Welcome ‘inkers & thinkers’ to our first ‘Loading Screen‘ Newsletter of 2019! We thought it would be a great idea to keep our Sparky Friends and Followers up to date by giving you something epic to read; not epic as in winner of best literature… more epic in volume. 🙂 
This edition is to be a quick reflection of 2018 as it was a fantastic year for us and we wanted to share some of the highlights and have only just had chance to do so. If there is anything more you would like to know about stuff we did or how we did it drop us a comment below or send us some contact via our website…
2018 Roundup
One of the main highlights for our Studio in 2018 was starting the New Year in our new studio after moving from our little shared area into our New self-contained Studio at West Studios. 
Our move was filmed by one of our Broadcasting & Production Students and Youtuber James
aka Jamwinga. Check out our little moving Video that we made here: https://youtu.be/NUmqGqZxvoE
Throughout the year we gained some new students, we went out on outreach to schools and colleges in the area and had some fab taster sessions, gave some inspirational careers talks, 
Met loads of brilliant people, worked with people of all ages,
filled lots of hard drives and SD cards with happy filming and photography, edited tons of film, made loads of videos, created many amazing clay monsters, filmed a professional film, designed and developed our first game, ate lots of Custard Creams and Bourbon biscuits, Drank Tea and played hours of video games.
We also attended as Press at ‘EGX’ in Birmingham and ‘Play Expo’ 
in Blackpool – which was a real treat. We supported West Studios with the Summer Market and held Christmas Workshops 
where we had a fab day with visitors who tried their hand at Stop Motion Animation. We were thrilled to have introduced the opportunity for Work Experience at the Studio and even more thrilled that people wanted to complete their work experience with us. In 2018 we welcomed Amy Hannah who was studying Art at Sheffield Colleges, Andreas Lee – An Animation Student from Chesterfield College and Alannah Smith from Wales Bar School. We have recorded so much during 2-18 in video form on YouTube and our photographs we have put on social media. Looking back on them and remembering the fun and achievements for the Students and our studio definatly brings a smile to our faces.
One of the things we had hoped to achieve was a small game to celebrate our 2nd Birthday and our 1st Birthday for our Gaming Events. We were so pleased when two weeks after deciding to build the game, it was finished. 
Albeit in a beta form (we have since changed backgrounds and game play mechanics in the game) but we are so pleased with the outcome and that we had at last created our very first game as a studio with original characters. ‘tHAT bIRTHDAY gAME’ was presented to our gamers at our 8-Bit Evolved Gaming Morning and Nite for testing and we are pleased to say it was well received! 
Since then, just about all our students have created a ‘Fan Level’ for the game. We hope to Licence the Game sometime in 2019 as a Free To Play Online Game.
During the Summer of 2018 we planned a Sparky day for community group Kaps. 
We wrote ‘They Came From Your Feet’ as a story board for the children two days before and tweaked it on set on the day when we filmed everything. I suppose we didn’t expect it to come out as well as it did but the talented children and our crazy story seemed to go hand in hand. After five months in post production we now have a 20 minute black n’ white silent movie, which we hope to premiere in the very near future. As a studio this is such an achievement and we are really proud of this. The children who star in the film are amazing and we can’t wait for them to see the finished production.
In November 2018 we stood with the ‘Chesterfieldian’s’ in their West Studios Remembrance Day Ceremony reflecting on the 100 year anniversary since the First World War. 
A solemn occasion filled with acknowledgement and respect for those who died and those who survived and returned home. We were delighted to have permission to film the service, a great honor as this will hopefully continue to be in their archives forever. The completed film will be given to the group.
All year we hosted our regular monthly 8-Bit Evolved Autism Friendly Gaming Nites and also introduced a 
Mini Gamers Morning event each month too. 
These have be extra fun and the funds raised paid for a ‘Nintendo Switch’ just in time in December for the launch of ‘Super Smash Bros’ and our Christmas get together – which was one thumb defining day!
By the time we broke up in December for Christmas we were ready for the rest.
2019 is going to be just as much an exciting year as 2018 was. We have so many exciting events and all sorts of things which are going to happen. We will publish our First Quarter Newsletter by the end of March 2019 to give some hints at what to expect!
A massive THANK YOU to all those who supported us in 2018. A Particularly warm felt Thanks to our Students and Gamers who have made our year really special!
Thanks for checking out our Blog.
