IGDA Melbourne

April’s monthly meet-up has come and gone, and it proved to be one of our most successful events to date. A large portion of the thanks goes to our fantastic speakers.

First up, we heard from Simon Joslin of The Voxel Agents (http://www NULL.thevoxelagents NULL.com/), creators of Train Conductor. In what was an extremely informative and interesting thirty minute presentation. Voxel walked us through the debut year of one of Melbourne’s up and coming independent studios. Many thanks to Simon, Matt and Tom (aka The Voxel Agents) for sharing their experiences with the IGDA.

Following The Voxel Agents was news from a magical event held on distant shores; the 2010 Game Developers’ Conference (http://www NULL.gdconf NULL.com/) (GDC), occurring annually in San Francisco.

Jenn Sandercock gave us insight into the mayhem, mischief and magic of volunteering for GDC as she recounted her unique perspective of the bohemoth conference.

Mark Flanagan brought back some knowledge from the various presentations he made it to at the conference. His talk touched on some peculiar and brilliant ideologies shared by Naughty Dog, the team behind Uncharted 2. Mark has copies of the GDC presentations he covered for anyone who may be interested.

Then last up to give us their GDC perspective was Alexander Bruce (http://demruth NULL.com/), creator of award winning PC title, Hazard. Bruce spoke of his successes and experiences travelling to GDC as an indie and (along with some interesting stories) had some great tips for travelling indie developers. Most memorable were some exceptionally good examples on the importance of capitalising on your successes.

Then, of course, the ever-impassioned Stephan Schutze was up to tell us all about his new endeavour – an online free-to-download sound library. Definitely something all developers should be checking out. You can find out more at www.stephanschutze.com

Until our next meeting (4th of May), keep up the great work guys.

Thanks to all our speakers and those who came along on the night and made it the fantastic event it was.

When: Tuesday 13 April 7pm
Where: The Embassy, 1 Queensbridge St, Southbank

What: 8pm The Voxel Agents: One year into indie

The creators of iPhone App ‘Train Conductor’ give a rundown of the highs and lows, challenges and successes of life as an Indie Developer Start-up.

8.30 GDC Goss

A selection of people who went to GDC – including Jenn Sandercock – who was there as a volunteer and Mark Flanagan – who went to look from an education and IGDA perspective, will spend a few minutes sharing their experiences and answering questions…. details of other speakers will be listed once they are confirmed.

9.00 Big Ant sound guy, Stephan Schutze

Stephan will give you a quick rundown on his awesome FREE sound library (http://www NULL.stephanschutze NULL.com/).

If you’re a FBer please RSVP here (http://www NULL.facebook NULL.com/event NULL.php?eid=334288174057&ref=mf) so we can make sure staffing is alright on the night

Any questions, feel free to email info@igdamelbourne.org, and we hope to see you there

Things are ticking along, and the next meeting in April is just choc-full of gamery goodness. This is thanks to eveyone who’s come along and the lovely committee folk who’ve been getting it all together in between their other commitments:

Alexander Bruce
Trent Kusters
Mark Flanagan
Dominic McDonnell
Giselle Rosman
Tarwin Stroh-Spijer

Feel free to catch up with committee folk the at the next meet up with any ideas and suggestions about future meetings, speakers, events etc.

UPCOMING EVENTS
Sharing knowledge from distant lands and local shores

WHEN: 7pm Tuesday 13 April (talks start at 8pm)
WHERE: The Embassy, 1 Queensbridge St Southbank

It’s a double header this month, covering near and far, and once again the numbers are looking good on the facebook event (http://www NULL.facebook NULL.com/event NULL.php?eid=334288174057&ref=mf)

First up is The Voxel Agents, creators of Train Conductor, reviewing their first year as local indie developers.

Then we will be hearing from some folk who went to San Fran to GDC to get the goss! So far we have Jenn Sandercock will be giving a volunteers-eye-view recount of GDC, Mark Flanagan went to represent both AIE and IGDA, Alexander Bruce will have the indie perspective. If you or someone you know would like to give a studio perspective contact a committee member near you!

Don’t forget, you can sign up for Club Embassy Membership at their website and get 20% off food and bar prices.

GAMES TRIVIA NIGHT in May

Details are being finalised, and will be announced at the April meeting, but the May meet up will be a Games Trivia Night.

There’s a PS3 in the prize pool thanks to Big Ant Studios (http://www NULL.bigant NULL.com) so don’t miss it!

Registration will open at the next gathering and you will be able to sign up as a team or individual.

If there’s any more you’d like to share with IGDA Melbourne mailing list and website let us know!

Such as:

App My State (http://www NULL.premier NULL.vic NULL.gov NULL.au/app-my-state NULL.html) – entry deadline 23 April

Andrew Golding, from Brawsome would “like to put out the call to local iPhone developers to see what they can do with the Jolly Rover assets on iPhone, to cross promote Jolly Rover. I would be looking at arranging a revenue split with the developer as I can’t afford to pay anyone at the moment” feel free to email andrew@brawsome.com.au (andrew null@null brawsome NULL.com NULL.au)

and Giselle is looking for someone to develop a flash game for the La Trobe Uni website – email giselle.rosman@gmail.com (giselle NULL.rosman null@null gmail NULL.com) if you are interested and want more details.

It’s a double header for the April meet up, covering near and far.

First up is The Voxel Agents, creators of Train Conductor, reviewing their first year as local indie developers.

Then we will be hearing from those who went to GDC to get the goss

If you have any questions feel free to email info@igdamelbourne.org (info null@null igdamelbourne NULL.org)

And then there’s the customary facebook event (http://www NULL.facebook NULL.com/event NULL.php?eid=334288174057&ref=nf)

Tuesday 13 April, 7pm

The Embassy
1 Queensbridge St, Southbank