Northwest Vision and Media will be holding a session on narrative in videogames on the 28th of October in Manchester. Here are the details:

As we move into true episodic games and digital distribution this session will explore the importance of narrative in videogames. Matt Costello, whose best-selling and award-winning work across all media has meshed game play, technology and story, will lead an engaging and thought provoking discussion around how and why narrative can be used to sell games in a digital age. For more information about the event please click here: http://www.visionandmedia.co.uk/page/the-importance-of-narrative-in-games

Following this Visionary Session Northwest Vision and Media are also going to be hosting a workshop on structuring scriptwriting for videogames, run by scriptwriting agency International Hobo. For more information about this course, which will take place on 12th November, please contact Amalie Roberts (amalier [at] visionandmedia [dot] co [dot] uk).

This is the second Get In The Game scheme I’ve been involved in…but my first Get In The Game launch event. FACT, Liverpool was a great venue, I thought, and what with the enormous cinema-sized screen and the presentations being run off a PS3 it allowed time for some super-sized game playing silliness before the event kicked off…

After Enda’s introduction we heard from Clemens Wangerin, SCEE, who gave an entertaining and informed presentation on what Sony are looking for out of this project, especially interesting were the hints dropped about where Sony are aiming to take the PS3 through new platforms and its new PSP Mini store…

I hope that the event got people’s creative juices flowing. We’ve already seen the applications start to come in. Sony have already seen and been blown away by the quality of the ideas generated last time around, so here’s hoping we can do that again. Remember to adapt your idea to what Sony are looking for, and you could be making the game for real! The deadline for submitting your ideas is 2pm Friday 25th September… get applying!

Enda Carey opened the night, speaking on how the programme will run:

Here are Clemens slides, detailing a lot more about what Sony are looking for:

We launched Get In The Game 2 at FACT in Liverpool on Tuesday night, with about 40 people from Northwest companies in attendance. A few photos are up on Flickr.

Enda Carey from Northwest Vision and Media, and Clemens Wangerin from SCEE took people through the project, talking about the process for GITG and what Sony are really looking for to go on PSN. Clemens also showed videos of some games currently in development for PSN, which we’ll be posting along with the slides soon.

The presentations all ran relatively smoothly from a PS3; we’re actually quite impressed that one can be used for showing slides and video, as it gives the proceedings quite an informal and friendly feel. Kind of like showing your friends cool stuff online, instead of being the speaker with powerpoint.

If you want to apply for GITG, you can do so directly via Eventbrite here, or if you’re more comfortable with a word document, you can download this one and either email it to amalier [at] visionandmedia [dot] co [dot] uk, or print and post to Amalie Roberts, Northwest Vision and Media,BBC Building, Room LG45, Oxford Road, Manchester M60 1SJ.

The deadline for applications is 14:00 on Friday, September 25th.