Imirt Board Election 2016

Nominations are closed and voting for Imirt's new board will take place from Friday 23rd to midnight on Friday 30th September 2016. Details of how to vote will be sent to members by e-mail on Friday 23rd. You can get details about this years fantastic nominees here: http://www.imirt.ie/election-2016

Important note: As a present to everyone who's helped us along so far, all existing members will have their membership extended until the end of 2017! \o/ So there's no need to sign up again! :D New memberships also last until the end of 2017.

3 out of the 7 board seats are being contested in this election. These spots have been made available by board members Owen Harris, John Halloran, and Stephen Kelly. Owen and John shall both be stepping down after excellent work advising Imirt since before the Steering Committee was formed. Owen has coordinated initiatives like the ID2015 fund for GDC 2016, has run Imirt panels at multiple events, has highlighted Irish work with the press and he has been instrumental in engaging community nationally and internationally. John has organised funding from EI, managed Imirt events including the Unity event, talked with press, and handled our bank and accountancy interactions. Stephen unfortunately drew the unlucky short straw (sorry Stephen!) and he is also involved in this years nominations.

If you have any questions please email contact@imirt.ie and thank you for supporting Irish game developers!

Dr Aphra Kerr - DiGRA Distinguished Scholar

Congratulation to Dr Aphra Kerr on being selected for the inaugural class of DiGRA Distinguished Scholars! Dr Kerr has and continues to be instrumental in leading the Irish Games community and getting it to where it is today. Well done Aphra!

Digital Games Research Association

DiGRA is the association for academics and professionals who research digital games and associated phenomena. It encourages high-quality research on games, and promotes collaboration and dissemination of work by its members.
http://www.digra.org/the-association/about-us/

2016 Imirt Board Elections

Update: The deadline for nominations is Wed 31st Aug 2016

The 2016 Board elections for Imirt will happen in late September. There will be three seats available for nominees (next year the remaining four board spots will be available). One is being vacated by Owen Harris after a lot of excellent work setting up Imirt and helping to run it ever since. After a draw of straws the two remaining seats will made available by John Halloran and Stephen Kelly who will both join in this years nominations.

To become a nominee you simply need to be a member of Imirt and e-mail contact@imirt.ie expressing an interest (i.e. you self nominate). We will then ask for a bio and optional photo to put on the Imirt website in the run up to the elections. Also if you have any other questions or suggestions please get in touch!

Imirt Game Developer Survey 2016

Well, it's been a busy first year for Imirt!

In this years survey we'd love to get your feedback on the work that's been done so far and find out what you think Imirt should focus on in the future.

The survey is open to anyone involved in the games industry in Ireland, you do not need to be an Imirt member to participate. The survey will finish on 19th Aug 2016 and we will share the results on the Imirt website.

The survey form is available here, thank you for your support!

Imirt General Meeting + The Galway Game Expo

We're co-hosting the next Imirt General Meeting with The Galway Games Expo on Sat 7th May 2016. You can find more info about the Galway Games expo on their Facebook page. The expo runs from 2pm to 6pm, with the Imirt GM following straight afterwards.

The GM is open to members and non-members, all welcome. Hear from the Imirt board about what’s coming up, ask us questions, and give us your feedback! Special guest speaker on the night will be George Thomson from EA Galway. 

If you have any questions or suggestions you would like the board to address at the GM please send an email to contact@imirt.ie.

Imirt Games Directory

The Imirt Games Directory is now live! This is a showcase for the incredibly diverse range of Irish games creators.

Many thanks to everyone who sent us in their details. If you would like to be included, just fill out the linked form on the directory page.

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 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. 

GDC 2016 Scholarship Programme

Imirt has teamed up with the GDC scholarship programme to offer 25 FREE FULL PASSES to GDC 2016. Details of how to apply for this scholarship are here.

You need to be a member of Imirt to be eligible, so sign up and support game makers in Ireland. The closing date for applications is Thursday 3rd of December.