You’ll have seen major changes taking place on the Scottish Games Network in the last few weeks. Thanks to our intrepid band of writers and broadcasters (aka Andrew and Ryan), we now have weekly columns, a podcast, in-depth interviews, and a shiny new YouTube channel.
We have plans for more. A revamp of the website, so it’s a little less 2014. A whole new structure for the Company and Freelance directories (to accommodate the thousands of new entries uncovered by our research).
It’s going to be all fun and games.
Well, games certainly…
Before we do all of that however, we’d like to hear from you. What would you like to see? What are we doing right? What should we be doing less of? Are there areas we don’t cover which we should, or things we’re doing that you don’t dig?
Here are our current ideas:
Columns
Weekly and monthly columns. We’ve already kicked off our new ‘Games Gurus‘ column, which invites founders, CEOs, creators and business leaders from across the Scottish gaming industry to comment on hot topics and burning questions.
We’d like to introduce a few more. Inspiring Indies (where we ask the independent game development community for their insight into making games and building businesses), Recruitment Roundup (where we summarise all the companies recruiting right now) and Tech Tuesday, where we highlight the companies which are not making videogames, but are making the tech for (or using) games platforms.
Before you ask – NO – not every column has to alliterate, but unless I’m physically stopped, it’s likely that they will.
We’re also planning a lot more interviews with the founders, creators and pioneers of the games sector, from the smallest indies, through to the major studios (well, the ones who’ll talk to us…)
I’d really like to do more articles where we dig into the design and development of games made in Scotland. Where did Autonauts come from? How did NoCode come up with Stories Untold? Exactly what the hell was LowTek doing when they came up the idea for a disco tapeworm (like, seriously…)
And not just current games, some of the gems from the past. Everyone knows about Lemmings and GTA, but what about Hired Guns? H.E.D.Z? Baldies? (the BAFTA award-winning) Flock? Or Red Lemon’s Braveheart game?
We’d love to find out what you’d like more of? (Just realised we can call that last column, Retro Realm. YES!)
Podcasts
The new podcast (currently on issue two) is our way of providing a roundup of the week. Looking at the headlines and digging into the key stories of the week. We’re quite enjoying it. But is it working for you? Is a news summary the best format? Would you prefer more ‘evergreen’ content, where we dig into a major story, or address one big issue (games audio, applied gaming, crowdfunding, the state of games research, etc. etc.)
We’d really appreciate any feedback you have.
Videogame Videos
Our YouTube channel is amazing. Ryan has done superb work in getting it up, running and pulling in guests from across the whole games ecosystem.
So far we’ve spoken to some Incredible Indies (column name!), a weekly introduction to different areas of games (Chattin‘), and started to pull in some real insight into often overlooked areas of the games sector, like the Scottish Edge competition, and the new Play Away festival…
Again though, are we using it in a way you enjoy? Are we doing too much? Not enough? What’s making you happy? What would YOU like to see?
Tell Us EVERYTHING
We’re going to keep highlighting, showcasing and giving everyone in Scotland’s videogames ecosystem a voice and a chance to be seen. We want to make sure the great work being done by individuals, companies, and organisations across Scotland is recognised and celebrated.
Rather than be a ‘broadcast’ only site, we want to make it far more interactive and integrated into the community we’re proud to be a part of. We welcome your ideas, your feedback and your insight.
We want to hear about you, your games, your research, projects, events and activities. We want your comments and questions.
We’re not ‘the media’, we’re part of the industry. We want to show the world what Scotland has to offer. If we do something that sucks, then we’d prefer to know, so we can not suck in the future.
If you have something to say – tell us. If you’d like us to feature you, or your games, on the site – tell us. If you know someone, or something you think would benefit from coverage on the Scottish Games Network – please tell us.
Without you, we’d be shouting into the wilderness. So please don’t be shy. Let us know what you love, what you hate, and what you’d like to see.
Thank you,
~Brian
Photo by Mika Baumeister on Unsplash