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Archive for the ‘News’ Category

Yorkshire! May 29th and 30th, Hebden Bridge.

Posted on: by David Hayward No Comments

We’re doing Feral Vector in Yorkshire this year, more precisely the lovely wooded town of Hebden Bridge, nestled in the Calder Valley, on May 29th and 30th. That’s right, two days. Supporter tickets are available at feralvector2015.eventbrite.co.uk, and more types will be available in the coming weeks.

We know. It’s Not London. Surprisingly there is an entire world beyond the M25. Please retrieve your jaw and read on.

Nearby Todmorden

There are lots of reasons for this, but primarily it’s that we can make it a better and longer event up North. We’ve been getting to know some amazing developer communities up here that are large, but struggle to be heard nationally. As well as chafing at the default centres of gravity that seem to pull events in, we’ve always wanted Feral Vector to be in venues closer to good outdoor spaces. What better than the entirety of the Pennines?

We have a fantastic venue that we’ll talk about soon. It’s not quite a cold war fishing trawler, but it is lovely and gives us a chance to do things we’ve not been able to before. UK weather makes things like picnics and other outdoor stuff challenging to organise, and believe me we’ve tried. I think we might solve that problem this year by spreading through time and space.

Stones, near Dobroyd

There’s nowhere to site an event that’s easy to get to from everywhere, but Hebden Bridge comes close. By rail it’s only thirty minutes or so from Manchester or Leeds, two hours from Sheffield or Birmingham; two and a half from Newcastle, Middlesborough, Leamington Spa, or Nottingham; three and a half from London; and just four from Glasgow, Edinburgh, or Bristol.

We’re going to make it worth the trip from any of those places, and we’re particularly excited to be so close to Leeds and Manchester, giving you a lot more options than London does when it comes to travel and places to stay. Also, we get to be near the woods, the moors, and the hills! The Pennines are a lovely place, and we’ve been surprised at how well connected they are. It’ll be worth sticking around for an extra day or two with your walking boots or mountain bike. These photos are what Calderdale looks like in winter. Imagine the spring! Expect bluebells and baby rabbits.

The Basin Stone

Loads of announcements to come, but you can see the lineups from the past few years here and here for an idea of what kind of people and stuff will be around.

Tickets for 2015 are at feralvector2015.eventbrite.co.uk. If you’re a student, unwaged, or just struggling and £40 is a stretch, we’ll be putting different ticket types up soon. Sign up to the mailing list to hear about that as soon as it happens, or follow us on Twitter. We do hope you’ll join us to play, make and discuss games and gamelike things this spring!

Withens Clough Reservoir

Games Are So Much More Than An Industry

Posted on: by David Hayward 7 Comments

(A.K.A. fifteen minutes of David being egregiously unfair to every screenwriter he knows).

The explosion of new games and independent developers that’s been reverberating for the past seven years isn’t just an expansion of the games industry, it’s an expansion of games and game cultures.

Game development is cultural activity, and if most independent developers seem bound to suffer the poverty of authors, artists and musicians, why is so much of what they do still bound to industry?

Thousands of games funnelled every year like cattle toward a marketplace. Selling should not be the only route to an audience, but in the UK it feels like there are few alternatives. Funding for cultural projects has largely dried up, and it’s skewing games horribly towards selling over creating. This does not help us explore the expressive range of a medium.

At the same time, the myopic focus on games soley as industry stymies developers in understanding their position relative to everything else. Is it any wonder The Arts Council don’t give a fuck about games, given how highly trained we are to think and talk of them as products?

Alice O’Connor: readme.txt

aliceO

Navigating the receding street lights of London like constellations of data nodes, fully qualified Cyberpunk Alice O’Connor will be joining us to help us explore the wonderful, obscure and sometimes downright rude world of readme.txt files.

By day, Alice works for Rock, Paper, Shotgun writing about all things news and games, as well as hating on lynx cubs.

By night, she shows off her Windranger Dota2 Skills as well as being a part of the ranks of roughhousers who run indie party night extraordinaire The Wild Rumpus, where part of her job involves making (frankly terrifying) custom controller covers.