Hyper Luminal Games

As the end of the year draws closer, we’d like to gather up all the amazing things 2023 brought to everyone at Hyper Luminal Games, all the events we visited or hosted so please enjoy our 2023 Events Round Up!

Alt text: A pink toned background patterned with lines. In the forefront the Arcadia Night logo is in bold lettering.

All the way back in February, one of our senior programmers hosted a talk at the Arcadia Festival, a local Dundee event that focuses on micro talks from game developers, makers and thinkers from across the industry. They hosted an experimental games exhibition and a performance by the wonderful Tinderbox Orchestra! You can catch up on the talks here or find out more about all the amazing Micro-talks from game developers, makers and thinkers from across the industry Here.
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Alt text: Pictured above are two game screens. The top screenshot contains the text “Sow in Debt” on a soft blue background. Under the title there's a very sad, crying white rabbit in a frame. The bottom screenshot is Roothless Wrecklamtion, a moody dark grey background with a big orange and green googly-eyed seed pod sitting on the left of a couple of mushrooms and trees.

Next, In February, we had two teams taking part in this year's Global Game Jam. The theme this year was ‘Roots’, and after a whole lot of pizza and rapid prototyping, they managed to pull together not one but two great little games that you can check out Sow in Debt and Roothless Wrecklamtion along with all the other great little games made all over the world Here.

*Alt text: Rob sits between two female-presenting speakers smiling and talking.*

March! Our Creative Director Rob Madden is up for our second talk this year at BAFTA Scotland’s Guru Live. He spoke on the ‘What’s your game plan?’ panel, discussing how to build an impressive portfolio and identify your training needs.

*Alt text: A light blue background with white writing “MCV/DEVELOP WOMEN IN GAMES AWARDS 2023”.*‍

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The ninth annual MCV Women in Games Awards also took place in March in London! Two of our amazing staff members were selected as finalists this year; Katy Wood (Senior 3D Artist) for Raising Star and Searra Leishman (UX/UI Design Manager) for Development Impact! Proud of all the women nominated!

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Alt text: Images of both Melissa and Marianne from Hyper Luminal sit on a blue gradient background. The logos for Game Dev London Expo, WASD, and London Dev Conference are lined up along the bottom of the image.

First trip out of Scotland for HLG this year took Melissa Cocker (Social Media and Community Coordinator) and Marianne Pritchard (QA Tester) to Game Dav London Expo, WASD and London Dev Conference for a whole lot of learning, networking and fun.
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*Alt text: Pictured is Becky and Lewis standing at either side of a TV displaying our multiplayer party-brawler Big Crown Showdown*

April had us showcasing at DeeCon! Becky Esplin (Junior QA Tester) and Lewis Thomson (Junior Programmer) showing off our title Big Crown Showdown at a local anime and gaming convention that runs in the University of Dundee every year. It's always great getting to play our games out in the wild We also hosted talks to a number of students and attendees throughout the day!

Alt text: Phoebe stands at a podium at Games Talks Live Dundee, delivering her talk to the room. On the screen behind her is a photo of her and a statue of The Incredible Hulk. She is imitating the flexed pose The Hulk is making. The text reads, 'Exercise = Happy Brain?'

Talk Four! This one was from Phoebe Anderson (Designer), who toured around with the Games Talk Live team, delivering an amazing talk all about Go Fish! and game design in unexpected places. You can catch up on it here.

*Alt text: Lewis, Neil, and Melissa stand for a photo with the Glasgow Caledonian student team.*

April we also got to see the final presentation for the brief we set for our student team from Glasgow Caledonian University! They showed us Awakened Acres, a cosy game where you grow sentient vegetable friends and learn spells. Amazing work again!

*Alt text: Judy And Jason stand next to their picked winner of the HLG Award for Innovation in Character Design - Dasa Falisova*

Judy Vernon (Senior Character Artist) and Jason Harris (Senior Concept Artist) got to award the Hyper Luminal Games Award for Innovation in Character Design and Representation to Dasa Falisova. The AbertayUni Digital Grad Showcase had more than 100 innovative honours projects showcased at the public event.

*Alt text: Melissa stands on stage, delivering a talk. They are in a white shirt and black jeans.*

Talk five in June! Melissa Cocker, our Social Media and Community Coordinator, headed down to Liverpool with Game Talk Live’s first venture south of the border. They spoke about collaborative working inspirational conversations with peers and launching those dialogues into great social media content.

*Alt text: Katy is standing in front of a very colourful screen displaying the BAFTA Young Designers Showcase 2023. Katy is in a striped jumpsuit.*

July comes around and ticks us up to talk 6 as our Senior 3D Artist Katy Wood arrives in London to attend the BAFTA Young Game Designer Showcase, leading roundtable discussions with the finalists to help give them insights into working in the industry as well as being a juror for this year's Game Making 10-14 category.

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*Alt text: Rob stand in front of a group of sitting student pointing at a presentation screen and talking to the group.*

Rob Madden (Creative Director) and Stuart Martin (CEO) made a visit to the Dare Academy Students in July, rounding off the first week of hot housing and gave a couple of talks about their 6 top tips for people prototyping a game and taking part in Dare.

*Alt text: A stage with 2 seats, a wooden podium with the Develop logo projected onto the wall all under a purple light*

Mid-July brought Stuart (CEO), Searra (UX/UI Design Manager) and Melissa (Social Media and Community Coordinator) to Develop in Brighton; they attended a number of wonderful talks and celebrated both Stuart’s nomination for Business Development and Searra’s nomination as Progression Advocate at the Game Dev Heroes Awards.

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Alt text: Summers day with all the HLG team spread out over a crazy golf course

Hyper Luminal Games turned 9 this year and we celebrated in style by bringing the whole team together to play a round of crazy golf and eat some great food. You can read more about our birthday here.
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Alt text: A group of the team in white tops with the HLG and Glasgow Children’s Hospital; Charity stand in front of the colourful KiltWalk starting line. At the bottom, you can also see a number of the company dogs.

In August we brought out the walking shoes for the Dundee Kiltwalk. We were this year's medal sponsors and supported our chosen charity, Glasgow Children’s Hospital Charity with 70 walkers.
We raised an outstanding £5850 for their Games For The Weans campaign, read more here.
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*Alt text: Melissa, Stuart, Rob, Sean, and Phil pose for a group photo with a large statue of Sonic the Hedgehog outside the UKIE booth.*

In August, we also flew out to visit Cologne for GamesCom. It was a lot of meetings and talking about all the incredible work our team provides, including co-development, QA testing, console porting, and UX/UI Design! Find out all about what we can over here.
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Alt text: Melissa stood talking with a female presenting person. Melissa is listening and smiling while the person on the right is talking and gesturing with their hand. The United By Games logo is in the bottom left.

October is here, and Melissa Cocker and Becca O’Sullivan are back in London visiting for United by Games to participate in panels, fireside chats and networking with a whole lot of amazing community professionals from all over! Find out more about the event and others that Analog Events hosts here.
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*Alt text: The Pine Hearts EGX booth. Four monitors are set up with the game displayed. On the far right set up is the accessibility hardware.*

The following week we’re in London once again for EGX, this time with a great booth in the Indie space showing off the Pine Hearts Demo, which got such a great reception!

*Alt text: From left to right; Brodie, Phoebe, Searra, and Melissa all dressed up they pose together in front of the Scottish Games Awards stage covered in a purple/pink light.*

The start of November and Scottish Games Week has kicked off! We headed to Glasgow where we hosted roundtables, demoed Pine Hearts and celebrated our amazing nominees for Raising Star: Brodie Templeton (Programmer), Phoebe Anderson (Designer), Melissa Cocker (Social Media and Community Coordinator) AND our Diversity Champion winner Searra Leishman! (UX/UI Design Manager). You can read all about Scottish Games Week and the awards here.
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*Alt text: On stage Phoebe (left) and Katy (right) stand under pink lights in front of the MCV/Develop 30 under 30 awards holding their certificates.*

Mid-November and more amazing news as two of our colleagues, Phoebe Anderson (Designer) and Katy Wood (Senior 3D Artist), travelled to London to celebrate being included in MCV’s 30 Under 30 list for 2023, where the best and brightest young talent get recognised each year. You can see all the amazing developers included in this years list here.
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Alt text: 70+ members of Hyper Luminal Games gather together for a photo in front of a large white screen. In front of them are two tables littered with mugs and craft supplies. Each member of the team is holding a canvas with a hand-drawn coat of arms on it.

December and as the year comes to a close we gather all the team to celebrate the busy year together and get into the festive spirit.

It has been an eventful year for everyone at Hyper Luminal Games, and this huge list doesn’t even cover all the amazing projects, showcases, or achievements everyone in the team has taken part in, never mind the launch of Little Nook and Hyper Luminal Experience Design.
From everyone in the team, have a great holiday break, and here's to continuing Making Games Better in 2024!

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Events Round Up 2023!

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