IRL

IRL Real Life Events from the industry

Pictured: The work-in-progress piece from the live stream (right) and the finished piece of work (above)

YANA

Saturday the 2nd of May saw the global gaming event You Are Not Alone (YANA) taking place. The 12 hour event hosted a number of charities and companies such as The Children’s Society, Ubisoft, Tencent, Barclays and CCP. The event was streamed live on Twitch, streaming games such as Minecraft and EVE Online (see page 18 for more on that).

ASSASSIN’S CREED VALHALLA REVEAL

With events a non-starter, Ubisoft found a creative way of revealing the setting for its next title. The new game, the viking-focused Assassin’s Creed Valhalla was gradually unveiled over an eight hour stream, with illustrator BossLogic (topical self portrait above) working live in Photoshop to create an incredible image. The artist has previously worked with the likes of Marvel and DC Comics.

GAMES FOR CARERS

The UK games industry has launched a major initiative to thank frontline NHS workers, who can claim one of 85,000 free games or game subscriptions. Originally conceived by journalist Chris Scullion and created with help from Keymailer, Ukie and numerous publishers. Head to https://giveaways.keymailer.co/nhs

DIGITAL DRAGONS INDIE CELEBRATION

From May 13th-15th, European gaming conference Digital Dragons hosted the livestreamed Indie Celebration, supported by Valve and running on Steam. The festival featured fifty of the year’s biggest indie games. The titles were showcased on a dedicated Steam homepage, with live demos and developer interviews in three packed days of livestreams. The event culminated on the last day with a virtual award ceremony recognising the top three games of the show, as well as the results of the judges’ and community-nominated awards.

RE-PLAY

In April, War Child UK hosted a Coronavirus charity appeal to support children affected by war and COVID-19. The charity raised money via a RE-PLAY Steam sale (which featured games from the likes of Double Fine, Chucklefish, Motion Twin and Raw Fury), alongside daily fundraising livestreams which dove into the games featured in the sale.