IGDA Melbourne

…..and she’s back after a hectic Open Day season I’m glad to be helping the IGDA crew once again, albeit 23 hours before the next meet up.

It’s a bit of a taster’s plate this month, with the main course being some delicious morsels of GCAP goodness (I think I might be hungry, but I digress)

WHEN: Tuesday 7 September 7.30pm onwards (yep, that’d be tomorrow/tonight/you’ve already missed it)

WHERE: 3 Degrees Bar (http://www NULL.3degrees NULL.com NULL.au/), located in the QV cnr Swanston & Lonsdale Sts

WHAT:

Tony Reed will give us an update about how GCAP’s shaping up (might be time to look for some cheap flights north)

Martin Wilkes will treat us to the low-down on FMOD as well as some government-based (we still have one somehow, right?) initiatives that will be of interest to some games folk out there

No doubt discussions will be around the current state of play in Oz, so it’s also good to look at the new evolving options out there for game creators in their many forms; we’ll kick around more ideas on studio and salon setups, cross skilling, upskilling, Game Jam, art exhibitions and lots more…. so there should be something there for everyone!

NEW VENUE:

Yep, the kind folk of 3 Degrees have agreed to take us, and have offered a slab of beer as a door prize for tomorrow night, as well as their specials drink list:

$5 Glasses of Wine of the Month – Hardy’s Nottage Hill Chardonnay/Shiraz

$5 Bottles of Crown Lager

$5 Bottles of Beer of the Month – Dry Dock Lager

$5 Spirit of the Month – Johhny Red (unless sold out – then they’re all something else…)

Any queries, we’ll be keeping an eye on the facebook event (http://www NULL.facebook NULL.com/?sk=events#!/event NULL.php?eid=109394082451166)(and will soon be updating the whole facebook thang to encourage dialogue), and @igdamelbourne will be in twitterland on the day – join the chirping

I’ve personally been looking forward to this one since March, so I hope to see you there, you can tell me all about Freeplay  :D  -Giselle

If you are wondering what is happening this month with the IGDA, we are swapping our first Tuesday get together for two nights of partying and networking in association with the Freeplay (http://freeplay NULL.net NULL.au/)event on Saturday 14th and Sunday 15th of August.

These events will be held at the Match Bar (http://www NULL.matchbar NULL.com/match_bar_melbourne NULL.php), in the QV building, overlooking the State Library, venue for Freeplay.
The fun begins as the lectures and workshops wind down, (around 6:00pm), and will continue until late.

On Saturday we have a dedicated space until 10:00, and on Sunday we have the whole place to ourselves! Food will be available both nights, with the full menu on the first night, and snacks on the second.

Even if you can’t make it to the conference, feel free to drop by the after parties, share a drink and swap stories with the cream of Australian game development talent.

We look forward to seeing you there, and are thrilled to be able to support Freeplay, which is shaping up to be one of the most important events of the year.

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)

Apologies for the late update – life’s hectic, you know the drill…

Anyway, we’ll be having drinks at The Embassy on Tuesday 1 June from 7pm and hope to see you there.

The Embassy looks likely to shut up shop in June – announcements will be made when last drinks are called.

As a result, we’ll resettle around the corner at the BLVD Bar in July.  Details will be available that at this Tuesday’s gathering.

It’s looking like a good turnout according to facebook (http://www NULL.facebook NULL.com/?ref=logo#!/event NULL.php?eid=127915020556524)and we’d like to encourage you to invite fellow games folk along for a night of networking…and comparing notes on RDR

Gathering from 7 for catch up social shop talk.

8pm – Trivia starts

Teams include:

SARQAT
Touch my Pixels
The Voxel Agents
Colonel Mustard’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
*My Epeen is over 9000*
The Billionaire Skeletons
The Lavish Badgers
Tin Man Games
Team Rocket
Team 3
Tuckshop Lady Headbutt
The Red Barrels,
Team Rocket’s Blasting off again
Team Andromeda

More teams will be formed tomorrow night and anyone not wanting to play is welcome to hang about

It’s at the BLVD Bar in Southbank, just around the corner from The Embassy near the Macca’s. If all else fails The Embassy folk will help you with directions.

Great prizes, and also the possibility of a gold coin donation from trivia players towards a decent drink card for the winn ing team.

Also up for grabs are:

A PS3 thanks to Big Ant Studios (who have two teams vying for the prizes)

A Wacom tablet thanks to Wacom

A Ballistic book and online membership to the CGSociety

A $100 Drink card for the Mana Bar – save it up for GCAP!

Three GDC ‘collectors’ tee-shirts

Along with much revelry and merriment…

It’s time to make plans for how you’d like to be involved in Freeplay this year – be it as a speaker, volunteer or participant.

Paul Callaghan, Co-director of Freeplay, will be about before Tuesday’s  Trivia Night at the BLVD Bar in Southbank from 6.30, if you want to chat to him about how you’d like to contribute.

Information about the call for speakers and volunteers is available from the Freeplay website (http://www NULL.freeplay NULL.net NULL.au/2010/05/speakers-volunteers-exhibitors-oh-my/)

The slides from Simon Joslin’s Journey into Indie talk at April’s meet up:

There’s more about it all at the Voxel website (http://www NULL.thevoxelagents NULL.com/2010/04/inside-the-indie-story-year-1-retrospective/)

Thanks to the following folk for these most excellent trivia night prizes

Big Ant Studios
A PS3!!!!

Wacom
A Wacom

The Mana Bar
$100 drink card ripe and ready for GCAP or before

Ballistic Media
A book (?) – We’ll let you know when we know more on that one, and it comes with a year’s membership to the CGSociety

BLVD Bar
Drinks – details yet to be negotiated.. you’ll know when we do!

Jenn S
3 GDC Tee’s