Tag Archives: Charity

Train2Game News Games on Song

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Today, Games On Song, the UK games industry choir is proud to announce it will be returning to the stage for a LIVE Christmas carol concert, raising money for GamesAid.

Formed in 2012, the Games On Song choir is made up members of the games industry who volunteer their time and voices to sing and raise money for GamesAid; a UK based video games charity which acts as an umbrella to support a number of smaller charities who help disadvantaged and disabled children and young people.

·         To date, Games On Song has raised over £15,000 for GamesAid
·         This year, GamesAid raised a record breaking £564,000
·         8 charities were awarded £70,500, including Accuro, Action for Kids, The Clock Tower Sanctuary, Lifelites, MAPS, Safe @ Last, SpecialEffect, and Jigsaw 4 U

“We’re delighted to be once again performing to help continue the amazing work GamesAid does” said Ian Chambers, Musical Director of Games On Song. “Every year members of our industry aim to raise more money to give to more charities. We have choir members who have worked on some of video games’ most iconic franchises such as Tomb Raider, Sonic the Hedgehog, Assassin’s Creed, and Fallout, and they have once again generously given up their time to sing. The Christmas concert is fast becoming a very special event in the fundraising calendar.”

Featuring classic carols and Christmas songs with a video game twist, this year’s concert will be the biggest yet.

TICKETS ARE ON SALE NOW >> https://www.goldengiving.com/event/Games-on-Song-Concert priced £20 each (£10 for children under 10yrs).

Thanks to Target Media who have sponsored the rehearsal space, preparations for the big concert are well under way! There are some very seasonal sponsorship packages available now. To find out more contact gamesonsong@gmail.com

The Games On Song Christmas concert for GamesAid will be on:

WEDNESDAY 16th DECEMBER 2015 7:30pm UTC
St Stephen’s, Rosslyn Hill, London

Train2Game News GameAid raises huge funding

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UK games industry charity GamesAid has smashed its funding record for the eighth year in a row.

£564,000 has been raised by the UK games business over the last 12 months, an increase of 29 per cent over previous years. This money will be split between eight charities – more than ever before.

Accuro, Action for Kids, The Clock Tower Sanctuary, Lifelites, MAPS, Safe @ Last, SpecialEffect and Jigsaw 4 U have all received £70,500 each.

“2015 has been another incredible year for GamesAid” commented GamesAid Chair Emily Britt. “Once again we’ve raised more money, supported more charities and distributed bigger individual cheques than ever before.

She added: “Before I step down after my three year tenure as a Trustee at Christmas, I am happy to say that GamesAid has never been more supported, stronger and positioned to make a massive difference to the lives of kids and young people throughout the UK.  We’re now support the work of eight diverse children’s charities. I’d like encourage anyone involved in the video games industry to become a member today and see what we can achieve next year!”

“GamesAid only exists thanks to the energy, passion and fundraising efforts of the UK video games industry. Thank you so much for your support. You are simply amazing.”

GamesAid has raised £1.7m in its eight-year history.

GamesAid charity initiatives this year have included the Stand Up For GamesAid comedy night, the GamesAid Golf day, the Brighton Poker Night and a variety of Humble Bundle initiatives. Games industry members are welcome to join the charity for free by signing up at gamesaid.org.

Train2Game News HELP Real War is Not a Game

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Games are officially the new rock and roll as, two decades on from the iconic HELP album, game developers from across the globe are to pool their talents to create HELP: Real War is Not a Game, a unique compilation to raise funds for War Child
 
It was 20 years ago today… that Oasis, Blur, The Stone Roses, Paul Weller, Paul McCartney and many more got together to create HELP, the first in a series of award-winning albums, which raised more than £1.5m to fund War Child’s activities to protect children in the war-torn Balkans.

Now, two decades on, a star-studded line-up of game developers have announced their intention to follow in those musicians’ footsteps by uniting in a unique ‘studio game jam’ designed to help fund War Child’s ongoing activities in conflict-affected countries.

A traditional game jam is a gathering of game developers for the planning, design and creation of one or more games within a fixed time span. Game jams usually take place in a single location and last for a fixed period… normally between 24 and 72 hours. The HELP game jam will largely stick to those principles, but instead of having a fixed home it will take place in a variety of locations across the world and the teams involved will be allowed a total of six days to bring their creation from concept to completion, based on a brief provided by War Child.

The result of all of this international collaboration will be brought together as HELP: Real War is Not a Game, a compilation of games which will be made available to the general public to buy as a digital download early next year.
 
Studios which have already committed to participating include 343 Industries, A Brave Plan, Bossa Studios, Carbon Games, Creative Assembly, Curve Digital, Hardlight, Hinterland, Spilt Milk Studios, Sports Interactive, Team 17 and Torn Banner (who, between them, have sold well in excess of 100m games), with more announcements expected in the coming weeks. Major technology providers including Unreal, Gamemaker and Unity are also backing the project by providing their tools to the teams on a ‘no cost and royalty free’ basis.
 
“War Child’s work is amazing. It revolves around a simple premise… no child has started a war, so no child should be affected by one,” says Miles Jacobson, Studio Director at Sports Interactive and founder of the global games jam committee. “Whether it’s rehabilitating ex child soldiers in Democratic Republic of Congo, creating child helplines in Afghanistan, providing safe spaces for Syrian refugee children, or the work in so many other countries – wherever they are they make the world a better place for children forced to live with war. For so many studios to have got involved in this project at such an early stage is really humbling. I hope many more join the cause and get involved in something that will be fun, rewarding and make a huge difference in children’s lives across the world.”
 
“We’re incredibly excited about the launch of HELP: Real War is Not a Game. It’s been amazing to be part of this initiative which is set to raise vital funds for children whose lives have been torn apart by war,” says Rob Williams, Chief Executive Officer of War Child UK. “In the 20 years since the music industry came together to create the HELP album, we’ve seen new records for the numbers of children affected by conflict. Today, the gaming industry is changing the game, with exactly the kind of creative and collective response required to help War Child change more lives.”

The War Child games committee is Alex Chapman (Sheridans), Ciarán Brennan (Sports Interactive), Elisabeth Little (War Child), Imre Jelle (Bossa), John Clark (SEGA), Miles Jacobson (Sports Interactive), Rupert Loman (Gamer Network) and Stuart Saw (Twitch).

HELP: Real War is Not a Game will be released through Steam and other digital download platforms in late March 2016. For further information, keep an eye on http://www.warchild.org.uk/helpgame and War Child’s UK’s twitter, or email helpgame@warchild.org.uk .

War Child’s HELP campaign is seeking large-scale public support in the form of an online petition. For more information on the HELP campaign go to www.warchild.org.uk/help .

Train2Game News Talisman character funding SpecialEffect

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A new character for the million-unit selling Talisman PC and mobile game will be launched on June 10th thanks to a fantastic collaboration between Nomad Games and SpecialEffect, the charity which helps people with physical disabilities enjoy games.

The new Shaman character will be available as DLC from this week and is the result of a competition which Nomad Games launched earlier this year in conjunction with SpecialEffect. Fans of Talisman were invited to submit ideas for characters, with the winner voted by Nomad Games’ enthusiastic community.

US-based Graham Zaretsky was the winner of the fiercely-fought competition, with his ideas then brought to life by three artists and gamers supported by SpecialEffect, namely Amandeep Singh Heer, Ben Clark and Gareth Garratt. The three produced sketches and collages to develop the look and feel of The Shaman.

This week Zaretsky, plus Singh Heer, Clark and Garratt will see her brought to life in the game, with The Shaman available to download for £1.49, with revenue raised from the DLC going to SpecialEffect.

In addition, fans of the PC sku will be given the opportunity to choose what they pay for The Shaman character, with Nomad Games hopeful that its loyal community of Talisman fans will raise even more money for SpecialEffect.

“We’re delighted that The Shaman will finally be available for Talisman,” said Don Whiteford, MD of Nomad Games. “She’s a very special character, given that she’s been created jointly by the Talisman community and SpecialEffect.

“We are blown away by the work that SpecialEffect does to support people with disabilities to play games, and we’re honoured to lend our support to them in terms of raising awareness for this very special charity, but also to support them financially via sales of The Shaman.”

SpecialEffect’s Fund Raiser Nick Streeter added: “We can’t thank everyone at Nomad enough for this brilliantly original way of supporting our work, and for their team to involve some of the people we help in the design process was a magnificent gesture.

“All the staff at SpecialEffect are immensely excited about the launch of the Shaman, and the money raised will go straight into helping more people, whatever their physical disability, to benefit from the magic of video games.”

Graham Zaretsky, who won the competition earlier this year, offered: “I’m deeply honoured that The Shaman was selected to help raise money for SpecialEffect. I love the artwork and that it is exactly in the spirit of the character that I imagined. I hope that it helps raise a lot of money and awareness for the charity.”

Train2Game News GameBlast15 break last years record

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GameBlast, the UK’s largest charity video gaming marathon event, has raised over £120,000, smashing the £70k raised by last years’ fundraiser.

Gamers from across the world took on gaming marathons of up to 48 hours over the weekend of 20-22 February to raise money for gamers’ charity SpecialEffect, who help people with physical disabilities to experience the fun and inclusion of video games.

As well as the hundreds of individuals and teams that took part, over 50 games companies backed the event including GAME, Ginx, Twitch, Jagex, SEGA, Bossa, KING, Gamer Network, Frontier, Team17, Radiant Worlds, Fragers and Insert Coin.

Mick Donegan, SpecialEffect CEO, said, “We are genuinely blown away by the huge amount of support that we’ve had from gamers and the gaming industry all over the world. Everyone who contributed will make a massive difference, changing the lives of hundreds of people with disabilities who can only watch everyone else experience the many benefits of video games. A huge, heartfelt thank you from all the SpecialEffect team.”

Jagex, the developers and publishers of RuneScape were the biggest industry fundraiser. Their 24-hour marathon at their Cambridge offices raised £50,000.

The biggest individual total came from BBC Technology Correspondent and SpecialEffect VP Kate Russell, who raised £12,000

The dates for GameBlast16 are 26-28 February 2016

Donations for GameBlast can still be made at http://www.justgiving.com/gameblastlive

Train2Game News SpecialEffect raise money at Twickenham

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A fundraising lunch, with rugby legends Paul Wallace, Simon Shaw and Zinzan Brooke, raised £22,484 on the day through donations, raffles and auctions for the gamers’ charity, SpecialEffect.

The three former International players were the guests of honor at the inaugural Legends Lunch in aid of SpecialEffect, held at Twickenham Stadium last month, and they entertained an audience of 120 guests with tales of sporting and not-so-sporting experiences on and off the rugby field.

Paul (former Ireland International and British & Irish Lion), Simon (former England International and British & Irish Lion) and Zinzan (former All Black International) were delighted to be able to assist the charity which provides life changing support through the use of leisure technology, to enhance the quality of life for people with severe physical disabilities. 

“We’re honored that Paul, Simon and Zinzan have made such a difference to our fundraising,” said SpecialEffect Fundraiser Nick Streeter. “The money raised from this superb event will help us meet the growing demand for our specialist services including our video games loan library and our StarGaze project, that provides the loan and support of eye controlled technology to those that really need it “

Matt Hampson, a former England International and Patron of SpecialEffect, suffered a major spinal injury while training with England in 2005 and is the inspiration for the StarGaze project;

“When I regained consciousness I couldn’t move and I couldn’t speak – all I could do was move my eyes. It’s impossible to explain the fear, desperation and helplessness you feel when you are totally unable to communicate.”

“SpecialEffect were there for me with an eye-controlled computer that allowed me to speak using an artificial voice. I know first-hand the difference that SpecialEffect can make”

The event was organised by Limelight Interactive, and it is hoped to be an annual event.

Train2Game GameBlast15 exceeding previous years

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Donations to GameBlast, the UK’s biggest charity gaming marathon weekend, have already exceeded the £70,000 raised in the 2014 event.

Over £80,000 has already been pledged in online and offline donations, with more still to come. The final total will be announced at the beginning of March.

Last weekend saw thousands of gamers from across the world take on gaming marathons of up to 48 hours to raise money for gamers’ charity SpecialEffect, who help people with physical disabilities to be included in the gaming community.

Hundreds of individuals and teams across the world took part, and over 50 companies from the games industry backed the event including GAME, Ginx, Twitch, Jagex, SEGA, Bossa, KING, Bethesda, Gamer Network, Frontier, Team17, Radiant Worlds, Fragers and Insert Coin.

SpecialEffect’s own 24 hour livestream event, GameBlast LIVE, comfortably broke its £5k target. The event saw UKIE CEO and SpecialEffect vice President Jo Twist beat BBC technology presenter Kate Russell in an eye-controlled racing game challenge. Kate then played Elite Dangerous for 12 hours and raised £12k, including a £10K donation from BT.

Jagex ran a spectacular 24 hour livestream from their Cambridge HQ that attracted thousands of Twitch viewers, as did the streams from GAME and Ginx.

Nick Streeter, Fundraiser at SpecialEffect, said “We’ve been absolutely blown away by the generosity of the gaming community and the games industry. The money raised will change the lives of hundreds of people with disabilities who can only sit and watch everyone else experience the fun and inclusion of video games. A huge and heartfelt thank you to everyone who took part or donated from all the SpecialEffect team.”

Donations for GameBlast can still be made at http://www.justgiving.com/gameblastlive

Train2Game News Gamer for Life

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Gamers for Good a nonprofit, based in Los Angeles, CA releases charity book, Gamer for Life: A Fan Art Book for KKG on an Indiegogo campaign last week.

Gamer for Life is a Fan Art Tribute book. 283 game artists came together and donated 476 art pieces to be used in this campaign to raise funds for the fight against cancer.

Gamers for Good formed in 2012 for those who knew and loved Kevin Kanai Griffith (KKG), a Blizzard Diablo 3 artist, to bond together and take action to support his battle with ASPS cancer. Efforts soon spread across the globe and beyond those with personal connection to Kevin. Artists from Blizzard, Riot, Carbine, Activision, Microsoft, Ready at Dawn, GREE, Tencent, Turtle Rock and many more.

Gamer for Life consists of fan art from Kevin’s top 10 favorite games created by game artists from all around the world.

Unfortunately in Oct. 2014 KKG passed away, as the content for the book was completed.

A spokesperson for Gamers for good said “We decided Kevin would have wanted us to see this through, so we continued production on the book as tribute to him and as an opportunity to show off the great positivity that can come from Gamers in action. His legacy will continue on in the form of this book made by his friends and fellow game artists.”

Gamer for Life will only be available as a Thank you gift for donations to this campaign. It will not be for sale anywhere or be printed again. The proceeds of this campaign will be spilt between 2 cancer organizations, CureASPS.org and GameChanger.

We want this to be an opportunity for the Game Industry and Gamers to be a positive selfless force of service for others.

Campaign URL’s:
www.gamerforlife.org

http://www.kkgartbook.com

http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/gamer-for-life-kkg-fan-art-tribute-book/x/8270339

Train2Game News GameBlastLIVE Stream

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SpecialEffectGameBlastLIVE, a Children in Need style 24 livestream, will be anchoring SpecialEffect’s GameBlast gaming marathon event this weekend.

Streamed from the London headquarters of industry trade body UKIE, the show will feature interviews with top gaming figures, playthroughs of new game content, gaming merchandise giveaways and regular updates from the hundreds of teams across the world taking part in the charity fundraiser.

The livestream starts at 10am on Saturday and can be seen at http://www.twitch.tv/gameblastlive

Highlights of the stream include:

  • The Oliver brothers from SkySaga, who will be reflecting on 20 years in the industry before a gameplay session.
  • Kate Russell will be battling through hyperspace with some top Elite antics.
  • PocketGamer will be on the sofa talking and showing the best of mobile entertainment.
  • Team17 will be live from their headquarters, scrambling their way out of The Escapists.
  • The team from Bossa will be slicing through I Am Bread, before things get messy with Surgeon Simulator.
  • Go8Bit will be creating mayhem in the studio with gameshow and forfeit challenges.

GameBlast, the UK’s largest charity gaming marathon, swings into action on Friday with the aim of raising over £100,000 for gamer’s charity SpecialEffect.

The challenge event, which will run from 20-22 February, has attracted over 250 individuals and gaming teams from across the world. They’ll be running their own gaming marathons at times over the weekend – some up to 24 hours in length – and asking for online sponsorship to hit their fundraising targets.

Big names in the gaming industry are involved, including retail giant GAME, online games developer Jagex and global video streamers Twitch. In total over 50 companies from the industry are involved in various ways, from hosting their own 24 hour staff marathons to contributing to the prize giveaways.

The aim is to raise money for the work of SpecialEffect, who help people with physical disabilities to benefit from the fun, friendship and inclusion of video games.

For more details about GameBlast, see http://www.specialeffect.org.uk/gameblast

Train2Game News Jagex to host SpecialEffect for Gameblast

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Jagex Games Studio, creators and custodians of the fantasy MMORPG, RuneScape and the upcoming online multiplayer action game, Block N Load, is to lead the way in SpecialEffect’s upcoming GameBlast15 games marathon weekend.

The event, which takes place between 20th and 22nd February, launches a 24-hour gamer challenge to raise money and help enable individuals with physical disabilities play games.

During the inaugural GameBlast in 2014, the RuneScape and Ace of Spades: Battle Builder communities raised more than £48,000 for SpecialEffect, and more than 90,000 viewers watched Jagex’s livestream of gameplay, interviews, and real-world challenges. In addition to holding another marathon livestream from Jagex’s Cambridge headquarters, RuneScape players will also benefit from a double XP weekend.

“SpecialEffect is a cause that’s very close to our hearts at Jagex. We had a lot of fun last year with our livestream for GameBlast14, so it’s fantastic to get stuck in once again and get even more involved in GameBlast15,” said Phil Mansell, vice president of RuneScape. “We’re really looking forward to welcoming Mick and the SpecialEffect team to Jagex, as well as holding our own 24-hour marathon and double XP weekend, next month.”

David Solari, vice president of Block N Load, added “The Ace of Spades: Battle Builder community were really supportive during GameBlast14, so we can’t wait to see how the burgeoning Block N Load player base performs this year. We’re currently in the beta phase of development, so the 24-hour GameBlast marathon will really put the game through its paces ahead of its launch!”

“We were simply stunned by the amazing generosity of the Jagex community during last year’s GameBlast, and honoured that they’re gearing up for another 24 hours of activity in February,” said Dr Mick Donegan, founder and director of SpecialEffect. “Having such a major force in the gaming industry backing our work helping people with disabilities is a great boost, and I’m personally really looking forward to being at Jagex HQ during the event to be part of their GameBlast heroics.”

Hosting SpecialEffect and taking part in GameBlast15 is the first of a number of fundraising drives for planned by the Jagex throughout 2015. During 2014, the studio and its passionate RuneScape community raised more than $300,000 for good causes, including Oxfam and SpecialEffect. RuneScape was also the first games partner of United for Wildlife, and helped to raise awareness of the plight facing the world’s rhinos with a series of in-game quizzes and limited edition virtual pets.