IGDA Melbourne

Hi all

Wow! More than 180 games devs and transmedia enthusiastics came along to last night’s gathering we like to call Tim

What a fabulous night – we’d love to get your feedback in comments to this post, and a big welcome and thanks for coming along to all the new igdammers.

HUGE props to Jarrad and Karl for giving up their time and sharing their expertise  and insights into creative processes. Also thanks to the lovely Christy Dena for giving us the opportunity to mash it up and  the State Library of Victoria for allowing us to have the biggest and most AV fault free event ever!

I mentioned a few things, and forgot to mention a few others in all the excitement:

What I remembered:

• Firemint (http://firemint NULL.com/work-with-firemint/)are still on the hunt for talent – particularly, and right now, QA Testers
• Big Ant Studios (http://www NULL.bigant NULL.com/jobs/view/gameplay-programmer-22/) are advertising for a gameplay programmer
• Library Hack is going on – could win 6 grand and have fun with datasets!
• FimVic has some sweet plans for encouraging creative independent processes, and getting the chance to travel to London as part of the idea sharing – (more on this soon)
• WinnitronAU (http://www NULL.redpointsoftware NULL.com NULL.au/) is ocming along – you should put your game on it!

What I forgot to mention:

• Next month’s plans…for the full details you’ll just have to wait a bit – it’s teaser time:

There’s this amazing bunch of blokes called fondly known as Tin Man Games, (http://tinmangames NULL.com NULL.au/blog/) they make these sensational GameBook Adventures and somewhat of a doyenne of indies locally.

Well… they’re going to lift the tin lid on their financials – so if you want to know a bit more on the business side of what some call indie, some call prindie then this will also be a don’t miss event….and that’s not all (but it’s already a long teaser so I’ll save the rest for later)

Facebook event coming soon – please do reply there if you can as it really assists working out how many are coming along and who will fit!

Again, feel free to offer feedback on and igdam events, either comment here or email giselle@igdamelbourne.org

Thanks for coming

IGDA Melbourne was asked to chat with the team on “Byte Into It (http://www NULL.rrr NULL.org NULL.au/program/byte-into-it/)” on 3RRR FM last night, about the Global Game Jam that was run last weekend (Once again I’d like to give gushing thanks to our awesome sponsors for the event, Firemint and La Trobe University).

It was lots of fun chatting about what the Global Game Jam is, the games that were made, and the energy of the weekend. You can download a podcast of the episode here (http://rrrfm NULL.libsyn NULL.com/index NULL.php?post_category=Byte%20Into%20It) (Feb 2) – I’m on from about 17:00.

Again, if you want to actually see the games that were made, and play them yourself, come and meet us at Cho Gao (Melbourne Central) next Tuesday Feb 8th. The presentation will start at 7:30, but come before then to say hi and have a few drinks

Be there.

That is all

And the 2011 Global Game Jam has been completed. This was the biggest ever Global Game Jam, with a record 6500 participants globally, taking part in 170 sites in 44 countries, making a total of almost 1500 games (All of which can be downloaded from the GGJ (http://www NULL.globalgamejam NULL.org/) website to play.

Congratulations to everyone that joined in the fun! This was IGDA Melbourne’s first time running a GGJ event, and we had 72 eager developers locked up in cramped (and seriously air-conditioned) conditions over an entire weekend, making video games based on the theme ‘Extinction’. We had 18 teams formed, all creating and completing a playable game. This by itself is a fantastic achievement, and something all the jammers should be proud of. Some of the teams have already continued working on their games after the jam.

We’d like to once again thank our sponsors for the event, Firemint, La Trobe University and Stephan Schutze (http://www NULL.stephanschutze NULL.com/). Without their support before and during the event we simply would not have been able to pull this off, so huge props to all of them! Huge thanks to Giselle and also all the other IGDA committee members and helpers we had over the weekend.

The excitement through the entire weekend was constantly high, with people meeting new friends to form teams, and teams mingling and sharing ideas and improvements throughout. Photos and videos will be posted shortly on this site, and a bunch of photos are already on the facebook (http://www NULL.facebook NULL.com/group NULL.php?gid=2387534951) page.

We had a constant stream of visitors and media throughout the event, including representatives from Firemint, Torus Games and Tin Man Games, Hosts and crew from Level 3 and other local media. We also had a prestigious panel of judges to decide which of the games were most supremely awesome. A number of awards were given, with certificates and prizes. Full details on these, and links to all the games to come soon.

Thanks to all who helped make this event so memorable, in particular the jammers themselves. Your enthsiasm throughout the entire weekend, particularly in the wee small hours of the morning, even when seriously sleep deprived, was truly inspiring, and it’s fantastic to see just how many quality games were made in a single weekend.

We’ll be reminiscing on all the events of the weekend, and re-capping all the games made during the weekend, at our next meet at Cho Gao, February 8th. Looking forward to seeing you all there

Over 70 game makers are heading to La Trobe University’s Melbourne campus in Bundoora to get their game on next weekend as part of the Global Game Jam.

The Global Game Jam takes place on January 28-30 and sees volunteer teams of video game designers across over 174 venues and 44 countries working together for two days and nights to create games from scratch.  This Melbourne event is organised by the International Game Developers’ Association (IGDA) Melbourne chapter, and includes nearly 80 professional developers, indies and students in the eclectic mix of participants ready to fuel up and create. One of the big players in the local games development scene Firemint (http://firemint NULL.com/), the Melbourne based developer best known for worldwide hits Flight Control and Real Racing on iPhone and iPad, sees the benefit of such events and are pleased to be sponsoring.

Rob Murray, Firemint’s CEO says “Firemint is very happy to feed the hard-working teams at this year’s Melbourne Game Jam. We’re big believers in prototyping games in a short amount of time as there’s no better way to see whether a concept is actually fun. As well as the “Game Days” we run internally at Firemint, Steve and I each prototyped a game in just a few days – Puzzle Quest and Flight Control – so you never know whether Game Jam might see the next great Aussie game emerge!”

Infinite Interactive, the talent behind Puzzle Quest led by Steve Fawkner, was recently acquired by Firemint. “There is a heap of creativity in the local development community,” Mr Fawkner said, “so we’re excited to be supporting that. Rob and I are looking forward to heading to Game Jam on Friday and chatting to the teams!”

The judging panel for the local competition is as diverse as the participants and includes Tassos Stevens, Co-Director of Coney (http://youhavefoundconey NULL.net/) (UK), Sam Mayo, the Community Support Coordinator from  Firemint; Neil Rennison , Co-founder and Creative Director of Gamebook Adventures creator Tin Man Games (http://tinmangames NULL.com NULL.au/blog/);  Leena van Deventer, Indie Games Section Editor over at Resolution Magazine (http://resolution-magazine NULL.co NULL.uk/content/),  and Donald Duong, co-host  and reviewer for Channel 31’s Level 3 (http://www NULL.level3 NULL.org NULL.au/).

Participants of the Global Game Jam will find out this year’s mystery theme at 5 p.m. on Friday 28 January before breaking into teams and starting the long 2 days of making code, art, music and gameplay.  Finished games will be uploaded to the Global Game Jam web site (http://www NULL.globalgamejam NULL.org/) on Sunday 30 January.

If you are part of the local games industry or media and would like to come along and check it out, please email committee@igdamelbourne.org

And now, it’s time to formally announce the sponsors of the Melbourne site of the Global Game Jam, 2011!

The Melbourne Global Game Jam 2011 is proudly brought to you by:

• La Trobe University, Bundoora: La Trobe University are providing us with pretty much the perfect venue to hold a Game Jam! We’ll be situated in their IT Labs, with ready access to PC’s, Network and internet access. It’s fair to say that without such a venue, it would be very hard to put together an event like this.
• Stephan Schutze: Stephan is the creator of Sound Library (http://www NULL.stephanschutze NULL.com/), an online collection of over 17,000 high quality sounds that can be used for nearly any purpose. Stephan is bringing the entire library with him to the jam, and will be on-site for the majority of the weekend to help participants make best use of this powerful audio resource in their games.
• Firemint: Firemint have generously offered to help fund the Game Jam, greatly allowing us to provide food and snacks to the jammers with the minimum of disruption to what will be a frantically-paced weekend.

If you registered (correctly) for the IGDAM Christmas party on Big Ant’s roof top thanks to Autodesk and FMOD you should have received your invitation via email.

It looks like there’ll be people from a pretty even spread of indies, prindies, wage devs, students and educators from, well, Big Ant,  Autodesk and FMOD of course along with

• AIE
• Blue Tongue
• Brawsome
• CATC
• Deakin
• Demruth (jetlag permitting)
• Drop Spider
• EA
• Ex-Krome
• Ex-Transmission
• Firelight Technologies
• Firemint
• Infinite Interactive
• Iron Monkey
• Katanco
• La Trobe University
• Level 3
• Mishme
• Mnemonic Audio (who have offered to kick in $100 for the bar tab, so yay! More of that!)
• Pilkington Street Studio
• Play-Bit Entertainment
• Qantm
• RMIT
• Ryan Bros & Assoc
• The Voxel Agents
• Tin Man Games
• Universe Creation 101
• Visceral
• Wicked Witch Software
• Zoomorphix Systems

So yeah, should be a top day!  It’s strictly invitation, over 18 and entry via gold coin donation – so if you’re registered, your  name’s on the door!

If you can provide a sound system and tunes please get in touch via giselle@igdamelbourne.org

PS – I need a break before tagging, this post, but I’ll get there!

See ya on the rooftop!

The plans for the party are underway – and numbers are filling fast.

We’ve got the location – Big Ant Studios right in the middle of town – thanks! *waves* – and this also means we’ve got the list at the door, and if you’ve not on it with invite in hand then you miss out. And that would make us sad. So please make sure you register

We’ve got the food – HUUUUUGE shoutout to AUTODESK for sponsoring the tucker and who also have some super-amazing deals for ‘lil ‘ole IGDA Melbourne folk – so get in touch with Paul Hellyer if you’re looking to upgrade by Jan 18

We’ve got hmmm, a few drinks I guess – so if you feel like sponsoring the bar of what is sure to be a memorable party, please , contact giselle@igdamelbourne.org – I’d love to hear from you and make it that a top arvo is had by all.

Have no fear, it’ll all happen – but any and all support is welcome.

If you work for any of the tagged companies which we do our best to support we’d love your involvement – and it seems from the rsvp’s we’ll see some of most of you there.

Bring on the rooftop!!