Hi all,
Sorry for filling up your mailboxes; here's something I received from
Blitz Games (who gave us a talk last Wednesday).
Win an Xbox 360 and support charity.
Retro Ball & coding competition – supported by Blitz Games.
10th November 2005. Leamington Spa, Warks, UK. Leading independent
videogame developer Blitz Games and Retro Ball organisers
(
www.play4charity.co.uk) today remind all amateur gaming enthusiasts
– that only 13 days remain to enter the coding competition.
The winners of the competition, judged by industry veterans The
Oliver Twins, will be announced at the forthcoming charity event -
The Retro Ball – which takes place over the weekend of December 3rd
and 4th in Kenilworth, Warwickshire.
In addition to the competition, visitors to the event will be able to
play on gaming machines dating from the early 80’s right through to
the current time including classic arcade cabinets, pinball tables
and a wide range of computers and consoles – from the ZX Spectrum to
today’s PlayStation 2 and Xbox.
Andrew Oliver, Development Director Blitz Games commented, “We’re
delighted to be actively involved in The Retro Ball. The response to
the event and the competition has been excellent. It’s very
encouraging to see such enthusiasm for videogames from the past and
the present and to know that all proceeds will be going into cancer
research and support for victims of this devastating disease.”
Chris Wilkins, organiser of The Retro Ball added, “ I am extremely
pleased to have the Oliver Twins and Blitz Games associated with The
Retro Ball event. The weekend is shaping up to be a unique gaming
extravaganza with some amazing prizes to be won! ”
Tickets are selling steadily and the event is due to attract over 400
people with the aim of raising and donating £2,500 to the Everyman
charity in aid of cancer research.
The event also has a number of gaming celebrities coming along
including Jon Hare from the infamous Sensible Software responsible
for such classics as Sensible Soccer, Rob Hubbard/David Whittaker
(C64 musicians) and Gary Whelan (the official Galaxian world record
holder).
Chris Wilkins, organiser of The Retro Ball added, “ The support I
have received from the games industry ‘Retro’ veterans has been
amazing. All have volunteered to participate in a Q&A session at the
event and also to challenge visitors to the games they were
responsible for developing. If you have always thought of yourself as
unbeatable at ‘Sensible Soccer”, why not come to the event and
challenge the game designer himself, Jon Hare, to a game!!”
About The Competition
The Retro Ball (
www.play4charity.co.uk) coding competition that is
being run in
partnership with Blitz Games (
www.BlitzGames.com) and Retro Remakes
(
www.remakes.org).
Entrants – amateur - are tasked with developing a highly playable
game either of original design or based on an original idea, i.e. a
remake. The developer can use any programming language and tools
available to them to produce the game but the use of C or C++ is
desirable.
The Oliver Twins are the sole competition judges and will select the
top 3 submissions after the 4-week deadline has elapsed. The top 3
authors will be invited to The Retro Ball and stay at a top 4* Hotel
on the Saturday evening courtesy of the Twins. Their games will be
made available for visitors to play at The Retro Ball event.
The winner of the competition will be announced at The Retro Ball at 7pm
on December 3rd.
Prizes for the event are:
1st Prize XBOX 360 + game
2nd Prize PSP + game
3rd Prize Nintendo DS + game
The 3 finalists will be assessed by Blitz Games during the weekend of
the event and if suitable will be offered a career with the Oliver
Twins within the games industry.
If you fancy your chances at winning this competition then wander
over to
http://www.retroremakes.com/comp2005/index.php to read up on
the rules and how to enter.
For further information please contact: Alison Beasley, Lincoln Beasley
T: +44 (0) 1608 645756 E: Alison(a)lincolnbeasley.co.uk
M: +44(0)7966 449130
www.lincolnbeasley.co.uk
About Blitz Games
Blitz Games is based in Leamington Spa and was founded in 1990 by
twin brothers Andrew and Philip Oliver and now boasts over 130 staff.
The Oliver’s are responsible for developing over 100 games since the
early 1980s and their company has three new titles planned for
release in the next year, including Pac-Man World 3 and Bratz: Rock
Angelz. Also currently in development is next generation original
title Possession. The company continues its huge long-term investment
into BlitzWare, its in-house technology, which provides one of the
best game development environments of any independent developer.
www.BlitzGames.com.
Volatile Games is a division of Blitz Games focused on developing
Mature Content Games.
www.VolatileGames.com
About Retro Remakes
The Retro Remakes community is an extremely talented bunch of
developers, designers and hobbyists that remake the classics of
yesteryear on current technology. The organisers of the Retro Remakes
website are organising and running the competition.
Ken.