IGDA Melbourne

It’s Open Mic time again at IGDAM and if you want a spot at the mic, please get in quick, because the line-up is already looking schweet, so this is the place to be on Tuesday (assuming you’re not at GDC).

When: Tuesday 1 March – presentations start at 7.30, so any time from 6pm is good.

Where: Cho Gao – Level 3 Melbourne Central

Who & What:

Christian McCrea – GEELab (Games & Experimental Entertainment Laboratory)

This as an exciting initiative by RMIT that’s gearing up this month and right up our alley.

At the GEElab, games will be understood as a cross-disciplinary function as well as the engine of entertainment media and Internet innovation. Practice oriented game and entertainment media research will be carried out by the way of cross-medial experimentation and an understanding of science as fiction, in the sense of not being afraid to think and design differently as welll as think and design speculatively. For example, GEElab members will investigate how to “gameify“ traditionally non-linear media such as TV, film, or radio, developing design strategies, narratives and service prototypes.

Next to these tasks, one of the major goals of the GEElab will be to inquire the potential of games and entertainment to positively influence and change behavior, seeking to suggest solutions for a more peaceful, sustainable, healthy and egalitarian – that is: playful – world. The GEElab will be working closely with people from across RMIT, as well as with international game research institutions and sponsors from the game and entertainment industry.

Peter Halasz – Because of Games (http://www NULL.becauseofgames NULL.com/) Subversive education through games.

Peter  started the indie studio “Because of Games” to subversively educate
the masses. That is, to create games where your brains benefits from
the seemingly mindless gaming activity we all love.

He’ll be talking about creating game-play mechanics which hinge on real-world skills
and knowledge and illustrating with some prototypes, ideas and

iterations, including a physics engine he “should never have made from
scratch.” Time permitting, he’ll demo the yet-to-be-released “Bubble
Physics” (previously named Magnoa), his current project, and give a
status update.

Caz Parker & Andrew Lamb – Automation (http://automationgame NULL.com/)update

Automation the Tycoon game is for people who live and breathe cars.  The lads will give us a quick show and tell of where they’re at and their upcoming small closed beta.

David Coen – Growing an iPhone app

David will be sharing his experiences in iPhone dev and is happy to receive feedback on it all

Aaron Charcoal Styles

Charcoal’s requested a few minutes at the mic to show off a project he’s been working on.

It’s a tool set that allows Flash developers to make stand-alone Windows versions of their games; allowing them to potentially make versions that can be sold through places like Steam.
It also has the ability to read Xbox 360 controllers and pass the information back to the flash game.

WinnitronAU

John Sietsma or James Rhodes (I’m sure one of them will let me know which) will give an update on their Winnitron plans.

Wishing the GDC pilgrims fruitful, fun and safe travels and the rest of us, well, we’ll have to manage the best we can at a licenced venue with our own talks!

Wireless and tech issues permitting (I like to think of it as delicious irony the troubles we have with tech!) the Level 3 (http://www NULL.level3 NULL.org NULL.au/) lads will be live-streaming the talks.

I think that’s everyone accounted for at this stage – if you’ve been in touch and aren’t included just email me a gentle reminder   If you are yet to put your hand up but want to, get in quick by email giselle@igdamelbourne.org

PS – but wait, there’s more, and it’s not steak knives it’s HEEEAAAPS better

Ryan Keable – Anomalous

48 hour gamemaking challenges
Ryan and Ryan from Anomalous will be talking about their 48 hour project again, where they are up to and what will be next.

They will also be talking about their first release for the iPhone, Homemade Shooter!

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

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!