Happy New Year everyone!

YoYo Games – what's been going on? While things have appeared quiet over the holiday season, plenty has been going on under the surface. YoYo are gearing up for a very, very busy next 6 months! We will be traveling to various events and giving talks, networking and tirelessly spreading the word on GameMaker developments. 

First up we are delighted to say we are involved with the Global Game Jam (GGJ) http://globalgamejam.org/ a 48hour event to take place worldwide on 27-29th January and YoYo Games are an official sponsor!

This will mark the fourth year of the event, which brings together students, hobbyists and professionals to team up and create complete, playable games over the course of a single weekend.

If you’re a jammer, here are a few easy steps to apply for a GGJ 2012 Jam Site:

1. First, make sure you have a GGJ account. If you have one from previous years, you can use that. Otherwise, create a new account.
2. Log in - to the GGJ website.
3. From the right column navigation menu, click on APPLY FOR: Jam Site 2012.
4. Fill out the form and submit.
5. You will be notified within a few days at the most of your approval, or if there are any problems with your application. They will arrange a phone conversation with the lead organizer. 

Please contact GGJ at http://globalgamejam.org/contact if you're having any problems! Follow the hashtag GGJ tweets on twitter #ggj12 #ggj #igda 

The next few months are going to involve lots of travelling and attending lots of forthcoming shows. Here's whats being planned..

YoYo Games team will hold meetings at Casual Connect in Hamburg in February 7-9^th 2012. The team will be there to talk about Gravemaker and show what’s going on with GameMaker Studio. Casual Connect is produced by the Casual Games Association and is the premiere event for the casual games industry bringing together the most talented and knowledgeable experts in the casual gaming field. http://europe.casualconnect.org/

Sandy will be flying out to sunny Barcelona soon to attend the Mobile World Congress at the end of February. http://www.mobileworldcongress.com/ is all about redefining mobile. Mobile World Congress 2012 will offer a glimpse into where mobile has the potential to go next. Lots of meet ups and crucial networking opportunties to find out which tech is going to be big in the next few years.

Of course YoYo Games already have plans in place this years Games Developer Conference in San Francisco in March. More indepth info to come on that next month... 

More to come on Gravemaker, GameMaker Studio and other games news in the pipeline :)

The YY Team

We’ve been watching closely the development of the Raspberry Pi which is tipped to capture the imaginations of a new generation with an “ultra-low-cost” computer the size of a credit card.

(we like the rather fetching Raspberry Pi stickers we got today)

The British-designed Pi is being heralded as the saviour of modern IT education in UK classrooms, one that will raise a new generation – equipping youngsters with the skills they need to survive in world hooked on web connected technologies. The Raspberry Pi's engineers want to give kids (and schools) some cheap and educational kit that won't break or turn into a nightmare to maintain.

So as a Friday teaser, here’s a sneak preview of what Scott has been working on: GameMaker running on a PC Linux (Fedora 15) under LXDE window manager.

Pretty cool huh!

Russell and Mark were at Droidcon last week in Amsterdam. Mark was sitting on the program committee alongside other distinguished Dutch peers. Russell was giving a talk on YoYo Games and the forthcoming release of GameMaker Studio. Droidcon covers everything for the Android platform for mobile devices, which is being developed by the Open Handset Alliance led by Google. So far they’ve held conferences in Berlin, London and in Brussels. It was a diverse mix of game makers, advertising agencies and software types all very interested in our ability to hit multiple platforms with one code base.   

GameMaker Studio is planned for release in Q1 of 2012 and we hope to bring some more news on this development during December. Meantime please sign up here so you don’t miss any news as and when it comes out - http://yoyogames.com/

We are so busy we need to welcome another addition to our expanding team at YoYo HQ! Introducing Gavin Smart whose role is as an Associate Producer, he’ll be tasked with updating different distribution channels, set up games for iOS, Android, Symbain, co-ordinating information and generally supporting production.

Gavin joins us from Rockstar North where he was working with the tools department, testing new features and updates for all of Rockstar’s in-house tools. Previous to this he was at Realtime Worlds where he was a Senior Tester, organising the daily test effort on APB: All Points Bulletin. As well as being an avid gamer Gavin likes to go Climbing, Snowboarding, Skateboarding and practice Shotokan Karate.

Gavin has expressed “I look forward to working with the team at YoYo and cannot wait to get stuck in helping to create some of the next big titles for Android and iOS devices”. Just what we like to hear!

Rick O’Shea set to Cannonball onto iOS and Android 22nd Nov!

We’re very excited to announce that YoYo Games’ latest title, Rick O’Shea, an innovative platform puzzler, will be released on the iOS and Android platforms on the 22nd November!

For a sneak preview, check out our Teaser video below!