morris]’ approaches Lovecraft through ambiguity: “For me, the best way to express this uncomfortable aura visually is to leave portions of the picture undefined, in shadow, and influenced by chance/chaos. Also, I’m inclined to try and convey a sense of timeless antiquity which seems to be a cornerstone of Lovecraft’s vision.”
As well as this image from the biology class dissection I missed (I only did a frog):
from alivenotdead.com
And this article too on these illustrations for H.P. Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness from Weird Tales:
from scifi.darkroastedblend.com
(Cthulhu Thursday is a dose of Mythos to brighten darken your week. More on the idea can be found here and a list of posts thus far, here. Also for more Cthulhu news, sign up to the cthulhuHQ twitter feed. Enjoy!)
Dune’s Covers and Games
One of my favourite science fiction books is Frank Herbert’s Dune. I think it is an amazing book, a great blend of the hero’s journey, technology and clashes of culture. But it also takes on other great issues – the ecological discussion, the issues of colonialism and the nature of authority. A total classic. I’m not so keen on the following books, which seem to hit the second difficult album syndrome. Now this is the cover of the version I first read (bought from a charity shop):
It shows a close-up of a Fremen in the desert. But in reading about the book on Wikipedia I saw the cover image for the first edition, which is really beautiful! A semi-expressionist take on Dune:
Following on from this you notice how many variations of the book’s cover have been done over the years, from the minimal…
To the maximal…
We should also remember that the Dune universe was the basis for the first distinct Real Time Strategy game, Dune II, which kept me up all night several times playing it (on the Sega Mega Drive)…
Cthulhu Thursday: Astounding, Weird Tales and Stories
Lovecraft had much of his fiction published in pulp magazines such as Weird Tales and Astounding Stories. These popular magazines were a great means for new authors to reach an audience and launched many writers, not just Lovecraft. They also had great (and kitch) covers….
Run! The mutant pre-Daleks cometh!
The Shadow Out of Time - image from gilles-arnaud-sphere.com
“I told you this was a bad idea….”
At the Mountains of Madness - image from darkinthedark.com
Also see the choir of the damned… and while we’re on the subject, when reading your 1936 copy of Astounding Stories, what better to drink your coffee in, than these amazing mugs with a cthulhu at the bottom which emerges as you drink!! (Hat-tip to AdamDork for the link)
(Cthulhu Thursday is a dose of Mythos to brighten darken your week. More on the idea can be found here and a list of posts thus far, here. Also for more Cthulhu news, sign up to the cthulhuHQ twitter feed. Enjoy!)
The Growing Value of the Games Industry
I was looking for an article I’d read on the interweb when I came across this, from 3 years ago:
If gaming seems to be all the rage these days, just wait until five years from now. PricewaterhouseCoopers has published its comprehensive Global Entertainment and Media Outlook report for 2008. … Global industry sales as a whole will rise from $41.9 billion last year to $68.4 billion in 2012. This falls in line with previous forecasts, including PWC’s own from last year that predicted gaming would outpace growth from other entertainment sectors like movies and music.
So how did the predictions do? Well they fell far short. We’re at $105 billion and its only 2011!
Paul Heydon of independent banking firm Avista Partners, an investment banker working in the game sector since 1999, has come up with his best guess for the approximate value of the videogame business across the entire world. Speaking at the UK’s Edinburgh Interactive Festival 2011 this week, Heydon puts videogaming at about $105 billion worldwide. Console games will continue to lead the way in terms of sales, with an expected growth of 6.9 percent from $24.9 billion in 2007 to $34.7 billion in 2012. In the US alone, the report predicts an increase at a compound annual rate of 6.3 percent, with sales up to $11.7 billion in 2012 from $8.6 billion in 2007. Following suit, online games will also see massive growth. Online games, which generated $6.6 billion in 2007, will jump to $14.4 billion in 2012.
So why is it so out? My guess is that it did not account for the huge rise in both social gaming and smart-phone gaming, which frankly took lots of people by surprise. Which is why making predictions for 10 years hence, is fun, but never going to pan out.
Bristol’s Gaming Community
After a recent meeting about Bristol Game Jam, it became apparent that there is a growing community of games people in our fair city. Now those of us who’ve been around the games block for a bit (I first started messing with creating graphics (badly) on a ZX81 and my first game on the BBC Micro), knew that in the wider region we had a number of games developers come and go including Microprose (RIP), Pivotal Games (RIP), Hothouse Creations (RIP) and Confounding Factor (RIP). However since then, as the smart-phone market has emerged, it seems like lots of interesting stuff has been happening, so I’ve put together a list of what I think is happening here in the city (listed A-Z) – let me know if I’ve missed anything at tom at aurochdigital dot com – or contact us at Bristol Games Hub, thanks.
Video Games Developers (developers who make games, though they make other non-game stuff and apps too):
- Aardman Digital
- Auroch Digital (Consultancy as well as Games Development)
- Clockwork Cuckoo
- Demon Apathy
- Force of Habit
- Large Visible Machine
- Lo Fi Games
- Mobile Pie
- Mubaloo
- My Oxygen
- Opposable Games
- Red Wasp Design
- Toxic Games
- The Motion Monkey
- Thought Den
- ToolBox Design
- Echoic (Audio)
- Engine Room Games (core tech)
- Gusset (Audio)
- James Parker Writing
- Red Panda (Audio)
- Slingshot (street & pervasive gaming)
- SN Systems (Sony’s development tools creator)
- Arc System Works Europe (Publisher of BlazBlue and other games)
Games & Education
- Games Technology BSc (UWE)
- Digital Cultures Research Centre (UWE, includes lots of game studies academics)
- Bristol Games Hub (non-profit games dev space & community – plus office space for cheap!! sign-up for the newsletter here.)
- Bristol Facebook Page (email debbie at aurochdigital dot com to join)
- Games Jam Main Site
- PM Studio (where lots of game related stuff happens)
- Explay (Games festival)
- Neon Play (Cirencester)
- Fayju.com (Swindon)
- Geek Beach (Swindon & Bristol)
- Mutant Labs (Plymouth)
Game Jam 2012 in Bristol at the PM Studio
Call of Cthulhu Screenshots and Level-Pan Video Released!
Oh yes! Over on the Red Wasp Design site, it’s all Cthulhu now…
A clash between undead and British soliders in the trenches of WW1
Check it out here…
Cthulhu Thursday: Three Times the Horror
The last two times I’ve been revisiting Cthulhu Thursday have been fun, so I’ve decided to make it a triple! Some more images of evilness and horrorness follow…
Was this to be/may this be the poster for At The Mountains of Madness? Say it’s so…
Russian Dolls; dolls within dolls. Now witness horror within horror!
Not one of the best films made of Lovecraft’s work, but I love the poster!
(Cthulhu Thursday is a dose of Mythos to brighten darken your week. More on the idea can be found here and a list of posts thus far, here. Also for more Cthulhu news, sign up to the cthulhuHQ twitter feed. Enjoy!)
Bristol’s Going to Game Jam
Yesterday saw a really good meeting with Red Wasp Design, Thought Den, Mobile Pie and lots of others to plant the flag for Bristol’s entry into Game Jam, the make-a-game-in-24-hours event coming in October as a pre-Jam before the main event in November. This from Thought Den’s blog…
The Extended Play Games Jam is a ‘hack-a-thon’ where a team of random creative/programmy/interested people come together and try and smash together a wicked good game out of the milieu of their minds, computers, beer and pizza in only 24 hours. It is a subset of the already pretty cool Extended Play Festival, held this year on November 3rd-5th
The teams are given an overarching ‘theme’ which is only revealed at the beginning of the challenge, so it’s a little like (insert TV gameshow simile) gone mad! These games are then taken to the Extended Play festival itself, where people ooh and aah at how amazing/crap something is when made in only 24 hours. There might also be a prize, but by then someone had brought out mini rolls so we stopped taking notes…
Sounds good ey? For the first time ever this year they are running ‘pre’ events in (at the time of writing only Bristol and Plymouth, but hopefully others) which will again be 24 hours to rub together and create something cool at satellite sites on October 1st. These pre events will be live linked by Skype/Google+, enabling all manner of idea stealing and e-flirting fun.
Given the rich heritage of games development peeps in our fine city (Mobile Pie, Red Wasp Design and Mubaloo were all also at the meeting, amongst others) there was a general consensus that Bristol are going to SMASH this competition into West Country winning chunks.
I’m not a competative person normaly. But, well, it’s on.
If you’re in Bristol and are interested in taking part (number are limited however) then email debbie dot connor at redwaspdesign dot com…
Games I’m Playing Update…
Was:
– Crysis 2, esp. multiplayer (PS3)
– L.A. Noire (PS3)
– Silent Conversation (Web Game)
– Who’s That Flying? (iPhone)
– Hunters: Episode One (iPhone)
– Portal 2 (PS3)
Now:
– Crysis 2, esp. multiplayer (PS3)
– L.A. Noire (PS3)
– Brink (PS3)
– Warhammer 40,000: Kill Team (PS3/PSN)
– Risk (iPhone)
– Portal 2 (PS3)
from Brink
A Great Becoming... 