Games: Get ahead, get Cat On Yer Head

While the town is still alive with culture, the Edinburgh Interactive Festival has packed up for another year.

Hobbyist indie developer and Sick Kids Save Point participant Richard Adams took in the public events last Saturday and found it a useful experience. His highlight was the interactive game Cat On Yer Head by Playniac, in which the audience became the game.

“I can’t recommend it highly enough” he said, adding that the public programme at the festival is a great way to learn for people interested in working in games, and that even non-gamers would find things to take away from it.

Richard is developing the game Invertical for the PC, and will release it via IndieCity next month.

All proceeds will go towards Edinburgh’s Sick Kids Hospital. Richard is also taking a unique approach to his own SKSP marathon - instead of playing games for 24 hours he’ll be making them.

“Anyone who donates can submit a game idea and I’ll try to take at least something from most people’s ideas,” he says.

You can find out more about his projects and sponsor him via his site oxygen-addict.co.uk.

Meanwhile the climax of Scotland’s biggest games competition Dare Protoplay saw disappointment for Edinburgh university student Jesse Hurtado. His team, Ideer, saw their game Colour Captain for iOS pipped at the post for prizes.

Winners of a BAFTA nomination include Starcrossed for Windows Phone 7 by Kind of a Big Deal, Pixel Story for PC by Loan Wolf Games, and Project Thanatos for PC and virtual reality headset by Raptor Games, which also won the audience award.

Johnny Minkley, BAFTA Games Committee member and Dare judge, says, “I’m hugely impressed with the standard of all the games on show and the professionalism and passion of all the Dare to be Digital teams.”

Look out for Colour Captain and all the winning games in the public domain soon. Details of their release will be found here.

Released tomorrow is Sleeping Dogs (18+, PC, PS3, Xbox360, £37.99), in which you play an undercover cop in modern open-world Hong Kong infiltrating the Triads.

This is the latest game in the True Crime series that was popular on the PS2, but with a ‘Hard Boiled’ lick of paint. Expect a GTA clone, then, with none of the cutting satire.

• Sign up for Sick Kids Save Point at www.sickkidssavepoint.org