Bradley Stoke residents of all ages are being invited to help design the town’s own fully-playable community video game during a 48-hour ‘game-jam’ at the Willow Brook Centre this weekend.
The ‘VGM-a-thon’ is being organised by the team behind Bradley Stoke Radio’s VGM Awesome show, broadcast weekly on Monday nights between 8pm and 10pm, which focuses on the music tracks used in commercial video games.
Anyone having an interest in video games or wishing to contribute ideas for the music, storyline or ‘level’ design of the Bradley Stoke community video game is invited to join in the fun anytime from 5pm on Friday 14th December until 5pm on Sunday 16th December.
Those unable to attend in person can still contribute ideas via the VGM Awesome Facebook page or by emailing vgmawesome@gmail.com.
Ideas submitted so far have included pets, local environments, original story lines, Samurais and even the Pope! The content submitted by the community can be as varied and as random as possible, which the organisers say is part of the charm of the community video game concept.
A pilot ‘VGM-a-thon’ event in 2011 designed a game that used the Willow Brook Centre as a game backdrop and featured a pet hamster in a storyline submitted by a 7-year-old Bradley Stoke school pupil.
Bradley Stoke Town Council is supporting the event with a community development grant of £300, which will be used for publicity and printing, food and refreshments for the project team and community volunteers, and legacy t-shirts, lanyards, posters and car stickers.
Matthew Walker, one of the presenters of the VGM Awesome show, said:
“We are very grateful to the Willow Brook Centre for supporting this community event. We will be based opposite Tesco and look forward to meeting many video game enthusiasts over the weekend.”
Related link: Media in Bradley Stoke (The Journal)
