GAMES
PROGRAMME
This is the national programme for Games Art and Games Technology.
It includes streamed, on-demand, curated and practical content.
Designing Vehicles in Games:
Mel Cummings
Mel Cummings
WEDNESDAY 11th NOVEMBER 6pm - go to the Stream Room
Mel Cummings began her creative career by following her enthusiasm for car design, earning a degree in transport design. It was only after an important discovery in the library, she realised she could combine all her talents and passions into a dream job in the games industry. Fast forward to today and Mel is a successful freelance concept artist and has helped to release big titles including Lego Marvel Avengers, Lego Dimensions, Lego Star Wars, Honor and Duty: Steampunk and a whole host of indie titles.
The session will be a masterclass in how to design vehicles for game environments. It will cover creating a sci-fi space ship and other vehicle designs.
This session is available in the Stream Room.
Creative Futures
Beyond Gaming - Immersive Futures Panel
Beyond Gaming - Immersive Futures Panel
WEDNESDAY 11th NOVEMBER 7pm - go to the Stream Room
The lessons learned in gaming from the last 30 years are now being applied to almost every conceivable industry. From architects looking to create accurate experiences of their buildings before construction to virtual reality tools that help people manage their own pain in medical settings, its brave new world. This panel, made up from experts and key organisations at the front of this convergence, will discuss how the world looks today, at the cutting edge of game and experience design, and what that might mean for the next 10-15 years in entertainment, medicine, art and every other conceivable area as we move forward into uncharted territory.
Hosted by Declan Cassidy (Into Games) the speakers are:
This session is available in the Stream Room.
Looking at Levels: Joshua Jones
ON DEMAND
A Q&A with Joshua Jones aka ‘Peanut’. One of the key level designers on the wildly successful Mafia series of games. Starting her career as a US marine and moving into games is a unique path that you’ll hear more about in this fascinating talk with lots of tips and techniques for coming up with ingenious level ideas along the way.
The session explores Joshua's career journey and career change, before focusing on level design and storyboarding. It provides an insight into how levels work and what makes a successful level experience.
Picking up Programming: Tiffany Wild
ON DEMAND
Tiffany Wild is a Gameplay Programmer and Journalist. With a background in computer science and a passion for championing diversity in the games sector, Tiffany currently works at Ubisoft Leamington. This talk looks at different types of programming languages, which ones you should learn and what different programmers do.
The programming side of games is an essential part of the game development process. Having some programming knowledge and skills will help you understand more about game production and this session is designed to encourage you to find out more. It offers an introduction to the main types of programming language used in the games industry.
Creative Futures:
Role of the Entrepreneur Panel
Role of the Entrepreneur Panel
MONDAY 16th NOVEMBER 7pm - go to the Stream Room
Panel exploring the future of entrepreneurship led by Carol Ann Whitehead FRSA (The Zebra Partnership and Diversity Director for Industry Week) to coincide with Global Entrepreneurship Week. Features Jacqueline Winstanley founder and CEO Universal Inclusion and The Inclusive Entrepreneur; James Holt, a deaf musician (James Holt Music), Mark Esho (multi award-winning disabled entrepreneur), Aaron Hornback, an entrepreneur running Horizon, a health and wellbeing network, Grant Logan (Ability Today and Academy for Disabled Journalists) and a rep from Creative Entrepreneurs.
The future is going to be more entrepreneurial. More of us will work as self-employed, often in portfolio careers. The future economy will need creativity and innovation in terms of business ideas and start-ups. Enterprise also needs to become more diverse, encouraging those from under-represented groups to become entrepreneurial. This panel will explore the future of enterprise and help you understand how you can be part of that.
This session is available in the Stream Room.
Creating a Virtual Festival - Lost Horizons: Continental Drifts
TUESDAY 17th NOVEMBER 6pm - go to the Stream Room
In July 2020, Lost Horizons (Glastonbury) ran as a virtual festival hosted in Sansar. Festival goers could wander around the site exploring interactive content and stages, just like at a real event. The event proved extremely popular with numerous performances from DJs and acts. Chris Macmeikan MBE, Music Director, and Sam Speight, don of all things VR, from festival veterans Continental Drifts, take you on a journey of how the festival went online.
The music festival is one of the most immersive real experiences there is. Can you create a festival experience virtually? Is this something that is temporary, or is it here to stay? This session will explore all this and more, including a retrospective of Continental Drifts role in providing content for festivals over several decades.
This session is available in the Stream Room.
Future of Creativity
Drew Rolands: IVE
Drew Rolands: IVE
ON DEMAND
IVE is a progressive training company that places human creativity at the heart of business productivity and innovation. Drew Rolands is a creativity specialist. He has held senior leadership roles for the past 30 years, all of which have been underpinned by his expert knowledge of leadership, creativity and creative practice. Drew sits on Leeds Chamber of Commerce Leadership Group; is Chair of Education on the board of Shakespeare North.
This live stream will explore the nature of creativity and its role in the future. Participants will come to understand what creativity actually is, and what it isn’t, how creativity leads to innovation and they will explore some of the behaviours needed in order to create an innovation climate. It will cover areas such as:
What is creativity?
The importance of creativity
How we can become more creative
The role of creativity in the future workplace
Games Programming: Grads in Games
WEBINAR - FRIDAY 13th NOVEMBER 13:00
& THURSDAY 19th NOVEMBER 14:30
& THURSDAY 19th NOVEMBER 14:30
If your ambition is to land a job in the games industry as a programmer then make sure you don’t miss out on our free live webinar. Here the Grads in Games team will help you learn what it really takes to make it into such a competitive industry.
ACC Live has arranged for each centre to have 10 FREE registrations for this event. Please register asap here for the 13th November session and here for the 19th November session.
The talk will include:
• The award-winning Get in the Game presentation from Grads in Games [30 mins]
> An overview of programming roles in the games industry
> The skills games studios look for in graduate programmers
> How to build an eye-catching portfolio
> Tips for building a games industry specific CV
> How to network to get a job in the games industry
> Insight on the technical and practical knowledge that studios are desperate for
• A presentation from one of a partner studio [30 mins]
• Q&A – Your opportunity to ask questions of those in industry about anything games art and employability! [30 mins]
Games Art: Grads in Games
WEBINAR - TUESDAY 17th NOVEMBER 14:30
If your ambition is to land a job in the games industry as an artist then make sure you don’t miss out on our free live webinar. Here the Grads in Games team will help you learn what it really takes to make it into such a competitive industry.
ACC Live has arranged for each centre to have 10 FREE registrations for this event. Please register asap here.
The talk will include:
• The award-winning Get in the Game presentation from Grads in Games [30 mins]
> An overview of 3D art roles in the games industry
> The skills games studios look for in graduate 3D artists
> How to build an eye-catching portfolio
> Tips for building a games industry specific CV
> How to network to get a job in the games industry
> Insight on the technical and practical knowledge that studios are desperate for
• A presentation from one of a partner studio [30 mins]
• Q&A – Your opportunity to ask questions of those in industry about anything games art and employability! [30 mins]
Ukie Student Games Jam:
Epic Games & Hi-Rez Studios
Epic Games & Hi-Rez Studios
PRACTICAL ACTIVITY - 18th-19th NOVEMBER
Sign up your team! Registration closes on the 6th November, 5:30pm.
Each year, Ukie runs a student game jam as part of the student membership programme of activities. This has become a really important event, with last year’s game jam titled “Green Game Jam”, having over 380 students take part across 80 teams with support from Space Ape Games, Playmob, Epic Games and more. There are some amazing prizes lined up for the winning team, so make sure not to miss out! Find out more and sign up here.
Team sign up:
Teams of up to six people
Teams work remotely from wherever is safe to do so
Each team will be paired with a mentor
Please provide twitter account that you will use during the jam to show content
Pixelbash 2020: Spilt Milk
ACC LIVE PRACTICAL ACTIVITY
London-based studio and purveyor of the finest top-down shoot-em-up mayhem, Spilt Milk, is challenging you to create your own 2D pixel art based character to feature in a potential sequel to their heavily 80s action movie-inspired game, Tango Fiesta.
You are tasked with creating an end-of-level boss character. Take a look at some of their previous designs to get inspired and perhaps even try and come up with your character's backstory for extra points.
Spilt Milk will choose 10 winners who will each receive online mentorship from a real games industry professional for the next 6 months! It’s a very special prize that will boost your career prospects.
Pocket Gamer Connects Digital #4
EVENT - 9th-13th NOVEMBER
ACC Live has 30 FREE tickets available for this event, split across centres with 5 per centre. Selected L3Y2 students will need to claim their ticket here. Please don't take more than your allocation - thanks!
Students will be able to select from a programme of great live video content full of insight and practical advice across themed conference tracks. They can watch the tracks live or catch up on the recorded videos in your own time.
There are over 200 speakers confirmed for the event, and it’s an excellent opportunity to learn from the creators and publishers behind the most successful games. It’s a professional event, bringing together the key parts of the games business, and there will be a lot there to suit aspiring game developers and students seeking a career in the games business. It will also include a Pocket Gamer Connects Careers Week.
Unreal Build - Virtual Production
EVENT - TUESDAY 10th NOVEMBER 5pm
Unreal Build: Virtual Production is a free half-day virtual event that showcases incredible projects and innovations from film and television industry trailblazers.
Content includes visionary Academy Award-winning director Robert Zemeckis and his longtime VFX supervisor Kevin Baillie in a fireside chat, while Art Director of Disney's The Mandalorian, Andrew Jones will discuss the value that virtual production delivers with assets built in the art department that carry through to the final picture.
Aaron Sims, creator of some of this generation’s most unforgettable cinema creatures like the Stranger Things Demogorgon, will debut new characters and discuss how his studio is bringing them into feature films with Unreal Engine.
The event includes much more, including contributors from Epic Games, Netflix, Paramount Pictures, Lucasfilm and Amazon Studios and is FREE to attend.
Digital Schoolhouse Super Smash Bros. Ultimate 2020 Grand Final
EVENT - WEDNESDAY 11th NOVEMBER 10am-3pm
Join us for the Grand Final to the 2020 Digital Schoolhouse Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Team Battle featuring ACC's very own team from Birmingham!
With special guests Alysia Judge, Nimmz and Bowie, this will be an explosive online Grand Final, where no less than 13 regional school and college champions will be battling it out for a chance to become UK esports champions!
This year the careers panel will return featuring prominent industry professionals who will share their career journey and answer questions from the audience.
Hades: Supergiant Games
EVENT - WEDNESDAY 11th NOVEMBER 5:30pm
Join BAFTA’s Elle Osili-Wood as she chats to the team at Supergiant Games (Bastion, Transistor), for an in-depth look at the craft and production process that culminated in their latest god-like release, Hades.
Participants from Supergiant include Greg Kasavin, Writing & Design; Darren Korb, Music & Audio; Amir Rao, Design and Jen Zee, Art.
> Register
Games Jobs Live
EVENT - WEDNESDAY 11th NOVEMBER 4-6pm
Looking for the next step in your career? Games Jobs Live is a live-streamed recruitment event designed specifically for the games industry.
Finding the perfect job is always a challenge, but the events of this year have made it especially difficult to connect with the right people. To help out, as part of Pocket Gamer Connects Digital #4, this session will be shining a spotlight on games industry careers.
Studios involved previously include Codemasters, Sumo Digital, Team 17, Red Kite Games, Futurlab, OutPlay, Tag Games and loads more.
Games Jobs Live
EVENT - TUESDAY 17th NOVEMBER 4:30-6pm
A free livestreamed event for anyone considering a future career in the UK's games industry.
The global games market is a $159 billion industry, with 2.7 billion people globally playing video games, with it being one of the few industries to see growth as a result of Covid-19, and now nearly 50,000 people work across the UK's games development, publishing and retail sectors.
The livestreamed event will feature speakers from acclaimed developers Mediatonic (Fall Guys), Ubisoft (Assassin's Creed), Epic (Fortnite) Rocksteady (Batman: Arkham Asylum), 4J Studios (Minecraft), TT Games (Lego Star Wars), and Sony PlayStation’s former Director of Strategic Content, Shahid Ahmad.
Escape Studios, Wrexham Glyndwr, and Abertay Universities will also talk about the games courses they offer, and be available online for the event duration to answer any questions.
> Register
Barclay's Games Frenzy
EVENT - MONDAY 9th - FRIDAY 13th NOVEMBER
Barclay's Games Frenzy is a series of international virtual events across five regions that are leading the way in games and esports. These events will give you the opportunity to hear from some of the world’s leading brands and will also give some smaller local studios an opportunity to showcase their work.
9 November
Spotlight on the UK – home to several globally renowned game developers and some of the most exciting and innovative indie studios.
10 November
Spotlight on the US – headquarters to most of the world’s leading publishers and drivers of the esports competitive scene.
11 November
Spotlight on South East Asia – the growth and scale of its mobile gaming market make it a landmark for the games industry world.
12 November
Spotlight on Israel – its games industry is still one of the fastest growing in the world.
13 November
Spotlight on India – birthplace of some of the most innovative technologies aimed to support games development and performance whilst also experiencing a surge in esports.
The online sessions are FREE to attend, no matter where you are in the world.
Virtual Anime Gaming Con
EVENT - FRIDAY 13th - SUNDAY 15th NOVEMBER
An Online Convention bringing the community together during these hard times, helping you to enjoy a convention experience from the comfort of your own home
Activities include special guests, including voice actors and performers, traders and plenty of events to get involved with.
Ukie Student Conference
EVENT - 25th-27th NOVEMBER
This November Ukie Student Conference will have exclusive talks from industry insiders. It is your opportunity to get some pearls of wisdom, so don't miss out!
Ukie Student Conferences take place 3 times per year and usually take place at universities across the country.
Check out the full schedule here.
This event is FREE for L3Y2 students to attend. Sign up here.
Get in the Game: Grads in Games
CURATED
Get in the Game is an online journey from Grads in Games powered by Aardvark Swift. They have compiled a huge amount of knowledge & resources to help you get your first job in the games industry, from specific skills and portfolio requirements, through to how to create a great games industry CV and improving your networking abilities. It includes dozens of video resources from their Grads In Games partner studios, bringing their own expert insights to help you have the best start into a games career.
Design for Life: Sam Mensah
ON DEMAND
Samuel Mensah is a London based creative, whose experience spans various design and creative disciplines. Inspired with a passion for integrated branding and visual marketing to create overall innovative user experiences, Mensah has created and been credited with crafting award-winning campaigns for clients such as Nike, Google, MTV, Virgin, BBC, H&M & Barclays. His work has also been featured on prestigious platforms and magazines such as Creative Review, Adobe.com, Abduzeedo, & DesignYouTrust.
A session dedicated to the importance of design in creating meaningful experiences for brands. It will look at design in relation to brand and identity, UI and UX and visual marketing. In addition Sam will talk about his career journey and about diversity in the design industry.
Creative Futures:
New Directions: Eliza Williams
New Directions: Eliza Williams
ON DEMAND
Creative Review has been bringing the creative community together since 1980, first as a print magazine and now across multiple platforms. It delivers the sharpest opinion, analysis and advice on life in the creative industries, covering photography and film, design, music, games and fashion. Eliza is a former Radio 5 presenter and freelance writer.
As editor of the Creative Review, which covers many sectors, from design, photography, video, games and music, Eliza Williams is well placed to offer insights into where we are going in the future. Allied to this, this session explores Eliza's career journey from aspirations through to editing a magazine. It also covers the role of magazines in an increasingly digital age and the future workplace where working at home is becoming the norm.
BAFTA Young Games Designer Competition
PRACTICAL PROJECT
Reckon you've got a brilliant game idea up your sleeve? Spend hours lost in the world of your imagination? Love to draw or are simply brimming with story ideas? The BAFTA YGD Game Concept Award is for you!
Entrants for the Game Concept Award must submit an original game idea created by themselves or with a team of up to two other people. If your game idea is chosen as a winner, you’ll get to meet top gaming experts who’ll work with you to bring your game to life as you’ve never seen it before!
Entries will be judged on gameplay design, creativity and suitability for chosen games platform. It's not required to have good drawing skills to enter the competition, as the entry will be judged on the idea you present to us.
There are two awards within this category - one for 10 to 14 year olds, and one for 15 to 18 year olds.
Change and Mental Health
with Jordan Stephens
with Jordan Stephens
ON DEMAND
Jordan Stephens, 28, has already had an exciting and diverse career. Born in Brighton, he formed hip hop duo Rizzle Kicks in 2008 - they have sold over one million singles and over 600,000 albums in the UK. He is also a famous actor, known for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), Last Vegas (2013) and Why Him? (2016). More recently he has created #IAMWHOLE, an anti-stigma mental health initiative developed in partnership with the NHS and YMCA.
Safe in Our World
Level Up for Mental Health
Level Up for Mental Health
CURATED
Safe In Our World is challenging all companies within the video games industry to unite and commit to change.
The worlds game studios create are a refuge for many, but we must consider the games employees and the impact the industry has on their lives. This initiative is asking the entire video games industry to #LevelUpMentalHealth within their workplaces, ensuring that the environment is safe and supportive for their team’s mental health at all times.
Learn more at https://safeinourworld.org/level-up/
Also included here is a short video called Fractured Minds in support of Safe in Our World.
In Conversation with Jacqueline Winstanley FRSA
ON DEMAND
Jacqueline Winstanley, a RSA Fellow, is a global disruptor and innovator with a deeply held and proven conviction to increasing equality of access to life’s opportunities.
She holds a series of directorships with many organisations nationally plus one in New York: Founder and CEO, Universal Inclusion www.universalinclusion.co.uk and the The Inclusive Entrepreneur Network. Jacqueline is a recognised expert and consultant on accessibility and inclusion challenges.
Hosted by Carol Ann Whitehead FRSA, also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (The Zebra Partnership and Diversity Director for Industry Week) to coincide with Global Entrepreneurship Week. They will discuss the launch of the Inclusive Entrepreneur Network, the involvement of Manchester events and media students in the conference during Global Entrepreneurship Week 2019 and Jacqueline's passion for 'Opening up the Creative Space' and plans going forward.
Art of Leadership: Gillian Davies
EVENT: THURSDAY 12th NOVEMBER 2pm
Gillian Davis is a leadership expert and founder of OverTime Leader, an agency that supports leaders to navigate the complexity and uncertainty in global companies like TaskRabbit, Spotify, and Wetransfer.
This FREE session from Creative Entrepreneurs will examine what it takes to inspire and support others. It will cover:
What’s a leadership style – and how can I work out mine?
How can I tell if I’m a ‘good’ or ‘bad’ leader of my team?
Why do I feel ‘stuck’ as a new leader and what do I need to change?
Aimed at beginners as well as experienced leaders, it will offer insights into developing your leadership style.
Ukie Christmas Games Quiz
EVENT - REGISTER NOW FOR WEDNESDAY 16th DECEMBER 5:30-6:30pm
Grab your mulled wine, dust off your Santa hats, and try your best at the Ukie Christmas games industry quiz. Join the fun and festivities with Ukie and Jagex - and maybe win some prizes too. Register now whilst you can.
Afterwards, there will be an optional virtual party.
More information, including on the prizes, will be coming soon.
> Register