IGDA Melbourne

The first ever non-US PAX will be in Melbourne in July, so it seems only fitting that the Melbourne game development community gets together to celebrate!

To ensure a top evening, we’ve secured the Transit Cocktail Lounge (http://www NULL.transitcocktaillounge NULL.com NULL.au/) and its fabulous views  in Federation Square on Sunday 21 July from 7pm.

You can get your ticket here (http://www NULL.trybooking NULL.com/Booking/BookingEventSummary NULL.aspx?eid=49150). All game developers and their sector friends are invited. Your booking secures you entry, some nibbles, and some drinks to compliment the awesome company and sensational Melbourne views. Early bird tickets close soon – with regular tickets at $50, now’s the time to secure your spot.

Win a three day PAX Australia pass – Mega Dev Party Art!

Fancy yourself handy with photoshop? If you’d like the chance to win a three day PAX pass, create an image for the Mega Dev Party and email it to info@igdamelbourne.org.

The chosen art will be featured on our blog, facebook pages and the drink tickets with credit to its creator, who will also end up as the proud owner of a three day PAX pass and a ticket to the Mega Dev Party.

Preferred format: we’re after an event logo mostly for online use and a drink ticket, further details available upon request.

Entries close Tuesday 14 May with the winner to be announced at IGDAM.

We’re also on the lookout of sponsors, so if you want to be a VIP on the night, find out more here. (http://www NULL.trybooking NULL.com/Booking/EventBookingPage NULL.aspx?eid=49150&sid=94463&did=150363)

We’re pleased to announce that Screen Australia Investment Managers Justin Halliday and Mike Cowap will be at IGDAM in May.

Here’s your chance to get across the  Games Production program (http://www NULL.screenaustralia NULL.gov NULL.au/funding/games/games_production NULL.aspx), which is part of Screen Australia’s Australian Interactive Games Fund (http://www NULL.screenaustralia NULL.gov NULL.au/funding/games/default NULL.aspx). Applications for the Games Production program’s first round close on 12 July 2013.

Come along and meet Justin and Mike, get an overview of funding options and ask questions specific to your own plans and project. Whether you’re considering applying for funding  this round, or sometime in the future, we’re sure you’ll find this to be an invaluable talk.

Of course, don’t miss out on catching up with other game developers and feel free to bring along your latest build for a bit of playtesting action.

When: Tuesday 14 May from 6.30pm (talks scheduled to commence at 7.30)

Where: Thousand Pound Bend (http://thousandpoundbend NULL.com NULL.au/) (down the cobblestone alley way out the back), 361 Little Lonsdale St Melbourne

RSVP: Via our facebook event (https://www NULL.facebook NULL.com/events/128383574017164/).

Questions? email giselle@igdamelbourne.org

It’s been a busy month for many, not least of all Rob Caporetto – with the release of Pocket Dogfights on iOS and Android (http://www NULL.pocketdogfights NULL.com/), and yours truly travelling to San Francisco for GDC and too meet IGDA and Global Game Jam folk, along with a host of developers and games folk (and Felicia Day!!)

Travels have meant I’ve been a bit slack here, but we will be holding our regular second Tuesday of the month meeting at 1000 Pound Bend on Tuesday 9 April from 6.30pm (https://www NULL.facebook NULL.com/events/288914667908735/).

My adventures, experiences and lessons are thanks to the amazing Melbourne game development community. A few things cropped up during my time at GDC that I’d like to share and discuss with you all, as this is your community group and I want to make it the best thing possible for all. I hope you can make it along, it’d be great to have your input.

So, in a nutshell, here’s the plan:

6.30pm: rock up, grab a burger and a drink and catch up with game developer friends old and new.

7.30 – 8pm: Pocket Dogfights Post Mortem

8.15-9pm: Post GDC discussion (I’m yet to rope more GDC attendees into the discussion, but it shouldn’t be too difficult)

9-10pm: more community catch up time.

If you have any queries regarding this or any other IGDAM stuff, feel free to email giselle@igdamelbourne.org.

I’m looking forward to seeing you all and being surrounded by dev chat in Aussie accents!

Cheers,

Giselle.

A few developers have been asking for more opportunities to test their games.  While we do this at our regular monthly meetings, we also want to have time there to network and have talks and discussions at Thousand Pound Bend, so the plan is to hit Federation Square and Beer De Luxe this Friday 22 February 5pm-8pm to play test amongst ourselves and hopefully with the odd passer by too.  If it all works out, it could become a regular event, if we don’t try it we won’t know if it’s a worthwhile thing to do – and worst case scenario we catch up of a Friday over a bevvie and a few games.

There’s a facebook event for it (https://www NULL.facebook NULL.com/events/420920254655824/) – feel free to add screen shots of whatever you plan to bring along.

If you’re not a developer but want to help out with testing some of the great indie games currently being created, swing by Beer De Luxe on Friday and check it out.

Thanks to Ben Weatherall for his screenshot of Lesbians vs The Reptoids.

Tuesday 12 February saw around 200 people gather at 1000 Pound Bend to play jammed games, catch up and find out who won this year’s awards.  It was a sensational night to celebrate the creation of games and friendships at Global Game Jam 2013. (photo courtesy of David Doe)

And the awards went to:

Best Game: You’ve got red on you (http://globalgamejam NULL.org/2013/youve-got-red-you)

Runner Up,  Best Game: Moth Kidz (http://globalgamejam NULL.org/2013/moth-kidz)

Most Original: Traffic Crisis 2040 (http://globalgamejam NULL.org/2013/traffic-crisis-2040)

Runner Up, Most Original: Presenting Professor Lamarkridge’s Amazing Zoological Cardio-transplantotron!  (http://globalgamejam NULL.org/2013/professor-lamarkridges-amazing-zoological-cardio-transplantotron)

Best Gameplay: Heart of Zarar (http://globalgamejam NULL.org/2013/heart-zarar)

Runner Up, Best Gameplay: Heart on Your Sleeve (http://globalgamejam NULL.org/2013/heart-your-sleeve)

Best Art: Endless Lovers (http://globalgamejam NULL.org/2013/endless-lovers)

Runner Up, Best Art: Heart Strings (http://globalgamejam NULL.org/2013/heart-strings)

Runner Up,  Best Art: World of Love (http://globalgamejam NULL.org/2013/world-love)

Most Accessible:  WrongBot (http://globalgamejam NULL.org/2013/wrongbot)

Runner Up, Most Accessible: Pump (http://globalgamejam NULL.org/2013/pump)

Runner Up, Most Accessible: Samurai XX (http://globalgamejam NULL.org/2013/samurai-xx)

Rising Star Award: Traffic Crisis 2040 (http://globalgamejam NULL.org/2013/traffic-crisis-2040)

Best Audio: Doki Doki (http://globalgamejam NULL.org/2013/doki-doki)

Runner Up,  Best Audio: Traffic Crisis 2040 (http://globalgamejam NULL.org/2013/traffic-crisis-2040)

Runner Up, Best Audio: Little Red Riding Hood (http://globalgamejam NULL.org/2013/little-red-hiding-hood)

Best New Talent:  Heart Strings (http://globalgamejam NULL.org/2013/heart-strings)

Runner Up, Best New Talent: Bowie (http://globalgamejam NULL.org/2013/bowie)

Runner Up, Best New Talent: Dark Organism (http://globalgamejam NULL.org/2013/dark-organism)

Best Teamwork: We all win with Congratulations (http://globalgamejam NULL.org/2013/congratulations)

Runner Up, Best Teamwork: U DED (http://globalgamejam NULL.org/2013/u-ded)

Thanks to PAX Australia the winners of Best Game and Most Accessible Game, along with the first runner up for Accessible Game (Pump!) have scored themselves three day passes to PAX!

The Rising Star award includes written feedback from Straight Right as to how Traffic Crisis 2040 could be further developed and a variety of winners also took home iTunes gift cards.

Thanks again to all our sponsors – please visit their sites and let them know their contributions are appreciated via twitter and stuff;

AIE (http://www NULL.aie NULL.edu NULL.au/)

Autodesk (http://www NULL.autodesk NULL.com NULL.au/)

Straight Right (http://straightright NULL.net/)

Windows Azure (http://www NULL.windowsazure NULL.com/en-us/)

FMOD (http://www NULL.fmod NULL.org/)

Redpoint Software (http://www NULL.redpointsoftware NULL.com NULL.au/)

Ruma Studios (http://www NULL.rumastudios NULL.com/)

Tin Man Games (http://tinmangames NULL.com NULL.au/blog/)

And last, but by no means least, so many people helped out in the planning and running of the event – you guys rock!

If you or your company are interested in supporting next year’s jam with a location, sponsorship or assistance we’d love to hear from you, you can email giselle@igdamelbourne.org to discuss possibilities.

On top of everything else at this weekend’s Global Game Jam, in Melbourne we’ll be adding some accessibility diversifiers to open up the games to players with different needs and abilities. A diversifier is aimed at diversifying the games as well as providing motivation for experienced game jammers. In a sense, the diversifiers are a free-for-all voluntary list of secondary constraints, that the individual teams can choose to go for, or not, as they please. If they do go for one or more diversifiers, they get to tick off those diversifiers as fulfilled when uploading their game.

As fantastic motivation for creating accessible games, be it for players with hearing, visual, motor or cognitive impairments, PAX Australia (http://aus NULL.paxsite NULL.com/) has donated a three day pass for the most accessible game!

UPDATE: PAX Australia has contacted us since this post, and has extended their offer so that the entire team will get a PAX pass! (The iTunes vouchers will now move to another prize area).

Disclaimer: I’m writing this on Christmas Eve as a mother of two, so it’s a casual post I’m in a first person mood, please be kind on any typos or grammatical errors. – giselle

First and foremost I’d like to wish all of the amazing IGDAM community; the organisers, speakers, regular Tuesday nighters, sometimes Tuesday nighters, jammers, GCAPers, online community, supporters and friends and their family and loved ones (phew! you’re all wonderful) a very happy and safe festive season. Thank you for making the local (and in some cases international) game development scene what it is. I hope your involvement will continue and strengthen into the future, just like prospects for making great games in Melbourne are.

It’s difficult to get reflective about another incredible year of IGDAM with Global Game Jam starting in one month, so  that needs to be the first rant; and I’m going to have a bit of a yell;

GLOBAL GAME JAM – 25-27 JANUARY 2013  (http://globalgamejam NULL.org/)

AIE MELBOURNE (http://www NULL.aie NULL.edu NULL.au/)

FIND OUT ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT REGISTERING HERE.

“The Global Game Jam (GGJ) is the world’s largest game jam event. Think of it as a hackathon focused on game development. It is the growth of an idea that in today’s heavily connected world, we could come together, be creative, share experiences and express ourselves in a multitude of ways using video games – it is very universal. The weekend stirs a global creative buzz in games… while at the same time exploring the process of development, be it programming, iterative design, narrative exploration or artistic expression. It is all condensed into a 48 hour development cycle.” – GGJ website

This will be our third Melbourne jam, with sites also running across 232 sites globally at time of writing, including Adelaide, Canberra, Perth and Sydney to name a few.

We’re in a new venue near town this year, and are grateful for the work AIE are putting in and the space their offering to continue the Melbourne jam, which is close to town for an Australia Day weekend jam! (I’d recommend a firework break be scheduled into plans.) Places are filling so please don’t miss out and don’t be shy – if you want to know more about it join our facebook group.

SPONSORS:

Site sponsor

(http://www NULL.aie NULL.edu NULL.au/)

Without sponsors, there’d be no showers, food or facilities and without  AIE we’d be homeless.

Gold sponsor

(http://straightright NULL.net/)

Straight Right are Gold Sponsors and will also be giving the Rising Star award in the form of valuable industry feedback on how to take your game further in terms of art, code and promotion.

Silver sponsors

FMOD are again back and being wonderful again despite the fact that I’m having difficulty locating a logo in the right format or something (I mentioned informal about this post, yeah?)

(http://www NULL.redpointsoftware NULL.com NULL.au/)

Redpoint Software are backing up their BBQ sponsorship with a game jam sponsorship – thank you so much!

And everyone involved in the BBQ has also helped towards this event, so thanks all.

And finally, the dark horses at the moment include Autodesk who I’m still working on the final details and will update this post when they’re sorted (it doesn’t help I ‘work’ ridiculous hours and they tend for the office hours), but they’ve always been lovely in the past so I’m sure there will be thank you’s to be said.

There’s a few other sponsors I’m hoping to secure, mostly to cover security costs it seems, which is a little frustrating but it is what it is, and I’ll let you know who and what when I do.

Oh my it’s almost Christmas and there’s still so much to say…I mean #gamesfund, and PAX Australia and GCAP and Freeplay and I haven’t even mentioned the actual next event yet which I’ve fondly named PRE – with Kumobius pre-launching Time Surfer and the pre-game jam meet on Tuesday 8 January at 1000 Pound Bend – I’ll try to post more comprehensively soon, but it’s the usual drill but with a game prelaunch, as Time Surfer is due for release Thursday 10 January.

Ok, Christmas has ticked over and Santa won’t be able to visit me while I’m awake, so I’d best call it a night.

Thanks again for making IGDAM what it is, I look forward to being involved and watching it grow and evolve into the future.

Cheers,

Giselle

First the tunes…

For the first time, Global Game Jam will have it’s own radio station. GGJ Radio will run from the start of the jam in New Zealand to the end of the jam in Hawaii.  If you’re interested in DJ’ing one of the 72 slots available you can register your interest by emailing radio@globalgamejam.org (radio null@null globalgamejam NULL.org). For further information visit the Global Game Jam website (http://globalgamejam NULL.org/news/2012/12/09/ggj-2013-call-djs).

Don’t forget there’s also the local logo competition closing Wednesday 26 December - now with bonus BBQ t-shirt! and registrations are open for jammers.

Then the visitors…

We love visitors!

If you’re interested in attending as media, would like to volunteer to help out for a bit but don’t plan on jamming, or are part of the local games sector  and would like to visit during the weekend please email giselle@igdamelbourne.org (giselle null@null igdamelbourne NULL.org).

And finally the jammers, never forget the jammers…

Registrations are open – to secure your spot visit the Eventbrite page (http://igdamjam13 NULL.eventbrite NULL.com NULL.au/) – we’ll have some sponsor announcements soon too, that are sure to sweeten the deal.

In case I don’t manage another update before Tuesday, all the best to you and yours for a fun, enjoyable, relaxing and safe holiday season. Thanks for being part of such an amazing community and I’m looking forward to the developments in development in 2013.