Events

Melee is back!

We'll kick off with a singles tournament bracket and go from there - no pre-registration required, just turn up for now. Doors open at 5, bracket to kick off around 6!

- Venue fee: £3
- Singles: £2

** COVID RULES **
With the rise in cases recently, we are asking all attendees to bring masks and to wear them when moving around the venue. You are strongly advised to bring your own controllers too. Sanitiser and wipes will be available on site.

Talks return to the Games Wales meetup in Cardiff! We have 3 talks from members of the community which are completely free to attend. And afterwards, you can hang around for some drinks and chat too.

Alex Payne - Rust, Face Detection & A Pair of Bongos.

Alex gives a run through of lessons he learned developing a game prototype with alternative input devices, programmed with rust-lang.

Bex BEtton - My Games in Health Care Journey

Bex talks about her experience creating games in health care and her latest projects in her current role for the Arts for Health and Wellbeing Programme in the NHS.

Cai Jones - Music and Sound for Squingle

Cai goes in depth into his process for making music and sound for the psychedelic VR puzzle game 'Squingle' 

Ooooo whats this then?

THREE is the magic number..... The Arcade Vaults is has made it to another birthday!

We're celebrating our 3rd birthday with our hugest party yet, featuring live music courtesy of the invading Atomic Supermen who return to Earth for the first time in a while, and a special performance from Happy Fun Time Game Band. Plus there'll be boardgames, unlimited access to the gaming PCs and of course loads and loads of videogames from 5 decades of gaming history! Tickets are £10 (also available on the door and everyone will get a complimentary welcome drink on entry. We'll be on until 1am with party shenanigans to blow your mind!

So to summarise:

• 30+ consoles from five decades of gaming
• LIVE music from 8pm with 2 bands
• A free special welcome cocktail (non-alcoholic alternative available)
• TWO Virtual Reality setups (Vive and PSVR)
• SIX PCs with a variety of games to play
• A Rock Band setup and DANCE MATS
• 35+ Board games available for all

All until 1AM!

NOTE: This is an 18+ event. There will be another surprise on our birthday day for everyone else unable to attend the evening bash...

Are you a creative games designer, artist, programmer or audio designer up for a challenge? If so, come and be part of the Global Game Jam. You will have the weekend to conceive and build a game.

Join up with countries all over the world in a 48-hour mad dash to create something!

Doors will be open from 4pm on Friday evening for everyone to meet. The themes will be announced by Global Game Jam so that the fun can begin and ending at 5pm on Sunday.

Do not come to the Jam with a team (this is GGJ policy!). Everyone will have some time to think and pitch an idea. Use this as a chance to collaborate with new friends or peers you don't know.

It doesn’t matter what tech/tools you use to develop your projects - GameMaker, Unity, Unreal, HTML5, Cardboard and cutlery, you can use whatever you want... and any type of game (including non-digital games like board, party, card games etc).

Participants will need to bring your own equipment - we will have free WiFi and ethernet connections if needed. This year however, there are a limited number of PCs available to use throughout the weekend.

Games will be submitted to the Global Game Jam website on Sunday before the 3pm deadline. Teams will then have the opportunity to present their game to everyone.

Why the charge?

We do have to cover our staffing and running costs for the weekend. However, the ticket price grants access to Levels 2 and 3 of The Arcade Vaults and includes free teas and coffees, plus access to a kitchenette with a fridge and microwave. There will also be a lot of pizza available to all on the Friday night, plus a selection of pastries throughout the weekend! We're located right in the City Centre so you will have access to plenty of other food options for the entire jam.

We will ask jammers to register and join the GGJ site separately on the day - purchasing a ticket will register your details with us so we know you are attending.

Note that this will not be a 24 hour site - access will be limited to 8/9am at the earliest and around 10/11pm at the latest. If you are coming in from outside of Cardiff there are lots of places to stay nearby.

About The Arcade Vaults

The Arcade Vaults, is an unique venue and community in the centre of Cardiff for all things videogaming. Founded in 2016 as an events company, they've gone on to support anyone who makes games, plays games both old and new, wants to learn about games, or would just like to engage with the community in this amazing world of games.

At the heart of The Arcade Vaults and its community are the players and the creators. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to play videogames and even more so, anyone should be able to make them and understand how they are made.