Shark Infested Custard A very unique games development studio!

The outstanding, talented and wonderfully well bearded Nicoll Hunt from I Fight Bears joined the Games Hub and teams to share a brilliant talk on his career and life in, and out of, the industry as well as the excellent success of Fist of Awesome! Nicoll then got the chance to sit with the teams and look at their projects.

He was joined my Mike of AppBox media, of which we’re going to be announcing some rather exciting news in the very very near future.

The Games Hub will be getting it’s new website all finished, plus another announcement around recruitment for the next round. Plus our new server being set up, more hardware for the teams and more!

Awesomely brilliant times!!!!

It’s with a HUGE amount of pleasure that Shark and all the amazing teams that make The Games Hub welcome our first new starter Rhiannon Bull! Rhiannon has joined us to do all things marketing, which means we can now look forward to some MUCH needed and very deserved promotion and marketing, but also finally those new websites and a proper home on the web for the hub!

On top of that! We’ve also had more experts visit the hub and the teams, starting with;

Ian Turnbull formerly of Square-Enix.

As always Ian shared his incredible amount of experience and knowledge of both games and the industry itself giving a talk to the teams. He also got some great hands-on time with their ideas and designs as well as playing their games.

And this week Dan Collier from Tundra Games came by to spend time with the teams, looking at their games and progress and offering some expert mentorship.

(You must also check out Tundras awesome game RAPTURE)

Once again it’s been a busy few weeks, not only with the teams head down into development, but also with two wonderful visits from Laudon and Grant from Dlala and Quentin from Birketts.

Laudon and Grant spent time with all the teams going through their deigns and progress offering their expert opinions and advice.

Then the main development room went very quiet as they both shared excellent presentations of their history, experiences and what they’ve learnt so far about how to succeed at making games and what it takes to survive in the industry.

Hot on their heels the following week we welcomed the always excellent Quentin from Birketts. Quentin shared the hugely vital information for the teams businesses, from things to watch out for, how employment law works through to IP ownership and what to consider when setting up a company.

This week is was the BEST Essex business show where the Games Hub was brilliantly represented by both Nysko Games and Sketchbook. Mark, Perry and Martyn doing a stirling job showing off their games to all the people attending. Thanks guys!!

The workshop/presentation room was also finally laid out, showing just how much more space there we have in the new studio!

Exciting times, we’ve actually moved into the new studio!!!

(no workmen we're hurt during the process)

A huge thanks to the University of Essex for the wonderful new spaces we have. It’s better laid out, gives us access to a meeting room and much bigger!

From our humble beginnings of 15 amazing people willing to take a chance and give it everything they helped establish something truely special, we now have almost 60 people following in their footsteps.

After a bit of rearrangement (thanks for lugging all the stuff around everyone!) we’ve now got an awesome much deserved space for all and more.

Also

Last week saw the formation of the new teams and some really great discussions on games, designs and what everyone can’t wait to do throughout this next round. There are some exception ideas and brilliant people taking part and we’ll say it again, it’s going to be an exciting and outstanding time!!

This week saw the start of the fourth round of The Games Hub. We have more then 30 new starters just beginning their time through to next summer developing their own games and businesses.

After a brief(ish) talk from Steven about the hub and what they can expect, Fazer from Teaboy and Mark from Sketchbook gave a great presentation and talk about their experience and careers so far. It was followed up by a brilliant group discussion about who everybody was and their studies, interests and expectations.

Over the coming weeks we’ll start forming the teams and working on their game ideas and business plans. It was an awesome first day and brilliant to see so many talented and enthusiastic people. It’s going to be an amazingly exciting round!!!

Next week sees our amazing Games Hub start its 4th round!

We’ll have more than 30 new aspirational starters taking part as the multi award-winning programme kicks off on Wednesday. They’ll be joining the current teams just as we move into our new studio space in a couple of weeks time. It’s with huge thanks to both the current teams and the University of Essex that all this is possible. The new building gives us both a workshop room for the new teams and more dedicated office space for the current ones, we’ll have more hardware (and decent stuff too!) and a meeting room!

We’re still looking for a marketing intern to join us to run the websites and all things press, publicity and social media, once someone is in place the much needed new websites and migration of all thing Games Hub should get done.

Obligatory press release below.

University’s new ‘Games Hub’ to help young developers to ‘level up’

Will the next ‘Halo’ and ‘Minecraft’ come from Essex?

The Eastern region’s best and brightest young games developers will be given a massive chance to ‘level up’ their performance in a free support programme that launches this month.

On Wednesday 23 November, the ‘Games Hub’ – created by veteran games designer Steven Huckle in partnership with the University of Essex and supported by Eastern Enterprise – will showcase home-grown talent and the opportunities available to local games designers. Building on its recent success – which has seen five companies established in its first 18 months – the Games Hub will be demonstrating what local talent can do.

There will be a chance to see new video and play-throughs from the games under development, meet the young entrepreneurs behind them and talk to Steven Huckle – whose work includes some of the all-time great games including Tomb Raider, FIFA, The Sims, DJ Hero and Transformers Universe.

Steven says, “The University has been incredibly forward thinking and really helping to make a difference to this. In the future Colchester will be competing with the likes of London, Brighton and Cambridge more as one of the major leading hubs of games and app development.”

“This is a free expert driven programme for those with aspirations to work in or set up their own games/app company. In the first 2 years I’ve had more than 50 people take part and have successfully helped 5 teams found their own company.”

Huge thanks to Creative England and their England is Creative campaign and to ITV for showing the awesome piece on their news channel and the mention of Shark.

If you’re not aware of all the amazing stuff Creative England does check out their website http://www.creativeengland.co.uk/

You can watch the video here or below

As mentioned in our previous post, Shark in incredibly proud to win another amazing award, Innovation 50.

It’s a list of 50 small and medium sized businesses reads as a veritable who’s who of the county’s innovative businesses. It includes companies as diverse as a lampshade manufacturer, video games developers, high-tech manufacturers and even a company which delivers afternoon tea to your home.

50 of the county’s brightest and most innovative small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) have just been identified as part of a three year business project.

Innovation 50 is a joint initiative between Essex County Council’s Essex Innovation Programme (EIP) and Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) to support business growth in Essex.

Of course none of this would be possible without all the amazing support we have  and the brilliant people and teams taking part!

You can find out more details on the following websites

http://essexinnovation.co.uk/blog/50-fastest-growing-and-most-innovative-essex-companies-identified#.WBynItKLTIU

http://www.essex.gov.uk/News/Pages/Business-accolade-for-Innovation-50-applicants.aspx