Brunel University Games Society

From Steve Jackson:

Next Tuesday’s speaker is Rob McLachlan, Head of Level Design at from Creative Assembly.

Creative Assembly are the developers of the Total War series

Level design is an expanding area of game development. Rob will explain what level design entails. Don’t forget to ask him: “If I want to go along to an interview for a level designer job, what can I bring that will most impress the interviewer.”

Same time (11:30) same place (LC266)

Anyone welcome.

Doug

Tomorrow Ian Livingstone will be doing a talk at Brunel, in LC 266 at 11:30.

From Steve Jackson:

For those of you who weren’t at the talk on Tuesday I’d like to remind you that our next speaker is Ian Livingstone, who will be telling us about the history of Eidos and in particular of the phenomenon that was/is Tomb Raider. His talk will cover the importance of brands in the business of game development, from both the developer and from the Publisher’s point of view.

Ian Livingstone was Creative Director at Domark at the time that the Putney-based games developer merged with Eidos the video compression company in the mid-1990s. He is the only person at Eidos that has been involved right from the start. He has been Creative Director and Chairman of the company and since the Square-Enix takeover he has been given the title of ‘Life President’

Hi all!

It’s that time of year – clubs & society elections! For more details, please visit our forum. Also – there is a LAN this weekend in the Academy!

With Regards,
Adrir

Welcome back everyone!

I hope everyone had an awesome winter holiday and new year. Events will commence from week 15 – please see the calender for updates. Please note that during the winter holiday, the Student’s Union called for all societies to update their constitutions to reflect recent changes in policy. I will make the new constitution available online as soon as it has met approval.

With Regards,
Adrir

Hey everyone!

Is everyone ready for the Christmas Dinner? The games society will be meeting at the Crown at 7pm on Monday 14th December for our annual celebration of the winter holidays! This year it is looking to be a very popular event. It is always a lot of fun to chill out and have fun with the friends you’ve made through the society.

Come along, you know you want to!

With Regards,
Adrir

Please note; no new orders are currently being taken by the society at this time. Please go directly to the Crown, let them know your order and pay the deposit if you wish to attend and have not yet reserved your place. The cost is £17.

Hi everyone,

It is with great regret to announce that there will be no LAN event on Sunday 13th December; as originally scheduled. This is due to not enough people being able to commit to the event. The workload this year has been very heavy for many people, with many assignments having deadlines next week. Alternatively, several people will be going on holiday early as there doesn’t seem to be any teaching in week 12 for certain schools. I get the impression that the academics didn’t like having a week of their winter holiday taken from them.

An smaller alternative event is being scheduled by Blanket and Skyne for after the coursework deadlines.

Please refer to the discussion forum for more details.

With Regards,
Adrir

Hey everyone!

On Thursday 3rd December, a group of us will be heading down to London South Bank University in order to attend IGDA London’s “Writers Block” event. Spend an evening with a group of experienced games writers who will share their thoughts on game writing and where it’s headed by regaling stories of how they broke into the industry, discussing the obstacles that face writers new to the industry and nswer any questions the audience might have.

Speakers will include:

Tom Jubert – The Penumbra Series, Lost Horizon
Rhianna Pratchett – Heavenly Sword, Overlord, Mirror’s Edge
James Swallow – Deus Ex 3, Maelstrom, Star Trek Invasion
Andrew S. Walsh – Prince of Persia, Risen, Harry Potter

We will be meeting at Uxbridge train station around 5.30pm – 5.45pm if anyone would like to join us.

With Regards,
Adrir

Hey everyone!

On Tuesday, 1st December, Reiner Knizia will be coming down to give a talk on games design and the games development process. He is currently one of the most highly acclaimed game designers in today’s industry, winning many prizes for both board games and computer games. All games society members are welcome to attend.

The session is held at 11:15am in LC261 and will go on until 3pm (with a midway break for lunch).

Hope to see you there!

With Regards,
Adrir

Hi all!

The next LAN is being held on Sunday November 22nd from 11:30am to 10:30pm in the Academy.

Bring all the usual gear, PC/Console, screen, headset etc. Don’t forget to bring a network cable (as long as possible) and an extension lead. You should also run a full virus scan on your machine before you come along. Don’t forget to set Steam to offline mode the night before the LAN. All the servers will be checked for updates the evening before the LAN. Connect at your own risk, the Games Soc. has no responsibility or obligation to safeguard your equiptment etc. etc. Several projectors should be available.

There will be a fee of £1 will be charged to anyone connecting to the server/switch in any way. Also, a £1 fee will be charged for any console users connecting to a projector. The money will be used to maintain and purchase new gear. Last year, we bought the server at cost of over £250 and the year before that the switch at over £120. All the surge protectors and so on are also society owned. Its expensive stuff…It’s worth it!

Thanks for reading, and I hope to see you there!

Hi everyone!

Power Up! A night of Rock and Electronica – next Tuesday evening, 10pm-2am in The Academy.

£3.50 entry in advance
£4.50 on the door (£1 UBS discount)

Hope to see you there!

With Regards,
Adrir