Mediatonic at the BAFTA Game Awards!
Posted by Ed - Monday 11th March 2013
Did you hear? Amateur Surgeon Hospital – our highbrow hospital management game set in the Amateur Surgeon universe – was nominated for a BAFTA Games Award.
Let’s just say that again: Amateur Surgeon Hospital was nominated for a BAFTA.
AMAZING.
That meant that some members of the team got to go to the glitzy awards ceremony, hosted by Dara O’Briain and, weirdly, Boris Becker. Yeah, we don’t really understand either, but hey. Anyway, here some of them are, dressed up all nice like:
(Totoro didn’t get to go. He's fine with that though, honestly. If – hypothetically – you opened the images in this blog post in a hex editor and – hypothetically – the string ‘YOU BASTARDS’ just happened to be repeated over and over again, well, what are the chances, eh? Truly there is beauty in our universe’s chaos.)
We didn’t win – SongPop was a worthy winner, we (begrudgingly) admit – but just being nominated was pretty amazing. It was our first BAFTA nomination ever, and now we’ve got a taste for it we’re more resolute than ever that it certainly won’t be our last.
And with Foul Play out in the next few months, everyone who judges the BAFTA Games Awards in 2014 had better watch out – Baron Dashforth knows how to throw a punch…
Vince Cable visits Mediatonic
Posted by Ed - Friday 1st February 2013
Yesterday, we were lucky enough to be visited by Vince Cable, the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills. If you don’t know who that is, he’s one of the most important people in the UK Government.
L-R: Vince Cable (Secretary of State), Dave Bailey (Mediatonic CEO), Paul Croft (also works here)
Mr Cable toured the studio to learn more about the games industry, and specifically how we pull in talent from many different fields to create a beautiful pot-pourri of experience and imagination. (Don’t worry, we didn’t actually say those words to him. That would have been pretty awkward.)
As one of the highest-ranking officials in charge of skills development in the UK Government, it was a great opportunity to show off how games are a fusion of art, technology, vision and management, all of which are enhanced by having wide areas of background knowledge and experience.
We showed him some of our cross-platform HTML5 technology, and he and his advisors played a game simultaneously across various tablets and browser. He also took a look at Foul Play, our upcoming XBLA game, and saw how its London setting and ‘British humour’ has seen it lauded (by other people!) as an example of a game that would pass the proposed cultural test for the new Games Tax Breaks.
Mr. Cable and Jo Twist (Ukie CEO)
The visit was topped off with a roundtable discussion held in our boardroom, where some of the UK’s leading games figures took the chance to discuss the issues facing the games industry and its contribution to the UK economy. Present were Jo Twist, CEO of Ukie; Ian Livingstone CBE, Life President of Eidos; Fergal Gara, Vice President of SCEE; Andy Payne OBE, Ukie chairman and president of Mastertronic; Miles Jacobson OBE, studio director of Sports Interactive; plus our CEO Dave Bailey and chief creative officer Paul Croft.
Overall, it was a great success and we were delighted to have Mr. Cable visit. Big thanks to everyone at Ukie for all their co-operation and help with the event!
Mediatonic Movengers: Part 3
Posted by Ed - Friday 7th December 2012
Sometimes, in life, we have to say goodbye to the things we love. Like the passing of autumn into winter, we respect the temporality of the things around us and, in the same way, of our own lives.
Such is the way for us outside observers of Movember.
I am happy - no, proud - to say that our brave Movember warriors made it all the way through the month. They stood strong, rooted to the ground like grand oak trees, in the face of modern standards of fashion and (let's face it) decency. They endured the glares of randoms as they walked down the street, the disapproval of significant others, and the sympathetic sideways glances of other ridiculously-faced gentlemen.
Here they are. May their brave service and beautiful faces be forever etched into the Book of Ages, as an undying testament to their determination to fundraising for charity.
(Click to 'big-up'. From L-R: Gabor, Nick, Kash, Jeff, Jim, Vicky, Gerald, Elvira, David, Ricky, Nick, Pete, Jeroen)
Of course, if you still haven't donated to the cause, there's still time! Jump over to the team's entry on the Movember website and get on it!
Now if you'll excuse me, I've got a funeral to go to and I need to find my black fascinator.
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