IGDA Melbourne

If you are looking for funding your next game project, Film Victoria (http://www NULL.film NULL.vic NULL.gov NULL.au) has some great funding options, and applications close mid-April.

At The Boat Builders Yard (http://theboatbuildersyard NULL.com/cms-contact) from 6pm – 9pm (talks starting at 6:30) in South Wharf we are pleased to give you some inside info on what it takes to secure funding from people who have been there and done that.

Ben Britten: As part of Tin Man Games (http://tinmangames NULL.com NULL.au/), Ben has written successful funding applications and is now one of the assessors for the fund (yes, he’s one of the people you’ll have to impress)

Chris Wright: The Chief Surprise Architect from Surprise Attack (http://surpriseattack NULL.com NULL.au/) has been involved in three successful funding applications in collaboration with his indie clients, and can give tips on this too, as well as what it takes to be able to access even bigger pots of money.

Chris Watts: Chris’ company, Play Bit Entertainment (http://www NULL.playbitent NULL.com/), has also been on the receiving end of Film Victoria funding for his recently released Facebook game, Puzzle Treasure (http://apps NULL.facebook NULL.com/puzzletreasure/?ref=ts)

And of course, Film Victoria’s own Brad Giblin will also be there to answer your questions.

As we are limited for space, this event is for those looking to secure funding in the next round of applications or the near future.  We will be looking into holding a more general ‘How to Secure Funding’ event later in the year to cover not only Film Victoria, but also Screen Australia and any other relevant funding bodies.

Please be sure to RSVP via the facebook event (https://www NULL.facebook NULL.com/events/284818771586451/).

If you have any queries, email giselle@igdamelbourne.org

Chris Watts and Play Bit Entertainment are on the hunt for a gameplay programmer and an online integration programmer.

Their upcoming game has been funded by Film Victoria and they’re currently working with an international publisher to market and release the game over Facebook.  They are seeking two programmers to compliment our current permanent team to support the game after its release and to develop new projects in the near future. Play-Bit is offering the right people a substantial and generous stake in the profits and direction of the company.

These positions should be considered by those in the industry looking to help build-up a studio that already has a product geared for success.

Please send your expressions of interest and any supporting assets to chriswatts@playbitent.com

Further information is available from the Play-Bit website (http://www NULL.playbitent NULL.com/jobs)

FilmVic’s next round of funding applications have a May 9 deadline, so don’t miss out on your chance to get up to 50% of your project and up to $100,000 through the fantastic Games Investment Program (http://film NULL.vic NULL.gov NULL.au/www/html/88-games NULL.asp)

Some of our IGDAM regulars who’ve been successful in securing funding in the past include; Tin Man Games (http://tinmangames NULL.com NULL.au/blog/), Brawsome (http://www NULL.brawsome NULL.com NULL.au/blog/), Touch My Pixel (http://www NULL.touchmypixel NULL.com/) and Play Bit Entertainment (http://www NULL.playbitent NULL.com/). I’m sure they can tell you how handy a bit of extra cash towards a project can be.

Funding is open to Victorian games devs, so check it out and let’s encourage government support for our fabulous local industry.

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!

Thanks to everyone who turned up to the night and especially those who spoke, you made it another great event! Here are the speakers and how to contact them:

Paul Callaghan
The co-director of Freeplay (http://www NULL.freeplay NULL.net NULL.au/). Tonight he shared with us a quick review of some of the speakers that are going to be at GCAP (http://www NULL.gcap NULL.com NULL.au/) this year, giving us a glimpse of the great line up in this year’s very themed event.

David Thompson – Tiberian Sun Rising (http://rising NULL.cnc-source NULL.com/)
Having spoken to at the last IGDA open mic night he got up both to give an update on where the project was at but also to ask for anyone who was interested in joining the team to work on sound, and was also looking for a talented particle expert. So get in contact through the website if your interested in joining them on making what is looking to be an amazing Total Conversion.

Chris Watts – Play Bit Entertainment (http://www NULL.playbitent NULL.com/)
Another regular contributor to these nights, Chris Watts is looking for a programmer to join a small team from Play Bit (in collaboration with the Red Tribe creative spaces) to create an iOS game. They’d love someone with Unity experience, but at the very least need to be great with either C# or Javascript (probably more Java as Unity is a little different on it’s JS). Also, don’t forget to check out their recently released Facebook game MineQuest (http://apps NULL.facebook NULL.com/minequest/) – originally conceived as an iOS game it’s interesting to see what can be done with a good idea to extend it into different arenas.

Giselle Rosman – La Trobe University
g.rosman@latrobe.edu.au (g NULL.rosman null@null latrobe NULL.edu NULL.au)
I know she didn’t actually “speak”, here’s what she would have said. She’s looking for iOS App developers (or cross platform mobile devs if you’re up for it) to possibly create an App for La Trobe University open days in the coming years.

Rob Caporretto (site (http://blog NULL.rob-caporetto NULL.com/))
Having worked on this space-action-shooter-with-a-twist for over a year now he’s looking for people with iOS devices who’d be happy to test it for him and give him some feedback on the game which is currently in Alpha stages.

Ben Britten
http://benbritten.com/ (http://benbritten NULL.com/)
At Freeplay (http://www NULL.freeplay NULL.net NULL.au) Ben presented a talk as an introduction to using Unity. The feedback was so great that he’s decided (along with Rob Caporretto and others) to start a Melbourne Unity User Group. Currently the best place to go to get involved is the Google Group at http://groups.google.com/group/unity3dmelbourne (http://groups NULL.google NULL.com/group/unity3dmelbourne). All are welcome, from pros to students, artista and programmers. A wonderfully pithy talk at exactly 38 seconds.

Finn Morgan – Colourbind (http://colourbind NULL.com/)
Also shown at Freeplay, Finn showed us his game Colourbind (http://colourbind NULL.com/), an amazing action physics puzzler based around changing gravities which affect different coloured objects. He told us about his ideas about current Meta review scores (from sites such as Metacritic) which just give average scores to game, and would rather see these shown as standard deviations, as to get a better idea what games are “average” and which are just “controversial”. This sprang from the fact that the he got from Freeplay from people who hated it was “it’s frustrating”, which turns out to be the same as from the people who loved it, “I love it because it’s frustrating”.

Brad Giblin – Film Victoria (http://film NULL.vic NULL.gov NULL.au/)
Sadly  Brad’s talk was cut short but the fact that the minister has not quite signed off on “the big news”. Suffice to say there IS big news from Film Victoria coming in the next few days / weeks. So stay tuned to their announcements – and get ready to talk to Brad – this should be very interesting and hopefully a boon to the local industry!

Trent Kusters – Torus Games (http://torus NULL.com NULL.au/)
Taking a step back from his usual role as IGDA MC for the night, Trent had the happy news that Torus is again hiring (after some setbacks earlier in the year) and is looking for new talent! The sad news is that they keep getting underdone, underworked resumes and non-existant portfolios from designers. So remember, polish, spell check and generally make sure your work is relavent to the job! And if you’ve submitted a CV to Torus earlier in the year, please re-work it, re-polish it, and re-submit it with an explanation of what why!

Ivan and Greg – Rubber House Studio (http://rubberhousestudio NULL.com/)
Two experienced animators who have recently gone it alone and started a new studio. Greg’s background includes experience as a 2D and 3D animator at Weta, and Ivan in both animation and the creation of pixel art adventure games. They presented their showreel to the audience to give us a taste of what they do now.

Craig Peebles – Moving Target Games (http://movingtargetgames NULL.com/)
Another update as to where this teams is at since the last Open Mic night. They’re looking for more people to work with so go check out their site and send them an email!

Caz Parker and Andrew Lamb – Automation Game (http://automationgame NULL.com/)
A late entry, Caz and Andrew told us about their up and coming, not quite yet Alpha, game called Automation. It’s looking quite amazing so far and they’re touting it as a Street Rod (http://en NULL.wikipedia NULL.org/wiki/Street_Rod) meets Transport Tycoon (http://en NULL.wikipedia NULL.org/wiki/Transport_Tycoon). The idea is that you get to take control of creating and running an automotive business, from building the engines to selling and marketing your cars; the whole industry! It’s aimed at real car nuts, but will be easy enough to learn (and to teach) if you’re just a beginner in the car world. Look forward to this one!

Stephan Shutze - http://www.stephanschutze.com (http://www NULL.stephanschutze NULL.com/)
Another surprise entry, Stephan back up what what Trent had to say about portfolios and resumes. Make sure they’re 120% awesome before showing potential employees! He also wanted to remind everyone of why they make games – it’s from the heart – you do it because you love games and not because you think it’s going to be an easy get rich quick scheme (using MineCraft (http://www NULL.minecraft NULL.net/) as an example).

Our second Open Mic night kicks off tomorrow at the newly adopted 3 Degrees Bar in the QV Centre (see below for details)

Anyone is welcome to put their hand up for a spot at the microphone.  We already have a selection of speakers talking about where they’re at developing their game, putting out a call for testers and App developers.

David Thompson, from Tiberian Sun Rising, will be giving a post-Freeplay update.  They’re close to release and are looking for some good sound people.

Chris Watts, from Play Bit Entertainment, has a short term job posting he’d like to promote and Giselle (yes, your humble author) is on the lookout for an App Developer.

Rob Caporretto is after testers and will also share details about this on the night…

In the wake of the new Unity release, Ben Britten will  talk for all of 38 seconds about the Unity google group that’s been set up.

And finally (so far) Finn Morgan will be talking about his new game, Colourblind, and is keen for feedback.

Ok, more finally (that’s what happens when you update stuff) Brad Giblin from FilmVic may have a delicious announcement too!

Ok more, more finally (edit number two)  we’ll meet the blokes behind Rubber House Studio http://www.rubberhousestudio.com/.

We’ll keep you updated with any other speakers that put their hand up before the night,  But you’ll just have to come along to see what other goodies are in store.