App Launch Event:

REDHOUSE, Merthyr Tydl 28.05.14

10.00 10.30
Registration, Coffee and Networking

10.30 10.45
Welcome Address
Khalid Al-Begain, Director of CEMAS

10.45 11.00
Opening Launch Address
His Worship the Mayor, Councillor Brian
Mansbridge, Merthyr Tydl County Borough Council

11.00 11.30
IRON App Features and its impact
on Education and Heritage in Wales
Gareth Cavanagh, Director of Irontown Interactive

11.30 12.00
IRON App Development: CEMAS Perspective
Tomas Jurolek, Games Artist and Dann Rees,
Senior Developer, CEMAS

12.00 1.00
Lunch and Showcasing the IRON App
App Demonstration

1.00 Close
Final Address from Khalid Al-Begain and Event Close

The Dowlais Male Voice Choir will perform for guests

during the lunch break
Programme
IRON App Launch 28.05.2014
CEMAS have collaborated with Gareth
Cavanagh, Director of Irontown Interactive,
who specialise in digital animation and
interactive media production and are
based in Merthyr Tydl.
Gareth recognised that the nature of education
is evolving, and with his background in games
development felt there was an opportunity for
a mobile game that had the potential to be an
educational tool. The app incorporates locations,
people and events that we will never witness the
like of again, and from a time that, unfortunately,
many people globally, nationally and sadly
locally, are blissfully unaware of.
By utilizing current video-games technology,
it has been possible to digitally re-create these
historic locations and allow users to interact
and engage with them, but more importantly,
learn about Waless historic past.
The app has been developed
on iOS platform for iPad.
Set in the mid-19th Century, IRON follows
the adventures of Lewys, a 13 year-old boy,
travelling on his own from his family home in
rural mid-Wales, following the path of his absent
father to Irontown; Merthyr Tydl. On arrival he
hopes to nd his father and his fortunes in this
new town of Industry, dubbed by many of its
46,000+ strong inhabitants as, Hell on Earth.
This new app is part of a growing appreciation
of Merthyrs historic past as a world leader in industrial
innovation. The past century has seen the town sufer
from relative economic and social decline, but there
is undoubtedly an economic and cultural renaissance
underway. Innovative projects such as the IRON Game
App not only serve to highlight the proud past of
Merthyr, but also ofer a creative vision for the future
and a means of inviting others to explore
and appreciate its heritage.g others
to explore and appreciate it heritage.
The Client The App
IRON App Launch 28.05.2014
IRON App is an exciting project coming
from the newly formed Games Development
Division at CEMAS and in collaboration with
Gareth Cavanagh from Irontown Interactive.
It represents an innovative educational tool for
bringing the rich heritage of Merthyr Tydl and
Wales to the wider public.
Khalid Al-Begain, Director of CEMAS
The principle of the game is to teach
children (or other users) about the
industrial revolution in South Wales and
its impact on the lives of ordinary people.
Using 3D graphics a player is able to walk through
19th Century Merthyr Tydl and get a feel for how
the people lived and how the town looked at
the time. There are mini games and tasks for players
to enjoy, which were relevant to the time of the
industrial revolution.
IRON App will allow a whole new audience to
engage and interact with Merthyr Tydls past;
bringing our history very much into the 21st
Century. Im very excited about the launch and
look forward to downloading the app myself.
Huw Lewis, Merthyr Tydl and Rhymney
Assembly Member
Content Features
IRON App Launch 28.05.2014
Help Lewys explore 19th Century Merthyr Tydl.
Scare The Crow mini game.
Areas to explore.
IRON App Launch 28.05.2014
Director of Irontown Interactive
Gareth Cavanagh
IRON App Launch 28.05.2014
In addition to its historical and cultural
heritage, Merthyr Tydl also has a rich
musical tradition which we were keen to
incorporate into the IRON App. Male voice
choral singing emerged in Wales in the
late 19th Century, fuelled by the Industrial
Revolution that was bringing working
class men together in the ironworks and
coalmines of the South Wales Valleys.
The spiritual joy of singing brought comfort
from the austerity of daily life.
It was with this in mind that the Cr Meibion
Dowlais Male Voice Choir, whose roots can be
traced back to the late 1800s, were invited to
be involved. With the help of the Choir the Welsh
hymn Myfanwy was chosen as backing music,
which was written by eminent Welsh composer,
Dr Joseph Parry, a famous son of Merthyr Tydl.
Joseph Parry was born on the 21st May 1841 and
composed over 400 hymn tunes, three hundred
songs, and 300 anthems, chorales and other
orchestral pieces. His operas Blodwen and Arianwen
gained widespread popular acclaim. His birthplace,
Chapel Row, Cyfarthfa, Merthyr Tydl is beautifully
preserved today, and is a treat for visitors who
would like to see the home of an ironworker.
Male Voice Choir
and Myfanwy Hymn
Joseph was sent to work in the Cyfarthfa Mills
when only 9 years of age. In the 1850s the family
emigrated to the United States and settled in Danville
in Pennsylvania, and his story is immortalised in
the novel by Jack Jones, Of to Philadelphia in
the morning, which was also televised.
The music chosen has no doubt enriched the
IRON App and we are delighted that the Cr
Meibion Dowlais Male Voice Choir will perform
live at the IRON App Launch.
To nd out more about the Dowlais Male Voice
Choir please visit www.dowlaismalechoir.co.uk
IRON App Launch 28.05.2014
Quotes from the CEMAS
Development Team
t.01443 654265 e.cemas@southwales.ac.uk w.www.cemas.mobi
To nd out how CEMAS can support your business with mobile app development please get in touch:
I have really enjoyed working on this project. I like
the story of IRON and how the player is able to
experience, through the main character Lewys,
the transition from rural to industrial Wales and
how it afected the lives of ordinary people.
From the developers point of view, recreating
the Victorian farm gave me an opportunity to
learn about those little details in history that
I wouldnt normally come across, like region
and era-specic costumes and customs,
living standards on the farm, and working habits.
It is an exciting game to play and gives players
an opportunity to experience the Industrial
Revolution, an extraordinary historical event
from the perspective of ordinary people.
IRON has been a really fun and fascinating project
to work on. As Ive always maintained, if a game
requires Cow Udder Mechanics, then its denitely
a winner!
But in all seriousness, the whole team here at
CEMAS, including those who werent directly
involved with the project, have learnt a great deal
about the era in which IRON is set. Gareth and his
colleagues at Irontown have been a joy to work
with, and their enthusiasm for the project easily
rubs of.
From a technical perspective, Iron may not be
the latest First Person Shooter, or the next World
of Warcraft. But its still a very ambitious game,
particularly for mobile. Weve developed IRON
with the future in mind. And while its a beautiful
game to look at, we also like to think theres an
elegance to the back-end too.
What you will see at the launch is just a fraction
of whats to come from Irontown. And with that
in mind weve built them all the tools they need
to full their ambitions. IRONs bespoke game
framework was built with rapid expansion in
mind. With Mini Game Systems, Quest and Dialog
Mechanics just some of the neat features available
to the Irontown team.
Given how much I have learnt about Merthyr,
the Industrial Revolution and the whole era, it is
without a doubt that this game is going to be of
great value to the younger generations.
IRON App Launch 28.05.2014
Tomos Jurolek, Research Associate, CEMAS
Dann Rees, Senior Programmer, CEMAS