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 for the free workshops is not currently open, however if you’d like to be notified of when registration opens for the FREE public sessions, please send an email to Alexa@edinburghinteractive.co.uk and you will be notified as soon as registration opens.

Saturday 11th August:  Times TBC

BAFTA Young Game Designers Workshop

In this workshop for 11-16 year-olds, 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.

Booking details:
Attendees can turn up on the day on a first-come-first-served basis, but places are limited. To secure a place in advance, send the name and age of each child, and the name and contact telephone number of a responsible adult to ygd@bafta.org, with the subject heading ‘Edinburgh Interactive Festival Workshop’.

‘Game about Game Design” Cat on Yer Head:  Rob Davis, Creative Director, Playniac

When asked to perform at the UCL-supported Bright Club comedy night I knew I wanted to design a game that could be played by the audience. It needed to be simple enough to be explained and played within several minutes, but also to have the potential to demonstrate some principles of game design. I had in mind some advice from Vishal Gondal, friend and founder of India Games: “When designing a game, don’t think of the cleverest thing you can do. Think of the stupidest”.

Cat On Yer Head is a mass participation game with a few simple rules, written in pseudo computer code. An imaginary cat is released into the audience and passed from person to person. It must chase an imaginary mouse. On the night, the first iteration of the game failed – the cat couldn’t catch the mouse, so we looked at tuning the play mechanic and balancing. Refinements for a future occasion will add features such as win and lose scenarios, scoring and extensions such as extra mice, a cat-chasing dog, bonus cheese and mouse holes.