Edinburgh Interactive FREE public sessions
Saturday 11th August 2012 @ The Radisson Blu Hotel in the Dunedin Suite
Interested in video games? Want to know more about the video games industry or even how to make a game? Then the Edinburgh Interactive FREE public sessions are the place to be! Come and experience a variety of FREE workshops available for children and adults. Further workshop and session details below
Registration is now OPEN for the free public sessions. Please register your place via the registration page
Saturday 11th August:
10.30 – 16.00 (Dunedin 1): Game design & coding for kids workshop (BAFTA & Interactive Opportunities) (11 – 16 yr olds)
Edinburgh Interactive, in association with BAFTA and Interactive Opportunities, is pleased to be offering an all day workshop for children aged 11 – 16 to learn how to create a game and code. Register
(10.30 – 12.30): BAFTA Young Game Designers Workshop: In this workshop, video games professionals will reveal how popular games were made, and will help the young participants to design a game of their own. The workshop is in support of the BAFTA Young Game Designers competition where entrants can win some amazing prizes. For more information visit www.bafta.org/ygd.
Speakers:
Rob Davis, Playniac
Johnny Minkley, freelance games journalist
Erin Michno, Programmer at Quartic Llama (winner of the Samsung Bada Student Developer Challenge 2011/12, and on the Dare to be Digital team ‘Furnace Games’)
(13:00 – 16:00): Coding for Kids: Interactive Opportunities: In this workshop attendees will be provided with a laptop to use with the software tools installed to create a simple online game. In an intense workshop we will lead you through character creation, setting and game dynamics. Further to the workshop, attendees will be able to continue to work on their game at home and using the same tools publish their game on iPhone and Android. Places are on a first come first served basis so please sign up ASAP. Register
Workshop led by Ray Maguire and Andy Goff; Interactive Opportunities
10.00 – 11.30 (Dunedin 2): Blood of the Zombies – 30 Years of Fighting Fantasy, Ian Livingstone (Talk and book signing): Ian Livingstone, Life President, Eidos; co-founder Games Workshop; co-creator Fighting Fantasy Ian Livingstone will be talking about the publication of his new Fighting Fantasy book Blood of the Zombies- 30 years after the publication of The Warlock of Firetop Mountain in August 1982. In 1982 Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson wrote The Warlock of Firetop Mountain. It was the first interactive gamebook in the Fighting Fantasy series that went on the sell over 17 million copies worldwide. Titles like Deathtrap Dungeon topped the best-sellers lists the world over. Now Ian Livingstone has written a brand new Fighting Fantasy gamebook, Blood of the Zombies, to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the series. Ian is launching Blood of the Zombies at EIF and will be talking about the history of Fighting Fantasy and signing copies of his new zombie-slaying adventure. Register
11.45 – 12.30: Behind the scenes of game journalism: Edge Magazine (Dunedin 2): Nathan Brown tells the full story of how videogame journalists cover a game, from announcement to release. How do game publications preview and review games? What do journalists get up to at E3 and on press trips? And how has game journalism changed as games have evolved from being published on disks and tapes to today’s world of free-to-play and the App Store? Register
13.00 – 14.00 (Dunedin 2): Cat On Yer Head: The human games console Rob Davis, Playniac: Cat On Yer Head by Playniac’s Rob Davis is a mass participation game with a few simple rules, written in pseudo computer code. This “game about game design” turns the room into a human games console. It’s very simple: an imaginary cat is released into the audience and passed from person to person to chase an imaginary mouse. The game allows everyone to get involved in designing, testing and iterating a game.
Launched at a London comedy night, it has been performed internationally, covered by the BBC, written about by bloggers and used to teach about game design in classrooms. Follow Playniac on Twitter (@playniac) or Facebook (www.facebook.com/playniac) for the latest news about their games. Register
14.30 – 16.00 (Dunedin 2): More than just a suit of armour: Breathing life into characters: While game-play is undoubtedly important, giving the player a vested interest in the characters within can do more for a game than many developers realise. Whether your main character is a ball, a bird or a battledroid, how important is it to make him more than just an avatar? A few experienced and award-winning experts offer up unique insights when it comes to storytelling techniques, character development, script writing and connecting with players in this interactive workshop.
Session produced and presented by Kevin Beimers, Writer/Producer at Strandlooper Animation, Iain Lowson who is an independent writer and James Parker; Script Writer & Games Designer
