Chemistry via Minecraft?

The University of Hull has a very interesting project which uses the Minecraft game for the visualisation of molecular chemistry. 

The project (called MolCraft) has generated a lot of very positive press and can in fact be downloaded from the official University of Hull website here.

Another great example of how Minecraft and similar gaming technologies can be used for educational purposes on "serious" subjects".

Microsoft Hololens update

A much anticipated technology in the area of mixed reality is now closer; it appears now that according to Microsoft developers (who can already apply and potentially get accepted) in the US/Canada will be able to order the $3000 device from January 2016 and then have it delivered to them sometime in the first quarter of the new year.

This is outlined in more detail in the Microsoft official site here and understandably this made the news in a major way as soon as it was announced, which shows the heightened anticipation for this piece of technology.

Game Development Suite

The Game Development Suite (by MaxPlay) is a new game engine soon to be added in the very competitive market place of said technologies; its major selling point appears to be the ease of provision for collaborative work amongst developers (via a cloud approach).

You can read more about the Game Development Suite on its official website here.

More publicity for Rebourne and Rite of Life

Rebourne, a company which consists of a number of Bournemouth University Games Technology students is getting more press after their successful Kickstarter and Greenlight campaigns (for their Rite of Life game).

This includes an interview here, on the Indie Guardians website which also includes some nice concept artwork pictures from the upcoming game.

AIIP IV workshop abstract

I am the co-author for an extended abstract accepted at AIIP IV, which stands for the 4th International Workshop on Artificial Intelligence and Intellectual Property Law.

This is to take place on the 9th of December in Braga, Portugal (with the extended abstract to be presented titled "Human Aspects in Digital Rights Management: The Perspective of Content Developers").

SIGN Jagex afternoon at Portsmouth

SIGN (the Southern Independent Games Network initiative, that Bournemouth University is a part of) is organising a series of talks by Jagex at Portsmouth University on Wednesday the 2nd of December.

For more information on this event (which starts at 13:00) see here.

Develop magazine interview

Develop magazine published a short interview with me on the Bournemouth University games development courses. This is on the November 2015 issue (#166).

The short interview can be found on page 32.

SURE conference 2016

I am part of the organising committee for a great initiative called SURE 2016 (Showcasing Undergraduate Research Excellence). It is a conference for Bournemouth University undergraduate students who want to experience submitting a research paper to a dedicated conference.

More information can be found here, this is in fact the second year the event is running.

Unreal 4.10 released

Unreal 4.10 has been released this month from Epic; another update for the popular engine which offers further (new) refinements and additions, including support for Visual Studio 2015, various Android device gamepad support etc.

The full list of updates can be found here and is worth delving into for people working with the engine.

Iron Maiden promo video showing the history of games

The British band Iron Maiden recently released a promo video for a song off their latest album; this focuses on the history of computer games (with the twist of having their mascot character across that).

The song is called Speed of Light and the video is worth a watch for a different take on the history of gaming.