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Bitsy Games Design at Spartans STEM Youth Club

Thanks so much to Spartans STEM Youth Club for welcoming Luci and Ewan along to make a game in Bitsy – we had the most amazing & creative time with everyone!

 

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Check out the game they made here, called ‘Welcome to the Moon‘:

A map collaboratively decided on by the group, so we had a plan for the game!
A map collaboratively decided on by the group, so we had a plan for the game!

And check out this lovely message from Spartans:

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Glacial Narratives Youth Project

In early 2023 we worked with artist Mary Walters to get young people involved in her incredible Glacial Narratives art exhibition about ice which she co-created with artists Elizabeth Bourne and Adam Sébire. What emerged was an astonishing sample set of dance music made from field recordings of sounds of ice.

The starting point of our part of the project was that Mary had become inspired by some very interesting audio field recordings from inside glaciers that had been donated by Peter Nienow from sounds from the international cryosphere community. Mary thought the sounds were so interesting in terms of texture and interest and she wondered if they could somehow be turned into dance music. Cue Andra Black, music production Tutor at Tinderbox. He took the sounds and worked with them to produce an interactive sample set of dance music samples that young people could use to create their own dance music tracks. Andra ran the workshop with young people from community groups all across Edinburgh which culminated in a workshop at Custom House as part of the Glacial Narratives exhibition.

Ice sounds track –

The final workshop also included brilliant interactive projection mapping workshop that was designed and led by the wonderful Mettje Hunneman. Young people were able to project messages and images about the climate emergency on to a sculpture of an iceberg while creating dance music using the ice sounds sample set. It felt like a cross between a nightclub, a protest and an art gallery!

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North Edinburgh Local Legends – Music & Games Jam

Over the summer, we piloted a new, collaborative project between the Tinderbox community music and games team, focussing on local legends from the North Edinburgh and Leith areas. Working from Drylaw Neighbourhood Centre, 9 participants collaborated on creating new music and a video game, brainstorming who their local inspirations were, and what inspires them about their local area. We developed mind maps of local inspiration, and a physical map of North Edinburgh & Leith. 
 
We finished off the week with a showcase at the Tinderbox Lab/Wee Hub at Ocean Terminal on the final day of the project, joined by family and friends, where the music team performed Shells of the North against the It Grows game as an interactive visual backdrop to the music, rounding off the day with a brilliant open mic.
Play the game 'It Grows' here!
Play the game ‘It Grows’ here!
The music team creating brand new song "Shells of the North"!
The music team creating brand new song “Shells of the North”!
The games team creating brand new game "It Grows"!
The games team creating brand new game “It Grows”!
Nicola in front of the 'It Grows' game, with song lyrics for 'Shells of the North'!
Nicola in front of the ‘It Grows’ game, with song lyrics for ‘Shells of the North’!

About the Music

From this, young people who wanted to focus on music split off into groups, including music production, melody and lyric-writing, and chord sequences. We all worked off similar themes: Granton Harbour, West Pilton, Ice Cream, Gardening, Skate Parks and Home, to build a beat, chords, and develop melodic and lyrical ideas. We also had a young person develop a rap section for the song.
 
The song: Shells of the North, was written with the idea that young people’s shell collections grow over time collected from Granton Harbour, representative of their memories and growing up in North Edinburgh. This was nicely tied into the games-design of: It Grows, inspired by community gardeners, like those at Drylaw Neighbourhood Centre. 
 
As the game took shape, the music team practiced a performance of Shells of the North, ready for a showcase at the Tinderbox Lab, at Ocean Terminal on the final day of the project. Invited family and friends attended, and we piloted the projection of the interactive game, It Grows, behind a live performance of Shells of the North. Young people finished the day with a brilliant open mic.
Getting ready for the final showcase!
Getting ready for the final showcase!
Showing off the game!
Showing off the game!
Building 3D models for our game!
Building 3D models for our game!

About the Game

The games team during the summer project worked together to come up with a game that could be played alongside the composition of the songwriting team – a backdrop for the music that would function almost like an interactive music video. 
 
We had a wee games design team working on the game itself, and we decided it’d be cool to make a game where you take care of a plant, helping it to grow. This was partly inspired by talking about local gardening communities, and we tied this into the theme of North Edinburgh by putting the plant by a window, and on each scene we see a different backdrop of North Edinburgh… As if you are living in the city, taking care of your home. 
 
It was such a cool little game, and everyone involved put so much effort focus and concentration into the making of it! With only two days to put to put it all together too! They did such a great job.
 
Here’s a wee insight into how we did it… 
  • We began by brainstorming a few ideas, with the connecting theme being Edinburgh, Local Legends, Green, and Nature! 
  • Once we settled on an idea we all quite liked, we made a storyboard so we could see how we all thought the game should look.
  • We compared all those ideas, found the connections between them all, and grasped a shared sense of what the game will be. 
  • We then wrote up a big list of Assets (these are items that will make up the game, like characters, objects and backgrounds), contemplating all the possible things we will need for the game… And then we got to work designing them! 
  • We opened up Construct 3 and Pixelart and started creating all our assets and getting them into the game engine (which brings all the assets together into a working game)! We also kept in touch with our songwriters, to ensure we were all heading in the same direction and all happy with the content
You can hear the song and play the game here!

With thanks to

Our friends at Drylaw Neighbourhood Centre and The Wee Hub, family & friends, and everyone who took part!
Play the game 'It Grows' here!
Play the game ‘It Grows’ here!
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Designing an Escape Room with Granton Youth!

Over a few months, Doska from Tinderbox has been collaborating with young people from Granton Youth to explore the concept of escape rooms and how they work. Our goal was to create an escape room inspired by the history of North Edinburgh, to take to North Edinburgh Community Festival on Sat 11th May!

At one of the Granton Youth escape room workshops, we visited Granton Hub and met with Tamsin, who showed us the Hub archives. We looked through old photos, newspapers, and historical records. A few stories from these archives became the starting point for our escape room.

We discovered which buildings and landmarks still stand today, like the shop Jubilee. We learned about the history of trains that transported goods from Africa, which sometimes had unexpected travellers – tortoises that later found homes with families in Granton. We also discovered that the Granton Hub was once home to Modelvic, the oldest purpose-built car factory in the UK!

One particularly fascinating story we uncovered was about the Otter Boat, which highlighted more recent events in Granton that connect to its past. In 2022 Granton Community Garden & Madelvic History Group, in collaboration with The School of Ancient Crafts, Edinburgh, recreated a 9m Iron-Age log boat using traditional ancient tools!

The group decided to base their escape room theme on these stories, especially focusing on the tortoises and the Otter Boat. The theme was “Journey into the Past,” where participants are transported back in time and must solve a mystery to return to the present.

During our time at Granton Youth, we brainstormed ideas and tested puzzles, which led to an incredible showcase of our escape room at the North Edinburgh Community Festival! The competition was fierce, with 18 teams taking on the challenge to solve the Granton mystery!

This project has undoubtedly left a lasting impact and we hope may even become part of the Granton Hub archives.

A big thanks to the Granton Youth team and Doska for a fantastic collaboration!

Granton Youth researching the history of the area at Granton Hub Archives
Granton Youth researching the history of the area at Granton Hub Archives
Tinderbox team playing the final escape room at NECF 2024!
Tinderbox team playing the final escape room at NECF 2024!
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Games Club 4/5/2024

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North Edinburgh Community Festival 2024

North Edinburgh Community Festival is a free, family friendly festival that has happened for the last 3 years in West Pilton Park. There are loads of activities, stalls, live music, workshops, food, parade, sports, jobs, skills and learning. Tinderbox have led on organising the music for the festival since it started and have also sat on the steering committee since the beginning. The festival has now grown to having around 10k attendees! 

This year over 600 young people from across North Edinburgh have taken part in the Tinderbox Garage Band Challenge, creating their own new music for the event. The winners will be performing their original tracks on the main stage at the festival. 

We had more than 30 acts playing over the afternoon including over 160 performers, almost all of them from the local neighbourhood. On the outdoor stage, highlights include the incredible Fischy Music, Ama-zing Harmonies Choir, Heritage Of India Through Dance and Edinburgh Ukrainian choir. 

On the indoor stage we had an exciting lineup of youth bands who are part of ‘North By North West’ a collaboration project between 5 youth music organisations across North Edinburgh the aim is to get the very best emerging talent out onto the Edinburgh music scene. From the slick electronic pop of Muirhouse local (and BBC Introducing alumni) Laurent, Granton rapper Leon Highway, or the pop-rock stylings of Drenched in Dreams – we had something to suit all tastes. Amazing youth artists A420, Kieran Crosbie, Mezari, and Trisha Muco finished out the festival in collaboration with players from Tinderbox Orchestra.

The Tinderbox Games Showcase, an exhibition of playable games made by young game designers of all ages from North Edinburgh was happening in the Sports Hall at West Pilton Neighbourhood Centre. These will were featured alongside an exciting new escape room made in collaboration with young people from Granton Youth, which drew inspiration from trips to the Granton Hub archives and the area’s rich history, as well as a selection of games made by previous winners of the East Lothian Game Jam. There were a mix of digital, physical and table-top games made by the next up-and-coming generation of game designers and creators from the neighbourhood.

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Uummannaq Polar Institute Collaboration and Visit

UPI Visit 2024

Over the past 6 months we have been collaborating with our friends from the Uummannaq Polar Institute and Uummannaq Children’s Home in Greenland, sharing stories, artwork, and music to create a series of games (digital and physical) inspired by ice and its community, cultural and environmental significance.

Beginning with video calls with lead artist Melanie Frances and the children at the home, we shared games, music, songs and stories about our lives in Scotland & Greenland. Ideas for the games were then gradually developed and shared between the young people from UPI in Greenland and Tinderbox Collective youth groups in Scotland as part of our weekly Saturday morning Games Club. Together over the project we have created 8 digital and card games, which includes a playable version of a comic that UPI young people had already created, called AARNUAQ: the Amulet, originally made in collaboration with Kim Wendt & Søren Alfred Olsen.
 
In March 2024 the creative exchange led to a group from UPI visiting us in Edinburgh, Scotland during Arctic Summit Science Week, where we spent the week celebrating the games made, playing lots of music together (including impromptu busking with a bagpiper on the Royal Mile), hosted a film screening of INUK (a feature length film created by the group with filmmaker Mike Magidson, based on the true facts and philosophy of the Uummannaq Children’s Home), and spent time together sharing stories and ideas.
 
Overall it was a jampacked and inspiring week that also included an astonishing number of performances from UPI at:
  • Tinderbox Games Club end of term showcase and two Arctic Science Summit Week events, at the Arts Plenary and Science Day
  • A Tinderbox orchestra rehearsal, and the Tinderbox Tuesday Hub end of term concert
  • The INUK film screening at Leith Depot
  • Seamab school
  • Newhaven choir
  • Many other informal music sessions and hang outs!
Through the incredible work of UPI, led by Ann Andreasen, we’ve been invited to understand and experience indigenous musical practices from Greenland, and through discussions and presentations learn more about indigenous Greenlandic approaches to food, craft, travel and life. All of UPI’s work is about mixing and embracing modern approaches with older Greenlandic approaches and values, and we’ve been fortunate enough to see and experience this across our collaboration. We spent a wonderful week together sharing practice, history and stories.

With huge thanks to Scottish Government Arctic Connections for funding and supporting the project, Arctic Summit Science Week, artist Mary Walters for connecting us with the group, and to the UPI team.
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Tinderbox Orchestra & Loud Poets present Outwith Words – Sat 30th March

We are very excited to announce our collaborative performance alongside the Loud Poets on Sat 30th March at Central Hall, Edinburgh.

Tickets available here: http://www.ticketsource.co.uk/tinderbox-collective/tinderbox-orchestra-and-loud-poets-present-outwith-words/

This gig serves as the culmination of a 10 week collaborative process between an expanded 45 piece Tinderbox Orchestra, The Loud Poets, as well as featured performers Hannah McCooke, RJ Hunter, and ACE V!S!ON.

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Ice Games: an international creative collaboration with Uummannaq Polar Institute!

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Ice Games: a collaboration between Tinderbox Collective and Uummannaq Polar Institute 

We’re so excited to be part of one of nine projects set to receive funding from the Scottish Government as part of the third annual round of the Arctic Connections Fund.

We’re collaborating with our friends at the Uummannaq Polar Institute in Uummannaq, Greenland to create some games inspired by ice & icy landscapes. Our collaboration started back in August, and so far we’ve been getting to know each other through skype calls and exchanging creative work. 

We’ve shared some of our Tinderbox Games Club games for young people in Uummannaq to play, as well as introducing them to some of our fave game-making tools (Interactive storytelling tool Twine, and pixel game maker Bitsy). 

Amulet

We’ve read their incredible comic: AARNUAQ – THE AMULET, which was created by children from The Children’s Home in Uummannaq with Kim Wendt & Søren Alfred Olsen. It tells the story of Albert, a young orphaned man who lives as a hunter in Greenland, and we’ve started to work together to make the comic into an interactive game! It’s been great fun seeing the comic come to life, and collaborating with the children in Uummannaq to explore how to make their comic world interactive. 

In our Hybrid Games Club we’ve started to explore ice as a theme, setting two games on an icy planet Neptune: a platformer game where you play as a melting ice block, and a survival card game about Penguins. 

We’re SO excited for collaborations & conversations to continue over the coming months, and looking forward to hosting a group from Uummannaq with us in Edinburgh in March next year!  

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The Arctic Connections Fund was set up in 2021 to help Scottish organisations and communities work with partners in the Arctic. It is designed to promote the exchange of expertise on shared issues and raise awareness of common ambitions.

Scotland’s External Affairs Secretary Angus Robertson said: 

“Scotland is one of the Arctic’s closest neighbours; we share many outlooks and characteristics. That’s why we continue to promote Scotland as the international partner of choice for our Arctic neighbours, opening new opportunities for bilateral and multilateral collaboration for mutual benefit. 

“The Arctic Connections Fund supports knowledge exchange and cooperation between Scotland-based organisations and their Arctic counterparts while also encouraging future opportunities for collaboration.”

Find out more about Scottish Government’s Arctic Connections Fund projects here:

https://twitter.com/ScotGovInter/status/1701179516914155538

https://www.gov.scot/publications/arctic-connections-fund-successful-projects-2023-to-2024/

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Pop-up Games Workshops at Citadel

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The folk down at Citadel Youth Centre are putting together a game that crosses over the themes of Mental Health and the Cost of Living. These themes were chosen by the young people, as issues that they want to discuss with their communities – exploring their thoughts, feelings, and opinions on the matters through the medium of Game Design. 
 
Liam and Luci from the The Tinderbox Games Club team dropped in to two of their sessions on Monday evenings over Sept/Oct, to hear their ideas and help them manifest those through game design! By providing introductory workshops for different platforms such as Twine, Bitsy, & Construct 3, the Citadel gang have been left with the tools to take on their ideas in new ways, and explore them further. 
 
Citadel Youth Centre are planning to bring their game to future exhibitions, including Tinderbox showcases that celebrate games completed or in development by game designers and young people across our projects and beyond! 
 
The Citadel Youth Centre are a fantastic bunch! A really mature, creative, enthusiastic and thoughtful group of young people and we are all really excited to see how their game ideas develop.
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Pop-up Games Workshop at YMCA

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On Tuesday 19th October, Mel and Andra from Produced Moon went along to YMCA to deliver a game workshop. The workshop was part of the Tinderbox Lab youth programme of games & creative tech workshops, currently running as a Scotland wide game jam which anyone can submit their game to. 

We met and created with nine young game designers, exploring VR, music making and digital game creation. We played a fishing game, painted scenes in 360, threw around our oddballs to create some music, and made some pixel art games in bitsy.   

Games ranged from an impossible escape room to a game lost in a smiley face. We loved being there, making and playing together, and big thanks to YMCA for hosting us! 

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Hybrid Games Club Sept-Dec 2023
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Games Club Autumn Term!

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PlayAway Pop-up Games Workshops – at The Wee Hub

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Thank you so much to the games designers who’ve joined us at our Pop-up Games Jams at The Wee Hub.

Over just a few hours, we’ve made a mix of board, card, and digital games! We absolutely loved all of the creativity and unique ideas. 

We’re pleased to say we have another free drop-in games-making workshop coming up on Sunday 3rd September at The Wee Hub.  

Find out more and sign-up here, or get in touch with us at lab@tinderboxcollective.org with any questions!

PlayAway Games Jam 14 Aug
PlayAway Launch Games Jam 3 Sept
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Room to Play at Hidden Door and Inspace

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The latest Room to Play exhibition has had a couple of excellent outings over the past couple months!

A big thank you to both Hidden Door and Inspace who in June & July both hosted this amazing interactive audiovisual installation, designed by 12 artists from a range of disciplines including musicians, sound designers, visual & projection artists, filmmakers, lighting designers, and performance artists.

You can watch some films about the project here and here too!

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Over several months the group came together to experiment with technology in their creative approaches to celebrate the power of play, and collaborate on a new audiovisual exhibition of playful, nature-inspired sculptures.

The installation is a playful meadow of responsive sound-making sculptures, that uses recycled and upcycled materials as the structural foundation of the work. The installation aims to evoke a sense of wonder, curiosity, and respect for the natural world, and invites us to reflect on our relationship with nature, the impact of our actions on the environment, and the urgent need to protect and preserve it.
 
Room to Play was designed by Abby Carter, Ink Asher Hemp, Antony Lucchesi, Jessica McIntosh, Shawn Mark Nayar, Kenneth Nuelan, Chandi Petro, Mark Sandford, Saffron Slater, Lingli Wang, Maria Cecilie Wrang-Rasmussen and Zxy Dust, with Boris Allenou and Luci Holland.
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Tinderbox Orchestra’s Last Week at the Fringe

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Howdenhall 2023

Tinderbox tutors have been providing 1-1 sessions with the pupils of Howdenhall school, in both game design & creative music making!

The game design sessions involved both physical game design, such as making a card game, and also using a variety of game design softwares including Construct 3, Twine, & Bitsy.

The music making sessions involved writing lyrics with rap as a primary focus, & using music making software such a Launchpad, Medly, & Garage Band.

Participants were encouraged to bring their own life experiences and creative ideas into all aspects of the work.

Check out all their games and music here:

Games
• Jimmy’s Adventure: https://tinderbox-lab.itch.io/jimmys-adventure
• Shakira’s Lane: https://tinderbox-lab.itch.io/shakiras-car-lane
• Three Minutes to Safety: https://tinderbox-lab.itch.io/three-minutes-to-safety
• The Forest: https://tinderbox-lab.itch.io/the-forest
• ¯_(ツ)_¯: https://tinderbox-lab.itch.io/howdenhall-cardgame

Music

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Check out a few quotes from the team: 

“I worked on the first half of this project exploring game design and interactive storytelling with two students from Howdenhall. The games took us on some wild adventures, from a forest full of speaking animals, to a jungle and desert separated by a river that seemed impossible to cross. Thanks to the students for our wonderful sessions, full of inventiveness and creativity. I had a fantastic time.” – Mel

“It is incredible to think that these workshops have had such a positive impact on the students. By
providing a safe and supportive environment for creative expression, I have seen them grow in
confidence and really start to push themselves beyond their comfort zones. It is such a privilege to
be a part of this project and I can’t wait to see what more the students can achieve in the future.” – Josh

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New Single ‘Tribes’ | 30.06.23

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Workshops at The Wee Hub and Spartans!

Over the past few months we have been exploring the fun of making games in all forms with children and young people!
 
Each month in February, March and April we setup a drop-in games workshop upstairs with our pals at The Wee Hub, where in just short fast-paced sessions we have explored making all sorts of digital and physical card games, using a mix of computing, games design and crafts. Results have included designing colourful, challenging platform games, and a certain pocket-monster-inspired battle card game…!
 
We also absolutely loved visiting the STEM club at Spartans Community Football Academy on 6th February, where we explored the creative sides of technology by building a wacky digital game collaboratively with the group. Together we brainstormed games design ideas to improve the experience, and made new handdrawn character, background and object artwork to decorate it! A big thanks to Spartans for welcoming us and for such a fun workshop.
 
You can see and play a selection of the games we’ve made across our workshops and more regular Games Clubs here!
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About Us

Tinderbox Collective is a community of young people, musicians, artists and youth workers, based in Scotland.  We are a registered Scottish charity, under the name Tinderbox Project, no. SC042825.


Contact us

Email
admin@tinderboxcollective.org

Address
Tinderbox Project
North Edinburgh Arts Centre
15a Pennywell Road
Edinburgh EH4 4TZ

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