GameCityNights, Season One, Episode Seven: G5 Summit

Friday 27th August, 7.30pm, Antenna.

The Republic of GameCity is honored to chair the Group of Quite A Few in 2010.

The G5 was established in 2010, in the wake of 2009′s GameCitySquared, to bring together major advanced and emerging videogame developers to stabilize the global videogame culture market. Since its inception, GameCity has held annual videogame festivals and monthly meetings and discussed measures to promote the brilliance of the gaming world and to achieve a sustainable economic growth and development and drink copious amounts of cheap fizzy wine.

To tackle the financial and economic crisis that spread across the globe in 2008, the G5 members were called upon to further strengthen international cooperation. Accordingly, the G5 Summit will be held in Antenna, Nottingham.

The concerted and decisive actions of the G5, with its balanced membership of developed and developing developers, friends of GameCity and nice people interested in videogames, helped the world deal effectively with the current financial and economic crisis. The G5 has already delivered a number of significant and concrete outcomes. It committed to implement the unprecedented and most coordinated expansionary macroeconomic policies, including sticking a big tent in the market square for a week; significantly enhance the experience of Nottingham’s residents, notably by the establishment of the OpenGameCity platform(OGC); and substantially strengthen the GameCityNights(GCNs), including the expansion of resources and the improvement of letting audiences know just what is going on in the big tent.

Reflecting on these achievements and recognizing that more needs to be done to ensure a strong, sustained and balanced GameCity5, the G5 Leaders at Antenna Summit designated the G5 as the premier forum for international videogame cooperation. In 2010, the August Summit will be held in Nottingham, and the October Summit will also be held in Nottingham, just in a different part.

Building on past achievements and close cooperation among members, the G5 will double its efforts in 2010 to help the world make a successful transition from previous GameCity Festivals to stronger, more sustainable and balanced growth.

We look forward to working closely with our colleagues, none of whom we can mention yet, and drawing on valuable experiences of other G5 members. The Republic of GameCity will spare no effort to ensure success in 2010.

1. The plural of TARDIS is TARDISs
2. The in-game Cybermen came very close to having eyeballs
3. The Master = nasty Timelord, nice cocktail
4. Those Rhino guys are the Judoon
5. The Adventure Games have been downloaded over 1,000,000 times!
6. Sumo Games’ pitch demo companion was Lily Allen
7. Those extra doors in the TARDIS console room are there for a reason
8. Absolutely nothing about Episode 3

Thanks to all who came to the Doctor Who extravaganza that was Friday’s GameCityNights. Special thanks to fantastic panelists Charles Cecil, James Moran, and Anwen Aspden for sharing some of the magic behind the creation of The Adventure Games episodes. A salute to Simon Byron for presiding over the evening’s events and proving himself to be a great compere. We may ask you back, Simon. Hope that’s ok.

For those who were wondering, the ingredients for Antenna’s incredible Doctor Who inspired cocktails that everyone was talking about are as follows:

Sonic Screwdriver

Midori melon liquer, lemon juice and sugar shaken over ice.

TARDIS

Light rum, peach schnapps, blue curaçao and lemon juice topped with lemonade.

The Master

Light rum, vodka, lemon juice, triple sec, Plymouth gin and suger topped with coke.

Gallifreyan Sunrise

Tequila, orange juice and a dash of grenadine.

Look out for the next episode of Doctor Who: The Adventure Games coming soon.

Oh, and here’s the winning team’s Doctor Who Consequences Episode courtesy of @Rossaluss:

Doctor Who Consequences Winner!

GameCityNights, Season One, Episode Six – Doctor Who

*******************EXCITING UPDATE*******************

Just when you thought the evening couldn’t get any better:

James Moran, writer of widely acclaimed Doctor Who episode ‘The Fires of Pompeii’, co-writer of recent smash-hit ‘Torchwood: Children of Earth’ and creative team-member of Doctor Who: The Adventure Games, has confirmed that he will be joining our already amazing lineup.

How about that for great last minute additions.

****************************************************************

After two phenomenally successful episodes of The Adventure Games and a third on the way we’re extremely excited to be joined by esteemed contributors to the Doctor Who Universe.

Charles Cecil, legendary designer of the classic Broken Sword series and Beneath a Steel Sky, and BBC Interactive Executive Producer Anwen Aspden will be joining us to discuss bringing the nation’s favourite Doctor to your PC and/or Mac.

OneLifeLeft’s Simon Byron will compere the event, quizzing our panellists on the process of creating a new platform for an established and widely-loved universe.

What could possibly follow that?

How about creating our very own Doctor Who Microsodes with a good old-fashioned team based game of Consequences. With rounds consisting of writing and drawing, we’ll be conjuring thrilling new adventures and dastardly villains for the Doctor to encounter. Prizes of immeasurable quality will go to the most distinctive entries.

Nottingham Trent FM Arena have also kindly donated a pair of tickets to see the spectacular new stage show Doctor Who Live. At last we can offer actual genuine prizes of real value and two lucky people will get to leave safe in the knowledge that they are getting something amazing for FREE.

To help you get into the *ahem* spirit, the talented Antenna bar team are concocting some incredible cocktails to fit the theme. Just what exactly goes into a Screwdriver that makes it Sonic?

This question and more answered at GameCityNights #6 featuring Doctor Who: The Adventure Games on Friday 23rd July 7.30pm at Antenna. Do you have any questions for the panel or suggestions for a cocktail so strong it’ll reverse the polarity of the neutron flow? Use the twitter tag #gamecitynights or email chris@gamecity.org

INCREDIBLY IMPORTANT:

Due to high demand please register on Eventbrite here: http://gamecitynights6.eventbrite.com/ to secure your entry to the event. Entrance will be £3 to be paid on arrival at Antenna.

Facebook event here.

Antenna will be serving food from 6pm, with the event beginning at 7.30pm. Admittance is 18+ so please bring I.D. Entrance just £3 on the door but you must register to secure your entry using the link above!

Thanks to everyone who came to Friday’s GameCityNights Play-doh-ground extravaganza. We had a great evening and we hope you all did too. We think it went very well. Was it was overstimulation from all the vibrant colours? Perhaps the puppetry? Or was it the hilarious audience participation? Maybe it was just the drink. Whatever it was, GameCityNights Episode 5 was brilliant.

Congratulations to the winning team, commiserations to the rest and kudos to everyone who presented their incredible ideas for potential playgrounds. They were all brilliant and the judges were astounded by the surrealism, humour, and imagination present in every design. Keita thinks you’re all insane.

Has anyone increased their productivity with iPhone Noby Noby Boy yet?

Hopefully we’ll see you on July 23rd for GameCityNights Season 1 Episode 6 which features Doctor Who: The Adventure Games. More on that very soon.

Mr Dog sends his regards.

What would you put in a park?

With Keita Takahashi back in town to continue work on the playground at Woodthorpe Park, attendees of GameCityNights #5 are being given the chance to be a part of history by helping with the design process.

In a team-based competition we’ll be taking inspiration from Keita’s distinctive style while recapturing our faded youth by sculpting potential playground features from actual play-doh. Go for something functional, or without the real-world constraints of budgets, health and safety and science.

Judges will be Keita and several engineers and landscape artists involved in the design and creation of the actual playground. Once the winner is picked, their submission could even be incorporated into the final park designs!*

That’s just one feature of GameCityNights #5 featuring Keita Takahashi. We’ll also have the usual fantastic supporting line-up and quiz.

Antenna will be serving food from 6pm, with the night kicking off at 7.30. Admittance is 18+ so please bring I.D. Just £3 on the door! Limited capacity so get there on time to ensure entry.

Facebook event page here

GameCityNights, Season One, Episode Five : Keita Takahashi

Keita Takahashi, designer of Katamari, Noby Noby Boy and the World’s best playground, will be in Nottingham for a month over June/July. During this time he’ll be working tirelessly with the council and various engineers on designing the brand new playground at Woodthorpe Grange. We thought it’d be nice to help him unwind with an evening of fun, games and whimsy at another exciting instalment of GameCityNights at Antenna on Friday 25th June.

We’ll be taking a look at the endearing Noby Noby Boy iPhone/iPad app and hopefully answering pressing questions such as “Why is it listed in the Productivity section of the app store?”

We’re fairly sure you can also expect playground progress updates, a showcase of recent work from indie developers and absolutely nothing concerning the World Cup (possibly). And, of course, our formidable quiz accompanied by a stack of prizes.

Keita Takahashi commented, “I look forward to playing with Norah the dog in Woodthorpe park!”

Antenna will be serving food from 6pm, with the night kicking off at 7.30. Admittance is 18+ so please bring I.D. Just £3 on the door! Limited capacity so get there on time to ensure entry.

Facebook event page here

In other news, the recent Noby Noby iPad viral movies are brilliant. And demented.

GameCityNights, Season One, Episode Four : Blur

Season One of GameCityNights rapidly accelerates as we proudly announce that Bizarre Creations will be crashing into Antenna with their much anticipated Arcade-racer, Blur.

Ben Ward and Chris Downey (widely regarded as one of the most charismatic environment artists working today) will be taking you through the process of creating a Blur track. From initial stages of research and photography right through to building the environment and optimising it for racing – this is going to show you a side of Blur that no-one has seen before.

The Mighty Bizarre Creations, creators of Project Gotham Racing series and Geometry Wars have been long standing supporters of GameCity – so we’re especially excited to be able to welcome them to Season One of the GameCityNights series.

Thus spake Ben Ward, “Bizarre Creations are really excited to offer our continuing support to the excellent GameCity festival, this time in the GC Nights format. We’re looking forward to sharing some details about our new racing game, Blur, and providing some insight into how we built a new breed of racer. See you all there!”

In addition to this, we can of course still promise a FULL supporting bill, AMAZING prizes and lots of other surprises that we don’t even know about yet.

IN OTHER NEWS!!

The hangovers people were nursing on the days following the event had been so adversely affecting the nations productivity, that decisive action had to be taken. Fans of GameCityNights should note that by popular request we have moved the event to a FRIDAY evening.
That’s FRIDAY 28th MAY!

Antenna will be serving food from 6pm, with the night kicking off at 7.30. Admittance is 18+ so please bring I.D. Just £3 on the door! Limited capacity so get there on time to ensure entry.

Facebook event page here.

UPDATE- SAM LAKE LIVE VIDEO-CHAT NOW TAKING PLACE AT THIS EVENT!!

Flying in the face of tradition set by the Godfather and Spider-man, we have decided against making GameCItyNights 3 rubbish.

Instead, Episode 3 blasts into space to do combat with ‘mad ninja robots’ at Antenna on April 29th as the mighty Beatnik Games’ Robin Lacey tears the place apart (in a good way).

Robin is going to be showing ‘n’ telling the story behind Beatnik’s uber-awesome new project Plain Sight and letting you know about life at Beatnik.

Rumours of hot chilli and cold drinks are also entirely true.

A full and gorgeous undercard will of course also be present.

Antenna, will be serving food from 6pm, with the night kicking off at 7.30.

Keep checking the site, Twitter or the Facebook event page for more news about GameCityNights Episode 3 and all future events.

April 24th, 12.00pm. Sam Lake talks Alan Wake – GameCity @ ScreenLit

We are delighted to be able to announce a very special event we’re staging with the awesome ScreenLit festival.

Sam Lake, writer of Max Payne, Max Payne 2 and the hugely anticipated forthcoming Xbox psychological action thriller Alan Wake will be LIVE in Nottingham at the Broadway cinema giving a rare insight into his work at Remedy.

This is an amazing opportunity to meet Sam, ask questions and discover some of the secrets behind the creation of one of the most hotly anticipated Xbox 360 titles of 2010.

Sam will be in conversation with GameCity Director Iain Simons from Midday at the Broadway Cinema, Nottingham.

TICKETS ON SALE APRIL 1ST!

www.broadway.org.uk

With just over 24 hours to go until the next GameCityNights show, a collective spirit of goodwill not seen since a zombie-walk has swept the City. In attempt to ‘do his bit’ for the effort to inject some life into Thursday evenings, the head chef at Antenna has a delicious proposition for you.

Many audience members at GCN 1 turned up hungry. Sadly, beyond the thin gimmickry of delicious round snacks, they were unable to eat. We have listened to your feedback, passed it along to Renoir the Chef, and he has come up with the following.

After work tomorrow, we urge you to NOT go home. Do NOT approach a third-party food & drink vendor. Instead get yourself down to Antenna, where from 6-7pm you will be able to purchase a bowl of steaming hot and utterly delicious Beef or Vegetable Chilli for JUST £2.50. Accompanying the Chilli will be some rice. And perhaps some of those triangle crisps. Unprecedented value, with napkins.

This is the ideal opportunity to line your stomach in preparation for the awesome festivities ahead.

See you tomorrow.