IGDA Melbourne

Game creators are invited to head down to The Embassy on Tuesday 6 July to catch up, meet people, and discuss what it is that drives people to make games with those that do.

The evening starts at 7pm with the panel assembling at 8pm

The discussion will kick off with the question “What inspires you to make games?”. From there, we’ll delve deeper, exploring production, gaming trends, the indie boom, E3 and much more. It’ll be a great, relaxed discussion with some incredibly talented, experienced and diverse panel members:

Kevin Chan

Kevin is the General Manager of THQ’s Blue Tongue Entertainment (http://www NULL.bluetongue NULL.com/) game studio. Prior to his current position, Kevin has worked in production roles on a number of Blue Tongue’s games, including Jurassic Park Operation Genesis and Nicktoons Unite.

Cameron Lee

As the Producer at EA Melbourne, Cameron is responsible for driving the vision, quality and production of titles which are commercially successful and aligned with EA’s strategic vision. Cameron has successfully increased the profile of EA Melbourne by driving studio involvement in the local industry and throughout the wider EA community

Neil Rennison

Neil is the Creative Director for Tin Man Games (http://www NULL.tinmangames NULL.com NULL.au/), an independent games developer currently bringing back interactive gamebooks to the iPhone and iPad. He also runs the art outsource company, Fraction Studios (http://www NULL.fractionstudios NULL.com/main NULL.php) and has worked as an artist and art manager on numerous titles including the Need For Speed, Tiger Woods and Sims series amongst many others.

Please let us know if you can make it via the facebook event to make sure the bar is well staffed for the evening (http://www NULL.facebook NULL.com/#!/event NULL.php?eid=129698707048823)

In order to increase our reach to important colleagues and potential partners in the tech community across the United States, we recently launched a new blog.

If you haven’t already, please take a look at our blog posts and let us know what you think. We hope you find it informative and come back often or subscribe to the RSS feed at http://games.blog.invest.vic.gov.au/feed/ (http://games NULL.blog NULL.invest NULL.vic NULL.gov NULL.au/feed/)

We are also now on Twitter (https://twitter NULL.com/bourne2game) , Facebook (http://www NULL.facebook NULL.com/pages/Xbox-Australia-and-New-Zealand/80142697363#!/pages/Melbourne-Victoria-Australia/Bourne2Game/129126110438512?ajaxpipe=1&__a=30) and LinkedIn (http://au NULL.linkedin NULL.com/pub/alan-gibb/8/750/554 ), tools that we are using to communicate and further grow our network with gamers worldwide.

We are committed to connecting people for business and we hope these online vehicles will simply create more opportunities for (not replace) person-to-person dialogue. I look forward to connecting with friends in Los Angeles to talk about Victoria’s games sector and the opportunities it offers. My colleagues Phoebe Belcher and Brian Carnahan, based in San Francisco (http://www.invest.vic.gov.au/contactus (http://www NULL.invest NULL.vic NULL.gov NULL.au/contactus) ), are also keen to engage further. I hope you will connect with us virtually – sign up to keep up to date on the latest from the center of Australia’s innovation economy: the city of Melbourne and the State of Victoria.

July’s meet up has an industry panel discussing what inspires them to make games. Come along and hear what they have to say, and ask what you want to ask.

Confirmed on the panel are:

* Kevin Chan – General Manager of Blue Tongue Entertainment
* Cam Lee – Producer at Electronic Arts (EA)
* Neil Rennison – Co-founder and Creative Director at Tin Man Games  and Art Director at Fraction Studios

When:  Tuesday 6 July 7pm

Where: The Embassy, 1 Queensbridge St Southbank – while they’re still pulling beers, we’ll keep drinking them!

Feel free to email info@igdamelbourne.org if you want more deets or would like to join the panel.

And of course, we can’t escape the Facebook event (http://www NULL.facebook NULL.com/event NULL.php?eid=129698707048823#!/event NULL.php?eid=129698707048823)

Earlier this week, the IGDA’s meetup for the month of June – a more relaxed coming together for networking and socialising – was another success! People showed up from many aspects of development, media, academia, and more. Many thoughts were shared as well as new meetings. It was a great time for those who’ve made friends and partnerships to solidify things in a relaxed atmosphere.

Due to the content of the night, there’s not much to report… except that a lot of scheming went on that paints an exciting picture for future IGDA initiatives and events.

Stay tuned for more! We’ll be sure to speak up when we can.

Look forward to seeing you all again at July’s event.

Much love, the IGDA Committee.