About

For more information, contact Debbie Rawlings, Director of Operations on debbie@aurochdigital dot com

Here’s an idea of just some of the services we can provide:

Gaming Strategies

Games are expensive to produce, but can have amazing results, provided they are done correctly.  We can generate a gaming strategy for your organisation; we’ll be looking at what types of games might assist your aims, on what platforms and how it fits your brand or organisation as a whole.  We can also advise on an existing development strategy, helping you improve what you do already (some thoughts on this topic from our blog…).

Game Jams

A Game Jam is a method of rapid prototyping of a video game, going from concept to a working version in anything from a matter of hours to days. This is in contrast to the normal development cycle of a game which runs from weeks to years. Game Jams tend to run around a loose theme. In contrast to full game development, Game Jams tend to ignore many of the wrapper and longer-term functionality aspects of a game (option screen, save systems etc) in favour of a focus on gameplay. Jams are a great way to bring a team together, to rapidly develop an idea or to explore a theme or just to have a lot of fun.  We’ve organised a number of game jams for different groups and with different aims, for example the ‘Gamify Your PhD‘ project for the Wellcome Trust or the Global Game Jam Bristol event we produced.

Production & Development

We can produce and develop games, digital projects and other creative ventures for your organisation.  We have a wealth of experience producing projects on a whole host of platforms, timescales and budgets.  We’re specialists in rapid-prototyping of games.  Another example is the digital accompaniment to the Wellcome Trust’s highly regarded ’Dirt’ Season.  The game ‘Filth Fair’, was described by the technology blog Nine Over Ten as, “…an amazing and beautiful piece of art melded with tough trivia gameplay. [We are] proud to present it with a 4.5 out of 5 rating.”  Design Week described it as ‘captivating’, remarking that the game was, “a great way to get people engaged with the exhibition’s theme and objects.“

It is not just games we produce but also events, articles, publications and more. For example we’ve organised and facilitated discussion panels for the Develop Conference. Speak to us to find out more!

Evaluation, Design & More

We can also help with evaluating your current project/s and how to improve on future developments.  We can provide a game design, whether an initial concept, right through to a full game design document, for example Bag It & Bin It game for Wessex Water. (There are thoughts on this topic from our blog.)

We can help with game balancing (helping to get the fun and difficulty curve of your game just right), development process evaluation (assisting in improving the way you make games and their impact on the player) and presentations (from talking at your events on a range of games and technology topics, to helping you improve your presentations and pitches or letting us do them for you!).

We can also assist with designing and delivering topic specific workshops, facilitating ideas sessions, practical sessions on many aspects of games and technology (Some thoughts on this topic from our blog).

More about us…

Auroch Digital was founded by award winning games and digital media veteran, Tomas Rawlings.  Tomas has worked in the games industry for many years and has worked with companies such as Sony, THQ and Eidos (now SquareEnix) on platforms such as  PC, Dreamcast, PlayStation2 and 3 and Xbox, PSP, web-games, iOS, Android & Windows Phone 7.  He has also worked as an associate lecturer at Bridgwater College and UWE.  He is the co-author of the first ever book on filmmaking and the Internet: PlugIn&TurnOn: A Guide to Filmmaking for the Internet, (Marion Boyars, 2004) and has published various articles on technology, see below for details.  He is currently working on a PhD examining evolutionary theory and networked forms of media and has published a new piece from his PhD, Understanding the Evolution of Technology Through P2P Systems and Its Impact on Learning Environments.  Tomas has been a guest speaker at many European conferences to present his research findings aswell as in his current home town of Bristol and throughout the UK.

Tomas’s full gameography and more can be found here.

Some of Tomas’ writings…

• PlugIn&TurnOn: A Guide to Filmmaking for the Internet. Published by Marion Boyars Publishers (May 2004).
• The Independent: The world’s best video diarists, Open source websites: All change on the internet, New Media: Who are the real winners now we’ve all gone Wiki-crazy?
• Narrative and Interactivity (originally for Develop magazine)
• Gamezebo.com: How to Start a Games Development Studio – Parts 1,2 & 3, The Future of Consoles.
• Wellcome Trust Blog - Deus Ex, the Scientific State of Mind, Crysis & the Biological Singularity & On the Brink of climate change, What World War I and medical history brought to our game.
• Gamesindustry.biz: From Paper to Digital: The Cthulhu Strategy of Games Development, Store Wars: Which is the right app store for you?, Gary Gygax: The Father of Games Design.
• Authenticity in Games & The Wasted Land (PocketTactics)

Sample Public Speaking & Talks…

PS. Aurochs, if you were wondering, is the ancestor of the domesticated cattle we see today.  They were huge wild animals with a shoulder height of around 2m…

…we like the conjunction of something ancient with something very modern, with our own twist, hence, we are Auroch Digital!