Culture & News / Conferences & Festivals / Competitions / Work / Bedtime Reading

Culture & News

• 
  http://www.gamelablondon.com
  
  
• Guardian Games Blog - http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/gamesblog
• Gamasutra - http://gamasutra.com/
• International Game Developer's Association - http://www.igda.org/
• Wikipedia Games Studies - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_studies

Conferences & Festivals

• Women in Games - http://www.womeningames.com/
• London Games Festival / Fringe - http://www.londongamesfestival.com
• Develop / Games Edu - http://www.developconference.com

Competitions

• Dare to be Digital
  Very prestigious annual game competition - hard for a team to gain a place
  
  
• Imagine Cup
  Register now - there are various competitions including game development, short film etc.
  
  
• X48 GameCamp
  http://www.x48gamecamp.com
  
  
• Global Game Jam - 48 hours of creative fun
  http://globalgamejam.org
  
  
• ICS Student Central offers regular competitions
  http://www.ics.heacademy.ac.uk/student_central/competitions.htm
  
  
• Independent Games Festival - see this year's winners and get ready for next year!
  http://www.igf.com/02finalists.htm

Work

• Datascope Recuitment has good advice on preparing portfolios for entry into Games Industry, and samples of successful work
  
• Gamelab London offer work experience to all final year students on BSc Computer Games degrees, starting Sept 2008
  
  
• Playgen looking for programmers
  
  
• Blitz always looking for programmers, and run open days every Spring where you can meet developers
  
  
• Rare usually offer internships in software development and art - see website for details
  
  
• SEGA may be looking for games testers, flexible hours. QA experience will help your application
  
  
• Occasional QA work at THQ for BSc Computer Games students

Bedtime Reading

• Trigger Happy (2004) by Steven Poole - http://stevenpoole.net/blog/trigger-happier/
  
  
• The Art of Computer Game Design (1982) by Chris Crawford - http://www.vancouver.wsu.edu/fac/peabody/game-book/Coverpage.html
  
  
• Rossum's Universal Robots (1920) - Karel Câpec - http://jerz.setonhill.edu/resources/RUR/
  
  
• Brave New World (1932) - Aldous Huxley - http://www.huxley.net/bnw/index.html
  
  
• 1984 (1948) - George Orwell - http://www.online-literature.com/orwell/1984/1/
  
  
• Videogame history:
  • http://www.thedoteaters.com
• http://digiplay.info/timeline

Various

• Test your awareness: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Ahg6qcgoay4