GameCamp 9

Another year, another GameCamp! This is always a splendid little conference, lots of interesting talks and a great and varied crowd. For those who haven’t been before, it’s an “unconference” meaning anyone who turns up on the day can give a talk, host a discussion, do a little dance in front of a dozen unsuspecting game developers, or whatever they like.

It’s hosted down at LSBU in Elephant & Castle this Saturday, tickets are £17.50 and I recommend you all go along.

Ownage.io – Blockchain Game Jam

Chain-gang block jam? No! Ownage.io are running a 1 day game jam / hackathon at their offices in Shoreditch. They’re asking devs to experiment with their bitcoin-like item selling / buying / ownership technology, and offering £250 worth of prizes.

Blockchain based currencies have been all over the news in the last few years. I bought my first bitcoins the other day after they installed a vending machine in Loading Bar, and whilst I’m not rich yet, I have been told I could be one day. It’s really interesting to see this tech get applied outside of plan-old money. There are already a few games on the horizon using similar ideas, such as Spells of Genesis which is a card battling game using blockchain to allow users to trade and sell cards.

The event takes place May 20th and is open to anyone and you can sign up at their meetup page.

Develop 2017 Pass Giveaway

Hello Everyone! The organisers of Develop conference have been nice enough to give us two free passes for the conference coming up in July. It’s the biggest conference for games devs in the UK and well worth a visit. This year there are talks from Doom pioneer John Romero, noisy graphics guru Ken Perlin, Moly Carrol of indie superstar publisher Chucklefish, and lot’s more besides.

There will also be the regular Indie Showcase, which allows small developers a chance to get some exposure and the chance of a trophy too. Submissions open on the 24th April and close on the 19th May, so check back on the Develop website for news on that.

If you don’t win a free full pass from us you can get an expo pass for free which also gets you in to the Indie Bootcamp sessions. This year they’ve introduced Micro Indie passes, which are about a third of regular pass prices and any studio with 4 or fewer employees can get these. If you book before 26th April you can still get the super early bird prices too. If you want to put your name down for the raffle come along to one of the next three Clapham or Angel meetups and speak Shaz Yusaf or Joe Bain, or you can come to co-working too.

Bonus Stage – Indie Games Showcase

Bonus Stage is a new indie games showcase, part of the London Games Festival Fringe.

You may have been to the regular co-working that we run at Loading Bar, now we’re showing off some of the games that the local devs have been working on. We’ve invited friends from around London, and some from a bit further, to bring you a great and diverse lineup of independently developed treats.

The full list of playable games is:

• Cosmic Express – by Cosmic Engineers
• Flight of Light – by Crystalline Green
• Goldrushers – by Tuba Puppet
• Induction – by Bryan Gale
• Legrand Legacy – by Semisoft Studio
• An Oath to the Stars – by Himeki Games
• Off Grid – by Semaeopus
• Rats – by Ben Luanto
• Thing In Itself – by Party for Introverts
• Truce & Trenches – by Rebel Observers
• The Wolf’s Bite – by Three Little Devs
• Yucatan – by Hairy Heart Games

If you’ve got your own game and you’d like to get some feedback or show it to the public, there will be an ‘open table’. Anyone can use this, just turn up with your laptop or tablet.

So, please come and support your local developers, bring your friends, and play some cool games.

Find out more at http://bonusstage.london

Co-working

Hi all. We’ve been running co-working for almost 3 years now, mainly out of Loading Bar in Dalston. This has been on the meetup group for a while, but we’re going to start keeping people updated on twitter through @LondonGameSpace as the venue sometimes has to change at the last minute for events being held in the bar, or if none of the keyholders can make it. You can also find more info on the co-working page.

BFF or Die Kickstarter

Shaz Yousaf, one of our favourite local game devs, who you may remember from previous games featured on this blog, is back. This time with a new project, BFF or Die, which has just launched on Kickstarter. It’s described as “an award winning tactical-action-puzzler for up to 4 players”. I’ve played it; it’s a great game and lot’s of fun with friends – the perfect sofa game. Check out the video below, particularly the player reactions at 2:38, which are priceless, and totally genuine.

Check out the kickstarter now, and give a fellow indie a helping hand.

Develop 2016 Parties & Events

A lot of the London crowd are now preparing to head down to sunny (you better be sunny, Brighton, or I’m gonna trample some seagulls) Brighton for the annual Develop conference. Here’s a brief rundown of the events and parties that are happening outside the main event:

The Big Indie Pitch

PocketGamer are bringing their well travelled pitch-athon event to Brighton, on Tuesday evening. Indies can sign up here for a chance to pitch their mobile games to a roomful of developers, publishers and journalists. The winners get coverage on PocketGamer and “the mobile games media”. Plus there is free drinks and food!

Games By The Sea

Wednesday evening welcomes back an annual party, with a line-up of trend-setting indie games. So you can play while you drink and drink while you play. Currently sold out, but there is another release of tickets on the 8th July. Gang Beasts, Arena Gods and Videoball will be in attendance, along with their friends (their friends are also video games).

GamesIndustry.biz

If you like Biz, and you like Games, then you’ll like Wednesday night’s business card competition, the GamesIndustry.biz summer party. Your £35 ticket will buy you “liberal buckets of beer” and apparently, traditional midnight bacon sandwiches. You have to eat the sandwiches quickly though because of the well documented gremlin effect, which kicks in a 12:01.

Special Effect Raffle / Simon’s Party

Thursday evening hosts another party – Simon’s Birthday party (don’t worry, I don’t know Simon either). With a charity raffle, beers on the beach, and lots of fish and chips, it’s a more relaxed event, suitable for winding down the week. You can donate £10 or more for a ticket, more if you want a chance to win an Occulus, a Develop 2017 pass, or a bunch of games.

Play@Develop

Another party supporting the Special Effect charity, this time at seafront party-time house, Shoosh. This one is on Wednesday and the first 75 attendees get a free drink. Entry is free, but you should get a ticket here. There will be a raffle, arcade games, and “free swag” – the pervasive tautology of the modern games conference. Organised by recruitment company SkillSearch and lots-of-men-in-a-field simulation company, Creative Assembly.

Meet the Gaming Business Experts

The magic of internet comments has also alerted us to another event happening on Monday – not quite a party, but a chance to meet business people and talk about Brexit (and games too, I suppose). Check out the comments for more infos.

If you know about any other events, let me know in the comments.

Develop Pass Winners

Hey everyone! I’ve just conducted the raffle for the Develop pass winners and I will be emailing them shortly. The winners were:

• Istvan Dabronyi
• Arron Steed

And the mystery runner up prize goes to:

• Darren Daley

Thanks for taking part everyone, and I hope I’ll see you all at Develop this year.

Develop 2016 Discount & Raffle

Hello friends! We’re coming round to that time of the year when everyone heads down to Brighton, complains about how it could be sunnier, gets a bit drunk on the beach, and learns some cool things about video games! Develop Conference is here again and we have discounts for you, and a free pass giveaway for two lucky readers.

This year there are a bunch of great speakers, some cool workshops, the lovely expo, and of course, Hideo “Hide in a box” Kojima giving the keynote. You can use the code DEV16AF2 to get a 10% discount on tickets, and the lovely people at Tandem Events have also offered us 2 free 3-day passes to give away, worth over £500 each! To be in with a chance for a pass, leave a comment here on the post (don’t forget to include your email), or come along to the pub night on the 2nd May at The Crown, or the 18th at The Bank.

If you want to buy a ticket, there are currently still super early bird prices, but they end tonight (27th April).

Developers with unpublished games can also apply to show their game in the Indie Showcase, submissions close on the 19th May. There’s a lot of people wandering through here – developers, publishers, and the press – so it’s a good chance to show off your game.

Pocket Gamer Connects 2016

You may well have heard of the rolling behemoth that is the PGC conference. If you’re interested in mobile dev, or are making a game for mobile platforms the conference is a major networking, showcasing and learning opportunity. And it’s right on your doorstep, here in London.

Pocket Gamer got in touch to offer a 25% discount to London Indies, you can get the discount by using this link. The conference runs from 18th – 19th January, so not long now. It promises to have a huge array of media in attendance, investors, other studios showing their games. They even have a talk on the Indiepocalypse, and how to survive it! Hopefully next year there’s a talk on how to survive talks on how to survive the Indiepocolypse.

You might find the I Love Indies expo area particularly interesting, if you want to check out new upcoming games, or exhibit yourself. The Very Big Indie Pitch also looks like fun – giving small devs a chance to pitch the next big thing, with prizes worth up to £7,000 for the best ideas.