Remember the awesome Brütal Legend trailer that came out back in June? God, I love Tim Schafer’s games. Anyway, there’s a Twitter party TONIGHT from 89pm (officially 3pm CST) to 1011pm (5pm CST). All you need to do to take part is this:
Use a hashtag aggregator to follow the rest of the #brutallegend party!
@dinomas will be asking questions. Answer them and you could win a PS3 slim, one of five Eddie Riggs statues or one of twenty-five “Fan Packs” (stickers, zipper pulls & patches).
Let us know if you win!
Edit:
#BrutalLegend has reached 4th on TwitScoop trends halfway through the party
Some of you may know that back in 2007, EA ran a weapon design contest for Army of Two, for the US only (Boo!). The winning weapon was included as a pre-order unlockable download for the original game.
They’re doing it again. And this time, it’s open to UK residents, French and some others that I forget. Watch the video – Creative director Alex Hutchinson knows who’s in and who’s out.
Come to think of it, the press info I was given says “From June 23, 2009 to July 12 2009, participants can submit their ultimate weapon at the game’s official website (http://www.armyoftwo.com) for a chance to have it included in a future EA Game.”
I guess there’s a chance it could be some other game, not an Army of Two item?
Games development competition Dare To Be Digital (previously covered here) is now open to applicants. This is the 10th year of Dare and to celebrate, they’re throwing their metaphorical doors open to the community.
There are two formats for the competition this year, Do and Dream.
Do is the traditional development competition. Teams of 5 students or recent graduates are chosen from around the country to develop a game from scratch in 6 weeks over summer. The big difference this year is that they choose from ideas submitted by the community.
Dream is the new community section. Anybody can register on the website and pitch their game idea. Other people will vote for their favourite ideas and add comments. The Do team will then choose an idea each and develop the game for the competition. Those dreamers who submitted the chosen ideas will win the following:
£500 cash prize for the originators of games subsequently chosen by the teams for development.
An invitation to to the Dare Awards ceremony to receive the prize
A single return UK flight and 3 nights’ accommodation to Edinburgh to take part in Dare ProtoPlay during the Edinburgh Festival period. Terms & Conditions apply. (If you are from overseas, you have the option of taking £200 in cash instead or we can fly you from London)
Exposure to the top notch games companies and partners that Dare is associated with
To celebrate the release of F.E.A.R 2: Project Origin there’s going to be a Project Origin LIVE event on the 12th Feb 09. There are 8 places up for grabs on the Project Origin Dead Echo team. The team members will be flown in to London, UK and escorted to a secret location to play F.E.A.R 2: Project Origin in the scariest way possible.
You are asked to describe your biggest fears in no more than 200 words on the whatisfearlive.com. If you are selected you will then have a further health and safety screening before being subjected to:
…physical and psychological challenges whilst playing F.E.A.R 2.
Sounds like fun, seeing as I entered my biggest fear as being surrounded by women dressed as Lara Croft in her swimsuit outfit. Mmm, I don’t hold out much hope for my chances!
Update 9th Feb 09: Don’t forget to log onto whatisfearlive.com on the 12th Feb 09 to watch a live broadcast of the event from 19:00 GMT. You can also vote on which fear the contestants will face. Hehehe. Oh, I didn’t get picked, unsurprisingly. Boo :-(
F.E.A.R 2: Project Origin is due to be released on the 13th Feb 09 for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC
Still, I like the sound of Machinima.com’s new competition. They’re opening a new UK portal and celebrating by asking people to create music videos to one of two tracks supplied by Jonathan Coulton – Bacteria or Todd the T1000.
Compo Details:
Competition end date: 8th August 2008
Top prize: Alienware Laptop, pre-loaded with Adobe Premiere Pro CS3
Other prizes: Undisclosed but some runners-up will get prizes, as will a random selection of voters
How to enter: Get the track, make your video, upload it to Machinima.com. Techinically, it’s only open to UK residents but I’ve been told that if non-resident makes a video and gets a UK-based mate to do the actual submission, they’re fine with that.
Everything you need to know should be available at the competition page. [It appears to be down as I type this, so can't confirm right now]
The launch is also sponsored by Rustlers. Yes, the “nought-to-tasty” microwave burger company with the hideous TV ads. Please, for the love of all that is tasteful, don’t use their marketing strategy as a jumping-off point.
Are you an aspiring casual game designer? YoYoGames are running their second game development competition, offering cash prizes of US$1000, US$500 and US$250 for the top three games.
The competition theme is Ancient Civilisation and the rules are simple and unrestrictive:
The game must be created with Game Maker, version 6 or later (Pro or Lite).
The game must comply with the terms and conditions of YoYo Games as indicated on the website.
The game should be your own original work and you should own the rights to all resources used in the game.
The game should run through the Instant Play mechanism at the YoYo Games site.
The game should not change the screen resolution and should run in a window (rather than full screen).
You can submit a game you created in the past but only if it is not already published on YoYo Games.
The game must be submitted by an individual member, who will receive the entire prize in the event of a win. Please note this does not exclude team entries. Entrants may accept assistance from a team, but any prizes will go only to the submitting member.
A member is allowed to submit at most two games in each competition.
So far, only 2 games have been entered and there’s plenty of time left. The competition deadline is April 27th. Their previous competition had over 200 entries, so plan your game carefully. There’s more info at the competition page. Check out the YoYoGames Winter Competition Winners to see what you’ll be up against. You’ll find some great casual games to play.
(One side comment: I am more than a little perturbed that the YoYoGames player cannot be closed using the X button in Windows Vista.)
As mentioned previously, the games developed in 2007’s Dare to Be Digital competition will be showcased at this year’s Edinburgh Interactive Entertainment Festival. The festival this year will run from 13th to 14th August. The programme has now been announced, with thirteen events spread across two days. And that’s not even counting Dare Protoplay. Here are the bits I found most interesting:
Edinburgh Interactive Festival
Monday 13th August – 15:45 Games Actually
Sevket Gozolan, Marie-Sol Beaudry, Patrick O’Luanaigh, Sean Dromgoole
Are game developers and publishers paying attention to the fastest growing sector in the interactive games industry…the female gamer? Do they really need to? Join the debate with industry insiders Sean Dromgoole of Some Research, Marie-Sol Beaudry of Ubisoft, Patrick O’Luanaigh of nDreams and Sevket Gozalan of Play Vanilla.
S’pose that depends on whether or not you want to fight for attention in an almost-saturated market or expand your horizons to include new people, doesn’t it? Continue Reading
This year’s contest is now accepting entries from London and the South East of England. For those living elsewhere, I do apologise for not covering this earlier. The Irish and Scottish application deadline was apparently 11th April 2007. There doesn’t seem to be a Welsh centre this year.
If you’re a university student in London or recently graduated and you want to get into video game development, this competition is probably the best start you can get. I interviewed former competitor Stephen McGreal. He was team leader of Zoo Crew, who won the prize for “Greatest Market Potential” back in 2003. Since the competition Stephen has worked for EA and Rockstar Leeds: Continue Reading
The results for this year’s Dare To Be Digital competition (as previously covered here) were announced last night. The big money prizes were…
Most Commercial Potential – Artisan with Metalheads (Go Tommy!)
Greatest Innovation and Creativity – Log2 n with Flux
Best Use of Technology for Product Delivery – Rule of Thumb with Gal Ex: Spacial Delivery
Best use of Screenwriting – Phaigo Interactive with Spaceport
And the Virtuoso Prize, which was sponsored and awarded by Denki went to Nicholas Koumentakis of Phaigo Interactive. I shall have to find out what the heck that was later, when the party hangovers have worn off.
It’s close to the end of Dare to be Digital, the ten-week-long international game-development competition for university students. Competitors have been working steadily on their designs for the past nine weeks and if the developer diaries are anything to go by, they’re under some serious pressure. Twelve-hour days, weekend working – sounds like they’re doing a great job of modelling the infamously less-enjoyable parts of the games industry. Still, all the better to experience it first-hand, hey? With all that stress you’d expect there to be some serious competition but I’ve been told that “With regards to the rival teams, they’re actually not that hostile towards us.”
Not that hostile? Faint praise… Joking aside, I’m sure everyone’s more focused on making the best game they can, not bitching about others’. Click on the images to view each team’s diary.
Hosted by the University of Abertay in Dundee, Dare to be Digital is a fantastic way for students to get to grips with the realities of working in game development. As goes the mantra on many a developer’s recruitment pages, just about anyone can come up with an idea. Converting that idea to a finished product is a much more complex and painful process and this competition not only forces the students to deal with that reality but also provides immense support in the form of training sessions and advice from established games companies like Rare, EA, Nintendo of Europe and many others. What better way for an aspiring game developer to make those invaluable industry contacts? Continue Reading
Games development competition Dare To Be Digital (previously covered 
To celebrate the release of 
