Category Archives: games

May 30 2012

BBC In Dundee – Games Special

For a recent episode of Show Me The Money, the BBC sent reporter the excellently-named-for-a-lead-action-hero, Jack Garland to Dundee to ponder the ongoing evolution of the games sector.

Mr Garland mentions the collapse of RTW (again), before moving thoughtfully onwards to the rise of casual, social and mobile gaming.

Digital Goldfish are shown, strolling, like well-dressed playas, down balmy South Tay Street, while Guerilla Tea discuss business models and the importance of marketing and social media, with Jack.  Proper Games rounds things up with a quick visit to the studio and fleeting, yet intriguing mention of product placement as a potential business model.

Hmm…

Jack then abseils down the side of the McManus gallery, punches a bus and leaves in a sports car.

But that’s not the first time Mr Garland has had a mission in Dundee.  Jack produced an earlier piece, also featuring Guerilla Tea, Proper Games and an amiable bunch of students, whom Jack didn’t execute with icy indifference.

Looking this time at the growth of mobile gaming, Jack appears on top of a game of Flock!, using only the power of his mind, before carrying out enhanced interrogation on Proper’s Grant Alexander and winning 300 games of Yo Deshi in a row.  He then paddled up the Tay on a burning torpedo and roundhouse-kicked a horse to death.

According to the following week’s Points Of View, the horse was evil.

May 29 2012

BAFTA In Scotland Needs YOU

Regular readers of industry bible, Scottishgames.net will know that we’re fans of BAFTA In Scotland.  They’re a good bunch, who do much to support the screen industries in Scotland and who are genuinely trying to incorporate more interactive and games content into their programme, as well as building up membership in the games sector.

Membership of ‘the academy’ (yes, it does sound cool…) is open to people working in the moving image industries in Scotland.  That includes film, television and of course games of all descriptions.  There’re even career starter and student options to ensure that the next generation of talent can benefit from joining.

And there are other benefits too…

  • An exclusive Tuesday night film preview screening in Glasgow (twice a month on Mondays in Edinburgh) for you and a guest. 
  • Access to special screenings, events, masterclasses and seminars.
  • Members offers which currently include free admission to any film at any time in Cineworld, Monday – Thursday.
  • Networking opportunities such as members drinks held throughout the year.
  • Voting rights for Film and Television in the British Academy Scotland Awards (not Student or Career Starter Members)

The voting rights means you get early access to a *lot* of new films and access to some very cool events.  While they’ve been focused on film/tv to date, the BAFTA In Scotland committee has some rather exciting plans to incorporate far more games-related activity and materials into their plans for the coming year.

(And yes, Dundee residents, that may well include one or more events within the city limits, so you can attend and participate without panicking and mewling like a sickly veal calf in quicksand.)

Of course, the major benefit here is that the academy’s (see, told you it sounds cool) focus on the wider screen industries means that you are constantly meeting people from other areas who are fascinated and really want to know more about the games sector, the technology behind games and the growing convergence between film, television and games.

Plus, let’s be honest guys, they do better parties.  WAY better.  There’s winning a BAFTA and there are some other awards.  There’s the red carpet and doing Jaegerbombs with Peter Capaldi and Catriona Shearer and then there’re game awards where the total number of famous people is one (if we’re there…)

Still not convinced?  BAFTA In Scotland events in 2011/2012 included:

-Edinburgh International Film Festival annual BAFTA in Scotland Interview with Bill Nighy.

-‘It’s a Matter of Ethics’ – Masterclass with Roger Graef OBE.

-WE’LL TAKE MANHATTAN screening and Q&A with Director, John McKay.

-THE AWAKENING screening and Q&A with Director, Nick Murphy.

-British Academy Scotland Awards 2011

-SHAME screening and Q&A with Writer/Director, Steve McQueen.

-Glasgow Film Festival Interview with Brian Cox.

-Wildlife Filmmaking Masterclass with Nigel Pope.

-BAFTA in Scotland New Talent Awards 2012.

-Amongst a packed programme of screenings we previewed DRIVE; TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY; WARHORSE; SHAME; THE ARTIST; IDES OF MARCH.

Now imagine the 2012 calendar, with lots of lovely game things in there…

Full membership for BAFTA In Scotland costs £105 for a year.  There are a whole host of other options however.  A ‘Country membership’ for those who live in excitingly rural locations where sheep get in the way of traffic and electricity is predicted ‘real soon now’ (insert obligatory Dundee joke), or Career Starter and Student membership options for new up-and-coming game developers.

Rather than rabbit on, if you have any questions about BAFTA In Scotland, why not ask the professionals?  Contact Sam Ferguson on 0141 302 1770 / infoscotland@bafta.org

While we’re at it, support for BAFTA in Scotland contributes directly to the success of Scotland’s moving image industries.  A strong creative industries sector helps our economy, nurtures our emerging talent and creates jobs and opportunities.

Join up.

Or we can pretend games exists in splendid isolation and that sneering at other industries will see us through.  Your choice.

You do need to get your skates on though.  Membership for 2012 closes on June 1st.  Yes, we should have posted this earlier.  Yes, we suck.  Humblest apologies to all.

May 16 2012

Matching Set – Out Now For iOS

By the snuffly snout of Anubis!  There’s a new game out for iPhone, iPad and iPod, from the team at Ludometrics.

Matching Set is not only an invocation to the Egyptian pantheon of deities, but also challenges players to match pairs of tiles and remove them from the playing board, like the mighty Sphinx removed querulous and unworldly travellers from the land of the living, by  Horus.

The mighty Pharaoh has decreed that the game is entirely free-to-play, to encourage his subjects to try it and to exercise their intellect as much as the construction of the pyramids exercises their backs.

Prosperous merchants and the nobility can rise above the slaves, serfs and peasants however and purchase the Boost Mode, which provides extra time, a score multiplier and a gift of the Gods themselves – the powerful Smite Gem.  More points, more power, more chance of model chariots, carts, cows and all manner of trinkets for the afterlife.

Go download the game and play it.  You are commanded.

May 12 2012

Minecraft Xbox 360 – Biggest Ever Day 1 Sales – Profitable In First HOUR

As the headline suggests, the Xbox 360 version of indie sensation Minecraft has been doing rather well.  Microsoft announced at the end of the week that the game had broken existing sales records for first day sales.  While no figures have been announced, the game was apparently making profit within the first hour of release, according to a tweet from Mojang supremo and game mastermind, Notch.

All of which is good – no excellent – news for the team at 4J Studios who developed the Xbox 360 version of the game (in their East Linton studio, fact fans, not their Dundee studio as some poorly informed news sources have been reporting…)

The game has already picked up critical acclaim worldwide, with Eurogamer making it their game of the week and giving it a whopping 9/10.

Congratulations (again) to Mojang, 4J and the happy players of Minecraft.

(and thanks again for the world exclusive banner, chaps…)

May 10 2012

Denki Announces New Plans – Exciting Plans – Secret Plans…

The team at Denki have released a filthy teasing hint that they’re working on their next new game.  Following the success of Quarrel on iOS and Xbox Live, Denki’s next move has been the subject of intense speculation in and around the digital media and interactive industries globally.

Now, the first tiny wisps of insubstantial information have emerged.  The project will be, according to Denki’s very own blog:

  • The game will launch exclusively on the super sexy Turbulenz platform, allowing us to deliver console quality in the convenience of your web browser.
  • It’s probably the most action-orientated thing we’ve ever made.
  • It features the winning combination of naked flames, bold heroism AND fluffy bunnies.

Given the company’s titles to date, that’s pretty exciting.  The key thing here is ‘console quality gaming’, but ‘in your web browser’.  So Denki can be Denki, but in the world’s biggest market – the one without the several million competing products.  Hmmm… intriguing.

And you, yes YOU.  You can be part of it.  Early.  BEFORE the hordes of hipsters and Zynga designers looking for ideas.  Sign up now and you can be kept abreast of the latest happenings from Denki HQ.  (Or of course, you can read your fabulous daily Scottishgames.net)

God speed Denki!

May 9 2012

Minecraft For Xbox 360 – Made In Scotland

We’re aware that Minecraft was intelligently designed, by the Mojang hero team and has its roots very firmly in Sweden.  However, today saw the release of Minecraft for the Xbox 360, created by the team at 4J Studios’ development office in East Linton (for our readers in Dundee – that’s NOT where you live…)

If you’re not a gamer, or if you only read news sources which totally ignore digital media and the interactive industries (the Scottish media for example) you may not be familiar with Minecraft (yes, that is Edinburgh Castle.  No, Dundee readers, that’s not in Dundee).


It’s a cross between LEGO and The Walking Dead.  You have to mine resources and build things, in some modes, without getting killed by scary blocky monsters.  It’s a wonderful example of sandbox gaming, in which that player is encouraged to build and create and experiment.  It has over 25,000,000 registered users.  It’s sold over 5,000,000 copies on PC/Mac and some people, as happens on the Internets, have taken it too far.  Famous buildings and locations or fairground rides are one thing, working processor units, insanity and life size starships are quite another:

It exemplifies the emergent ‘indie’ spirit in the games world and proves that the lowest common casual denominator is not always the most popular creative decision.

4J Studios are no strangers to the Xbox market.  The company is responsible for the critically acclaimed Xbox 360 versions of titles including Perfect Dark, Banjo Kazooie, Banjo Tooie and PS3 conversions including Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.


Minecraft for Xbox 360 is already receiving a lot of love from the media and critics worldwide.  It gets the perfect 100% from the UK’s Official Xbox Magazine and Gaming Age.  It scores 83 out of 100 on the influential Metacritic, while the game gets 4/5 from The Guardian, which also says:

It is strangely profound and meditative experience, aided by the wilting piano score and the soft, simple sound effects, which lend each action a naturalism that works within this universe even when resembling nothing in our own. And don’t be fooled by the chunky docile appearance of the monsters – Minecraft manages to create a creepy, jumpy atmosphere during its night-time hours, with the green, staring Creepers peering through your door and zombies reaching in through the windows. This is a game that replicates every element of solitude and the human imagination – it scares as well as intrigues.

Or you can read an interview with 4J’s Paddy Burns over on Now Gamer.  Alternatively, Paddy also spoke to the team at Hookshot about the project, telling them:

When the subject of translating Minecraft to console came up, Microsoft put forward 4J for the project. “I visited Mojang at the end of April 2011,” says chief technology officer, Paddy Burns. “I questioned Notch in detail about the software architecture of all the different parts of the game– I wanted to get a high level understanding of what it would take to convert to the Xbox 360. At the end of the grilling, Notch said: ‘That was great! No one’s ever asked me questions like that!’ I then put a proposal together showing what we would do, how we would do it, and a project timetable.”

Minecraft for Xbox 360 is out now and costs 1600 MS points.  Or there’s a trial version if you’re tight.

May 8 2012

Time Capsule Tuesday – THE Definitive History Of Games In Scotland

Did you know that Scottishgames was originally started in 2005 as a Yahoo Group?  That didn’t work.  It required people to get involved and contribute.  So in 2006, your editor took the decision to start a blog.  At that time, TypePad was a decent choice and allowed sophisticated content like words and pictures to be mixed in a new way which the ascended masters referred to as ‘multimedia’.

There’s over three years of content and updates on the original Scottishgames.biz (since it was primarily an industry blog in them days). It provides a snapshot of a smaller and more console focused industry.  It’s also the only record out there of the laughter, the tears, the events, the awards and the successes Scotland achieved in the world of games.

There was also, for a year, a Ning powered social network, which empowered every developer, every student and every participant in the whole interactive sector and allowed them to post their work, look for employment, post jobs, share news, find collaborators and link to their new games.  It wasn’t a success.  You want to be controlled editorially and told what’s important.  We get it…  We can’t link to it, since Ning has a policy of nuking any unpaid networks.

If you’re a researcher, student, journalist, politician, civil servant, event organiser, developer, publisher or fascinated observer, this is an invaluable resource, akin to the National Museum of Scotland (who we confidently predict would pay thousands for access to these ‘archives’).

Since then of course, the media empire has grown into the all new blog, a Facebook group, a Twitter account, Google+ group, fashion label, provides RSS feeds and of course a daily e-mail update, all in all reaching around several thousand people – important people, like YOU – per day.  Scottishgames has THE definitive company directory of interactive companies in Scotland and is recognised in the halls of power as the ‘industry bible’.

Believe!

May 2 2012

Out Now – Thor The Hedgehog – New For Android

There’s a new hedgehog on the block, which could mean Sonic’s days as a highly overrated platform star, may be numbered.  Thor is the star of a new Android game from the team at Glovik games, in Edinburgh.


A physics-based puzzle/platformer, players must use Thor’s body of ultimate sharpness to pierce objects, burst things and solve the sort of chin-stroking problems that would leave our blue Sega-based friend befuddled and clueless.

Available for Android devices on the all new Google Play, the game has already been described as “Definitely, don’t miss it! Really original, game fans will be delighted, simple but beautiful design, high playability, excellent new addition” by AndroidZoom.

It’s only £0.63 and promises a world of spikey fun.

Go on, just to upset Tails…

Apr 25 2012

China Joy 2012 – Scottish Games Industry Opportunity

You’ve done GDC.  You’re a veteran of E3 (and remember fondly its days in Atlanta).  You’ve done GamesCom, EIF and even Game In Scotland.  You are, in short a global organisation in good standing.

Now it’s time to take things to a whole new market.  China Joy is the leading games event for the rapidly evolving Chinese games market.

Scottish Development International is gauging interest in the show from Scottish developers and interactive companies.  You have until FRIDAY 27th of April to let them know if you’d like to attend.

Here’s the official e-mail…

Join us this July 2012 at the No.1 Asian Game Expo ‘ChinaJoy 2012’ to:

  • win more business
  • meet global and emerging games giants
  • promote your products and services
  • find new staff
  • build relationships in the world’s fastest growing region
  • Companies that sign up for the 2012 event will be able to access the following package* :
  • Access to SDI’s exhibition booth (your logo and graphics will appear on the stand)
  • Touch down area with internet access
  • Support towards travel and accommodation of £750 for eligible companies
  • Inclusion in networking receptions
  • Inclusion in targeted company meetings
  • PR support for new product releases or other ‘good news’ stories

To join us, please contact my colleague Mark Hannah to register your interest.

Places are limited and are expected to go quickly!

The deadline for confirming your interest is Friday, 27th April 2012.

Please contact Mandy Cooper if you have any questions regarding the mission.

Web: www.sdi.co.uk

Apr 23 2012

It Was 30 Years Ago TODAY – The ZX Spectrum – Dundee’s Second Favourite Export

Originally  released on 23/04/1982, the Sinclair ZX Spectrum was arguably (very arguably) the machine which inspired the home computer revolution in the UK and inspired a generation of owners to start making games.

Even Google is getting in on the act with a clever dual Google Doodle, celebrating St George’s Day, PLUS the far more important and significant ZX Spectrum day.

Manufactured by Timex in Dundee, the wicked black box of infernal magic is more or less directly responsible for the games industry in Scotland.

Happy 30th birthday Spectrum.