Wow!  There were 180 along last month, and this month’s looking to be a corker too, so we’ve relocated to 1000 £ Bend at 361 Little Lon in the CBD – thanks a bunch to them for hosting us, and to the State Library folks and Social Media Melbourne for the leads on handy locations.

Please let your IGDA mates know about the venue change and we look forward to seeing you at:

1000£ Bend

on

Tuesday 10 May – 6.30pm – 11pm

Talks start at 7.40 pm – There’s  about the talks here and please reply to the facebook event if you’re that way inclined (helps for planning)

It’s free entry and the kitchen’s open for service until around nine, the bar til a wee bit later than that, so all well mannered games devs and community are welcome along

Along with the amazing money-can’t-buy glimpse into the nuts and bolts of #indiedevlife from Neil of Tin Man Games. Paul Callaghan will also be onhand to discuss Freeplay and how you can get involved , and Trent Kusters and Stefan Schutze will talk about self-promotion techniques

We’ll we look forward to announcing next month’s plans, and probably so much more …

Speaking of which, If you have any announcements you’d like made on the night, please email giselle at igdamelbourne dot org the details and we’ll do our best to accommodate all requests, time permitting.

And thanks to @elroyonline, @craigpeebles, @voiceover_au @parabol83 for the £’s, none of which were harmed inthe creation of this blog

A reminder to all, this is your local game dev group, so just let us know what you want here and we’ll do our best to accommodate.

At September’s meeting (full review coming soon) Paul Callaghan mentioned a few useful links…well, here they are:
The Loop - www.theloop.com.au
Fundbreak - www.fundbreak.com.au
Creative Industries Innovation Centre - http://www.creativeinnovation.net.au/index.html

As taught by Freeplay Co-director and IGDA bloke, Paul Callaghan

INTRO TO WRITING FOR GAMES
Monday May 3
9.30-5pm

The games market is growing and stories are getting more sophisticated. This games workshop will cover the fundamentals of story and structure and how they apply to games. It will explore the key interactive strengths of the games medium, and present the avenues and technology available for working in the form. This workshop is for all those interested in writing for games but not sure how to get started.

By the end of this workshop, participants should be able to:
Outline stories for games using traditional storytelling and structural techniques
Understand how games integrate mechanics, rewards, and non-linear elements
Write game-specific scenes, including conversations and characters
Deconstruct existing games to better understand their storytelling techniques, including plot, character, dialogue, and theme
Use available technology to write for specific game engines

Further information is available here