IGDA Melbourne

As we cruise into a long weekend in Melbourne, at the other end of it local game developers will gather to find out more about the development of AFL Live (http://www NULL.bigant NULL.com/bigant_games/view/australian-rules-football-18/) by Big Ant Studios (http://www NULL.bigant NULL.com/)and AFL (Wii) (http://www NULL.wicked-witch NULL.com NULL.au/index NULL.php?page=86&id=2) by Wicked Witch Software (http://www NULL.wicked-witch NULL.com NULL.au/). Trent Kusters will be chairing the panel:

Ants:

Andy Symons – Lead Designer

Antony Marshall – AI Programmer

Ross Symons – CEO (assuming he’s in the country)

plus there have been murmurings of a mystery artist…

Witches:

Ray Clifton Dobing – Associate Producer

Jason Bakker – Programmer

Dan Visser – CEO (assuming he’s in the country)

Massive props to the twitter help this week in arranging audio, and huge thanks for ‘above and beyond’ help from Joel at Mnemonic Audio (http://www NULL.mnemonicaudio NULL.com/), so when we can all hear properly if it p…pelts with rain it’ll be thanks to him!

Enjoy your long weekend and we’ll see you on Tuesday!

When: Tuesday 14 June 6.30 onwards, panel starts at 7.30 – approx 9, networking afterwards

Where: 1000 Pound Bend (http://maps NULL.google NULL.com NULL.au/maps/place?oe=utf-8&rls=org NULL.mozilla:en-GB:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=thousand+pound+bend+melbourne&fb=1&gl=au&hq=thousand+pound+bend&hnear=0x6ad646b5d2ba4df7:0x4045675218ccd90,Melbourne+VIC&cid=7164293019652141101) 361 Little Lonsdale St Melbourne (you’ll find us out the back)

If you have any queries get in touch via facebook (https://www NULL.facebook NULL.com/home NULL.php?sk=group_2387534951), twitter (http://twitter NULL.com/#!/IGDAMelbourne)or email info@igdamelbourne.org

Developers from Big Ant Studios and Wicked Witch Software will be involved in a special panel to discuss the development of AFL Live for xBox and PS3 (Big Ant) and AFL for Wii (Wicked Witch)

The facebook event (https://www NULL.facebook NULL.com/event NULL.php?eid=225501607464849) is live and already looking popular – we’ll be sending through updates on who’s panelling soon, so don’t miss out.

When: Tuesday 14 June 6.30-10.30 (panel starts at 7.30)
Where: 1000 £ Bend, 361 Little Lonsdale St, Melbourne

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.

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!