…..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, 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 (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

Spring is in the air, and the Melbourne IGDA is moving home!

Following the closure of Embassy Hotel, we are pleased to announce that our new venue is the 3 Degrees Bar in the QV Building, off Swanston Street in Melbourne’s CBD.  (http://www.3degrees.com.au/)

The bar has lots of special deals for us,  and the evening is shaping up to be very exciting.

We’re still finalising details of the next meeting, and will post more information early next week. For now we just want to make sure that people know it will be happening…..

3 Degrees

Tuesday 7th of September

7:30 PM

Put the date in your diary!

Mark.

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 event on Saturday 14th and Sunday 15th of August.

These events will be held at the Match Bar, 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.

As most of you are aware, our most recent meetup was on the 6th of July. We hosted Tony Reed (Game Developers’ Association of Australia), Neil Rennison (Fraction  Studios, Tin Man Games) and Cameron Lee (EA Melbourne) as panel members for a night of industry and development dissection.

Apologies were accepted on behalf of Kevin Chan (Bluetongue) who unfortunately couldn’t make it due to impromptu overseas guests.

The night was kicked off by Paul Callaghan of Freeplay, who was very pleased to announce that the IGDA will be hosting the Freeplay after parties. This will in fact be counted as our next monthly meetup, so be sure to head along to Freeplay (it’s looking fantastic) and we’ll see you for drinks afterwards.

Now that the Freeplay program is out (link below), expect details on the after parties on August 14 & 15 very soon.

http://www.freeplay.net.au/2010-program/

The studio panel went well, with our three presenters covering a range of development and industry related topics, including… marketing, outsourcing, production and communication techniques, tips for startups, and much more. The end of the panel saw some great questions from the audience also.

On behalf of the committee and July’s attendees, a big thank you to our three panel members! Also, thanks to everyone who made it along on the night.

Stay tuned for more info on next month’s Freeplay after parties and other info bound to come out of the IGDA woodwork.

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 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, an independent games developer currently bringing back interactive gamebooks to the iPhone and iPad. He also runs the art outsource company, Fraction Studios 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

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/

We are also now on Twitter , Facebook and LinkedIn, 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 ), 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

Earlier this week, the IGDA’s meetup for the month of June – a more relaxed coming together for networking and socialising – was another success! People showed up from many aspects of development, media, academia, and more. Many thoughts were shared as well as new meetings. It was a great time for those who’ve made friends and partnerships to solidify things in a relaxed atmosphere.

Due to the content of the night, there’s not much to report… except that a lot of scheming went on that paints an exciting picture for future IGDA initiatives and events.

Stay tuned for more! We’ll be sure to speak up when we can.

Look forward to seeing you all again at July’s event.

Much love, the IGDA Committee.

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 and we’d like to encourage you to invite fellow games folk along for a night of networking…and comparing notes on RDR

The trivia night went off with a bang on Tuesday the 4th of May (yes, there were some Star Wars related questions).

The game was host to over 100 players and it was roughly an hour and a half before the dust settled. The top ranking team was “The Fucking Volcano in Iceland”, those ever-tasteful fellows took away the grand prize of a PlayStation 3, generously donated by Big Ant Studios. The winners were followed closely by The Lavish Badgers (winners of a Wacom tablet, donated by Wacom) and then, coming in at third, was Colonel Mustard’s Lonely <3′s Club Band (winers of a copy of Expose 6 and also a membership to CG Society, all thanks to our friends at Ballistic Media).  A $100 drink card for the Mana Bar up in sunny Queensland was given to the team that finished last, who will remain anonymous (for obvious reasons). There were also three lucky winners, of the Heads and Tails games ran through the night, that received some fantastic GDC T-Shirts (thanks to Jenn Sandercock). The night was a huge success and a lot of fun was had by all, both in attendance and those participating.

Thanks to everyone who could make it, and a very special thanks to our wonderful sponsors, Big Ant Studios, Wacom, Ballistic Media, Jennifer Sandercock, The Mana Bar, and of course the BLVD Bar for being wonderful and giving the trivia night a home.

Stay tuned for news on next month’s event.