Introducing our new postcard designs!

Look out for these at Twitch Gaming, Game in St James Centre, and at other locations after the festival. Designed by Ross Aitken with illustration by Stephen Goodall.

A Brief History of Video Games in 3 minutes

Found this on thePoke.co.uk, thought you'd appreciate it...

Produced for Polygon.com by Reverse Enginears featuring P Sus

A Guilt Free List of Shame

Newest SKSP signup and guest writer Joseph Blythe gives us an insight into how he's feeling about this October:

Over the years I've stayed up all night playing games for many reasons: boredom, competition, drunkenness, but never in the name of charity. This year Sick Kids Save Point will give me that chance. A 24 hour marathon of gaming is quite a challenge, one that I hear can be a bit of a physical and mental drain. But the time frame doesn't worry me. Many's the time I've had to forgo sleep in order to get an essay done, and my insomniac tendencies mean I'm often up for a day or two at a time. I'm happy I'll finally be able to put those nocturnal student habits to good use.

What to play during the thing is another matter. I'm notoriously bad at deciding what to play, sometimes spending longer making my mind up than on the game I end up picking. When you're looking to play for 24 hours straight you've got nothing but options. Do I get stuck into an adventure, a Zelda or Dark Souls? It's easy to lose yourself for to one of those. Maybe I'll go for a creative one like Minecraft, a timesink if ever there was one. Or do I mix it up, try something different every hour? Variety's bound to be important to stave off boredom. I'm thinking of using it as an opportunity to tackle my list of shame, which sadly includes modern classics like Resi 4, Okami, Skyward Sword, and Metroid Prime. Plenty of quality to keep me occupied there.

The Fantastic Okami

But I think it's the social aspect of SKSP that I'm most looking forward to. Previous years have been characterised by the banter and communication between folk taking part, which adds a great deal to the fun of the whole thing. There are also plenty of ways to keep your marathon social. People will be playing in teams, streaming their gaming online, or just tweeting about it throughout; keeping in touch with everyone else is and having a laugh is the spirit of the event as a whole. And in the end it'll be a fantastic way to meet like-minded folk and make a few new friends. So as well as raising money for Edinburgh's Royal Hospital for Sick Children, enriching the lives of kids who need it, I'm making new friends and having a laugh? Plus I get to stay up all night playing games? Result!

Follow Joseph on twitter @westendweegie. Sponsor him HERE

SKSP Multimedia highlights

As we gear up for the third Sick Kids Save Point in October, you may have noticed our new column in the Edinburgh Evening News. In this we hope to provide some new release tips and highlight what our local games developers are up to, as well as raise awareness for our charity gaming marathon, of course!

If there is anything you'd like to ask or make us aware of, feel free to contact us via our Facebook page or on twitter.








Meanwhile, a search on Youtube produces some interesting videos from last year. Here's a selection:

our safety infomercial

Alex gets IN the game

Develion sets himself the Coronation Street challenge

Spirits high at this point...

brilliant commentary from Xander

Skyscanner are 4 hours in...