This year's GDC Europe is fast approaching and Brink's Lead Designer Neil 'Exedore' Alphonso has taken it upon himself to represent Splash Damage there as part of a panel about level design. Titled The Tao of Level Design: A Study of 3 AAA Games, the session will strive to find out just what makes an effective level designer. Neil's panel-partners in crime will be EA DICE's Elisabetta Silli and Remedy's Mikael Kasurinen, and the three of them will be using Alan Wake, Mirror's Edge and Brink as practical examples to share their advice with the audience.

The panel is currently scheduled for 17 August at 9 AM - visit its details page for the full description and details. More about GDC Europe can be found on the official website.

Longlist voting for this year's Golden Joystick awards closes in just three days - now's your last chance to get your votes in! Both Brink and Splash Damage among the numerous nominees and are up in the One to Watch and Best UK Developer categories, respectively. Voting is easy and super-quick:

1. Head over to the Golden Joysticks website
2. Select your nominees from the list
3. Submit the form
4. Profit*

Voting ends on May 27th, which is Thursday of this week. The winners of this round will go on to become the official shortlist nominees for the Golden Joysticks 2010.

* - May not actually happen

The 2010 edition of Britain's longest-running video game awards, the Golden Joysticks, has just kicked off with the first round of public voting. We're delighted to see that we're up in two categories this year:

• One to Watch - Brink
• Best UK Developer - Splash Damage

To vote, head over to the Golden Joysticks website. The results of this round of voting will determine which games and developers make the official shortlist for the Golden Joysticks 2010. Voting closes on May 27th - be sure to cast your votes before then!

Today is World Tapir Day, dedicated to these magnificent creatures which have delighted us for many years. Sadly, all four species of tapir are currently endangered and facing extinction, so the good people behind World Tapir Day have taken it upon themselves to raise awareness about them and their plight.

If you want to help conserve tapirs for future generations, please donate to the World Land Trust, this year's World Tapir Day beneficiary. You can do so either by heading directly to the donation page, or by sponsoring our very own Ed 'BongoBoy' Stern's Trundle for Tapirs. Any contribution, no matter how big or small, will go along way towards saving our snuffling friends.

Also, many zoos around the world are hosting tapir-related events and activities this week. Check out our events list to see what's happening where.

Lastly, gaze upon this video from Adelaide Zoo, which neatly sums up what this day is all about:

World Tapir Day takes place this Tuesday and in addition to the previously announced fundraising effort Trundle for Tapirs, zoos around the world are hosting tapir-related events and activities. Here's the latest list courtesy of Anthony Long, the driving force behind World Tapir Day:

Australia

• Adelaide Zoo

Belize

• Belize Zoo

Germany

• Cologne Zoo

Malaysia

• University of Malaysia
• Malaysian Nature Society

United Kingdom

• Belfast Zoo
• Noah's Ark Zoo (Bristol)
• Trotters World of Animals (Bassenthwaite)
• Galloway Wildlife Conservation Park
• Dudley Zoo

United States

• San Antonio Zoo

Finally and not entirely zoo-related, the Tapir Caper Project is a fundraising effort by Canadian artist Chris Jackson. Chris is aiming to paint exactly thirty tapir-laden 4"x5" canvases to be sold online, with all money going to the World Land Trust.

For the latest rundown of events and World Tapir Day activities, check out the World Tapir Day events page on Facebook.

If you've visited our site in the past, accidentally or otherwise, you'll probably have noticed that we have a very special love affair with tapirs and willingly hurl ourselves at any opportunities to save them from extinction. Taking place on 27 April, World Tapir Day is just around the corner and seeks to raise awareness about tapirs and their plight through all manner of themed events and opportunities to get involved. We'll be taking a look a some of these in a series of blog posts, with this one conveniently being the first.

This year's World Tapir Day seeks to quite literally put the fun in fundraising by introducing Trundle for Tapirs. How does it all work? Well, essentially, you commit to run/walk/ride/skate a certain distance during the week of World Tapir Day and then seek sponsorships from your family, friends, co-workers, and whoever else is willing to save the tapirs. The funds raised by these sponsorships are then donated to the World Land Trust's Ecuador Rainforest project, which will help protect the environment of the Mountain Tapir, the most endangered of the four tapir species.

We're fully behind this cause and have volunteered our very own Lead Writer and Chief Tapirologist Ed 'BongoBoy' Stern to be our corporate trundler. Ed will be doing his best to trundle in the most poignant (and stylish) way possible. If you're interested in becoming one of Ed's sponsors and save some tapirs in the process, follow these simple steps:

1. Head to the donation website at http://www.justgiving.com/worldtapirday
2. Click "Donate now" and fill out the form
3. Mention "Ed Stern" at the beginning of your donation's comment

Any donation, no matter how big or small, will be hugely helpful and go directly towards saving the Mountain Tapir's habitat.

Better yet, if you want to organise your own Trundle for Tapirs activity, check out the World Tapir Day website for everything you need to know.

Splash Damage is delighted to announce Tapir Wars 3: It Just Got Chilly™, a startling new on-rails shooter heading directly at gamers and penguins everywhere. Gently plodding along in Splash Damage's rich and unique Tapirverse™, Tapir Wars: It Just Got Chilly is set to devolutionise gaming with a barrage of never-before-sniffed features, led by the leaf-breaking T.R.A.M.S. (Totally Repeatable Automatic Movement System) button.

TRAMS analyses the current status of the PlayerTapir, his surroundings and any nearby enemies to automatically dictate the best possible course of action, guaranteeing infinitely, totally, unwaveringly consistent gameplay: the millionth game will play exactly the same as the first... guaranteed!

You can find out all about the game on the Tapir Wars 3: It Just Got Chilly mini-site.

Much to our continued surprise and general bemusement, we walked away with the victor's trophy at last night's Spring 2010 edition of the Develop Magazine Games Industry Pub Quiz. 20 different teams from all over the UK games industry were in attendance, including game developers, middleware companies and recruitment agencies.

Representing Splash Damage were Media Director Richard 'Fluffy_gIMp' Jolly, Tools Programmer Flavius 'Flawe' Alecu, Level Designer Jamie 'Fishbus' Manson and Community Relations Manager Steve 'badman' Hessel. After all was said and done, we narrowly edged out Curve Studios for the win, while Rocksteady clinched third. Embarassing photos are sure to follow at some point - in the meantime, enjoy this artsy shot of the trophy.

As pointed out in her staff interview a while back, our Senior Concept Artist Laurel 'Tully' Austin regularly sculpts all manner of dinosaur/demon/monster-related creatures in her spare time, much to the delight of everyone here at the office. We've previously shown some of her work on our Flickr page and she's been pretty busy since.

Luckily, Laurel's more recent creations are now out in the virtual wild over at art showcase site Creature Spot, featuring a multitude of photos full of spikes, horns, and claws. Perfect for a rainy Monday afternoon, we think.

Level design has traditionally been one of the most accessible areas of game development for amateurs, with many shooters offering level editors as part of their SDK. However, while tools have become seemingly easier to use over the past few years, maps and mods are taking increasingly longer to produce. Professional mystery solver Jim Rossignol took it upon himself to find out exactly why that is and recruited Splash Damage's Lead Level Designer Neil 'Exedore' Alphonso to help him.

The resulting article features plenty of insights from Neil, including how he got his start in the industry, what game levels have inspired him over the years, and, of course, the fundamental issue that drove Jim out there in the first place: Why are the tools easier and yet levels take longer to make? Find out that and more in Jim's full write-up over at TechRadar.