Tag Archives: SpecialEffect

Train2Game News: SpecialEffect Charity Football Match

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SE Football gameOn the 14th of April SpecialEffect has organised a celebrity charity football game in Oxford to raise funds for SpecialEffect and specifically for one of their amazing members, Charlotte.

A supporter of the activity has said he will donate £100 if we can get a 1000 views of the video at the bottom of this page, so please do spare one minute to watch.

Oxford United club legends, along with a few surprise guests, will be donning their boots to take on an all-star SpecialEffect team, to raise vital funds for SpecialEffect and the Charlotte Nott Trust Fund.

But that’s not all, both the captains places are up for grabs in an Ebay auction!

  • Bid for the Oxford United Legends captaincy or
  • Bid for the glory of leading the SpecialEffect Allstars

Bidding ends at around 3pm on 22 March.

Please bid generously as all funds raised will help Charlotte and SpecialEffect.

Tickets are available on the gate, but you can order them at the link below. Only £5 for adults and £2.50 for concessions, U5’s are free. If you can’t make the game but you’d still like to donate to this fantastic cause, to Special Effect’s Just Giving page or you can download the A4 poster and display it to swell the crowds!

You can see how SpecialEffect have helped young Charlotte in the video below, make sure to watch and help them get to that £100!

Train2Game News: Train2Game Student running for SpecialEffect

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Wahib Yousaf meets Miles Jacobson

Wahib on the right and Miles Jacobson in the middle

Train2Game student, Wahib Yousaf, is going to run for SpecialEffect in the British 10k in London this year. There is still time for you to sign up and join Wahib!

Wahib has been a Train2Game QA student since February 2012. Since joining the course Wahib has made sure to put himself out there and network as much as possible. He has a desire to make a real impact on the games industry and has decided the best way to start is to network with some of the games industry big hitters.

He also contributed to the ‘From Bedrooms To Billions’ IndieGogo campaign last year and one of the perks was an invitation by Creative Director of the ‘Football Manager’ series, Miles Jacobson, to come down to the S.I Games developers’ studio, meet their team and take part in a Q&A session. It was during this conversation that Miles Jacobson informed Wahib that he was a SpecialEffect ambassador.

On hearing about SpecialEffect, Wahib researched the charity and was moved by what he saw. Last December he made a sizeable donation and after reading about the SpecialEffect run on the Train2Game blog he saw another way in which he could help.

When asked why Wahib decided to run for the charity he said “It’s a Gaming Charity and I get to wear a costume! So, I have started doing 10K Training at my local Virgin-Active gym and endurance training every week for 30 minutes”

The costume that Wahib is so excited to be wearing during the run is his Assassin’s Creed 3 Connor Kenway CosPlay he wore previously to Excels’ Comic Con Expo last year. During the run Wahib will be running with the Flintock Musket and Tomahawk replicas that the character uses through the game.

If you want to run with Wahib and the SpecialEffect team you can still sign up by going to https://www.eventelephant.com/ee/events/pages/summary.htm?siteurl=specialeffect2013

You can watch a quick promotional video on the event below:

If you would like to sponsor Wahib and help him get to his goal of £200 you can do so by going to http://www.justgiving.com/wahib-yousaf

Train2Game wishes Wahib all the luck in running for SpecialEffect and hope he has a great time in doing it!

Train2Game News: SpecialEffect helps young Arlo

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SpecialEffect Train2Game’s friends at SpecialEffect have helped a give a young boy named Arlo the chance to play in a world where he is not impaired by his illness and giving him a chance to dream.

When Arlo’s friends came round, they’d end up playing outside with his brother but Arlo was not able to. He’s now overcoming his disabilities to take on his mates – and he’s winning!

Arlo’s just one of the many people whose lives the charity are transforming. Enabling him to play computer games, SpecialEffect are giving him the precious gift of inclusion with his friends and for a boy of seven, that means everything.

You can join SpecialEffect in changing more lives like Arlo’s by running at the British 10k or simply donate a few pounds to the charity.

Here’s a short video that shows how they’re making it possible.

Train2Game News: SpecialEffect 2013 Charity run

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specialeffect-runGaming charity SpecialEffect are gathering members of the UK games industry to enter the British 10K charity run, and inviting Train2Game students to join in.

The charity run will take place in London on 14 July so there is plenty of time to get in shape for the event if you are looking for a worthy goal to help shift those extra Christmas pounds!

SpecialEffect is facing growing demand for participants as this really event gets bigger and bigger, as such we would LOVE to beat the 75 runners it had in 2012 and get 100 participants taking over the streets of London! If you also wanted to make this event even more fun then do feel free to dress up as your favourite Video Game character to sprint through London in. You’ll be running with lots of representatives from the UK’s gaming industry and it’s a great chance to meet new people while taking part in a very positive event.

By committing to the event, all runners are asked for the registration price of £50 and to aim to raise £200 through sponsorship.

SpecialEffect is a very worthy cause to raise money for. Their goal is to help disabled people play video games through the development of specially made technology that make playing games easier for those who are less able or being treated for severe illnesses.

To find out more and to register for the event visit https://www.eventelephant.com/ee/events/pages/summary.htm?siteurl=specialeffect2013

You can enjoy the video of last years 10K run below

Train2Game News: SpecialEffect Charity video

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SpecialEffect Over the past few months I have been updating you with all the good work that SpecialEffect have been doing and trying to get their video up to 25,000 views.

SpecialEffect is a wonderful charity that helps the disabled to play games. This means that they can interact with other people and play together on a level playing ground.

The SpecialEffect website describes themselves as “Doing whatever it takes to help everyone with disabilities to have a better quality of life. For some, this means access to fun and leisure activities like computer games. For others, it’s giving them a voice at a time when they can’t even speak.”

SpecialEffect help people by using there loan library which is where all the specially made controllers are loaned to those in need. For example a specially created Wii mote for a girl who lost her limbs to Meningitis.

The charity also uses their StarGaze project to help people who can move nothing but their eyes. StarGaze is, perhaps, the most labour-intensive and demanding element of SpecialEffect’s work. A huge amount of care and sensitivity is required to ensure that the person we support has a gaze controlled computer system – as quickly as possible – that is personalised to meet their specific and often complex needs.

Dr Mick Donegan, the CEO of SpecialEffect said “Time after time, people with disabilities tell us what they want and need most is to find a way to enjoy themselves – a way to interact, compete and make new friends.

“It’s difficult or impossible for them to access mainstream videogames and leisure technology, and before we started there was nowhere to go for independent and expert advice and support to help them use technology to actually have fun!

“At the heart of the charity is the determination to do whatever it takes for as long as it takes to help each individual, and that necessitates a huge range of services. On the one hand, our GameBase website is giving information to many people who might need immediate specialist advice about accessible games and controllers. On the other, we have an increasing waiting list of very severely disabled individuals with complex problems that we know will take us years of support visits and equipment loans to achieve any level of success.

But that’s why we’re here. If the charity had been set up to support just one individual, it would have been more than worthwhile.”

The charity has been trying to get this video to 25,000 views by Christmas day. It isn’t far off so please keep watching and sharing the video as much as possible to spread the word of the amazing work SpecialEffect do.

Train2Game News: Art exhibition raises over £21,000 for SpecialEffect

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Death of the JokerTrain2game has been told that the London games festival Art Exhibition has raised over £21,000 as the auction enters the final stages.

The art exhibition was held to raise money for the charity, SpecialEffect who help many people with disabilities to be able to play their favourite games with their friends and family.

Some of the pieces of art that are on sale include the stunning Joker’s Death concept sketch from Batman: Arkham City, a fantastic New Super Mario Bros composite, and a huge signed Football Manager 2013 canvass.

As it stands at the moment it looks like the auctions are going to make over £25,000 for the charity which will help them to help more people to play games.

Kirsty Payne, event director of the London Games Festival where the exhibition is taking place said “The response has been overwhelming! The exhibition attracted a huge amount of interest whilst it was being held – but even we have been astonished by the amount people are pledging for these wonderful and rare pieces of art. We’ve just unveiled the final batch of exhibits to go under the hammer, so there’s just over a week left to win a stunning one-of-a-kind exhibit, make someone’s Christmas even more special – and donate to a wonderful charity.“

Mick Donegan, SpecialEffect CEO said “Our huge thanks go to Kirsty Payne, her team and every single artist and software house for making this wonderful idea a reality. It has made an amazing and instant impact on our work. Earlier today I saw a blog from a guy with muscular dystrophy we assessed near Liverpool just a couple of days ago: ‘…Just had a meeting with SpecialEffect fantastic charity – will make a huge difference in the quality of my life – need to raise the funds for my controller and some for others less fortunate…’ Well, this much-needed boost to SpecialEffect’s funds not only means we’ll be able to buy that special loan controller for Lee right now but also for the many of the others he talks about too. Just as important, we’ll be able to take on more specialist time to help with our essential assessment and support work, too. For the people that SpecialEffect help, both right now and into the future, there really couldn’t be a more welcome Christmas present!”

The London Games Festival art auction is running through until December 12 and you can check out some of the art by visiting www.londongamesart.com

You can continue to help SpecialEffect by watching and sharing the video below and help them reach their target of 25,000 views by Christmas day!

Train2Game News: SpecialEffect Charity Auction

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A new art exhibition is auctioning off game pictures for charity SpecialEffect. Everything on display at the London Game Festival exhibition is for sale.

Included in the initial batch are three signed pieces from Batman: Arkham City, two Fable 3 pieces signed by Peter Molyneux and the artists, a signed Metal Gear Solid ‘Raiden’ canvass, plus pieces from Tomb Raider, Dishonored, Moshi Monsters and Runescape.

The collection will be made available to bid on in four batches. The first batch is available now. The others will be put up for auction every Monday until 3rd December.

The auction is held online at www.londongamesart.com

Do remember to keep watching and sharing SpecialEffect’s video. They are well over half way to hitting the target of 25,000 views by christmas day. I know this can be done and it will really help spread the word of SpecialEffect!

Train2Game: SpecialEffect Case – Julian

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Julian is a young man with advanced muscular dystrophy and needs ventilation to help him to breathe. Helen & Douglas House in Oxford got in touch with us to ask if we could help him to be able to play games as he’s now only able to move his eyes and one of his fingers; he spends nearly all of his time in his care home in bed.

The SpecialEffect Team visited Julian to assess ways in which we could help him to use the computer to enhance his quality of life and the most important things to him were to be able to play games and to control the television. As soon as we’d raised sufficient funds to buy a loan eye-gaze system under our StarGaze+ project (as all others are already out on loan), we visited Julian again to set up the system for him. Marta had spent time researching the right games for Julian’s abilities and he can now use his system to control the television, play games, watch his favourite videos and play music.
Please do keep watching the video below and help them reach their goal of 25,000 views

Train2Game News: SpecialEffect Case – Chloe & Ella

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This weeks SpecialEffect case is a very special one. One of the young girls in the video is the daughter of the founder of SpecialEffect. The two girls use Kinect to play together, you can see how much fun they are having.

SpecialEffect has almost reached their goal of 25,000 views so lets keep watching and sharing to help them out!

Train2Game News: SpecialEffect Case – Charlotte

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SpecialEffect is still quite small but is doing incredible things. Below is a one minute video of the amazing Charlotte Nott, a 4 year old little girl that battled meningitis and who we have been able to help play with her family and friends again with a specialist Nintendo wii.

Please continue to help SpecialEffect by watching and sharing the video below. We need to get to 25,000 views by Christmas day! It has now reached over 10,000 views, keep up the good work.