Every December we invite the brightest and biggest brains from games studios in and around Brighton to join us at our annual Games Brains of Brighton quiz!
Now in its 5th year and with this highly prestigious trophy up for grabs (as well as a free round of drinks), the stakes were higher than ever…
But more import than kudos amongst games industry peers for the lucky winners (we’ll come to them in a minute) and more important than the coveted trophy is the real reason we get so many people down to Loading Bar on Brighton’s chilly seafront every December…
For the last 5 years, our Games Brains Brighton Christmas Quiz has been raising money for a very important charity – Special Effect.
Why we love Special Effect
Special Effect helps people with disabilities and illnesses to be able to enjoy video games, despite not having the physical ability to do so with standard gaming equipment. They do this by creating custom controllers for each individual – enabling them to enjoy and really get into gaming!
So far, their custom equipment has taken them from rejigging classic controllers for easier accessibility to building eye-control technology and chin-operated joysticks! Special Effect visit individuals to find out their unique needs and then go away and create technology that truly is personalised to them.
This amazing work levels the playing field by making games accessible to absolutely everybody and brings families and friends together. It has been found that the creation and use of such technology and devices has worked to aid therapy, rehabilitation, and confidence in such individuals.
Tom Donegan from Special Effect came along to this years Games Brains quiz (complete with a team to take part!) and said a few words about the work they do…
Thank you to Tom for coming down and teaching us about some of the lives Special Effect has changed! You can find out more about some of the lives they’ve changed here.
The teams A huge thanks to all the studios that came down this year to take part (Future Lab, MediaTonic, Creative Assembly, The Trailer Farm, Second Impact, Studio Gobo and Electric Square) and play alongside the Special Effect Ambassador team and our very own Skillsearch team.
The quiz
Our quiz masters this year were our very own Games Brains Joe and Sanson (check out Sanson’s latest hotlist blog!), who made great hosts as well as fair judges! (Just no one mention Mini Bosses!!)
The quiz consisted of six rounds…
Games x2
- The first and third rounds were both made up of ten games related questions
- This included questions about some very well-known games, as well as some more obscure ones…
Brighton
- The Brighton round included questions about Brighton pubs, Brighton roads and the i360
Music
- This round consisted of ten songs, each of which is from a game
- The songs were played to the teams for a few seconds, and they had to answer with which game the song was from!
Picture Round
- Possibly the most difficult round – this was made up of ten questions, each one featured a few emojis which depicted a specific game…
Here’s a couple of examples! Any guesses?!*
The Price is Right
- The final round was a classic game of The Price is Right!
- In the first part of this round, eight game titles were displayed one by one…
- For each game, the teams used their higher or lower arrows to indicate whether the size of the map on the game was bigger or smaller than the one before
- The second part saw the same format but with the question “how many bosses do you have to defeat in this game?”
- Teams had to answer with whether they thought there were more or less bosses than in the game revealed before… there may or may not have been a little bit of controversy here!
And the winner is…
Electric Square Brighton!!!
Congratulations to the Electric Square team, it was a well-deserved win!
Again, a big thank you to the guys from FuturLab, Mediatonic, Creative Assembly, The Trailer Farm, Second Impact and Studio Gobo for coming down too – time to start swotting up for next year!
Get your hands on the quiz
If you weren’t able to join us and would like to get your hands on the quiz to play at home or in your studio please email me for a copy! fs@skillsearch.com
*Picture 1 was Until Dawn and Picture 2 was Bioshock
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