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Posts Tagged ‘Tin Man Games’

May IGDAM – Marketing, money and you (yes, spammy title, but go with it)

13 Apr

When: Tuesday 10 May 6.30 – 10.30pm

Where: Cho Gao, Melbourne Central*

We can’t just stick to one thing at IGDAM – there’s just too much to share!

May’s meetup will start with the Tin Man baring bolts and all about the financial state of being an indie….this is a rarity in all industries, let alone the secretive games industry and will give you real insight into ‘going indie’…if you’re in Melbourne and into game dev don’t miss it!

Tin Man Games (http://tinmangames NULL.com NULL.au/blog/) are arguably one of the more successful local app developers, particulary with their Gamebook Adventures.  They have released five ‘books’ (think choose-your-own-adventure with techno awesome if you’re old like me…) and recently struck a bit of a coup by signing Fighting Fantasy gamebook author Jonathan Green to write their seventh book; Temple of the Spider God.

Jonathan Green said, “I am delighted to be working with Tin Man Games on their Gamebook
Adventures series. In only a very short time Gamebook Adventures has made a huge impact on
the worlds of interactive fiction and iPhone apps alike. Tin Man Games is a true trailblazer in the
developing field of gamebook apps; they are really pushing the medium, making refinements all
the time, and seeing how far they can take it.”

So, a great impact, but what’s the financial impact?  Neil Rennison will share the financials of being an indie – warts and all, as well as share some PAXy goodness.
We’ll then back-track a bit and look at how to land your first job/gig/whatever through the all-so-important self-marketing tools of CV’s and portfolios.

Stephan Schutze, our beloved sound maestro,  and Trent Kusters who’s checking out the indie thing himself after quite a stint at Torus,  will cover the essentials of self-marketing and how not to sabotage your career before it starts.  Whether it’s applying for a job, personal branding or start-up promo there are hints and tips that you should know.

*We plan to have the talks at Cho Gao, but time and numbers will tell so please let us know if you’re coming so we can plan accordingly.  Facebook thingy link (http://www NULL.facebook NULL.com/Malorion/posts/1307077752801#!/event NULL.php?eid=200425529997002)

NB: It’s the second Tuesday of the month this time people :)

 
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Jamming it – Game maker style

23 Jan

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

 
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Invites are out and it’s looking like a doozy – IGDAM Christmas

02 Dec

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!

 
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Looking for a bar sponsor and more Summer party details (aka ‘can anyone say c’mon manabar c’mon, c’mon)

25 Nov

The plans for the party are underway – and numbers are filling fast.

We’ve got the location – Big Ant Studios right in the middle of town – thanks! *waves* – and this also means we’ve got the list at the door, and if you’ve not on it with invite in hand then you miss out. And that would make us sad. So please make sure you register

We’ve got the food – HUUUUUGE shoutout to AUTODESK for sponsoring the tucker and who also have some super-amazing deals for ‘lil ‘ole IGDA Melbourne folk – so get in touch with Paul Hellyer if you’re looking to upgrade by Jan 18

We’ve got hmmm, a few drinks I guess – so if you feel like sponsoring the bar of what is sure to be a memorable party, please , contact giselle@igdamelbourne.org – I’d love to hear from you and make it that a top arvo is had by all.

Have no fear, it’ll all happen – but any and all support is welcome.

If you work for any of the tagged companies which we do our best to support we’d love your involvement – and it seems from the rsvp’s we’ll see some of most of you there.

Bring on the rooftop!!

 
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July’s Meetup: Studio Panel Recap

20 Jul

As most of you are aware, our most recent meetup was on the 6th of July. We hosted Tony Reed (Game Developers’ Association of Australia), Neil Rennison (Fraction  Studios, Tin Man Games) and Cameron Lee (EA Melbourne) as panel members for a night of industry and development dissection.

Apologies were accepted on behalf of Kevin Chan (Bluetongue) who unfortunately couldn’t make it due to impromptu overseas guests.

The night was kicked off by Paul Callaghan of Freeplay, who was very pleased to announce that the IGDA will be hosting the Freeplay after parties. This will in fact be counted as our next monthly meetup, so be sure to head along to Freeplay (it’s looking fantastic) and we’ll see you for drinks afterwards.

Now that the Freeplay program is out (link below), expect details on the after parties on August 14 & 15 very soon.

http://www.freeplay.net.au/2010-program/ (http://www NULL.freeplay NULL.net NULL.au/2010-program/)

The studio panel went well, with our three presenters covering a range of development and industry related topics, including… marketing, outsourcing, production and communication techniques, tips for startups, and much more. The end of the panel saw some great questions from the audience also.

On behalf of the committee and July’s attendees, a big thank you to our three panel members! Also, thanks to everyone who made it along on the night.

Stay tuned for more info on next month’s Freeplay after parties and other info bound to come out of the IGDA woodwork. ;)

 
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A bit more about July’s industry panel night

26 Jun

Game creators are invited to head down to The Embassy on Tuesday 6 July to catch up, meet people, and discuss what it is that drives people to make games with those that do.

The evening starts at 7pm with the panel assembling at 8pm

The discussion will kick off with the question “What inspires you to make games?”. From there, we’ll delve deeper, exploring production, gaming trends, the indie boom, E3 and much more. It’ll be a great, relaxed discussion with some incredibly talented, experienced and diverse panel members:

Kevin Chan

Kevin is the General Manager of THQ’s Blue Tongue Entertainment (http://www NULL.bluetongue NULL.com/) game studio. Prior to his current position, Kevin has worked in production roles on a number of Blue Tongue’s games, including Jurassic Park Operation Genesis and Nicktoons Unite.

Cameron Lee

As the Producer at EA Melbourne, Cameron is responsible for driving the vision, quality and production of titles which are commercially successful and aligned with EA’s strategic vision. Cameron has successfully increased the profile of EA Melbourne by driving studio involvement in the local industry and throughout the wider EA community

Neil Rennison

Neil is the Creative Director for Tin Man Games (http://www NULL.tinmangames NULL.com NULL.au/), an independent games developer currently bringing back interactive gamebooks to the iPhone and iPad. He also runs the art outsource company, Fraction Studios (http://www NULL.fractionstudios NULL.com/main NULL.php) and has worked as an artist and art manager on numerous titles including the Need For Speed, Tiger Woods and Sims series amongst many others.

Please let us know if you can make it via the facebook event to make sure the bar is well staffed for the evening (http://www NULL.facebook NULL.com/#!/event NULL.php?eid=129698707048823)

 
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Industry Panel – What inspires you to make video games?

09 Jun

July’s meet up has an industry panel discussing what inspires them to make games. Come along and hear what they have to say, and ask what you want to ask.

Confirmed on the panel are:

* Kevin Chan – General Manager of Blue Tongue Entertainment
* Cam Lee – Producer at Electronic Arts (EA)
* Neil Rennison – Co-founder and Creative Director at Tin Man Games  and Art Director at Fraction Studios

When:  Tuesday 6 July 7pm

Where: The Embassy, 1 Queensbridge St Southbank – while they’re still pulling beers, we’ll keep drinking them!

Feel free to email info@igdamelbourne.org if you want more deets or would like to join the panel.

And of course, we can’t escape the Facebook event (http://www NULL.facebook NULL.com/event NULL.php?eid=129698707048823#!/event NULL.php?eid=129698707048823)

 
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Summary – Trivia Night Tomorrow Night

03 May

Gathering from 7 for catch up social shop talk.

8pm – Trivia starts

Teams include:

SARQAT
Touch my Pixels
The Voxel Agents
Colonel Mustard’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
*My Epeen is over 9000*
The Billionaire Skeletons
The Lavish Badgers
Tin Man Games
Team Rocket
Team 3
Tuckshop Lady Headbutt
The Red Barrels,
Team Rocket’s Blasting off again
Team Andromeda

More teams will be formed tomorrow night and anyone not wanting to play is welcome to hang about

It’s at the BLVD Bar in Southbank, just around the corner from The Embassy near the Macca’s. If all else fails The Embassy folk will help you with directions.

Great prizes, and also the possibility of a gold coin donation from trivia players towards a decent drink card for the winn ing team.

Also up for grabs are:

A PS3 thanks to Big Ant Studios (who have two teams vying for the prizes)

A Wacom tablet thanks to Wacom

A Ballistic book and online membership to the CGSociety

A $100 Drink card for the Mana Bar – save it up for GCAP!

Three GDC ‘collectors’ tee-shirts

Along with much revelry and merriment…

 
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Open Mic Night Audio

10 Mar

The audio from the Open Mic Night that was held on Tuesday the 3rd of March 2010 is now available. Just listen below. Have comments on how audio should be available in the future? Please just leave a comment below.

Thanks to Jamie Galea from Level 3 (http://www NULL.level3 NULL.org NULL.au) games podcast for the recording.

 
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