Filth Fair Announced!

We're really pleased to be able to go public with the news that the Filth Fair is coming!

This is the game we've been producing for the Wellcome Trust:

Filth Fair gets ready to dirty up the App Store this March

Updated Feb 9, 2011, 10:15am

Nobody likes filth. It’s dirty, icky, and often downright disgusting. But the folks at Wellcome Trust? They’re celebrating it. Starting in March, the Wellcome Trust will spend more than five months showcasing the subject of filth in their upcoming “Dirt Season,” a series of special events and releases all revolving around our relationship with grime. One such release is the upcoming hidden object game Filth Fair for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch.

Read more: http://www.gamezebo.com/iphone-games/filth-fair/preview#ixzz1Dgfwm29c

In addition to this, there is also a preview over on Pocket Gamer:

Filth Fair is a hidden words and meanings game set inside a huge painting by Mike Wilks, an artist famous for his best-selling 1986 book The Ultimate Alphabet.

Your task is to find and identify over 300 words buried inside numerous objects. Cryptic, descriptive, and word-substitution clues are on hand to aid you, with prizes, awards, and acclaim awaiting the best players.

According to Wellcome, Filth Fair has been created with the highest craftsmanship and without, "digital-virtual hocus-pocus."

Filth Fair will be available to play for free on iPhone, iPad, and online some time in March.

The Future of Gaming in 2011

Auroch Digital's Tomas Rawlings takes a look at what the future holds for gaming in 2011:

Transmedia is the idea of a media experience that transcends one platform. More often than not it is the story that lives across different media forms. I don’t just mean say a PS3 port of a PC game, but a game that offers a PS3 experience and a PC experience that together combine to make something even bigger. This can be cross-media too; so games into TV, films into books. Again to be truly Transmedia, the experience has to be extended and built upon and not just mirrored. This idea has been around for some time now, but this year I think we’ll see it really start to grow. So take the example of Deus Ex Human Revolution – where the story exists in the game and in a novel…

To read the full article, click here.

Our Work with the Wellcome Trust

We're happy to say that we have been commissioned by the Wellcome Trust as  consultants on computer games.   The Wellcome Trust is a global charitable foundation with an endowment of about £13 billion which it uses primarily in funding biomedical research to improve human and animal health.  For example the Trust co-funded the decoding of much of the human genome.  Another example of an interesting project it has undertaken is  digitising back issues of important medical journals then making them freely available. Part of the Trust's work is also about enabling the public to explore and become involved with biomedical science, its future directions, its impacts on society and the ethical questions that it brings, and that's where our work comes in.  Games are a great means of engaging people that gets them thinking and interacting, but does not bash them over the head with the issue.

We're also happy to announce that we have just signed a second contract with Wellcome to produce their first game around the issue of 'Dirt', working with Toytek as the developer. We're excited about both projects and will keep you posted!

£30,000 People Award for Interesting Games Ideas

Auroch Digital is working with the Wellcome Trust and TIGA (the Independent Game Developers Association) to promote the Wellcome Trust's people awards - which are great news and a good opportunity if you are a small development studio looking to do something different:

People Award £30K Grants available for small games projects that explore the impact of biomedical science.

The Wellcome Trust, the second largest charitable foundation in the world, has a small grants scheme that enables you to explore the impact of biomedical science on society, its historical roots, effects on different cultures, or the ethical questions that it brings. Games are a great platform for exploring these issues and we invite proposals using this medium as we're interested in what ideas you may have. The project aims to encourage people of all ages and from all walks of life to consider, question and debate the key issues of now and the future. We want people to be informed, inspired and involved. The People Awards support projects that aim to achieve at least one of the following:

* stimulate interest, excitement and debate about biomedical science through various methods * support formal and informal learning about biomedical science * reach new audiences not normally engaged with biomedical science, as well as continuing to target existing audiences * examine the social, cultural, historical and ethical impact of biomedical science * encourage new ways of thinking about biomedical science * encourage high quality interdisciplinary practice and collaborative partnerships * investigate and test new methods of engagement, participation and education.

Applicants can apply for up to £30 000, for projects lasting a maximum of three years.

Organisations might include: museums and other cultural attractions; arts agencies; production companies; broadcast media; schools; local education authorities; universities and colleges; youth clubs; community groups; research institutes; the NHS; and science centres.

Partnership projects (between different people and organisations, e.g. scientists and ethicists, educators and artists) are welcomed. It is suggested that a possible approach is to find an organisation (e.g. science centre, museum, NHS trust, educational establishment, research department etc) and/or a scientist/s currently working in biomedical areas - then submit a joint proposal to make a game and/or interactive project. We would expect the resulting project to be distributed for free.

Please note: Standard health education and promotion projects, or projects dealing purely with non-biomedical sciences, are not eligible. In addition applicants must be based in the UK or the Republic of Ireland and the activity must take place in the UK or the Republic of Ireland. Finally, applicants need to have enough experience to demonstrate that they can deliver the project to a high standard. Deadlines:

* 29th October 2010 * 28th January 2011

There is more information including applications forms, lists of past applications etc online: http://bit.ly/peopleaward

Any questions and queries can be directed to; people@wellcome.ac.uk - however please check the website for answer before emailing questions to us.

Auroch Digital @ the Pervasive Media Studio, Bristol

Tomas writes:

We're now working on a couple of interesting projects I hope to be able to blog about very soon. I'm going to be based some of the time (and other times in London...) at the PM (PM as in Pervasive Media) Studio in Bristol's harbourside.

There are lots of interesting people and projects going on there and when I chatted to them about office space I was really impressed with the vibe around collaboration being the key there. As a resident you have to aggregate your skills into the pool. Looking forward to a swim there...

Welcome to Digitality! Welcome to Interaction!

Welcome to Auroch Digital!  We're a new company offering consultancy, project management and gameplay evaluation services.  There is much more about us and who we are and what we do here. We look forward to working with you!

In the meantime... here is a video of Auroch Digital's Tomas Rawlings giving a walk-through of the recent top selling Star Wars: The Battle for Hoth game on iPhone he designed...