Imirt Inspire 4: Henry Smith

Henry used to be a UI programmer for BioWare on games like Dragon Age: Origins and Mass Effect 3. In 2012 he went "indie". His first project is the award-winning party game Spaceteam which is (still) taking him on some fun adventures. He also started the Spaceteam Admiral's Club so that fans can help him make and share more games, for free. He loves user interfaces, board games, and puzzles. His next project is another local-multiplayer co-op game called Blabyrinth.

Creative Europe funding seminar video and slides

IMIRT recently teamed up with the MEDIA Office of Creative Europe Desk Ireland to hold a seminar on how to access Creative Europe funding available for Video Games Development. 

Many thanks to everyone who came along on the day and tuned in for the live stream, it was great to see such a big turnout. For those who missed it, the video and slides from the talk are now available online.



GDC 2016 Financial Assistance Fund

Thanks to Irish Design 2015 we will be able to provide financial assistance of €500 to 6 Imirt members attending the Game Developers Conference, March 14th - 18th in San Francisco.

The Game Developers Conference is the world’s premier conference for developers and is a great event to attend to further career, knowledge, and experience of the games industry. Imirt members can get the finer details of how the fund will work and apply here: http://www.imirt.ie/gdc-2016-fund



Seminar on Creative Europe Video Games Development Funding

The MEDIA Office of Creative Europe Desk Ireland is teaming up with IMIRT, The Irish Game Makers Association, to hold a seminar on how to access Creative Europe funding available for Video Games Development. The seminar will focus on the upcoming deadline for the Creative Europe Video Games funding which is March 3rd.

The seminar takes place in The Morrison Hotel, Ormond Quay Lower, Dublin 1 on Thursday January 21st from 10am – 12.30pm and is free of charge to attend.

The event will be live streamed at http://twitch.tv/imirt_ie starting at 10am.

This annual funding call which is now open, offers funding for Video Game companies from €10,000 to €150,000 for concept and project development. Previous recipients from Ireland include Story Toys and Tribal Interactive.

A video games company can apply if they are registered for at least 12 months and have produced a game with a strong narrative structure, which has been commercially distributed since the beginning of 2013. The type of games that Creative Europe is looking to fund are narrative storytelling video games regardless of platform or expected distribution method. The story must be told or shown throughout the whole game (in-game storytelling) and not only as an introduction or an ending to the game. In all cases the video game must be intended for commercial exploitation.

If you are interested in attending the seminar, click here to RSVP by Tuesday January 19th.

For more information on the Video Game scheme click here.

Imirt Inspire 3: David Lloyd & Barney Cumming

David and Barney have been working on games together for nearly a decade at a series of Melbourne companies that either shut-down or were absorbed by the all-consuming Electronic Arts. A few years ago the Coder/Artist duo decided to start their own little indie thing called Powerhoof. Their first game, Crawl, is a local-multiplayer dungeon crawler and was released on early access a little over a year ago. Since then the boys have been adding more and more content to Crawl, with a brief hiatus to release another little local-multiplayer game called Regular Human Basketball.

Imirt Inspire 2: Chelsea Howe

Chelsea Howe is an award-winning game designer currently working at EA Mobile as a creative director. Previously, she was lead designer on TinyCo’s Family Guy: The Quest for Stuff and concurrently ran a course on playful design at California College of the Arts. In 2015, she was featured in Forbes’ 30 Under 30 in Games. In addition to co-organizing the Queerness and Games Conference, Chelsea also ran the San Francisco Global Game Jam for four years, talks about game design at places like GamesBeat, GDC, UCSC, and more, and in 2013 found her way onto the GDC Advisory Board.

IMIRT OFFERS €46K IN GDC SCHOLARSHIPS TO MEMBERS

Contact: info@imirt.ie

7 DECEMBER 2015 — FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Imirt: The Irish Game Makers Association has made available €46,150 in tuition scholarships to 25 of its members in partnership with the Game Developers Conference (GDC) and UBM Tech.

The Game Developers Conference (gdconf.com) is the premiere conference for game developers in the world and is held each Spring in San Francisco, CA. The conference attracts 30,000 attendees from all over the world and offers workshops, talks and opportunities for game developers to network with international game developers, prospective partners, publishers and hardware manufacturers.

“GDC is the single-most important event of the year for the game industry,” said Brenda Romero, chairperson of Imirt. “By providing these scholarships, we not only increase the Irish presence at the show, but increase the knowledge base within the country as well. We’re grateful to GDC for making this possible.” Romero also serves on the GDC Game Design Advisory Board.

The scholarship provides attendees with an all-access pass to GDC, normally valued at €1845.
Recipients will be able to attend the main GDC conference as well as the two days of tutorials and summits that precede the main event. Winners were selected based on answers submitted to the review committee which was composed of Romero, Laralyn McWilliams and Llaura NicAodh.

For winner Jen Carey, a Dublin-based game writer and designer, the GDC scholarship provides a
great chance to network with international game developers she would not otherwise meet. “Since collaboration is such a big part of creative industries, the opportunity to get to know so many amazing people is invaluable,” said Carey. “I'm hoping to learn from everybody there and in turn let them know about the brilliant work done in Ireland by so many talented people."

Imirt: The Irish Game Makers Association represents game makers from all disciplines throughout
Ireland, both analog and digital. Among Imirt’s members are thirty nine company founders based in Ireland as well as developers from thirty four game companies developing games on consoles, PC, mobile, VR and tabletop. Imirt members come from all sectors of the game industry including
developers, educators, middleware and support services. 

Imirt Inspire 1: Dren McDonald

Dren McDonald has worked in the game industry as an audio director, composer and sound designer on titles such as Gathering Sky, Transformers: Age of Extinction The Official Game, Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Commander, Dangerous Dave in the Deserted Pirate's Hideout HD, Skulls of the Shogun, Elevate (2014's Apple App of the Year), Cooking Dash 2016, Diner Dash 2015, Ravenwood Fair and over 60 other game titles. 

First Imirt AGM - Nov 5th at NDRC

The first Annual General Meeting for Imirt will be held on Nov 5th at the NDRC from 6:30pm-8:30pm. This is a great opportunity to meet the newly elected board and to find out about what we're planning for the coming months. The meeting is open to members and non-members alike so please feel free to come along.

We'll be live streaming the event on Twitch, and the video will be available afterwards. After the AGM we'll be heading over to Arthur's Pub for refreshments.

To attend, please register on our Event Brite page.

See you there!


More info:

To get in touch with Imirt email contact@imirt.ie

NDRC, 
The Digital Exchange, 
Crane Street, 
Dublin 8, Ireland

http://www.ndrc.ie/contact
http://www.twitch.tv/imirt_ie
http://www.arthurspub.ie

Imirt Board Election Results

The election results are in and the first elected Imirt board members are:

  • Chris Gregan
  • John Halloran
  • Owen Harris
  • Stephen Kelly
  • Colm Larkin
  • John O’Kane
  • Brenda Romero

 

We would like to congratulate everyone who was elected and wish them well in their important role supporting the Irish game development community. Congratulations also to the very worthy nominees who ran in the election but who didn’t get voted in this time. We hope to see them run in next year’s election in addition to some new faces. There were a number of people in close contention for the 7th seat on the board, demonstrating the support many of the nominees had from the Irish dev community.

There will be an AGM in November for all members which will be a great opportunity to hear from the new board and to discuss and issues you would like to bring up. Imirt is in the process of being set up as a limited company and transitioning from being run by the steering committee to the newly elected board. There will be a board election every year, where half of the board seats will be up for election. That means that some of the board members will serve for 1 year and others for 2 years.

 

If you would like to get in touch with Imirt email contact@imirt.ie

If you are not yet a member, you can join Imirt here: http://www.imirt.ie/join/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Imirt/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/imirt_ie
Website: www.imirt.ie
There’s also a #imirt channel on the IrishGameDev Slack group.

Thank you to everyone who has joined Imirt, shown support, voted in the elections and particularly thanks to everyone who put themselves forward for election.

 

Many Thanks,

Paul Conway & Elaine Reynolds (Imirt Steering Committee Members)

 

The Date Has Been Set

Voting for Imirt's first board will take place from Monday 21st to Friday 25th September (voting closes at midnight on the 25th). All members who sign up before midnight on THURSDAY 24th September will be eligible to vote. Details of how to vote will be sent to members by the 21st. It'll all be online so doesn't matter where in the world you are.

Take a look here to find out more about the 15 nominees and why they are running for election: http://www.imirt.ie/nominees/.

Sign up for Imirt here for only €20: http://www.imirt.ie/join/

If you are thinking of joining Imirt but haven't joined yet, sign up now to ensure you are registered to vote in this historic election!

The nominees have been published for the first board of Imirt. Fifteen people have put themselves forward to fill the seven positions. Most importantly there is great variety which gives everyone a chance to vote in a board that will set the direction of the organisation for the first couple of years.

As well as a bio, each of the nominees has stated their goals but if you have more questions for individuals there is contact details for each of the nominees.

The next step will be voting. We will contact members individually with directions on how to vote in the coming weeks and votes will be counted by the end of September. If you would like to vote you can sign up to join Imirt here.

So go on over to the nominations page and take a look.

Unity in Ireland

At this year’s Unite Europe 2015, our own Chris Gregan (Fungus Games) was chosen as one of the speakers. As an Imirt Steering Committee member, he also met with the Unity team to plan their first official visit to Ireland. One month of planning culminated in two days’ worth of talks and meetings.

The main event was hosted in the Odessa club in Dublin on Tuesday 28th July. It ended up being the largest gathering of developers this year, with a lot of new faces joining in to meet Unity and fellow developers.

Imirt’s Brenda Romero was on hand to introduce the first speaker of the evening, Unity Evangelist, Josh Naylor. He began by taking everyone through a live demo of Unity 5. He then showed some of the features that the Unity 2D team, based in Singapore, are currently working on. All of these additions can be found on their BitBucket repository.

After that, Josh had time to show some games that have switched from Unity 4 to Unity 5. Rust and Gang Beasts both saw some impressive improvements by making the change.

Josh ended with a runthrough of Unity’s services: Cloud build, Unity Analytics and Unity Ads. On the Cloud Build side, he demoed a new feature that is currently in beta called Cloud Data. It allows you to modify MonoBehavior values in your released games for all your users, which is an incredibly powerful feature.

After that, there was a Q&A session, starting with the all important question - “Why can’t we have nested prefabs?” :)

The evening ended with six talks from developers based in Ireland. These were from David McDermott, Danny Moffatt, Kevin Murphy, Paul O'Donnell, Elaine Reynolds and Noel O'Connor.

SixMinute networking

SixMinute networking

The following day, there was the open house in SixMinute, giving everyone a chance to meet with the Unity team face to face. During the day, the team had over 20 meetings with developers from all over Ireland.

Overall, the visit was a great success, and we were happy to hear the Unity team plan to come back to visit again soon.

The Unity Team: John, Josh, Cathy & Mo

The Unity Team: John, Josh, Cathy & Mo


Imirt Logo Design Competition

Calling all artists, designers and inspired community members! Imirt: The Irish Game Makers Association is looking for a new visual identity and needs your help.

The logo we are currently using was designed for temporary use while the steering committee go through the process of establishing the organisation. We are seeking all Irish Game Development community members who can design a creative, innovative and professional logo design. The logo should be recognizable and help promote our organization's mission “to represent game makers from all disciplines throughout Ireland, both analog and digital.”

The rest is up to you! Could your awesome design be on the banner representing Irish made games on the international stage? Please read below for more details regarding logo design, contest rules & submission requirements.

How to Enter the Contest

The contest begins on July 1, 2015. Submissions will be accepted through August 1, 2015. All entries will be considered by the steering committee, before being shortlisted and then opened up to the community for a public vote. The winning entry will be announced via our website, social media and by direct contact to the winner's email. In order for your entry to be submitted and reviewed by the steering committee, all entries must be:

  1. Submitted directly to contact@imirt.ie with the subject heading “Imirt Logo Design Competition”    

  2. Submitted in their original source file and

  3. Submitted as a high resolution .pdf with 300 DPI or higher.


Logo Requirements    

  • Professional: This logo will be featured on our website, our social media platforms and other mediums (stationary, pamphlets, t-shirts etc). As a result, while we want the logo to be eye-catching, it must still be legible.    

  • Theme: Logo must promote the mission of Imirt, “to represent game makers from all disciplines throughout Ireland, both analog and digital.”      

  • Text: The text “Imirt” must be integrated into the design. Ideally the text and iconography of the logo design can easily be separated for flexible use and formatting.    

  • Color: There are no limitations and any colors may be used. However, logo must look good in color (if any) or black and white.    

  • Integrity: Logos cannot contain copyrighted material. Logos must have been created and edited by the contestant(s). Logos may not include images or licensed images that have been previously published. Must be easily reproducible and scalable for large and small formatting.


Contest Details

Contestants agree that Imirt may publish their logo and name(s) and may use both for advertising campaigns and/or marketing materials in the future. The winning contestant(s) assign all ownership rights, including all intellectual property rights to the logo, to Imirt: The Irish Game Makers Association. Additionally, Imirt may alter, modify or revise the logo as it sees necessary to achieve the goals of the organisation. Imirt reserves the right to not select a winner if, in its sole discretion, no suitable entries are received.  


IMIRT: THE IRISH GAME MAKERS ASSOCIATION TO HOST INAUGURAL TOWN HALL MEETING ON JUNE 30, 2015

CONTACT: contact@imirt.ie

26 JUNE 2015 -- Imirt: The Irish Game Makers Association has announced the time and location of its inaugural town hall meeting. It is to be held June 30, 2015 at 5:30pm at the Odessa Club, 13 Dame Court in Dublin, Ireland. The meeting will also be broadcast live on Twitch TV at http://www.twitch.tv/imirt_ie.

Imirt was formed in April 2015 and represents game makers from all disciplines throughout Ireland, both analog and digital. The Irish game industry is thriving, passionate and driven and is comprised of everyone from award-winning freelance game makers to massive multi-national companies like Demonware, Blizzard, Activision, Bethesda and Zynga. The goal of Imirt is to increase awareness of Ireland’s game makers on the national and international stage while providing opportunities for networking, community growth and development.  

"As a game developer based on the west coast, I'm happy to take part in forming an organisation which will be a unifying force for the Irish games development community," said steering committee member Paul Conway of DoomCube.com. Conway is joined on the steering committee by Owen Harris of bitSmith Games, Chris Gregan of Fungus Games, John O’Kane of Snozbot, John Halloran of SixMinute Games, Elaine Reynolds of Simteractive, Dave McCabe of Greenheart Games, and Brenda Romero of Romero Games.

At the meeting, members of Imirt’s steering committee will present information on Imirt, its formation, its goals, membership details and also provide announcements for upcoming Imirt-related professional events. Imirt looks forward to electing its first board in September. Prospective members will be invited to participate in Q&A for the remainder of the meeting.

Committee member Elaine Reynolds of Simteractive expressed enthusiasm for Imirt. "Since I returned to Ireland in 2012, it’s been brilliant to get to know so many people making games here.  The game development community has grown so much even over these past few years. It’s a really supportive, vibrant community with many regular game development events being held around the country. With Imirt, the aim is to give the game development community a unified voice to ultimately help it grow and success in the long run."

The group presently has an FAQ on its site http://www.imirt.ie/faq and has also published the results of a survey it conducted in April to gauge the needs and desires of Irish game developers.


Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/imirt

Twitter: www.twitter.com/Imirt_ie