#morethangames — Public Fediverse posts

The Interactive Frontier: Why Dundee’s ‘Big Telly Jam’ is a Masterclass in Cross-Sector Innovation

Biome Collective and Arcadia present Big Telly Jam at CoSTAR’s Realtime Lab

The CoSTAR Realtime Lab at Water’s Edge is set to host a transformative one-day workshop on 6 May 2026, as Biome Collective and Arcadia join forces for the Big Telly Jam. Supported by Creative Scotland, the event is designed to dismantle the silos between traditional art, game design, film, and virtual production.

While the ‘jam’ format is a staple of the games industry, this iteration is specifically engineered to be inclusive, low-pressure, and high-impact. It invites artists, filmmakers, and technologists to step out of their comfort zones and explore how real-time tools can be used for more than just consumer entertainment.

Strategic Analysis: The Blueprint in Action

At SGN, we have long advocated for the More Than Games approach – the idea that games technology is a force multiplier for the entire creative economy. The Big Telly Jam is a living example of this theory. It moves the conversation away from making ‘products’ and toward exploring possibilities.

A Space for Playful Experimentation

The workshop focuses on paper prototyping and low-fi ideation, ensuring that technical expertise is not a barrier to entry. Participants will have the rare opportunity to see virtual production facilities in action, using the same tools that power modern cinema and high-end gaming to test their own creative concepts.

Big Telly Jam shows what is possible when great facilities, creative talent, and the right partners come together, says Malath Abbas:

Dundee has a rare combination of artistic energy, technical skill, and ambitious people. Thanks to support from Creative Scotland, CoSTAR Realtime Lab, and our partners, we can open up access to these tools and create a day where artists and designers can test ideas, collaborate, and be inspired.

Susie Buchan of Biome Collective echoes this sentiment, emphasising the social and collaborative nature of the day:

We want the day to be fun, low-pressure, and explorative for everyone taking part! It’s an opportunity for people to try something new and connect with creatives from different disciplines to their own.

Breaking the Silos

For the Scottish games community, participation in events like the Big Telly Jam is essential. It prevents the insularity that often plagues our sector and opens up new professional pathways. By working alongside poets, performers, producers, and visual artists, game designers can find fresh inspiration, new applications and potential new partners for their technical skills.

The event is open to emergent creators from across Scotland, and significantly, a limited number of paid participation places are available. This ensures that financial barriers do not prevent the most innovative voices from being in the room. The day concludes with an opportunity for participants to pitch their ideas for a cash prize, providing a tangible incentive for the most promising collaborative concepts.

Join the Movement

The Big Telly Jam represents the future of the Dundee cluster – a place where the lines between play, performance, and technology are permanently blurred. We encourage all SGN readers to look at this not as another ‘dev ‘event, but as a vital opportunity to be part of the cross-sectoral future of the Scottish economy.

Event Details:

• Date: Wednesday 6 May 2026
• Time: 9:30am – 5:00pm
• Location: CoSTAR Realtime Lab, Water’s Edge, Dundee

Book your tickets here: Big Telly Jam via Humanitix

Learn more about the hosts: Biome Collective | Arcadia Festival

The Quiet Work: An Update on the Next Chapter for Scottish Games

You may have noticed that the news feed on the Scottish Games Network has been quieter than usual over the past week.

That quiet has not been for a lack of activity. In fact, it’s been precisely the opposite.

Behind the scenes, this has been a period of intense and focused work. It’s been a week of meetings and conversations with organisations across – and around – the entire games ecosystem. It’s been about starting new dialogues, continuing long-running collaborations, and nurturing the relationships and connections necessary to build even more effectively in 2026 and beyond.

For years, I have worked to build a blueprint. Now, we, collectively, are laying the foundations for what comes next.

Part of that foundational work is recognising that as Scotland’s games ecosystem matures, it requires more specialised and focused organisations to drive it forward. The days of one organisation (and more honestly, one person) trying to be all things to all people must end if we are to be truly effective.

All of the recent changes across Scotland mark a strategic evolution. The SGDA is a dedicated voice for developers and studios – their new accelerator is a perfect example of this vital, focused work. The Scottish Games Network can now fully embrace its role as the ecosystem organisation: the connective tissue linking our brilliant developers to education, to government, to the wider creative industries, tech, screen and the rest of the world.

Part of embracing that role means evolving our own platform. To that end, another key workstream has been the upcoming restructure and redesign of the Scottish Games Network website itself. Our goal is to transform it into the central, authoritative hub for the entire ecosystem.

Back in August 2025, I asked for help building and evolving the editorial output from SGN. I was humbled when over 30 people from across the ecosystem volunteered their time and expertise to help with this project, and I want to publicly thank them – and assure them this is still happening – I… just had to get the Games Action Plan finished and ready for publication (more of which below). Together, we will build a far more comprehensive media channel that not only reports the news, but actively investigates, supports and showcases the incredible people, organisations and work being done across Scotland.

This is not a division – it is a sign of an evolving and maturing sector.

This new direction is already being delivered through the projects that have been the focus of this quiet work:

• The Games Action Plan: The completed, community-generated, national blueprint that provides the entire ecosystem with a unified, data-driven path forward.
• Hello World!: The talent pipeline, delivering on the Action Plan’s promise to inspire and cultivate the next generation of studios, developers and creators.
• More Than Games: The innovation engine, connecting the incredible skills of our industry to the wider digital and creative economy.

The quiet phase is nearly complete. Over the next few weeks, you will see a series of major announcements as the scaffolding comes down and the results of this work are revealed.

The pivotal moment will be the meeting of the Cross-Party Group on Scotland’s Games Ecosystem on Tuesday, November 18th. This will be the public forum where we, as a newly focused and aligned community, will formally present the Action Plan and begin the next exciting chapter for games in Scotland.

The work continues, and I look forward to sharing the next steps with you all in the near future.

#actionPlan #comingSoon #games #HelloWorld_ #MoreThanGames #scotland #SGF26