Each month we share news from our members here. If you are a Ukie member and would like to share some news then please complete this form
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Lost Words Released on Steam and Consoles
Lost Words: Beyond the Page, UKIE's UK Game of the Show award winner from Gamescom 2017 is now out on Steam, PS4, Xbox One and Switch after a year of Google Stadia exclusivity. Sketchbook Games have been working hard polishing up the game for the last year and are excited to have finally released it on Steam and consoles.
Lost Words is a multi-award winning atmospheric puzzler featuring a story written by Rhianna Pratchett. The game is set in the pages of a young girl’s diary and sees players using words to solve puzzles based on their meaning as well as making choices that help shape the story. It's published by Modus Games and developed by Sketchbook Games and Fourth State.
Find out more.
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VENATUS PARTNERS WITH BLOXBIZ CO., THE WORLD'S FIRST ROBLOX AD PLATFORM
Venatus, the global advertising technology platform focussed on gaming and entertainment, has announced a new and exclusive global partnership with Bloxbiz, the first dynamic in-game ad platform within Roblox. Founded in January 2021 by Sam Drozdov, CEO and Ben Khakshoor, CTO, Bloxbiz is on a mission to improve game developers' economics by enabling advertisements within brand-safe Roblox game environments.
Find out more.
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Games and Interactive Salary and Satisfaction Survey 2021
Each year we gather information from people in the games industry across a range of topics: salaries, benefits, remote work, priorities, and much more. This year with covid and everyone moving to working remotely where we can, it is more interesting than ever to see what’s happening across the industry.
If you’ve read our survey before you’ll notice a few differences this year - but after the year that was 2020, that’s hopefully not too surprising! The big new addition is of course the coronavirus section (pages 4-5 of the full document) that shows people’s views and experiences of covid from within the games industry.
Find out more.
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Searching for talent in the creative content sector
SPACE-2 Consulting are working on a project to map the talent and spaces of the West Midlands on behalf of www.createcentraluk.com, the West Midlands trade body for the creative content sector. Create Central has been set-up to promote and develop this sector and opportunities in the West Midlands across film, TV, gaming, animation, VR/AR and immersive.
They are keen to ensure that they highlight the amazing talent in region and connect with those UKIE members outside the region who have left to further their careers in the media production sector, but who may get involved if the projects were here for them to work on.
If you are interested in getting engaged on projects in region, helping mentor/support individuals and businesses or even act as member champion for the region, please take part in this short 60 second survey www.createcentraluk.com/mapping.
For further information please contact the project lead, mark@space2consulting.com
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Support Autistica this world autism awareness month!
This month is World Autism Awareness Month and Autistica have launched their Anxiety Breakthroughs campaign which focuses on anxiety. Throughout April Autistica is sharing the latest evidence around autism and anxiety and raising money for anxiety breakthroughs!
More than half of all autistic people have had anxiety. These feelings of stress, worry and fear are stopping thousands from living and enjoying life.
Autistica is working with researchers across the UK, Government and the NHS to develop personalised anxiety treatments and services that work for every autistic person. However, They cannot carry out this work without your support. Join others in the games industry and support Autistica this WAAM. Click through to find out more and donate or email Jake at jake.mackey@autistica.org.uk to discuss other ways to get involved!
Find out more.
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Stand Out with the NFTS - Applications now open
Applications are now open for the National Film and Television School's Games Design and Development MA starting in January 2022. NFTS Games will give you everything you need to make high-quality games across a range of styles, formats and platforms. The two-year MA course gives you the opportunity to create complete games in a unique environment, collaborating with students from across the School from composers and sound designers to marketing and distribution students learning not only how to create games, but how to release them and promote them across indie games and Triple-A. Find out more and apply now at nfts.co.uk/games
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The Pixel Mill's Platform success
The Pixel Mill is saying goodbye to this year's Platform companies and is delighted to announce that Infosoft NI, Silverstream and Pigs in Blankets are the successful companies that will take part this year.
Last year's companies completed their time at Platform at the end of March. The teams excelled and produced a number of games during their 12 months of development.
Far Few Giants are working towards the launch of their first full release later this year; The Imagined Leviathans, a scavenger tale set in Britain's arctic future. Gamers can play the Prologue HERE.
Out of Tune Games have developed Crooks Like Us - A chaotic online party game that drops players into riotous robbery scenarios where the goal is to collect as many valuables as possible. Gamers can play the demo HERE.
Coffee Box Games developed narrative Sci-Fi adventure Galactic Impasse, inspired by the 90's sci-fi TV shows.
Find out more.
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Introducing the tentacle zone incubator cohort 2021
The Tentacle Zone Incubator is a four month virtual games incubator programme for early stage developers from underrepresented groups. We received such a range of strong applications for the programme that we decided to increase the number of founders on the programme from eight to twelve! We wanted to introduce you to this incredibly talented group.
Find out more here.
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Ukie Hub Crawl - Full Video Access
Each year Ukie embarks on an annual hub crawl pilgrimage across the UK, educating local people and games businesses on a specific topic, asked for by our members. This year, however, due to restrictions, the 12 date tour was conducted entirely online through Zoom and YouTube live streams.
The events took place each Wednesday, January through to March, and consisted of up to four short talks followed by a panel on that week's respective theme. Each event was followed by a period of networking. The 12 dates collectively registered over 1,000 attendees, making this tour our largest to date.
Find out more.