Coolest Projects Uk

Our First Birthday

14/08/201914/08/2019
by Joshua Heng

The 14th August 2019 marked the first anniversary of Vanadium Games Ltd. Our company was incorporated last year, in 2018, and we have come a long way since then.

From releasing The Stacks on mobile to attending events such as Coolest Projects UK, our first year has been very productive.

Here are some of the key events that have taken place this year:

A timeline of the significant events of our first year

A Learning Journey

Throughout our first year, we have learnt many things and improved on our mistakes. We found motivation to be a hard factor to overcome, as well as the sheer amount of time making games takes – especially when also having to revise for various exams and school tests.

We found that we had to discard a couple of our games such as Tapping Tournament and Trolley Dash due to inadequate planning or a too complicated idea. This led us to put a lot more effort and work into the critical planning stage, so we didn’t end up spending too much time on games which would never make it into the beta stage.

Nevertheless, all of us at Vanadium Games have also improved various skills including teamwork, communication and time management, all of which are important in day to day life.

What’s Next?

As you can see from our timeline, we have been working on games Kedian Interspace and Illumination for a while now. We hope to continue to develop these and hopefully release them soon.

Thanks for joining us on our journey, and if you haven’t already, follow us on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook or join our mailing list to receive the latest news.

Bimonthly Newsletter

March/April Newsletter

02/05/201902/05/2019
by Joshua Heng

Hi everyone,

In our second bimonthly newsletter, we cover the events of March and April. We underwent changes for our team and logo whilst also making significant progress on our games. We additionally attended an event at the beginning of March where we showcased The Stacks…

Team Changes

In April, another person joined the team – Owen. He’s been doing lots of work for the art of Kedian Interspace and has fitted into the group well.

Harry has temporarily left us as he has been very busy with other projects, but he will join again soon once he has a bit more free time.

We have also started a blog series where each member of the team introduces themselves. There is currently only one out for Josh, but other people will be releasing theirs soon.

Click here to visit Josh’s introduction

New Logo

The logo of Vanadium Games

We decided to create a new logo as we felt that our old one didn’t resemble us well. Morgan took the lead on the task, and we went through several versions before we finished on one that we all agreed on.

We eventually decided on one with a cog – representing game development – and two electrons, representing the element Vanadium.

Morgan wrote about the various stages of design here

The Vanadium Games team at Coolest Projects UK

The start of March saw us travelling to Manchester for an event called Coolest Projects UK. This was a convention of young people showcasing what they had made with technology, and we had many visitors to our stand.

This was a brilliant opportunity to gain new players of The Stacks. We printed leaflets and produced a slide-show narrating the story of its development.

We also met new people and were inspired by other projects. Whilst we didn’t read the prize for the ‘Coolest Project’, it was still a great and unforgettable experience.

We wrote a blog post about this event here

Kedian Interspace

Concept art for an alien from Kedian Interspace

Our game Kedian Interspace has had significant progress – we have been creating many sprites and developing game mechanics. On the 15th April, Josh and Morgan met up for the whole day to decide some key parts of Kedian Interspace such as the style of all the art and turret design.

Find out more about Vanadium Games Day

Illumination

We have also begun work on a new game called Illumination. It aims to be a minimalistic and simple game where the player has to create circuits to light up certain light bulbs. Some members of our team are working on this in addition as working on Kedian Interspace, which will take a while longer to finish and release.

Social Media

An image of our Instagram account

We have continued posting to our various social media accounts to market our games. We focus on Instagram, as we feel that that is where most of our target audience are active, where we now have over 400 followers

March and April have been eventful months with lots of changes being made. The next two months might see less work being done, with exams looming for many members of the team, however, we hope to still make progress on Kedian Interspace and Illumination.

See you next time!

Josh – Lead Game Developer

Blog

Coolest Projects 2019

04/03/201904/03/2019
by Morgan Gray

On Saturday 3rd March, Vanadium Games attended Coolest Projects 2019 at the Sharp Project in Manchester. This was a national event where young creators came together to exhibit their digital projects. The exhibition, which was open to the public, allowed creators to meet people similar to themselves, as well as show off their creations to many members of the public.

The Vanadium Games team at Coolest Projects UK

We presented our game The Stacks at this event which many people loved – it was fantastic showing people our creation and watching the smiles on their faces as the descended through the stacks. We updated our social media accounts throughout the day – especially Twitter – and received many likes and retweets, including one from Raspberry Pi.

A photo of our stand at Coolest Projects UK, showing The Stacks — Our stand at Coolest Projects UK

The event was hosted by Maddie Moat and Greg Foot, who presented two amazing presentations about science on Mt Everest in the highest lab in the world and how Lego bricks are made. It was really interesting to learn about how science isn’t all in laboratories: scientists have the opportunities to travel the world and sometimes even go beyond our small planet.

Attendees watching a presentation at Coolest Projects UK

Overall, the event was one to be remembered. We had a great time amongst the gathering of over 120 participants and 500 attendees and will take part again next year if we can. It was a great opportunity to showcase our work with like-minded people, whilst also inspiring us to continue our development of future games.

An image of the Coolest Projects logo

Blog

Preparing for Coolest Projects UK

24/02/201924/02/2019
by Joshua Heng

An image of 4 A6 leaflets advertising The Stacks — Some of our A6 leaflets advertising our game The Stacks

With only a week to go, we have been busy preparing for our stand at Coolest Projects UK in Manchester.

250 A6 leaflets have been printed to advertise The Stacks and a slideshow has been produced with images and details about the development of our mobile game.

What is Coolest Projects?

The logo of Coolest Projects 2019

Coolest Projects is a technology fair for young people which takes place every year. This is the second event in the UK, and we managed to not only obtain our own stand but also win a travel bursary. This year, it is taking place in The Sharp Project in Manchester, next week on Saturday 2nd March.

It consists of many young people who showcase their technological products and ideas. There is also a competition, where each project is judged against others in the same category. The whole event is open to the public from 10am to 3:30pm.

You can find out more at their website, coolestprojects.org

We’re getting excited for this opportunity to share The Stacks, so we will be posting lots on our social media accounts – Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. If you would like to keep updated, follow us on these platforms.

See you there!

Joshua Heng