Irish gaming industry under the spotlight in Thurles at Games Fleadh 2015 #GamesFleadh
Ireland’s growing status as a location for digital games research and development will be highlighted tomorrow (Wednesday) when three of the biggest names in the industry participate in Games Fleadh 2015.
LIT Tipperary, whose alumni have worked on some of gaming’s biggest titles including Call of Duty, StarCraft and Guitar Hero, will host Ireland’s largest gaming event at its campus in Thurles.
Games Fleadh will feature games development and research talks by prolific American games designers and developers Brenda and John Romero and Electronic Arts (EA) Chief Operating Officer Bryan Neider who will also assist in the judging process for the various undergraduate competitions involving third levels students and games developers from all over the island of Ireland.
Students of LIT’s Game Design and Development degree course pictured at LIT Thurles, which hosts Games Fleadh 2015 on March 11th. Pic Andrew Shakespeare
Neider is Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of the Electronic Arts (EA), which is responsible for producing some of the bestselling video game titles of all time including The Sims, FIFA, Battlefield and Madden NFL.
Brenda and John Romero have each more than 30 years experience working in the gaming industry, over 150 game titles such as DOOM and Quake to their credit, dozens of awards and have collectively founded nine game companies.
Dr. Liam Noonan, Lecturer at LIT’s Game Design and Development degree in Thurles and Games Fleadh 2015 organiser
Supported by Microsoft Ireland, EA Games and the Irish Computer Society, the 12th annual Games Fleadh will feature the ‘Direct X’ Endless Runner challenge, Robocode and the Game Studio ‘Endless Runner’ competition, the winners and runners up of which will present their games to Brenda and John Romero and the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC) Greenlight Committee.
“Games Fleadh presents a fantastic opportunity for students to create a prototype game, meet people from industry and make a name for themselves within the Irish game sector,” said Dr. Liam Noonan, Lecturer at LIT’s Game Design and Development degree in Thurles at the launch of Games Fleadh 2015.
“In terms of career development, participating in this competition is invaluable as students are adding to their portfolio of creative content and networking with students from other colleges and people from the games industry. It is these up and coming game developers and their innovative ideas that will act as the catalyst for job creation in the Irish game development sector,” added Dr. Noonan.
Games Fleadh 2015 is open to the public for free. Online registration is available at www.gamesfleadh.ie. For more visitwww.twitter.com/gamesfleadh or Twitter search #gamesfleadh.
Notes:
Brenda Romero is an award-winning game designer, artist, writer who has worked with a variety of digital game companies as a game designer or creative director, including Atari, Sir-tech Software, Electronic Arts, as well as numerous companies in the social and mobile space. She recently became the first game designer in residence at the Games and Playable Media Program of the UCSC and is presently Program Director of its MS in Games and Playable Media Program.
John Romero is the Creative Director at UCSC’s masters in games and playable media he is also a director, designer, programmer, and developer in the video game industry. He is best known as a co-founder of id Software and designer for many of their games, including Wolfenstein 3D, Dangerous Dave, Doom and Quake. www.romero.com
Bryan Neider is responsible for managing five unique Labels: EA Sports, EA Games, Maxis, All Play and PopCap and the Central Development Services teams. www.ea.com
LIT’s B.Sc. (Honours) in Games Design & Development (Level 8) is designed to produce graduates with an in-depth knowledge of the essential aspects of games design and development. LIT Thurles alumni have worked on AAA titles such as StarCraft, Guitar Hero and Call of Duty. Our campus enterprise centre facilitates and is host to game studios start-ups who are actively supported by Thurles Chamber Enterprise Centre business mentors. Further information is available at:www.lit.ie/Courses/LC418
