Ingredients:

 101 juicey jammers

One secret theme ingredient

101 computers* see below for pre-made recipe

2 jamming labs

1 sleeping lab – be sure to overchill

5 special guest panelists

1 smattering of media

 Taste testers, creativity, pizza, curry, caffeine,toast, cereal, caffeine, drinks, caffeine, bbq, more caffeine…then finally alcohol

 

 

Method

 

Friday

Apply 101 juicey jammers to register at the Beth Gleeson Building, Science Drive, La Trobe University (http://maps NULL.google NULL.com NULL.au/maps?q=la+trobe+university,+bundoora&hl=en&ll=-37 NULL.721476,145 NULL.049787&spn=0 NULL.020062,0 NULL.038581&sll=-25 NULL.335448,135 NULL.745076&sspn=45 NULL.958389,79 NULL.013672&vpsrc=6&hq=la+trobe+university,&hnear=Bundoora+Victoria&t=h&fll=-37 NULL.72089,145 NULL.048714&fspn=0 NULL.005016,0 NULL.009645&z=15&layer=t) between  2pm and 3.30pm on Friday 27 January. 

Free parking is available in the white bays only of car parks 1 and 2 (Car Park 2 is closest to the jamsite)

Gently agitate in a lecture theatre, then softly fold in a  panel discussion at 4.00pm Agent Tom Killen (The Voxel Agents), Matt F Ditton (you name it), Trent Kusters (League of Geeks), Harry Lee (recent LudumDare Jam winner and all round amazing bloke), Tony Reed (Game Developers’ Association of Australia) about how to survive a game jam, and what makes a good game in a short time frame.

At 5:00 Friday add the secret theme ingredient.  THIS INGREDIENT MUST BE KEPT SECRET UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE!

Shake, stir and then separate into teams.  Recommended size per team, 2-5 jammers.

It’s now it’s time to apply the heat.

Saturday

Blend teams with computers, food, friends and surprises until the games are simmering.

Add toast and cereal, juice, tea and coffee.

Combine with the rest of the world and register teams and games.

Add Subway and snacks.

Continue simmering throughout the night, slowly increasing the heat. Media may be added at any stage during the process.

Add Indian.

Add Red Bull

Add sleep – don’t forget this ingredient. Your game will not rise without it. Bring warm bedding, earplugs for the soft sleepers and snuggle down for a break, dreams make games, don’t ya know?

Sunday

Additional toast, cereal, juice tea and coffee to be liberally applied at this point

10:30-12:30  Add another secret ingredient – this adds to the local flavour of the global game jam

Make sure all games are in the oven by 3.00pm

3:30pm  Tasting panel arrives

5:00pm  Time to clean down all jam cooking areas

6:00pm Retire to The Eagle Bar for dinner and drinks to await the tasters’ verdicts.

6:30ish Final presentations and thanks and stuff, farewells, and more very well deserved drinks.

 

 

 

 

2012 will be just the second time this recipe is made with the Melbourne Method, and we’re looking forward to experiencing the cooking and tasting the jam

 

Computers

Computers will be precooked to include:

Hardware

 

Intel Core i7
4Gb of ram
Widescreen LCD 20” ish.
DVD usb etc
GTX 260
KB + Mouse

 Software

 

Win 7 x64
Visual Studio 2010
XNA 4.0
Blender
MS Office
Firefox
IE
Chrome
Maya
3D Studio max

We’re still investigating licencing options for Photoshop

Add to that whatever you BYO that you have access to and permission for.

Remember:

“It is ok to use any freely available software with free versions like Unity, Shiva, Unreal, etc. We even go so far as to say that it is ok to use software that is easily accessible but not free; an example is the Source engine which is not free to download, but comes with any Valve game.

If someone has built their own engine it is best left up to the organizers’ discretion. Source code is not necessary, but you do need to provide headers and libraries, so that someone downloading the game can built it again from scratch.”

And of course, this recipe just wouldn’t be possible without a hearty dose of sponsorship, thanks again to La Trobe University (http://latrobe NULL.edu NULL.au) (Platinum Sponsor), AIE (http://aie NULL.edu NULL.au)(Gold Sponsor), Immersive Technologies (http://www NULL.immersivetechnologies NULL.com/) (Gold Sponsor), Microsoft Imagine Cup (http://www NULL.microsoft NULL.com/australia/imaginecup/) (Gold Sponsor),  Prize sponsors EA Australia (http://www NULL.ea NULL.com/au)and Sound Librarian (http://www NULL.stephanschutze NULL.com/sound-library NULL.html), and Indie sponsors The Voxel Agents, (http://www NULL.thevoxelagents NULL.com/) League of Geeks (http://www NULL.leagueofgeeks NULL.com/) and Tin Man Games (http://tinmangames NULL.com NULL.au/blog/).

All media and event enquiries can be emailed to giselle@igdamelbourne.org

 

Hey devs

Come along next week and hear about some exciting new game projects and initiatives at our Open Mic Night!

When: From 6.00pm, mic’s turn on at 7.00* (give or take, but earlier than usual to fit it all in!)

Where: 1000 Pound Bend, Little Lonsdale Street, Melbourne (http://maps NULL.google NULL.com NULL.au/maps/place?q=thousand+pound+bend+melbourne+vic&hl=en&cid=7164293019652141101)

We’ve received a huge response to our call-out, so much that we unfortunately can’t fit everyone into the one night. Don’t worry though, you can expect more Open-Mic events to come. In particular, we’re looking at hosting a presentation evening later this year specific to student groups, to give them a chance to publicly show off their hard work for the year.

but without further ado, the running sheet for next week is as follows:

• QBOY – Student Project (Student Presentation)
• Swing Interactive – Student Project (Student Presentation)
• Harry Lee – Current and future projects and Harry’s Jam (Student Presentation)
• Wicked Awesome Pty Ltd – “The Adventures of James Chimp”
• Anomolous Interactive – “Homemade Shooter” to “Slingshot Justice”
• Chris Mackenzie – AdHatchers Advertising Agency
• Trent Kusters – Introduction to  “League of Geeks”
• David Thompson -  GameLoft Auckland update
• Casper Pieters – 3 Part TV Series with a related Gaming Platform (He wants to pick your brains!)
• Raptus Games – Starting a new Indie Studio, preview of first release ‘Draw’
• Walk Through The Clock – First year as an Indie startup
• PlayBit Entertainment – “Puzzle Treasure”……phew!

It’s ok, we’ll go all old fashioned and have an intermission on this one, and it’s micro-talks or midnight.  If there’s a particular project or topic you’d like to discuss futher just catch up with the presenter later in the night.

We’ll also hear  from Paul Callaghan about  Freeplay (http://www NULL.freeplay NULL.net NULL.au/), which is just around the corner, and Tony Reed from the GDAA (http://gdaa NULL.com NULL.au/) will explain who can take advantage of the new R&D Tax Credits and how.

Finally, although not chronologically, there will be a sneak preview for an exciting event that IGDA is helping to bring to Melbourne next year…any guesses?

Come along to hear all about it all!

Hey all,

Had another great night at last week’s IGDA Melbourne meeting, they just keep getting bigger and better! We had 180 last month, and it looked like it was over 200 for this month! We’ll have to work hard to keep up the momentum at this rate…

The topic for the May meeting was ‘Money, Marketing and You’. The focus was on the financial realities of running an independent game development business, and personal marketing for independents and students.

To start things off, we had a quick update from Paul Callaghan on the preparations for this year’s Freeplay festival. The theme for Freeplay 2011 is ‘Handmade’, with a focus on the specific craft aspects of game development, as well as the individual’s place in the creative process and how games manifest as player constructed experiences. If you want to be part of Freeplay 2011, as a presenter, volunteer, expo presenter, or even assist in running the event as an Associate Producer or Board Member, check out the details at the website (http://www NULL.freeplay NULL.net NULL.au/) and get in touch with Paul to register your interest.

We kicked off the main event, and had the wonderful Neil Rennison from Tin Man Games (http://www NULL.tinmangames NULL.com) there, to talk about the actual financials of his business, and the reality of running an indie dev business. This was incredibly valuable information, with him quoting his actual business financials, and describing how he runs his business, and what he learned while developing each of their titles. Huge thanks to Neil for being so open and honest with all of this information. Neil then broke the sad news that he will soon be leaving our sunny colonial shores to return to the motherland (UK). It’s a sad decision, but Tin Man Games will still operate as a Victorian business, Ben Britten will still be here and there are plenty of plans already in the works for future Gamebook Adventures titles. We wish Neil and his family all the best for the move and all look forward seeing him at GCAP. Neil’s been a prominent and valued member of the IGDA Melbourne community and our loss is England’s gain. With luck we’ll tempt him back in a few years.

After that, we had Trent Kusters and Stephan Schutze talking about personal marketing, branding, and job-seeking. At this point, the evening was already getting rather late, but Trent and Stephan managed to amazingly fit a huge amount of information into the time they had (and you could easily run a day-long session on this topic). There were guidelines and examples of how to write an effective CV and cover letter and how to build a personal brand, an online folio presence, and the Do’s and Don’ts of job applications and interviews.

Stephan put together a collection of information for people to access, and you can find it on his website (http://www NULL.stephanschutze NULL.com/resources NULL.html).

It was an amazing night, with lots of valuable information for students, independents, and just about anyone really. We were also at a new venue, 1000£ Bend. They had a great open area in the gallery out the back where everyone had plenty of room for mingling and networking, and an upstairs presentation area with seating (not enough for everyone unfortunately, we were rather surprised by how many people came along), and while the rain drowned out the speakers a bit at times, it’s looking like a great venue for future events as well. If you have any comments on the venue or the evening, please let us know at info@igdamelbourne.org.

As announced on the night, our June event will be a developers ‘Post-Mortem’ of “AFL Live”, which was developed in Melbourne by Big Ant Studios (http://www NULL.bigant NULL.com/) (X360 and PS3) and Wicked Witch Software (http://www NULL.wicked-witch NULL.com NULL.au/) (Wii). We’ll have speakers from both companies there to spill the beans on what happened during the games development, and field questions from the audience. Further details about this soon…

Cheers all,
Craig.

After a brief catch up with a very busy Tin Man, aka Neil Rennison, creator of the Gamebook Adventures (http://tinmangames NULL.com NULL.au/blog/?page_id=203) and local indie top bloke, we can give you a little more detail on what’s sure to be another great night with the IGDA Melbourne crew.

Keep an eye out for any venue changes due to the number of people planning to rock up, and if you can reply to the facebook event (https://www NULL.facebook NULL.com/#!/event NULL.php?eid=200425529997002)that also helps with planning….

….anyway, back to the fun stuff

Neil sounds like he’s planning an unmissable talk for anyone thinking indie and wondering what it really looks like when you’re there. Using the Gamebook Adventure series details, we’ll hear about how they were funded, what business model was used and how Tin Man Games intends to increase revenue over the next two years.  We’ll get to see sales figures on all 5 currently released Gamebook Adventures.  This will be fascinating stuff and massive thanks to Neil for being so frank and honest with his bolts and all expose on the Gamebook Adventures experiences.

All this AND some insight into how to develop your own company, game or (dare I say it?) brand in the games marketplace, be it for your first job, contract or business proposal with Stephan Schutze and Trent Kusters.

AND AND …. Paul Callaghan will be there for a quick chat about how Freeplay’s (http://www NULL.freeplay NULL.net NULL.au/) coming together and how you can get involved

AND AND AND all the usual catching up on how projects like WinnitronAU, Automation and all other projects hatching around our mighty fine town.

When: Tuesday 10 May 6.30 – talks start at 7.30

Where: Cho Gao (at this stage – keep online for updates, please RSVP)

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

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).