A selection of newly conserved games from the Melbourne Global Game Jam (http://globalgamejam NULL.org/sites/2012/igda-melbourne-la-trobe) will be available for your sampling pleasure at the next IGDAM meet up.  Please note the unusual date (didn’t want to cramp Valentine’s plans) and venue (the bend was already booked).

When: Tuesday 21 February from 6pm

Where: The Order of Melbourne (http://maps NULL.google NULL.com NULL.au/maps?q=the+order+of+melbourne&ll=-37 NULL.80875,144 NULL.963291&spn=0 NULL.010019,0 NULL.01929&fb=1&gl=au&hq=the+order+of&hnear=0x6ad642af0f11fd81:0x5045675218ce7e0,Melbourne+VIC&cid=0,0,13260682760810499361&t=m&z=16&iwloc=A) (think Freeplay afterparty venue and you’re set)

Some of the games for your tasting pleasure include:

Omelette Boris (http://www NULL.kumobius NULL.com/omeletteboris/), Purgatory (http://globalgamejam NULL.org/2012/purgatory), Circle of Snake (http://globalgamejam NULL.org/2012/circle-snake), Faia (http://globalgamejam NULL.org/2012/faia), Harmonize (http://globalgamejam NULL.org/2012/harmonize), Hairy Cat Holocaust (http://globalgamejam NULL.org/2012/hairy-cat-holocaust) (please play on mute), Deep (http://globalgamejam NULL.org/2012/deep)and many, many more….

If you could let us know if you’re coming via the facebook event (https://www NULL.facebook NULL.com/events/155828627866033/) it’d be much appreciated.

Jammers, please register your game for display (https://docs NULL.google NULL.com/spreadsheet/viewform?hl=en_US&formkey=dFhDVzlMVEo4ejM3U25wZTh6S3ZHTXc6MQ#gid=0) so we can save you a space and have someone set up by 6pm at The Order.

The jam was a massive success with over 100 jammers creating 28 games in just 48 hours. We couldn’t have achieved this without the generous support of our sponsors….We owe enormous thanks in particular to our Platinum Sponsor La Trobe University (http://latrobe NULL.edu NULL.au)for allowing us to use their campus grounds to host all of the jammers. They were generous in providing us with five computer labs and a workstation for every jammer, as well as internet access and use of their amenities. The Game Jam would not have been possible without this venue.All of the jammers were delighted to hear from Myles who explained Gold Sponsor Microsoft’s Imagine Cup (http://www NULL.imaginecup NULL.com/), which is certainly of interest to all of these jammers. The generous financial support given by Microsoft also provided a solid meal and snacks that fueled the creative minds.We also owe significant thanks to our other Gold Sponsors the Academy  (http://aie NULL.edu NULL.au)of Interactive Entertainment (http://aie NULL.edu NULL.au) and Immersive Technologies (http://www NULL.immersivetechnologies NULL.com/)for their generous financial assistance. Their support allowed us to provide meals and some fun distractions to relieve the jammers from 48 hours of relentless development. The game jam would not have been possible without their early support.

All the jammers also owe many thanks to our Prize Sponsors EA Aus (http://www NULL.ea NULL.com/au)

tralia (http://www NULL.ea NULL.com/au),Stephan Shutze’s Sound Librarian (http://www NULL.stephanschutze NULL.com/sound-library NULL.html), Surprise Attack (http://surpriseattack NULL.com NULL.au/) amd StormFX (http://www NULL.stormfx NULL.com NULL.au/) for their generous donation of prizes including a copy of the Stephan’s sound library, valued at $2000 for the best game audio, a half day branding and marketing workshop for the most surprising game, as well as JB giftcards and a terrific selection of EA games and merchandise.

Finally, cheers to our  Indie Sponsors Tin Man Games (http://tinmangames NULL.com NULL.au/), The League of Geeks (http://www NULL.leagueofgeeks NULL.com/), and The Voxel Agents (http://www NULL.thevoxelagents NULL.com/) who provided some financial support and who were also incredibly generous with their time in helping organise, run, and judge the jam. Particular thanks are also due to Ben Britten-Smith of Tin Man Games who provided valuable mentorship to the jammers.

Hope to see you at The Order

The Global Game Jam is  primarily (http://globalgamejam NULL.org)collaborative, not competitive. The focus of the weekend is for everyone to make great games. However we’re game makers, so we can’t resist the urge to spice things up by making it a bit competitive and so in the interests of fun and of recognising excellence we do award prizes for several categories.

To reflect more accurately the role of the judging panel, we’ll be looking at them as a tasting panel after a long weekend in the game making kitchen.

Our “Jam Tasters” are

Simon Joslin, Creative Director at The Voxel Agents (http://thevoxelagents NULL.com), and veteran 48 Hour jammer.

Ben Britten, Technical Director at Tin Man Games (http://tinmangames NULL.com NULL.au) and international man of mystery.

Trent Kusters, ‘Creative Director’ at Divisive Media (http://www NULL.wetroads NULL.com/dm/) and ‘Founder & Director’ at  League of Geeks (http://www NULL.leagueofgeeks NULL.com/) who always smells nice.

Craig Duturbure, Creative Director at Grapple Gun Games (http://www NULL.grapplegungames NULL.com/) and an indie designer who looks for everlasting fun in games (but will settle for a satisfying shotgun effect)

Conor O’Kane, Game Development Lecturer at RMIT and jammer from last year about to release the jammed Last Flight of the Bumblebee (http://globalgamejam NULL.org/2011/last-flight-bumblebee)for iPad on the App Store.

Katie Williams, freelance writer, Kotaku Australia (http://kotaku NULL.com NULL.au), Hyper and PCPP and lover of inflatable strawberries.

Sam Mayo, Community Manager at Firemint (http://firemint NULL.com/) and ace lemon jouster.

Unforunately Mark Serrels can’t stay for the whole jam but will be coming along.  (I couldn’t resist his bio), Editor of Kotaku Australia. He is a multi award-winning journalist and the inventor of the Serrels’ Stare ™ (http://www NULL.kotaku NULL.com NULL.au/2011/05/yet-another-reason-why-kotaku-has-the-best-community-ever/). He has previously edited publications such as The Official Nintendo Magazine, The Official PlayStation Magazine, Australian 360 and PSM3. He once got 191,000 on Doodle Jump and totally has a man crush on Ryan Gosling. And, yes, he is painfully aware that he closely resembles Simon Pegg.

Awards Categories and Prizes

Tasters’ Toast: A $500 JB Voucher courtesy of Immersive Technologies

Jammers’ Jam de Jam: A $100 JB voucher

Tarty Art (best graphics): EA swag

Farty Art (best sound):  the complete Sound Librarian (http://www NULL.stephanschutze NULL.com/)

Smoothest Jam  (best teamwork): More swag from  EA Australia (http://www NULL.ea NULL.com/au)  along with $100 JB Voucher

Most Surprising Spread :

We <3 our growing list of sponsors for all the brilliant support and prizes.

Tasters  will reconvene with the jam makers, media and guests, over a bbq and a beer at La Trobe’s Eagle Bar at about 6pm on Sunday 29 January where they will discuss their tasting notes.

Games sector and media are encouraged to email giselle@igdamelbourne.org for an invite to Sunday afternoon display, awards and BBQ.  If you miss out this time there will be information about a game jam expo soon <crosses fingers the plan comes together.>

We’ll try to keep you posted with updates, but if you have any questions, start at the facebook #igdamjam page (https://www NULL.facebook NULL.com/groups/186036814823342/)and take it from there.

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

Welcome to 2012 – at IGDAM Central we’re starting with a bang and a jam.

Our first meetup for the year will be pre-jam at 1000 Pound Bend and will include info about game jam as well as a chance to catch up, so if you’re not planning to jam you’re still more than welcome.

When: Tuesday 10 January 6:30-10:00 pm

Where: 1000 Pound Bend, 361 Little Lonsdale St, Melbourne

The facebook event (https://www NULL.facebook NULL.com/events/257533087647276/) is already up and running.

And then….we jam.

Thanks to our wonderful sponsors La Trobe University (http://latrobe NULL.edu NULL.au), Microsoft Australia (http://www NULL.imaginecup NULL.com/), AIE (http://www NULL.aie NULL.edu NULL.au), Immersive Technologies (http://www NULL.immersivetechnologies NULL.com/), Tin Man Games (http://tinmangames NULL.com NULL.au/blog/), The Voxel Agents (http://www NULL.thevoxelagents NULL.com/), League of Geeks (http://www NULL.leagueofgeeks NULL.com/), EA Australia (http://www NULL.ea NULL.com/au) and The Sound Library (http://www NULL.stephanschutze NULL.com/) we will be part of the Global Game Jam on 27-29 January.  The first round of invitations to jam have been sent, and depending on responses and places available there will be another round in the coming week.

We’ve had an overwhelming response, with 150 registrations.  Unfortunately we can only accommodate 100 people, so if you are keen be sure to secure your spot as soon as possible.  Queries can be directed to giselle@igdamelbourne.org.

Apologies for the somewhat convoluted registration process, we’ll work on streamlining it and appreciate your patience and ability to fill out forms!

I’m sure there’s more to be said, but it’s New Year’s Day, not a day to tax the grey matter, so let’s say it on January 10th.

Hope to see you soon!

Wow.

Just wow.

On Sunday night we launched a crowd funding campaign on Pozible (http://www NULL.pozible NULL.com NULL.au/index NULL.php/archive/index/2993/description/0/0) to support this year’s IGDAM Christmas party.  Within 2 days of asking  we’ve done it!

And I mean we.   Everyone’s been more generous than I had hoped or imagined, and we’ve reached our goal, a Ninja Clapping Christmas is happening in Melbourne games dev world!  And sometimes in these parts we need things to look forward to.

The planning of this, sadly coincided with the closure of Visceral by EA and the loss of 21 local jobs.  Never a good thing.  If we can to help out in any and you’ve been affected by the closure you welcome to get in touch,  via either info at igdamelbourne dot org or the myriad of ways we can all be contacted these days!

One of which is twitter, which has been another place there has been some great local responses and offers of assistance to, along with the sounds of plots afoot from the Visceral crew:

kevin_mcintosh (http://twitter NULL.com/#%21/kevin_mcintosh) Kevin McIntosh

Not good – Visceral Games closing doors. For anyone leaving there, get in touch about positions at Torus Games; bit.ly/nK99Ai (http://t NULL.co/HSJzLHQp)

Adam_Rudd (http://twitter NULL.com/#%21/Adam_Rudd) Adam Rudd

My condolences to the #EAvisceral (http://twitter NULL.com/#%21/search?q=%23EAvisceral) Melbourne staff. Programmers & Senior Animators, #BigAntStudios (http://twitter NULL.com/#%21/search?q=%23BigAntStudios) may have a position for you

but then back on the upside, it’s been a topsy turvy few days, with the generosity of the local community, Visceral staff should be able to dine at the Ninja Clapping Christmas for nix. (http://twitter NULL.com/#%21/sequal1/status/115982788255170561)

The Clapping Ninja Honour Roll

( a work in progress – you can be added up until early November)

And then there’s all the other individuals (http://www NULL.pozible NULL.com NULL.au/index NULL.php/archive/index/2993/supports/0/0#info) who have been so generous in their support of this project. Thank you all, let’s keep going, who know’s maybe Trent Kusters  will see Kamahl yet.

We’ll be announcing our October meet up shortly, and we hope to see you on the second Tuesday of the month (as long as you came with, aside from new game dev contacts and tasty, tasty information from people into what you are)

Super special sponsors get logos, so here the come, and you may have noticed the ninja chimp earlier – that’s the spirit!

kevin_mcintosh (http://twitter NULL.com/#%21/kevin_mcintosh) Kevin McIntosh

by IGDAMelbourne

Not good – Visceral Games closing doors. For anyone leaving there, get in touch about positions at Torus Games; bit.ly/nK99Ai (http://t NULL.co/HSJzLHQp)

13 hours ago (http://twitter NULL.com/#%21/kevin_mcintosh/status/115955854573961216) (http://twitter NULL.com/#) (http://twitter NULL.com/#) (http://twitter NULL.com/#) (http://twitter NULL.com/#)

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!

It’s always great to hear about paid work around our wonderful Melbourne town – and right now, who wouldn’t want to get in on some Voxel action.

Here’s what the Agents have to say about it

The Voxel Agents are looking for a full-time lead artist to join our team!

We work collaboratively to prototype and develop new ideas, and it’s something we want you to be a part of! We want a creative soul who likes to experiment – because of this you don’t need to have worked in the games industry before, you simply need to be a talented visual artist!

We make original IP only. We’re in complete control of what we do, and you can be a part of that!

We want an artist with a strong sense of style that can continue to make our games standout and look amazing. You will be responsible for the look of all future Voxel Agent games, and any forthcoming updates to the Train Conductor series. You will work in an iterative development environment alongside a friendly tight-knit team of 4 full-time and 3 part-time developers.

Primarily we’re looking for a 2D artist with a broad set of skills. You’d want to be comfortable working with a wacom and in small formats. As the primary Voxel Agent artist, you will get your hands dirty in all aspects of development; from concept, right through to production and promotional materials. Additionally we encourage you to participate in brainstorming sessions and to make contributions to the game’s design.

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!!

April’s monthly meet-up has come and gone, and it proved to be one of our most successful events to date. A large portion of the thanks goes to our fantastic speakers.

First up, we heard from Simon Joslin of The Voxel Agents (http://www NULL.thevoxelagents NULL.com/), creators of Train Conductor. In what was an extremely informative and interesting thirty minute presentation. Voxel walked us through the debut year of one of Melbourne’s up and coming independent studios. Many thanks to Simon, Matt and Tom (aka The Voxel Agents) for sharing their experiences with the IGDA.

Following The Voxel Agents was news from a magical event held on distant shores; the 2010 Game Developers’ Conference (http://www NULL.gdconf NULL.com/) (GDC), occurring annually in San Francisco.

Jenn Sandercock gave us insight into the mayhem, mischief and magic of volunteering for GDC as she recounted her unique perspective of the bohemoth conference.

Mark Flanagan brought back some knowledge from the various presentations he made it to at the conference. His talk touched on some peculiar and brilliant ideologies shared by Naughty Dog, the team behind Uncharted 2. Mark has copies of the GDC presentations he covered for anyone who may be interested.

Then last up to give us their GDC perspective was Alexander Bruce (http://demruth NULL.com/), creator of award winning PC title, Hazard. Bruce spoke of his successes and experiences travelling to GDC as an indie and (along with some interesting stories) had some great tips for travelling indie developers. Most memorable were some exceptionally good examples on the importance of capitalising on your successes.

Then, of course, the ever-impassioned Stephan Schutze was up to tell us all about his new endeavour – an online free-to-download sound library. Definitely something all developers should be checking out. You can find out more at www.stephanschutze.com

Until our next meeting (4th of May), keep up the great work guys.

Thanks to all our speakers and those who came along on the night and made it the fantastic event it was.

Things are ticking along, and the next meeting in April is just choc-full of gamery goodness. This is thanks to eveyone who’s come along and the lovely committee folk who’ve been getting it all together in between their other commitments:

Alexander Bruce
Trent Kusters
Mark Flanagan
Dominic McDonnell
Giselle Rosman
Tarwin Stroh-Spijer

Feel free to catch up with committee folk the at the next meet up with any ideas and suggestions about future meetings, speakers, events etc.

UPCOMING EVENTS
Sharing knowledge from distant lands and local shores

WHEN: 7pm Tuesday 13 April (talks start at 8pm)
WHERE: The Embassy, 1 Queensbridge St Southbank

It’s a double header this month, covering near and far, and once again the numbers are looking good on the facebook event (http://www NULL.facebook NULL.com/event NULL.php?eid=334288174057&ref=mf)

First up is The Voxel Agents, creators of Train Conductor, reviewing their first year as local indie developers.

Then we will be hearing from some folk who went to San Fran to GDC to get the goss! So far we have Jenn Sandercock will be giving a volunteers-eye-view recount of GDC, Mark Flanagan went to represent both AIE and IGDA, Alexander Bruce will have the indie perspective. If you or someone you know would like to give a studio perspective contact a committee member near you!

Don’t forget, you can sign up for Club Embassy Membership at their website and get 20% off food and bar prices.

GAMES TRIVIA NIGHT in May

Details are being finalised, and will be announced at the April meeting, but the May meet up will be a Games Trivia Night.

There’s a PS3 in the prize pool thanks to Big Ant Studios (http://www NULL.bigant NULL.com) so don’t miss it!

Registration will open at the next gathering and you will be able to sign up as a team or individual.

If there’s any more you’d like to share with IGDA Melbourne mailing list and website let us know!

Such as:

App My State (http://www NULL.premier NULL.vic NULL.gov NULL.au/app-my-state NULL.html) – entry deadline 23 April

Andrew Golding, from Brawsome would “like to put out the call to local iPhone developers to see what they can do with the Jolly Rover assets on iPhone, to cross promote Jolly Rover. I would be looking at arranging a revenue split with the developer as I can’t afford to pay anyone at the moment” feel free to email andrew@brawsome.com.au (andrew null@null brawsome NULL.com NULL.au)

and Giselle is looking for someone to develop a flash game for the La Trobe Uni website – email giselle.rosman@gmail.com (giselle NULL.rosman null@null gmail NULL.com) if you are interested and want more details.