When: 6:30pm – 10:30pm

Where: Thousand

Pound Bend, just near Melbourne Central Station but also down a twisty alleyway.

To register your game or spot at the mic, please complete this quick registration form.

Shorter talks are preferred, and we’ll do our best to accommodate all applicants.

There will be further information about exactly who’s speaking about and demonstrating what as it comes to hand.

Also- join the race to fix the image that will be forever linked to this, because my effort is woeful. Post your evantatar (!) on the facebook event page, or the IGDA Melbourne group if you’re particularly pleased with the results.

There was some fantastic news for local indie developers looking for a great range of sound options on a bootstrapped budget this week at the IGDA Melbourne meet up.

Stephan Schutze is a fantastic community member and supporter of home grown Australian creative development, and has now offered the use of his Sound Library for small scale projects, asking only that you make a small donation to one of his preferred charities.

Head over to the Sound Librarian website for full details.

Wednesday 9th May 2012
Launch of Video Game Design and Audio Production Studio – Soundplay Interactive!
Today, Trevor Dikes, director for Soundplay Interactive, takes great pleasure in announcing the launch of the video game design & audio production company based in Melbourne, Australia.


A recent graduate from Qantm College Melbourne and successful applicant for the New Enterprise Incentive Scheme, developed by the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations. Soundplay Interactive acts as a platform for Trevor’s passion in game design and audio production.


“The primary focus for Soundplay Interactive is to establish a company that puts value and passion into the design and development of video games creating a fun, social and emotional reaction from the player. I also want to help other developers who currently don’t have access to suitable audio solutions, by providing services, scaled in size and costs that allow them to have the best possible audio solutions for their projects” – Trevor Dikes


While the company has only just launched, Soundplay Interactive is currently developing a debut mobile game based on a 48-hour prototype that was created at the Melbourne Global Game Jam in January, 2012. Soundplay Interactive is also designing and producing audio for Daijabo Games mobile title “Hunters & Collectors” and planning to launch music
and sound effect packages for the
Unity 3D Asset Store in the very near future.

Trevor is an IGDA Melbourne regular, so be sure to catch up with him about this fantastic news.

Lightmare Studios are looking for someone to lead their new Gold Coast studio.

They are:
- Securely Funded 2007 Established Independent Developer.
- Opening 3rd, brand new office, at the Gold Coast.
- Offering reasonable work hours, Solid Salary with on top Equity & Game Profit Share.

They want a leader who:
- Has 5+ years of industry experience, with skills in coding *or* art, and can hand pick a team to round out the skillset.
- Can start asap.
- Wants to start with a small team producing original, collaborative IP, and grow their team as the studio grows.

If you want to find out more, email their National Manager, David Harding on: David@lightmare.com.au to organise an informal Skype chat about the role & their company.

When: Tuesday 8 May 6:30 onwards, talks start around 7:30

Where: 1000 Pound Bend, 361 Little Lonsdale St, Melbourne.

It’s another double header in May! With so much going on locally it’s difficult to stick to one thing.

First, the beans.

Kumobius will share with us a post mortem for their bouncy platformer, Bean’s Quest.

Find out the about the design inspirations and goals, how it was made, what with and how long it took. Hear about the problems, including the unexpected accusations of racism, successes, failures and learning experiences, and find out what’s next for the little jumping bean.

Then the steam.

Andrew Goulding will revise his GDC Steam talk:

One year on from winning Best Australian Game at Freeplay, Australian indie developer Brawsome transparently shares a year’s worth of net sales revenue from its first commercial game – Jolly Rover (PC/Mac). Showing, by using exact sales numbers from over 10 different distributors, how Steam accounts for the vast majority of sales, the massive impact of Steam sale periods, how Mac sales stack up (or don’t) to PC, and how the Mac App store ain’t the iOS App store. We show how casual game distributors were not worth the paperwork, and how late reviews and awards do nothing enough to boost sales. We openly discuss our relationship with Steam and show the direct impact price reductions have on sales, using actual data. And how we will avoid making same mistakes on our next title – MacGuffin’s Curse.

Enquiries: giselle@igdamelbourne.org

Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/384645214891090/

Click here to view the embedded video.

Thanks to Ben for filming  and letting use share our Melbourne meets further afield.

Yes, OK, it’s mostly referred to as cosplay, but I’m a fan of the old fashioned dress ups concept….

The Academy of Interactive Entertainment (AIE) are attempting to break the Guinness World Record™ for ‘Largest Crowd dressed as Video Game Characters’ on Saturday the 5th of May 2012, from 11am to 2pm at Federation Square, Melbourne.  Note the date change, as this event was initially scheduled for a Wednesday.

Residents and visitors of Melbourne are invited to attend COSGAME to help break the world record currently held by Wisconsin, USA with 425 participants.

All participants must register for this event and abide by the Guinness World Record™ guidelines in order to be successfully counted towards this attempt.

To register please visit www.cosgame2012.eventbrite.com.au . More information is also available from the related facebook event

 FOR ‘LARGEST GATHERING OF PEOPLE DRESSED AS VIDEO GAMES CHARACTERS’

1. All participants must be dressed in costumes representing characters from video games.

2. Characters from other media such as films, television, books and comics are acceptable; however these must have been featured in video games before any subsequent appearances in other media.
For example:
a. Sonic the Hedgehog first appeared in a video game in 1991, prior to subsequent television and comic book appearances; therefore Sonic qualifies for the attempt.
b. Batman first featured as a comic book character in 1939, prior to his first appearance as a video game character in 1986; therefore Batman does not qualify.

3. The eligibility of the characters to be considered for the attempt remains at the discretion of Guinness World Records.

4. All participants must be in position simultaneously and remain so for a minimum of 10 minutes.

5. A loud start and finish signal recognised by all participants must be used. Two experienced timekeepers (e.g. from a local athletics club) must time the attempt with stopwatches accurate to 0.01 seconds.

6. All participants must wear the costume for the entirety of the attempt.

Don’t let Easter confuse you, the next IGDA meeting is nearly upon us. I thought it best to consolidate the three post relating to tomorrow’s meet in one handy-dandy place.

When: Tuesday 10 April 6pm onwards

Where: The Workers’ Club, cnr Brunswick and Gertrude Sts, Fitzroy

Despite being a touch out of the CBD it’s very easy to get to…
86 tram stops right outside the door, 96 tram stops on Nicholson st, 112 stops right outside the door.
It’s a 10 minute walk from Parliament station. It also as good afterhours parking on Gertrude/Brunswick street.

What*:

7pm: Welcome and Introductions

7:05pm: Paul Hellyer from Autodesk has a quick rundown on the Autodesk Gameware 2013 releases as announced at GDC

7:15: GDC: Delayed Australian Release panel discussion with Brad Giblin, Trent Kusters, Matt Ditton, Katie Williams,  Tom Killen and Harry Lee will regale you with their varying perspectives on GDC.

8:00pm: Bit of a break which includes drinks thanks to Autodesk.

8:30: MacGuffin’s Curse release talk with Andrew Goulding and Ben Kosmina.

8:45: Thank you’s, announcements and  MOAR networking and drinks.

*all times may vary a little bit…

If you have any queries about this or future IGDAM events, email giselle@igdamelbourne.org

There’s an iOS development conference in Melbourne in May, and early bird tickets are now on sale until April 12.

From the creators of One More Thing…

You’ve got the idea, your code is solid, but you’re still working for the man and uncertain about going solo on the App Store — sound like you? Well you’re not alone. Others have been where you are and taken the leap into being full-time iOS developers, on their terms, doing what they want.

One More Thing isn’t a traditional programming conference. It’s a meeting for iOS developers, designers and those who just want to come along for the ride. You won’t directly learn to code better. Your UI probably won’t improve either. But you will leave with more confidence in your abilities as an iOS developer or designer.

Our hope is that through listening to the stories of successful independent iOS developers, you will be inspired to follow through on your own ideas and projects.

For 2012, we’ve brought the best independent iOS developers from all over the world to Melbourne, and expanded to an extra day of workshops, with masters in the craft of code & design. If you’ve ever wanted to make a living off the App Store, making your own apps and setting your own agenda, One More Thing is where you want to be.

For further information or to book a conference ticket, check out the One More Thing website.