IGDA Melbourne

Thanks to everyone who turned up to the night and especially those who spoke, you made it another great event! Here are the speakers and how to contact them:

Paul Callaghan
The co-director of Freeplay (http://www NULL.freeplay NULL.net NULL.au/). Tonight he shared with us a quick review of some of the speakers that are going to be at GCAP (http://www NULL.gcap NULL.com NULL.au/) this year, giving us a glimpse of the great line up in this year’s very themed event.

David Thompson – Tiberian Sun Rising (http://rising NULL.cnc-source NULL.com/)
Having spoken to at the last IGDA open mic night he got up both to give an update on where the project was at but also to ask for anyone who was interested in joining the team to work on sound, and was also looking for a talented particle expert. So get in contact through the website if your interested in joining them on making what is looking to be an amazing Total Conversion.

Chris Watts – Play Bit Entertainment (http://www NULL.playbitent NULL.com/)
Another regular contributor to these nights, Chris Watts is looking for a programmer to join a small team from Play Bit (in collaboration with the Red Tribe creative spaces) to create an iOS game. They’d love someone with Unity experience, but at the very least need to be great with either C# or Javascript (probably more Java as Unity is a little different on it’s JS). Also, don’t forget to check out their recently released Facebook game MineQuest (http://apps NULL.facebook NULL.com/minequest/) – originally conceived as an iOS game it’s interesting to see what can be done with a good idea to extend it into different arenas.

Giselle Rosman – La Trobe University
g.rosman@latrobe.edu.au (g NULL.rosman null@null latrobe NULL.edu NULL.au)
I know she didn’t actually “speak”, here’s what she would have said. She’s looking for iOS App developers (or cross platform mobile devs if you’re up for it) to possibly create an App for La Trobe University open days in the coming years.

Rob Caporretto (site (http://blog NULL.rob-caporetto NULL.com/))
Having worked on this space-action-shooter-with-a-twist for over a year now he’s looking for people with iOS devices who’d be happy to test it for him and give him some feedback on the game which is currently in Alpha stages.

Ben Britten
http://benbritten.com/ (http://benbritten NULL.com/)
At Freeplay (http://www NULL.freeplay NULL.net NULL.au) Ben presented a talk as an introduction to using Unity. The feedback was so great that he’s decided (along with Rob Caporretto and others) to start a Melbourne Unity User Group. Currently the best place to go to get involved is the Google Group at http://groups.google.com/group/unity3dmelbourne (http://groups NULL.google NULL.com/group/unity3dmelbourne). All are welcome, from pros to students, artista and programmers. A wonderfully pithy talk at exactly 38 seconds.

Finn Morgan – Colourbind (http://colourbind NULL.com/)
Also shown at Freeplay, Finn showed us his game Colourbind (http://colourbind NULL.com/), an amazing action physics puzzler based around changing gravities which affect different coloured objects. He told us about his ideas about current Meta review scores (from sites such as Metacritic) which just give average scores to game, and would rather see these shown as standard deviations, as to get a better idea what games are “average” and which are just “controversial”. This sprang from the fact that the he got from Freeplay from people who hated it was “it’s frustrating”, which turns out to be the same as from the people who loved it, “I love it because it’s frustrating”.

Brad Giblin – Film Victoria (http://film NULL.vic NULL.gov NULL.au/)
Sadly  Brad’s talk was cut short but the fact that the minister has not quite signed off on “the big news”. Suffice to say there IS big news from Film Victoria coming in the next few days / weeks. So stay tuned to their announcements – and get ready to talk to Brad – this should be very interesting and hopefully a boon to the local industry!

Trent Kusters – Torus Games (http://torus NULL.com NULL.au/)
Taking a step back from his usual role as IGDA MC for the night, Trent had the happy news that Torus is again hiring (after some setbacks earlier in the year) and is looking for new talent! The sad news is that they keep getting underdone, underworked resumes and non-existant portfolios from designers. So remember, polish, spell check and generally make sure your work is relavent to the job! And if you’ve submitted a CV to Torus earlier in the year, please re-work it, re-polish it, and re-submit it with an explanation of what why!

Ivan and Greg – Rubber House Studio (http://rubberhousestudio NULL.com/)
Two experienced animators who have recently gone it alone and started a new studio. Greg’s background includes experience as a 2D and 3D animator at Weta, and Ivan in both animation and the creation of pixel art adventure games. They presented their showreel to the audience to give us a taste of what they do now.

Craig Peebles – Moving Target Games (http://movingtargetgames NULL.com/)
Another update as to where this teams is at since the last Open Mic night. They’re looking for more people to work with so go check out their site and send them an email!

Caz Parker and Andrew Lamb – Automation Game (http://automationgame NULL.com/)
A late entry, Caz and Andrew told us about their up and coming, not quite yet Alpha, game called Automation. It’s looking quite amazing so far and they’re touting it as a Street Rod (http://en NULL.wikipedia NULL.org/wiki/Street_Rod) meets Transport Tycoon (http://en NULL.wikipedia NULL.org/wiki/Transport_Tycoon). The idea is that you get to take control of creating and running an automotive business, from building the engines to selling and marketing your cars; the whole industry! It’s aimed at real car nuts, but will be easy enough to learn (and to teach) if you’re just a beginner in the car world. Look forward to this one!

Stephan Shutze - http://www.stephanschutze.com (http://www NULL.stephanschutze NULL.com/)
Another surprise entry, Stephan back up what what Trent had to say about portfolios and resumes. Make sure they’re 120% awesome before showing potential employees! He also wanted to remind everyone of why they make games – it’s from the heart – you do it because you love games and not because you think it’s going to be an easy get rich quick scheme (using MineCraft (http://www NULL.minecraft NULL.net/) as an example).

The audio from the Open Mic Night that was held on Tuesday the 3rd of March 2010 is now available. Just listen below. Have comments on how audio should be available in the future? Please just leave a comment below.

Thanks to Jamie Galea from Level 3 (http://www NULL.level3 NULL.org NULL.au) games podcast for the recording.

From 7pm Tuesday 2 March IGDA is hosting an Open Mic Night at The Embassy in Southbank.

Whilst understandably it’s a busy time in the lead up to GDC, this could also be a chance to catch up with colleagues, find out who’s heading state side and arrange to meet up in San Fran.

The initial plan was for a pitch night, however it would also be an ideal opportunity for people to get to know who’s who in the local industry. If you could come along and introduce yourself, it’s great for people to put faces to names.

This is an opportunity to get to know people on their way up, and maybe even help or mentor them in their development. Helping independent developers strengthens our whole industry!

So feel free to put your name down for a quick spiel on who you are, what you do and what you’re interested in. The Mic opens at 8 and it would great to have a cross section of industry interests involved in the evening.

If you would like to register, just visit http://tinyurl.com/yz9m2v6 (http://tinyurl NULL.com/yz9m2v6)

If you need more details, feel free to email info@igdamelbourne.org (info null@null igdamelbourne NULL.org) or post a comment.

Your support would be appreciated.

… will be at 8pm on Tuesday 2 March at The Embassy Club, 1 Queensbridge St, Southbank

It would be great if people happy to have a quick rant about what they do or what they’ve worked on or what they’ve worked on/are working on/would like to work on etc… A night like this can only be enriched by a diversity of speakers and teams could be built or ideas developed

Your registration is greatly appreciated (https://spreadsheets NULL.google NULL.com/viewform?hl=en&formkey=dFU0NFFoQ0VEYnBYTnplRjdLRDZ6bUE6MA)

Feel free to email or comment on this post for further information

IGDA Melbourne in March

The next IGDA Melbourne event is (drumroll please…)

• Tuesday 2 March, from 7pm
• The Embassy, Southbank

Open Mic Night – Pitch your Game Plan

Tell your peers what you’re working on, put a call out for co-conspiritors and get feedback in a friendly social atmosphere.   Alternatively, introduce yourself and what you have done/are doing/plan to do.

If you’d like to book a spot for the night just email info@igdamelbourne.org

Any questions just let me know.

The inevitable facebook is here

This is our first event of this type, and your support and feedback would be appreciated

The mic will be switched on at 8pm

Tuesday 2 February 7pm onwards

The Embassy
1 Queensbridge St
Southbank

A social gathering and networking event including a talk from MEAA delegate Eleisha Mullane.

Eleisha will talk about worker rights, in relation to the new IR legislation, and the Modern Award that will now cover games industry employees. She will also talk about the union’s involvement in assisting Ettamogah employees and how the industry can work together to improve conditions.

We already have more than 60 confirmed and nearly 60 ‘maybes’ RSVPed to the Facebook event and are looking forward to another great turnout.

Eleisha Mullane is the Victorian Lead Organiser for the Media Entertainment & Arts Alliance (MEAA), the union for people working in media and entertainment industries including animation and game development.

Eleisha will speak about your rights as a worker, focusing on the new industrial relations legislation that came into effect on the 1^st of July 2009 and the new Modern Award that will now cover people working in games development.

She will also give a short update on a recent campaign in the animation industry to assist people who were stood down and found that they had not been paid for some weeks.

There will also be focus on how the industry can work together to improve the local games and animation industies.

If you have any questions in advance of the presentation Eleisha can be contacted on 1300 656 512 or emaileleisha.mullane@alliance.org.au (eleisha NULL.mullane null@null alliance NULL.org NULL.au)

To assist the union in researching the industry we would like to ask people to complete an short online survey about standard conditions that people work under in the industry. Please click on the link below to participate.

After our successful re-launch at The Embassy bar and our Christmas BBQ, we’re looking ahead to what we can do in 2010. We’ve been overwhelmed by the sheer volume of support for the chapter, and we hope that the coming year will see the IGDA Melbourne chapter become an integral part of the local development community.

We’re committed to a mix of networking, social, and informative events for 2010 – see below – but we want to make sure that the chapter gives you what you want so if there are specific topics you’d like to see covered or ideas for alternatives, drop us an email at info@igdamelbourne.org.

First up in 2010 are:

Meetup at the Embassy – Tuesday 2 February @ 7pm

8pm: Eleisha Mullane speaker from MEAA (http://www NULL.alliance NULL.org NULL.au/), the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance, will be discussing how they represent games industry workers, freelance developers and indies.

Facebook event (http://www NULL.facebook NULL.com/event NULL.php?eid=209682394682&index=1)

Open Mic at the Embassy – Tuesday 2 March @ 7pm

We’ve had a lot of interest in helping people put teams together so we want to use the March meetup to give people a chance to pitch their projects and speak to like-minded individuals. We’re still putting the details together, but if you’re looking to be part of something bigger, we’ll have some more news before the Feb meetup.

IGDA Melbourne Forums & Opportunities

As well as the open-mic night, we also want to keep people informed on an ongoing basis. First up, we’re looking at getting the Melbourne forums back up and running on the official IGDA site – www.igda.org/chapters (http://www NULL.igda NULL.org/chapters). We’ll let you know when that’s done.

We’re also looking at putting together an email containing jobs / opportunities for the local community, including internships, funding opportunities, people looking for teams, etc. This will be collated by a member of our organisation committee and sent out as required.

We also have some other exciting ideas that we’ll announce as soon as we have things nailed down. For more information, or just to contact us with ideas, email us at info@igdamelbourne.org (info null@null igdamelbourne NULL.org), join us on Facebook or LinkedIn, or follow us on Twitter.