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A place to play...
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Engage with community...
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Make great things...
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Learn about games...
About The Arcade Vaults
We are The Arcade Vaults, an exciting and unique venue and community in the centre of Cardiff for all things videogaming. If you make games, play games both old and new, want to learn about games, or would just like to engage with the community in this amazing world of games, then this is the place for you.
At the heart of The Arcade Vaults and its community is you; 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.
COVID-19 NOTICE
Due to the current COVID-19 pandemic that is affecting the entire world, our Arcade and The Community Rooms are operating under COVID safe guidelines. These include:
- a limit of 4 people per group from different households (excluding children under 11, or if everyone in the group is from a single household a larger group is allowed).
- drinks and food orders will be taken at tables. If you are paying for the arcade, you may still come up to the bar, but please let us know if you will be ordering and we will come to you. You must remain seated whilst you are eating or drinking.
- we will have a lower limit on our capacity - currently we recommend that you contact us to reserve an arrival slot for your visit by either using our contact form or emailing us.
- a screen at the bar.
- hand sanitiser points throughout the venue.
- the requirement that you wear masks throughout the venue unless you are eating/drinking or have a valid reason not to wear a mask.
- alcohol based anti-bacterial wipes for you to clean controllers (which we will be regularly doing throughout the day).
- alternating of available consoles throughout the venue to ensure social distancing is adhered to.
- marked points to ensure you can stay socially distant.
- staff will be COVID-safe during your visit.
Please note, we are legally required to take a name and contact information for at least one member of your party. We will be asking for ID to confirm names and addresses as necessary.
Thanks for understanding and hope to see you soon!
The Stuff We do
- Our arcade is split into two areas - we have a space featuring classic consoles and hundreds of games, with a small free-to-play area where we also serve coffee, tea, drinks and gamer friendly snacks. We are also open on selected evenings for those that like a stronger beverage with their gaming fun!
- The Community Rooms are our co-working and events space, tailerod for anyone interested in making games or being part of a community who do but open to everyone to experience. There are three pricing tiers available to anyone who wants to use the space for work, with high-speed broadband (wired and wireless), tea and coffee, and a kitchen, plus various tech facilities and business support!
- Our Upper Arcade and The Community Rooms are available for hire. We can run events for you with a wide selection of retro and modern gaming consoles, or just provide the spaces on their own to you, with access to our bar.
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We organise events and parties across the UK. And we really do everything, including supplying the gaming gear and screens, promotion of the event, set-up, photography, prizes and so on! We also do educational seminars and networking events for those of you in the community looking to learn something new or meet like-minded people.
Upcoming Events
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Global Game Jam 2021 (Online)
Fri | 29 January 2021 | 17:00 to Sun | 31 January 2021 | 17:00Fri | 29 January 2021 | 17:00 to Sun | 31 January 2021 | 17:00Are 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. This year, we're going online!
Join up with over 95 countries (we had 700 Jam-sites last year) in a 48-hour mad dash to create something!
Virtual 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 enter 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 have access to your own equipment - we wil provide information on how to participate online closer to the time.
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.