Games In The Woods

Event Information

During the Urban Tree Festival we encourage you to create video games, interactive fiction, web comics, board games, escape games, card games – anything you want! The only constraints are time, the theme and your imagination. 

We will provide resources and tutorials about free online digital tools and platforms that can be used by jammers, these include Twine and Bitsy. Plus we encourage creative re-use of images from the British Library’s Flickr collection of digitised 19th century books, check out these online Flora and Fauna galleries. We will also provide a curated selection of wildlife and environmental sound recordings, which we will share via a SoundCloud playlist.

To join the jam and submit your game go to https://itch.io/jam/games-in-the-woods

Please use #gamesinthewoods on social media to share images and details of your work in progress, and follow the British Library’s Digital Scholarship blog, which will share, showcase and celebrate games created during the festival. 

Programme

Please join us for our online launch event on the 15th of May at 2pm where we will present the project and the team. The launch will be followed by two optional tutorials on Bitsy and Twine and will be an opportunity to learn how to use these tools and ask questions.

Sowing the seeds of inspiration - Presentation: 2-2.45pm

Treehouse tutorial Bitsy watch party - then live Q&A : 3pm-3.45pm

Treehouse tutorial Branching out with Twine watch party - then live Q&A: 4pm-4.45pm

Please use #gamesinthewoods on social media to share images and details of your work in progress, and follow the British Library’s Digital Scholarship blog, which will share, showcase and celebrate games created during the festival.

Before and during the Urban Tree Festival, game jammers can meet and chat with organisers and each other on our Discord Server: https://discord.gg/qWXH8NcjHE.

So please join and say hello on there!

On the last day of the festival, Sunday 23rd May, please join us for a show & tell event, for jammers to celebrate their creations.

Contributors

Stella Wisdom is a digital curator at the British Library, working mostly with Contemporary British Collections; including emerging formats, interactive fiction and comics. Stella is interested in digital creativity, innovation and collaborations.

Marion Tessier is development officer for events, digital and innovation in libraries in the ‎Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames. Marion is also co-founder of Story Circles, which creates different ways of experiencing stories both online and in the real world.  

Ash Green is a qualified librarian with over 20 years’ experience working in public and academic libraries. Ash writes music, makes games and digital stories. They are an experienced game jam organiser and participant.

Cheryl Tipp is the British Library’s Curator of Wildlife & Environmental Sounds. With a background in zoology and library services, Cheryl has spent the past 15 years looking after the library’s world- renowned collection of over 250,000 species and habitat recordings.