IGDA Melbourne

Thanks to everyone for an amazing weekend.  Words fail for now, suffice to say I’ve had some great feedback already and am blown away by 28 Games 107 Jammers 2 Days.

Special mentions to the award winning teams:

Tasters’ Taste and Jammers’ Jam de Jam:

Omelette Boris (http://www NULL.kumobius NULL.com/omelette-boris/): Very Bean’s Quest, a fun and engaging 2D platformer where you turn from chicken to egg to chicken. The level of finish and overall polish of both graphics and gameplay on this game amazed the judges. To quote one of them; “ship it”.

Tom Greenaway (programming), James Greenaway (art), Ivan Neeson (programming)

@kumobius

www.kumobius.com (http://www NULL.kumobius NULL.com)

Sean Affleck: (audio)

@clickclique

Matt Scorah: (art)

@scozdawg

The whole team worked on the game design created level designs.

Most Fun:

Streams (http://globalgamejam NULL.org/2012/streams): once it clicks with you, there’s no goingback, it’s like digital skipping

Hu Hu Chen, Edward Whitehead, Leonard Frankel, Andrew Maxwell and two other wonderful people who have used pseduonyms, I’ll update this bit when I have the info.

Most Surprising Spread:

Seasonal Sci-Flies (http://globalgamejam NULL.org/2012/seasonal-sci-flies) by Aaron Cox, Matthew Dodd and Daniel Su

Tarty Art:

Whirlstrom (http://globalgamejam NULL.org/2012/whirlstrom)by Shelley, Bianca Gibson, Alex Fraser and Campbell Barton

Farty Art:

Burn (http://globalgamejam NULL.org/2012/burn)by Jarrod Lowery, Benn Lockyer and Sunny Koda

Smoothest Spread:

We had an amazing group with subgroups, and were tempted to choose the creators of Milk Blister (http://globalgamejam NULL.org/2012/milk-blisters) (my first game credit, so proud!) which included all of us, but instead was awarded to The three-in-0ne team headed up by the design brilliance of Harry Lee.

Thanks to our media friends for visiting and sharing the jam love, it was an amazing weekend without major dramas, which may have disappointed some looking for an angle, but as an event manager is exactly what I look for.

More info and updates with all the games after a bit more sleep has been caught up on.

All the games can be downloaded to play from the GGJ12 website. (http://globalgamejam NULL.org/og/games/16924/list)

I thought I’d share a list with you

Firstly, make sure you’re registered – jammers need Eventbrite registrations, friends of IGDAM need to have let giselle@igdamelbourne they’re coming along. If you’re not registered, you can’t jam.

Getting There

• Make sure you’re registered – jammers need Eventbrite registrations, friends of IGDAM need to have let giselle@igdamelbourne they’re coming along
• Ideally you arrive around 3pm on Friday 27 January at Beth Gleeson Building, La Trobe University, Bundoora, 3086 (http://maps NULL.google NULL.com NULL.au/maps?q=la+trobe+university,+bundoora&hl=en&ll=-37 NULL.703652,145 NULL.048714&spn=0 NULL.073205,0 NULL.154324&sll=-25 NULL.335448,135 NULL.745076&sspn=42 NULL.067662,79 NULL.013672&vpsrc=0&hq=la+trobe+university,&hnear=Bundoora+Victoria&t=m&z=13&iwloc=A).  If you can’t make it that time, don’t stress, get along as soon as you can, we’ve got all weekend, but heres the basics for Friday:
• Free parking is in car parks 1 and 2 in the WHITE bays only (please try to car pool where possible)
• Car park 2 is closest
• If you’re going by public transport, plan your journey with metlink (http://metlinkmelbourne NULL.com NULL.au/), closest transport is the Plenty Road tram and Macleod Station on the Hurstbridge line

What to bring

“Pack like you’re camping” – Caswal P

Things to remember:

Hardware/software – whatever geekery you need and have licence for. NO additional screens (besides laptops) allowed.

A swag – something to soften the floor and keep you warm – the sleeping quarters are COLD
Pillow and sleeping bag or the like
Towel – NEVER forget your towel – there will be showers available during daylight hours in the Union Building and it’s a great chance to stretch your legs
Soap/toothpaste/toothbrush/deodorant. Hairbrush is optional, the rest aren’t
Change of clothes – there’s more than 100 of us living communally for the weekend, be kind to your fellow jammers
Any favourite foods/drinks. You will be well catered for, but we can’t cater for everyone’s foibles.
EAR PLUGS for the light sleepers (trust me on this).Your favourite toy.
A CUP/MUG  for tea/coffee, preferably a spill-proof travel mug.

And a sense of creativity, an ability to roll your sleeves up to work as a team and make something wonderful.

Check out Rebecca’s advice on what to bring when jamming too (http://www NULL.convictinteractive NULL.com/?p=226), she’s got some top tips.

What’s happening when?

Friday

• 2:30-3:45pm  Registration at Beth Gleeson Building
  All jammers and guests must be signed in on site, so look for Giselle, Tom Killen, Fiona Murray, Obe Bradford, David May or James Rhodes to register your arrival. Late arrivals are accepted as long as they’re registered, but sooner is better.
• 4:00pm Welcome talks and discussion panel in West Lecture Theatre 3
• 5:00pm THE THEME REVEAL – West Lecture Theatre 3
• 5:30pm Team forming and brainstorming
• 6:00pm Back to the lecture theatre for elevator pitch and finalising teams
• 7:15pm Dinner – Pizza and Gelato outside the Beth Gleeson Building
• 8:00 – all going to plan it’s jamtime

Saturday

7:30-10:00am: Breakfast

12:30pm: Lunch

3:00pm: ALL GAMES MUST BE REGISTERED AT HTTP://GLOBALGAMEJAM.ORG

7:30: Dinner

Sunday

7:30-10:00am: Breakfast

12:30pm: Lunch

3:00pm: ALL GAMES MUST BE UPLOADING BY THIS TIME

4:00pm: Taste test time

5:00pm: clean up time

6:00pm: Head to the Eagle Bar, Union Building for a well earned drink, BBQ and awards presentations.

All media and games sector enquiries about visiting the event should be emailed to giselle@igdamelbourne.org

See you at the jam

On Thursday 2 Feb 2012 Kumobius (http://www NULL.kumobius NULL.com/)will release a major update that completes the Bean’s Quest game for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch. The free update almost doubles the content of the critically acclaimed platformer and introduces a final boss battle.

They will be holding a launch party to celebrate the completion of the game at our warehouse office:

• Thursday 2 Feb 2012, 5:30pm – 8:30pm
• 9 Little Oxford Street, Collingwood 3066, VIC

There will be free drinks, food and games to play, including; Super Street Fighter 4, Tetris The Grand Master and of course: Bean’s Quest. If you’re interested please join via the Facebook event so they know how many people are coming:

Kumobius is an indie game studio based in Melbourne. Bean’s Quest was first released in late July 2011 to much critical acclaim; the game was featured in the “New and Noteworthy” section on the App Store and received numerous favourable reviews. Since then, the game has been regularly updated with more content, culminating in the final update on 2 Feb 2012

Joel from Mnemonic Audio (http://www NULL.mnemonicaudio NULL.com/) has done an amazing job of distilling our ramble about the upcoming Global Game Jam at this week’s meet up.  If you’re looking for some can do sound help, talk to them because this podcast makes more sense than we did on the night!  50 minutes down to nine…and all of it highly relevant if you’re jamming in Melbourne this year…..enjoy! (and yes, I wish my voice were more suited to radio too, but Craig’s pretty dulcet)

IGDA 10Jan12 128 <————————– clickety, click, click!

Immersive Technologies promotional article

Serious Games – The exciting and growing alternative to the games industry

The serious games industry is an exciting alternative employer to the games/entertainment industry.

Immersive Technologies is the world’s largest and most proven supplier of surface and underground mining equipment simulators to the global mining industry. Similar to the advanced training simulators used by the aviation and military industries, our products are utilised to safely train mining equipment operators in the correct use of multi-million dollar equipment within a realistic virtual mining environment. Currently Immersive simulates over 70 different types and models of mining equipment, with customers in 30 countries around the world.

Gaming Software
Immersive Technologies uses software gaming technologies to build 3D virtual worlds and specialise in vehicle simulation and interactive terrains/materials. We also develop and produce the simulator hardware in-house, which includes 180 degree curved screens, head-tracking, and motion-feedback technologies. Our simulations are primarily developed using C++ with DirectX, and C# for the GUI front end.

Our talented team of software engineers follow an Agile development process and are committed to continuous improvement and following industry best practices.  We have virtually no “crunch time” thanks to our iterative based development, automated unit tests and ensuring that our nightly builds are of a quality that they could potentially be released to our customer base.

Immersive is a great place to learn!
We are always looking to develop the skills and abilities of our team through training, tech talks, web casts, study groups and compulsory code reviews. Every fortnight, we have a personal project Friday where everyone gets to work on their own projects and ideas.

We have a very social culture, with lunch outings, monthly beer and pizza, gaming nights and quarterly buffet lunches. Our social facilities include a pool table, Wii, dartboard and an awesome free coffee machine.

Immersive are always interested in talking to talented C++/C# developers with game or simulation backgrounds. We have already hired many developers and artists from the games industry including THQ, Interzone and Crytek. We are also very interested in high achieving graduates who have studied in areas such as Computer Science, Software Engineering, Games Technology, Mathematics and Physics.

The serious games industry is an exciting alternative to the entertainment industry. Immersive Technologies is a rapidly growing and stable company that works with the eight of the top ten largest mining companies in the world. You will receive exciting and varied work, job security, competitive pay, a friendly team environment and excellent working conditions. Best of all your projects very rarely get cancelled!

We will be sending one of our developers over to attend the Global Game Jam in Melbourne, so feel free to chat to him about the opportunities that exist at Immersive Technologies for you.

We are currently hiring so make sure you check out our website today!

http://www.immersivetechnologies.com/careers/softwaredevelopers.htm (http://www NULL.immersivetechnologies NULL.com/careers/softwaredevelopers NULL.htm)

See you are the Global Game Jam Melbourne 2012

The Melbourne Global Game Jam, running at La Trobe University Bundoora 27-29 January 2012, is stoked to have the support of  The Voxel Agents (http://thevoxelagents NULL.com) and Tin Man Games (http://tinmangames NULL.com NULL.au/blog/).

Tin Man Games, the creators of the compelling Gamebook Adventures series (http://gamebookadventures NULL.com/) are stalwarts for the IGDAM community. Neil’s no holds barred expose on the business life and financials of being indie was a memorable evening for it’s candour, humour and stark reality of indie dev life.

Ben Britten, Technical Director of Tin Man Games is a regular at IGDAM events.  ”The Melbourne indie-dev community has always been incredibly supportive of Tin Man Games.  Even though we are still small we feel like it is important to make sure we try to give back whenever we can.

“Also, game jams are awesome.”  Added Ben.

The Voxel Agents have recently ported their hit game Train Conductor 2

to Android, with a lot of bug testing QA supported by the IGDAM community and are continuing their involvement in game jams. Agent Tom Killen was part of the winning team at the Fabulous 48 Hour in Brisbane earlier in the year, heading up there especially for the jam.  Never one to miss a jamming opportunity, Agent Tom will be getting his jam on come Australia Day weekend.

Registrations of interest in jamming close on New Year’s Eve and it’s looking to be a great jam, with an exciting range or skills and experience signing up.  If you’re keen, and you haven’t already REGISTER INTEREST HERE.  Once you’ve done that we’ll be in touch by email with just a few more questions.  Jammers will be notified at the start of January once the head’s cleared from celebrations.

Have a safe and happy Christmas and New Year, bring on 2012, it’s exciting!

Melbourne game makers are preparing to show the world the talent we have here down under by locking themselves up for 48 hours and rapidly prototyping some game designs to share their great ideas with the world. More than 80 game developers are expected to jam at La Trobe University in Bundoora on the Australia Day weekend to be part of this global event.

The IGDA Global Game Jam is an annual international game development weekend.  The 2012 Global Game Jam runs 27-29 January and starts at 5pm in each time zone.  More locally there could be as many as ten public jam sites in Australia and New Zealand, including Sydney and Wellington and Wollongong.  Game Developers of varying skill levels get together for 48 hours and make a game from start to finish. The focus is on having fun, being creative, and improving their ability to make the games that everyone loves.

At the time of writing 47 locations & 1204 jammers registered worldwide for Global Game Jam 2012.  In 2011 over 1500 games were made in 174 locations spanning 44 countries in a truly global event.

Game Developers of varying skill levels get together for 48 hours and make a game from start to finish. The focus is on having fun, being creative, and improving our ability to make the games that everyone loves.

Registrations of interest are being accepted for the Melbourne Global Game Jam hosted by IGDAM and La Trobe University, until the end of 2011 at http://igdamelbourne.org/2011/12/game-jam-returns-january-27-19-2012-thanks-to/ so if you make games and love a challenge in a fun and supportive environment you can register as a team or individual.

Giselle Rosman, Coordinator of IGDAM says “The game jam is a weekend of crazy, creative, sleep deprived games development.  I’d encourage novices and studio veterans alike to get their jam on.   Thanks to La Trobe University (http://www NULL.latrobe NULL.edu NULL.au/), AIE (http://www NULL.aie NULL.edu NULL.au/)and Immersive Technologies (http://www NULL.immersivetechnologies NULL.com/) we will be doing it all again from 27th to the 29th January 2012. We had a lot to learn in our first year so I’m looking forward to the amazing displays of team work, creativity and sheer guts and determination involved in the experience that is Jamming.”

What happened at last year’s Melbourne Jam?

At Melbourne’s inaugural Global Game Jam, all 73 participants were guests of La Trobe University. It was a magnificent turnout, one of the largest in the world which just goes to show the depth of talent and creative flair and enthusiasm that we have available here in Melbourne. Participants formed into teams on the first day and came up with a large number of creative game ideas. Each team created their concept and worked through the night rapidly creating playable versions of their games.

For the first time ever, Melbourne participated in the Global Game Jam in January of this year. 18 games were made by 73 participants, including “Ultra Happy Death Virus” which was voted by the panel of industry experts to be the best game made at that jam. UHDV can be played on the WinnitronAu at the Mana Bar in Melbourne and  other prototypes created over a creatively gruelling two days have been also been developed further.

Global Game Jam announces a theme and constraints and each team creates a game from start to finish in just a weekend.  Some jammers come in teams, and other teams are formed at the jam.  It is a great opportunity for game makers to expand their skills, meet likeminded developers, and have a fun time. Designers, artists, and coders are all welcome!

Want to know more? Here’s a bit more background for you

Here is some more background information:

http://pc.mmgn.com/Articles/Global-Game-Jam-Melbourne-Repo (http://pc NULL.mmgn NULL.com/Articles/Global-Game-Jam-Melbourne-Repo)

http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/games/blogs/screenplay/melbourne-game-makers-get-jammin-20110127-1a65b.html (http://www NULL.smh NULL.com NULL.au/digital-life/games/blogs/screenplay/melbourne-game-makers-get-jammin-20110127-1a65b NULL.html)

http://palgn.com.au/18063/igda-global-game-jam-melbourne-winners-announced/ (http://palgn NULL.com NULL.au/18063/igda-global-game-jam-melbourne-winners-announced/)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Game_Jam (http://en NULL.wikipedia NULL.org/wiki/Global_Game_Jam)

The weather held off there was a bit of clapping, a smattering of cricket, a lot of ninjas,  a heap of delicious food,  plenty of drinks and a Surprise Attack (http://surpriseattack NULL.com NULL.au/) of Ice Cream.  As Mitch put it, The Ice Cream van that offers free ice cream: whatever you want! Exists only in dreams, cartoons, movie plots involving child baiting and IGDAMAS Parties!

Thanks to everyone who has made this year a great one for IGDAM, which is pretty much all of you, but special mentions for yesterday’s enjoyment goes to:

Lions share of funding thanks to:
Big Ant Studios (http://www NULL.bigant NULL.com/)
The Voxel Agents (http://www NULL.thevoxelagents NULL.com/)
Kevin Power – VoiceOver artist (http://kevinpowe NULL.voiceoverartist NULL.com NULL.au/)
This is Wicked Awesome – the chimps (https://www NULL.facebook NULL.com/TheAdventuresofJamesChimp)
Marshalls and Dent Lawyers (http://www NULL.mdlaw NULL.com NULL.au/)
And all you other Pozible supporters

The magical ice cream truck of dreams was thanks to Surprise Attack (http://surpriseattack NULL.com NULL.au/) – if you’re an indie looking for promo, start here.

Ninja Bread men baked by Mitch, in case ice cream, apple and pumpkin pie wasn’t enough.

Conga line and cricket thanks to the lovely Leena and filmed by the sensational Stephan Schutze.

Jeremy Kool (http://thepaperfox NULL.blogspot NULL.com/) for the pretty igdamas ninja

And final and personal thanks to everyone who lets me get my bossy on and pulled together to make it happen – Tom, Obe, David, Matt Lacey, Fiona, Anna, Jamie, Craig, Caswal, and if you’ve helped out and I haven’t included you then you’re even more super ace for being understanding!

All the best for the silly season; enjoy, stay safe and we’ll catch up in the New Year.

Now our thoughts turn to game jam….registrations are filling fast so make sure you’ve signed up if you’re keen for a weekend of creative, collaborative game creation.

If you would like to help out with the jam please email giselle at igdamelbourne dot org….even if you’ve already mentioned it to her (she’s a bit forgetful sometimes)

So, wanna see a conga line of gamedevs?

When: Saturday 10 December 12.00 – 4.00 pm

Where: The Rotunda, Edinbugh Gardens, North Fitzroy (http://maps NULL.google NULL.com NULL.au/maps?q=-37 NULL.786764,144 NULL.981566&hl=en&sll=37 NULL.786764,144 NULL.981566&sspn=9 NULL.284901,19 NULL.753418&vpsrc=0&t=m&z=15)

To get your ticket you must RSVP

Massive props to everyone who made this pozible (hurr hurr), especially

Big Ant Studios (http://bigant NULL.com/)

The Voxel Agents (http://www NULL.thevoxelagents NULL.com/)

Marshalls and Dent (http://www NULL.mdlaw NULL.com NULL.au/)

Kevin Powe – Voiceover artist (http://kevinpowe NULL.voiceoverartist NULL.com NULL.au/)

James Chimp (http://www NULL.jameschimp NULL.com/)

and the rest of you fab bunch.  Support those that support you!

Catering will be provided by Smokestack Lightning BBQ, which sounds delicious.

If you have an esky you can bring along to chill drinks, contact giselle at igdamelbourne dot org to let me know, cold drinks are tops in December.

Thanks again, and we hope to see you there.