Games

Fleadh The Fleadh Cheoil (; meaning "festival of music") is an Irish music festival run by Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann (CCÉ), a non-profit organisation. The festival includes live music events as well as competition. Each year a single town or city ...

(Irish for "Games Festival"), is a 2-day mid-week convention held annually in LIT-Tipperary (formally Tipperary Institute) for computer games enthusiasts and developers to showcase their talent and programming skills. It is usually held in early March and is partially funded by LIT-Tipperary's Centre for Entertainment & Game Technology Research. Additional supporters include

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...

, EA, and

Demonware Demonware, Inc. is an Irish software development company and a subsidiary of Activision, a video game division of Activision Blizzard. Demonware's products enable games publishers to outsource their networking requirements, allowing them to con ...

History

Games Fleadh was originally a competition called RoboCode Ireland Challenge, which was an

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech re ...

programming language challenge for first year college students. Teams of students designed a robot that would compete against another colleges robot, and with the robot with the best algorithm receiving the Robocode Marshal title. As this competition grew, Games Fleadh was established as an overarching event. Games Fleadh started in 2008, by the festivals driving force Philip Bourke, a lecturer of Games Design and Development at LIT-Tipperary, when he saw no other strong festival for the growing Irish Games design industry. It started off small, with a small number of colleges being invited to participate. RoboCode is now an event inside the convention of Games Fleadh. Since 2014 Dr Liam Noonan a lecturer in the Limerick IT Campus has taken over coordination of this event and with the support of other third level Irish colleges, students every year design and develop games based around a theme.

Events

Competitions and Challenges

The challenge competitions are judged by 3rd party industry professionals. Previous Judges have been from

, EA, Havok,

Playfirst PlayFirst, Inc. is a Delaware based publisher of casual games founded in 2004 by industry veterans. PlayFirst produced the ''Diner Dash'' series, which won the 2008 Annual Casual Game Awards. and has seen over 550 million downloads. The popularit ...

, NeverMind Games, and OpenEmotion Studios. * Microsoft Game Studio Ireland Challenge – students are set a task of designing a game. This game is judged on game play and originality around a specific theme. * RoboCode Ireland Challenge – first years from different colleges and universities from around Ireland fight for supremacy over everyone with their robot.

Other Events

* GamesPro - a series of games and software developer panels that give small talks on a specific point from their prospective. *

Global Game Jam The Global Game Jam™️ (GGJ) is an annual distributed game jam. Inspired by the Nordic Game Jam, and created by Susan Gold, Ian Schreiber, Gorm Lai and Foaad Khosmood, originally developed under the International Game Developers Associatio ...

(GGJ) - a group challenge in which game developers build computer games in forty eight hours. * Games Fleadh:Evolved. * Games Fleadh:Expo - purported to include Ireland's first Digital Game Expo, the exhibit is expected to include indie developer titles. * Engineers Ireland Game Developer Awards - an awards show acknowledging the best games which are developed in Ireland.

Themes

Over the years there has been a number of different themes which typically revolve around the anniversary of a game. * 2018 Platformer *2017 Shoot 'Em Up *2016 Tower Defence * 2015 Endless runner * 2014 Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy * 2013-

Robot Tank ''Robot Tank'' is a 1983 video game for the Atari 2600 similar in design to Atari's '' Battlezone'' arcade game, and more so to its 2600 port. It was written by Alan Miller and published by Activision. Gameplay The player remotely controls a ...

* 2012–

Chopper Command ''Chopper Command'' is a horizontally scrolling shooter released by Activision for the Atari 2600 in June 1982. It was written by Bob Whitehead. Gameplay In ''Chopper Command'', the player controls a military helicopter in a desert scenario pr ...

. * 2011–

Frogger is a 1981 arcade action game developed by Konami and manufactured by Sega. In North America, it was released by Sega/Gremlin. The object of the game is to direct a series of frogs to their homes by crossing a busy road and a hazardous rive ...

. * 2010–

Pac-Man originally called ''Puck Man'' in Japan, is a 1980 maze action video game developed and released by Namco for arcades. In North America, the game was released by Midway Manufacturing as part of its licensing agreement with Namco America. Th ...

. * 2009–

Asteroids An asteroid is a minor planet of the inner Solar System. Sizes and shapes of asteroids vary significantly, ranging from 1-meter rocks to a dwarf planet almost 1000 km in diameter; they are rocky, metallic or icy bodies with no atmosphere. ...

. * 2008–

Space Invaders is a 1978 shoot 'em up arcade game developed by Tomohiro Nishikado. It was manufactured and sold by Taito in Japan, and licensed to the Midway division of Bally for overseas distribution. ''Space Invaders'' was the first fixed shooter and set ...

Honours list

Robocode Ireland Challenge Champions *

University of Limerick The University of Limerick (UL) ( ga, Ollscoil Luimnigh) is a Public university, public research university institution in Limerick, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Founded in 1972 as the National Institute for Higher Education, Limerick, it beca ...

(2016) *

(2015) *

(2014) *

National University of Ireland, Maynooth The National University of Ireland, Maynooth (NUIM; ga, Ollscoil na hÉireann Mhá Nuad), commonly known as Maynooth University (MU), is a constituent university of the National University of Ireland in Maynooth, County Kildare, Ireland. It w ...

(2013) *

Dundalk Institute of Technology Dundalk Institute of Technology (DkIT; ga, Institiúid Teicneolaíochta Dhún Dealgan) is an institute of technology, located in Dundalk, Ireland. Established as the Dundalk Regional Technical College, students were first enrolled in the coll ...

(2012) *

(2011) *

(2010) *

Trinity College Dublin , name_Latin = Collegium Sanctae et Individuae Trinitatis Reginae Elizabethae juxta Dublin , motto = ''Perpetuis futuris temporibus duraturam'' (Latin) , motto_lang = la , motto_English = It will last i ...

(2009) *

Griffith College Dublin Griffith College ( ga, Coláiste Uí Ghríofa) is one of the two largest, and one of the longest-established private, third level (higher education) colleges in Ireland. Overview Established in 1974, with four campuses in Dublin, Cork and Li ...

(2008) *

Dublin Institute of Technology Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT, ga, Institiúid Teicneolaíochta Bhaile Átha Cliath) was a major third-level institution in Dublin, Ireland. On 1 January 2019 DIT was dissolved and its functions were transferred to the Technological Un ...

(2007) *

Cork Institute of Technology Cork Institute of Technology (CIT; ga, Institiúid Teicneolaíochta Chorcaí) was an institute of technology, located in Cork, Ireland. Upon its dissolution, the institute had 17,000 students studying in art, business, engineering, music, dram ...

(2006) * LIT-Tipperary formally Tipperary Institute (2005) *

Waterford Institute of Technology The Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT; ga, Institiúid Teicneolaíochta Phort Láirge) was an institute of technology, located in Waterford, Ireland. The institute had six constituent schools and offered programmes in business, engineerin ...

(2004) XNA Game Studio Ireland Challenge/Game Studio Ireland Challenge *

Institute of Technology, Carlow The Institute of Technology, Carlow (IT Carlow; ga, Institiúid Teicneolaíochta Cheatharlach) was an institute of technology, located in Carlow, Ireland. The institute had campuses in Carlow, Wexford, and Wicklow, as well as a part-time pr ...

(2016) *

(2015) * LIT-Tipperary (2013) *

Queen's University, Belfast , mottoeng = For so much, what shall we give back? , top_free_label = , top_free = , top_free_label1 = , top_free1 = , top_free_label2 = , top_free2 = , established = , closed = , type = Public research university , parent = ...

(2012) *

(2011) *

National University of Ireland Galway The University of Galway ( ga, Ollscoil na Gaillimhe) is a public research university located in the city of Galway, Ireland. A tertiary education and research institution, the university was awarded the full five QS stars for excellence in 201 ...

(2010) *

(2009) DirectX Ireland Challenge Honours List: * LIT-Tipperary (2013) * LIT-Tipperary (2012) *

(2011)

References

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External links

Official site
Programming contests Video game development competitions Annual events in Ireland Recurring events established in 2008 Spring (season) events in the Republic of Ireland