Jobs: Internships at PLANE

PLANE (Pathways for Learning Anywhere, Anytime: A Network for Educators) is an initiative of the NSW Department of Education and Training to develop “a suite of on-line learning experiences” to help train teachers in innovative learning methods including games based learning.

To practise what they preach, they are working to develop a game that introduces teaches to game based learning, and they have approached me looking for artists and developers who might be interested in internships. They are particularly looking for people who can work with Unity and/or OpenSim. People who can contribute game design expertise would be particularly welcome.

They asked me to make some recommendations, so if you are interested let me know and I’ll pass on your details. The deadline is Dec 2.

Qantas Spirit of Youth Awards

This year the Qantas Spirit of Youth Awards includes a category for Interactive Gaming. The winner will receive a trip to SXSW in Texas USA plus a year’s mentorship from our friends at Soap Creative and $5000 cash.

This is an awesome opportunity for anyone looking to get into games. I’d encourage you all to apply.

Venture Incubator Space

Do you want to get serious about starting your own game company? Perhaps this is the place to start: UNSW CSE has just announced the establishment of a new Venture Incubator Space – “a subsidised-cost space available to approved UNSW students and alumni who wish to develop ideas into business models, products or services.”

Jobs: Smart Sparrow

Smart Sparrow is a start-up here at UNSW targetted at making games and simulations for online learning. They are looking for developers. The blurb is below.

If you’re interested, please contact Dror Ben-Naim at dror@smartsparrow.com.

Smart Sparrow is a venture capital backed start-up company recently spun out of, and co-located in, the School of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of New South Wales. We are a smart company with a world-class eLearning technology, looking for smart people. Joining an early start-up, you will enjoy competitive salary, stock options, great people, long hours and an inspiring atmosphere.

Platform Developer – you will join a small and dedicated development team to architect, implement, test and maintain a massively scalable, data intensive and visually rich web-based application. Selection Criteria: we want smart people with excellent communication skills. We want a minimum of 3 years web-development experience. You value your familiarity with Java, Python, MySQL, PhP and HTML. You must have a Computer Science or related background with strong software design and development skills and experience in object oriented programming and MVC design. It is important to be able to self manage and meet tight deadlines.

Game developer – Flash/ HTML5 – you will join our small and dynamic content team, developing custom eLearning solutions to meet client’s needs using HTML5 as well as Flash. Selection Criteria: we want smart people with a minimum of 3 years developing in HTML, Javascript, ActionScript 3, Flash and/or Flex with excellent coding skills. You should have a Computer Science or related background and experience in object oriented programming and MVC design. Experience in eLearning and instructional design is a plus as is good graphic design skills and an exposure to audio and video development tools. It is important to be able to self manage and meet tight deadlines. You will be dealing with customers and will require excellent communications skills.

Interactive Media Fund

The New South Wales government has just announced a new Interative Media Fund “to support NSW creative digital content, including electronic games and transmedia projects”. This is great news for the game development scene in NSW, and hopefully it will mean more jobs for graduates such as yourselves.

Jobs – Halfbrick Sydney

[UPDATE: There is now an add posting on Tsumea with more details.]

Halfbrick (the creators of Fruit Ninja) are opening a Sydney studio and are looking for new graduates to hire. According to Aidan Millot:

We are looking for Programmers, Artists and
Designers, so get students that would be graduating at end of the year
to send through application now, send them through to jobs@halfbrick.com
and cc me at amillott@halbrick.com get them to put in the subject
Application – Sydney – [Position]. So a programmer would write
“Application – Sydney – Programmer”.

It would be great for people to
send the applications through before 21st date as then I could put names
to faces and maybe do interviews if there is time.

Aidan will be visiting for the showcase on Oct 21.