Get In The Game has been a very interesting one this time, as it opened up to the Yorkshire and Humber region, and we had a lot of companies applying that weren’t traditionally game developers. Vision+Media are pretty orward looking when it comes to development, so GITG has always been a pretty good deal for developers: Not only do the successful ones get the prototype funding, but they get to keep their IP too.

The final pitches happened late in March, and we’ve had time to feed everything back to the companies. Phil Gaskell, head of XDev Studio Europe had this to say just after everyone had pitched: “I saw some really promising work today. We’re certainly going to be looking further into certain projects, and there’s a chance some of them might make it all the way to PlayStation”

Giong further back into GITG2, the workshop was much bigger than it’s been before, with agile training and some especially effective, but also nerve wracking pitch training, in which people were placed in front of a camera to pitch, only to watch and analyse the tape afterward. Everyone returned a month later to pitch for real money with a game idea, and ultimately five were selected from that first batch of pitches to receive £10K of prototype funding each, going through several subsequent stages on the way to the final pitch improving their pitching skills, knowledge and their prototypes.

It’s been arduous at points; as you can see by the posts below, the dummy pitches to Sony producers were an especially harsh step in the process, but ultimately a valuable one in focussing everything the companies had learned.

Unfortunately, I’m afraid we can’t reveal whether or not any of the prototypes have been picked up by Sony, but some very promising projects came out of the past 8 months. I’d like to thank all of the companies for taking part: It’s All In The Game Baby, Savvy Productions, Pixinworks, Milky Tea and Grant Midwinter. You all did yourselves proud with the prototype funding, and we wish you the best of luck taking your projects further.

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).

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.