IGDA Melbourne

Over 70 game makers are heading to La Trobe University’s Melbourne campus in Bundoora to get their game on next weekend as part of the Global Game Jam.

The Global Game Jam takes place on January 28-30 and sees volunteer teams of video game designers across over 174 venues and 44 countries working together for two days and nights to create games from scratch.  This Melbourne event is organised by the International Game Developers’ Association (IGDA) Melbourne chapter, and includes nearly 80 professional developers, indies and students in the eclectic mix of participants ready to fuel up and create. One of the big players in the local games development scene Firemint (http://firemint NULL.com/), the Melbourne based developer best known for worldwide hits Flight Control and Real Racing on iPhone and iPad, sees the benefit of such events and are pleased to be sponsoring.

Rob Murray, Firemint’s CEO says “Firemint is very happy to feed the hard-working teams at this year’s Melbourne Game Jam. We’re big believers in prototyping games in a short amount of time as there’s no better way to see whether a concept is actually fun. As well as the “Game Days” we run internally at Firemint, Steve and I each prototyped a game in just a few days – Puzzle Quest and Flight Control – so you never know whether Game Jam might see the next great Aussie game emerge!”

Infinite Interactive, the talent behind Puzzle Quest led by Steve Fawkner, was recently acquired by Firemint. “There is a heap of creativity in the local development community,” Mr Fawkner said, “so we’re excited to be supporting that. Rob and I are looking forward to heading to Game Jam on Friday and chatting to the teams!”

The judging panel for the local competition is as diverse as the participants and includes Tassos Stevens, Co-Director of Coney (http://youhavefoundconey NULL.net/) (UK), Sam Mayo, the Community Support Coordinator from  Firemint; Neil Rennison , Co-founder and Creative Director of Gamebook Adventures creator Tin Man Games (http://tinmangames NULL.com NULL.au/blog/);  Leena van Deventer, Indie Games Section Editor over at Resolution Magazine (http://resolution-magazine NULL.co NULL.uk/content/),  and Donald Duong, co-host  and reviewer for Channel 31’s Level 3 (http://www NULL.level3 NULL.org NULL.au/).

Participants of the Global Game Jam will find out this year’s mystery theme at 5 p.m. on Friday 28 January before breaking into teams and starting the long 2 days of making code, art, music and gameplay.  Finished games will be uploaded to the Global Game Jam web site (http://www NULL.globalgamejam NULL.org/) on Sunday 30 January.

If you are part of the local games industry or media and would like to come along and check it out, please email committee@igdamelbourne.org

And now, it’s time to formally announce the sponsors of the Melbourne site of the Global Game Jam, 2011!

The Melbourne Global Game Jam 2011 is proudly brought to you by:

• La Trobe University, Bundoora: La Trobe University are providing us with pretty much the perfect venue to hold a Game Jam! We’ll be situated in their IT Labs, with ready access to PC’s, Network and internet access. It’s fair to say that without such a venue, it would be very hard to put together an event like this.
• Stephan Schutze: Stephan is the creator of Sound Library (http://www NULL.stephanschutze NULL.com/), an online collection of over 17,000 high quality sounds that can be used for nearly any purpose. Stephan is bringing the entire library with him to the jam, and will be on-site for the majority of the weekend to help participants make best use of this powerful audio resource in their games.
• Firemint: Firemint have generously offered to help fund the Game Jam, greatly allowing us to provide food and snacks to the jammers with the minimum of disruption to what will be a frantically-paced weekend.

Many of you have probably heard the story of my  iPhone and seen the kind actions of Souri at Tsumea (http://tsumea NULL.com/australasia/australia/news/211210/donations-needed-for-get-giselle-a-replacement-iphone-initiative)to set things right.

This is a greatly appreciated action. My work replaced my phone without any dramas, so what to do with the money?

Well the flooding in Queensland has given me an answer – and so thank you all who donated to the ‘Get Giselle a new iPhone’ initiative,  I’ve donated the 486.24 raised and I’m sure the flood victims will be appreciative.

And yes, I’m still about, so I’ll see you around and feel free to get in touch if you’re interested in helping out with IGDAM too!

Cheers,

Giselle

Justin Brow at 60Sox is approaching Australian games developers (commercial as well as independent) and any other company that derives revenue from providing a games related service (middleware, game art / programming / audio outsourcing etc) for the numbers of people employed in their studio or team. If you fit in any of those categories, please don’t hesitate to contact Justin and tell him your stats at:

justin (at) 60Sox.org

If you know of any other businesses working in the local games industry, please do forward them this link or Justin’s details so they can contact him with those details. Justin is working on projects to help the local games industry, so that should be an added incentive to say hi to him. In any case, we’d all like to have a good idea on where the local industry stands now in terms of numbers after suffering some rather frequent successions of studio closures over the years as well as a rapidly expanding independent scene.

Hey everyone,

Time’s running out to sign up for the Game Jam! Registrations will close tomorrow (Tuesday 18/1/11) at 5pm, so get in quick!

Sign up here.

Cheers,
Craig.

Hey all,

We had a bunch of questions after the GGJ talk on Tuesday night, and I’ve posted questions below so everyone can see. Hopefully I’ve covered them all, but if you have any more questions, please comment below to add them, and we’ll get answers to you as soon as possible.

Please remember, places are filling fast! If you want to be part of the Melbourne Game Jam, you need to register here to be a part of it.

Q: Can we form our own teams before the event?
A: Wow, we had lots of feedback on this! It seems that my brief statement on this sounded too restrictive, so let me clarify. In saying not to bring teams to the event, our intent was not to impose strict rules on who you can work with, but more to allow for room to mingle with all the new people that you’ll be meeting at the event. Most likely, games will be pitched by groups anyway on the Friday, and then people can choose which groups they want to work in for the weekend. If you come with friends, and know that you work well with them, then you are free to form a group with them on the day. We may step in if a team becomes too large, but otherwise people are free to form groups as they see fit. The main thing is for everyone to be having fun over the weekend, and being part of a good team is a big part of that.
Q: What game technologies can we use?
A: You are free to use any game technologies that you are legally allowed to use. Examples of free game engines include Unity, UDK, Game Maker, XNA. Some art software packages are commonly available with a 30-day trial period. We will have some installers available on the day, but if you can have software already installed and ready to go, that will be best.
Q: Is the Game Jam considered making a game commercially?
A: In terms of software licensing, the Game Jam is not considered a commercial enterprise, so you should be free to use educational licenses or trial versions of software. See below for details of the Creative Commons license that all games in the jam will be submitted under.
Q: Can we use our own game engines?
A: If you have a framework or game engine that you have created yourself, you are free to use that in your game. However, please note that all games must be submitted online at the end of the jam, including full source code with all game assets. If you are happy with this, feel free to use your own tech.
Q: Who owns the IP?
A: The team/makers of the game hold all IP rights. However, the Global Game Jam may use the games for demonstration as it sees fit. All games must be posted in the state they are in as of the close of the GGJ event (Sunday). If the team/makers of the game wish to upload subsequent versions, they are welcome and we will host and archive them. All participants and all games entered for GGJ must agree to a Creative Commons, share, alter, no sell license (http://creativecommons NULL.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3 NULL.0/).
Q: Can we bring our own PC’s?
A: Yes, feel free. To make things easier, there will be plenty of monitors, mice and keyboards available to use. This will make setup a lot easier and less for individuals to transport to and from the event.
Q: Will we have Internet/Network access?
A: We will be using La Trobe University’s IT Labs, and will have access through that to the Internet and network storage space. Reasonable use guidelines will be in place for internet access, and participants will be required to agree to La Trobe’s IT usage policy before beginning the jam.
Q: Will wireless networking be available?
A: We’re not sure on this one yet. This was asked with regard to using wifi for multiplayer networking for a game. This depends on whether we can get specific hardware for this, so we can’t guarantee it unfortunately.
Q: How much will it cost?
A: We’re still finalising things, but it depends on the final details of sponsorship. Hopefully it will be free of charge for jammers, but otherwise we’re looking at a cost of $20-$30 per person for the weekend.

Again, any other questions, please ask them in comments below and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can.

Hey everyone,

Thanks for joining us for a fantastic evening at “Match Bar and Grill” last night. Due to circumstances out of our control, we had to move from 3 Degrees, but everyone coped with it very well, and it was another fun night catching up with local Melbourne developers, and of course giving out all the details about the Global Game Jam!

Now, I had a nice presentation all ready to show last night, but due to the venue change we had no projector to show it on. The presentation is available here though, so you can have a look, and also for any who couldn’t make it and want some more info.

I was also going to show everyone a cool vid I found on Youtube. This is the keynote address for the 2009 Global Game Jam, presented by Kyle Gabler (co-founder of 2D Boy, creators of World of Goo). It’s got some great tips to prepare for a game jam, and is lots of fun to watch as well. I decree that everyone should watch it now

(http://www NULL.youtube NULL.com/watch?v=aW6vgW8wc6c)

More announcements to come soon, formally announcing the sponsors of the Melbourne Game Jam, as well as our panel of judges, and media guests.

Hey all,

GAME JAM IS ALMOST HERE! We’re all very excited to be bringing this to you, and it’s looking to be EPIC. It’s not too late to be a part of the fun, but places are extremely limited so get in asap.

Use the form below to register all your details if you want to take part in the Jam , which is being held on January 28th to 30th at La Trobe University, Bundoora (and come on, who doesn’t want to be part of it?)

Make sure you come along to this Tuesday’s meeting (11/1/11, 7:30pm to 10pm, at 3 Degrees bar (an over-18′s venue) in QV, Melbourne CBD). We will be giving out all the goss on what will be happening over the weekend, who might be popping in to observe (special guests aplenty), and who the judging panel will be as well. It’s also a great chance to meet other people who will be at the Jam, and see who you may end up working with.

Even if you’re not going to be jamming, come along for a chat with your fellow devs, and see what everyone’s been up to over the summer break.

Any questions, email us on info@igdamelbourne.org and we’ll get right back to you.

UPDATE: Registrations have closed, as of Tuesday 18/1/11 at 5pm. No further applications will be accepted after that time. We’ve had a huge show of interest in the event, and it’s looking to be great! We’ll be in touch with registered jammers directly via email.

Hey all,

this is a request we received from our IGDA compatriots over the pond:

The IGDA Perspectives Newsletter is looking for content for its February issue on “Lifestyles of the Indie and Humble”.

We are looking for pieces of any length. Topics may include but are not limited to:

- What it means to be indie.
- Reflections on indie-friendly genres.
- Reflections on indie-friendly platforms.
- A day inside your indie studio.
- Alternative revenue sources for indies.
- Marketing tips for indies.
- Indie game success stories.

Please send article pitches to Editor-in-Chief Beth Aileen Lameman (beth@bethaileen.com (beth null@null bethaileen NULL.com)) by January 15th and final articles by February 1st.

You can find previous editions of the Perspectives newsletter here (http://www NULL.igda NULL.org/newsletter-archive). They’re definitely worth a look.