Tag

indie developers

Aug 26
0

September Main Event featuring Mike Wozniewski of Hololabs

By | Meetings, Presentations | No Comments
Mike is a game creator and a man with a gaze as intense as a thousand suns.

Mike is a game creator and a man with a gaze as intense as a thousand suns.

Hi everyone! Chris here to give you the lowdown about our next monthly meet-up at Swans. This September, we’re happy to have as our feature presenter Mike Wozniewski. Mike is the founder and president of Hololabs (www.hololabs.org), an award-winning indie development studio making games, mobile apps, VR experiences and art installations. He has recently relocated to Victoria from Montreal, where he spent over 15 years building interactive media of all sorts.

His Master’s degree (from the Centre for Intelligent Machines at McGill University) focused on authoring tools for intelligent environments, human-computer interaction, motion tracking, and virtual reality. After that, Mike joined the Society for Arts and Technology [SAT], where he developed software for immersive audiovisual environments. After founding Hololabs in 2011, Mike has worked with many artists, designers and developers to build creative, experimental, and somewhat wacky games and art projects.

Mike will be discussing the recent boom of game making apps, level editors, and the promise of user-generated games as a form of social media. From LittleBigPlanet, to Minecraft, Project Spark, Super Mario Maker, Pixel Press, and Hololabs’ own Papercade, Mike will discuss the world of consumer-focused game creators. With a long-term obsession for creative tools, this talk will explore the affordances necessary for successful game-making systems, and will also serve as a postmortem for Papercade. Along the way, Mike will introduce Hololabs, provide some of the history about the studio, and will give a sneak peek of Hololabs’ next game that will be developed here in Victoria.

After the talk we will be holding the usual open stage and social time. We have a private room with a projector and a ton of space. Show off your current projects; do some play-testing; or just relax and enjoy the awesome local food and craft-brewed beer. Let’s all come out and give Mike a warm welcome to Victoria!

Schedule:

  • 4:30pm: Doors open (room is locked earlier)
  • 5:10pm: Opening announcements by group organizers
  • 5:15pm: Featured presentation
  • 5:45pm: Open stage for show-and-tell, networking and socializing
  • 7:30pm: Venue closes (We are free to move to the main bar if we wish)

See you there!

Details:

Monday, September 7th, 2015

Buckerfields aka The Collard Room – Swans Hotel and Brewpub

506 Pandora Avenue, Victoria, BC

Doors open at 4:30pm

Please RSVP via the Meetup event

Mar 29
0

April Main Event featuring Scott Drader from Metalhead Games

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Scott Drader inventing new "-mortem" talks so you don't have to.

Scott Drader: inventing new “-mortem” talks so you don’t have to.

Hi everyone! Chris here. I want to take a minute to tell you about our next monthly meet-up at Swans. This month’s feature presenter is Scott Drader. Scott co-founded Metalhead Software, a local game and software development studio, in 2009. Last year he came out to give a “pre-mortem” talk about the game that Metalhead had been putting in long hours to finish, Super Mega Baseball (formerly known as Big Fly Baseball). Now, after the recent release of Super Mega Baseball, Scott is triumphantly returning to give a “mid-mortem” talk, where he will be talking about the stress, exhilaration, and lessons learned in shipping Metalhead’s first title. This will be an event that you won’t want to miss!

After the talk we will be holding the usual open stage and social time. We have a private room with a projector and a ton of space. Show off your current projects; do some play-testing; or just relax and enjoy the awesome local food and craft-brewed beer.

Schedule:

  • 4:30pm: Doors open (room is locked earlier)
  • 5:10pm: Opening announcements by group organizers
  • 5:15pm: Featured presentation
  • 5:45pm: Open stage for show-and-tell, networking and socializing
  • 7:30pm: Venue closes (We are free to move to the main bar if we wish)

See you there!

Details:

Monday, April 6th, 2015

Buckerfields aka The Collard Room – Swans Hotel and Brewpub

506 Pandora Avenue, Victoria, BC

Doors open at 4:30pm

Please RSVP via the Meetup event

Jan 31
0

February Monthly Meeting with Scott Drader

By | General, Meetings, Presentations | No Comments
Scott's the one on the right-hand side with the juicy brain.

Scott’s the one on the right-hand side with the juicy brain.

This is a reminder of our monthly meeting for November taking place on this Monday, November 4th. This month’s feature presenter is Scott Drader from Metalhead Software.

Scott co-founded Metalhead Software, a local game and software development studio, in 2009. Metalhead is currently on the home stretch to launching its first major game IP this spring: BigFly Baseball.

Scott’s talk, “A BigFly Baseball Pre-Mortem” will cover the ups and downs of the game’s development process and discuss the upcoming challenges around launching a multi-platform game with a small team. Come join us for Scott’s presentation and hang around afterwards to socialize and check out some of the games made in Victoria last weekend at Global Game Jam.

We have a private room with a projector and a ton of space. Show off your current projects; do some play-testing; or just relax and enjoy the awesome local food and craft-brewed beer.

Schedule:

  • 4:30pm: Doors open (room is locked earlier)
  • 5:10pm: Opening announcements by group organizers
  • 5:15pm: Featured presentation
  • 5:45pm: Open stage for show-and-tell, networking and socializing
  • 7:30pm: Venue closes (We are free to move to the main bar if we wish)

See you there!

Details:

Monday, February 3rd

The Collard Room – Swans Hotel and Brewpub

506 Pandora Avenue, Victoria, BC

Doors open at 4:30pm

Please RSVP via the Meetup event: The Main Event

—
Sep 26
0

When not being attacked by blobs, Brent is often attacked by cats.

When not being attacked by blobs, Brent is often attacked by cats.

This is a reminder of our monthly meeting for October taking place on Monday, October 7th. This month’s feature presenter is Brent Owens from Paper Machete games! Paper Machete is an indie game studio based out of Campbell River (and previously Fort St. John) and is currently developing Attack of the Gelatinous Blob for PC, MacOS, and Linux. Brent will be talking about the evolution of his game, the trials of being an indie developer, and in particular about his experiences with Kickstarter and his campaign to fund the game’s completion. Come on out and welcome Brent to Victoria!

We have a private room with a projector and a ton of space. Show off your current projects; do some play-testing; or just relax and enjoy the awesome local food and craft-brewed beer.

The meetup will kick off with presentations and then transition into free-form networking.

Schedule:

  • 4:30pm: Doors open (room is locked earlier)
  • 5:10pm: Opening announcements by group organizers
  • 5:15pm: Featured presentation
  • 5:45pm: Open stage for show-and-tell, networking and socializing
  • 7:30pm: Venue closes (We are free to move to the main bar if we wish)

See you there!

Details:

Monday, October 7th

The Collard Room – Swans Hotel and Brewpub

506 Pandora Avenue, Victoria, BC

Doors open at 4:30pm

Please RSVP via the Meetup event: The Main Event

By | General, Meetings, Presentations | No Comments
Feb 27
0

March Monthly Meeting featuring Stephen McCallum

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We're pretty sure that one of these is Stephen.

We’re pretty sure that one of these is Stephen.

This is a reminder of the monthly meeting for March taking place next Monday. This month, we will be featuring a talk by Stephen McCallum of Brain Warp Studios. Stephen will begin by presenting his crowd-funding campaign for OOG! Clan of the Caveman and then launch into an open and frank discussion with the group about crowd-funding and the challenges of launching an indie game company. Be sure to come out for this presentation on a timely subject that is changing the face of modern game development.

We have the pub patio area reserved (which is covered and heated) and a ton of space. There are 3 TVs that we can hookup to and display slides or show off your current projects.  Come relax, talk shop and enjoy the awesome local food and craft-brewed beer.

The meetup will kick off with presentations and then transition into free-form networking.

Schedule:

  • 5:00pm: Doors open
  • 5:30pm: Opening announcements by group organizers
  • 5:45pm: Open stage for show-and-tell, networking and socializing
  • 11:00pm: Venue closes

See you there!

Details:

Monday, March 4th

Christie’s Carriage House Pub

1739 Fort Street, Victoria, BC

Doors open at 5pm

We’ll be in the patio area. Straight through the front doors, hang a right behind the host station and go through the patio doors.

RSVP via the Meetup event: The Main Event

Sep 30
0

Last Monthly Meeting Before Hallowe'en Featuring Dan Jacobsen!

By | General, Meetings, Presentations | No Comments

Nothing says Hallowe’en like a post-apocalyptic RPG themed Jack O’Lantern.

This is a reminder of the monthly meeting for October taking place this Monday evening. Let’s get together and discuss the latest events in the industry, tales of going Indie and/or studio life, and game-play design, challenges, and solutions!

This month, as part of our Awesome Talks series, we will be featuring a talk by Daniel Jacobsen, CEO of Gaslamp Games – the creators of the fun and hilarious Dungeons of Dredmor and the much anticipated Clockwork Empires. Dan will be holding court, swishing a snifter of brandy while extolling us with tales of working for Gaslamp, relaying his experience of bringing Dredmor to Steam, and whatever else catches his fancy for the evening. It’s guaranteed to be an enjoyable and informative evening for all.

See you there!

Details:

Monday, October 1st

The Collard Room – Swans Hotel and Brewpub

506 Pandora Avenue, Victoria, BC

Doors open at 4:30pm

RSVP via the Meetup event: Show & Tell @ Swans

Update via the internets from Dan Jacobsen: His talk will be focusing on getting funding for games, something that should be of interest to all game creators of various levels. Of special interest to amateur game makers will be tips on how to level up to become professional game makers. Don’t miss it!

Mar 28
0

April Monthly Meeting featuring Andy Moore on Rapid Game Prototyping

By | General, Meetings, Presentations | No Comments

Apparently it involves massive quantities of energy drinks... and a soul full of rage!

This is a reminder of the monthly meeting for April taking place on this coming Monday evening. This month’s meeting features a talk by Andy Moore of Radial Games. From the Meetup description:

“Rapid prototyping, high-speed development, pivoting, and best of all… working examples of how I’ve executed a few dozen games since new years, experimented with new tech, and making some breakthrough design decisions. I’ll talk about the tools I use to deliver prototypes so quickly, from the IDE down to the project-management and collaboration tools. If you want to learn how to make things quicker, come on down and take a listen!”

As always, everyone is welcome to bring any projects along that they’ve been working on to share with the rest of the group, and there will be lots of discussion about local goings on in the Victoria game development community.

Details:

Monday, April 2nd

The Collard Room – Swans Hotel and Brewpub

506 Pandora Avenue, Victoria, BC

Doors open at 4:30pm. Talk should start at about 5:15.

RSVP via the Meetup event: Show & Tell @ Swans

Mar 27
0

Of Game Awards and Elected Boards

By | Chapter News, General, News | No Comments

And the award for the most subtle and least exploding awards show logo goes to...

The Canadian Videogame Awards Finalists have been announced. Along with the usual studio nominees like Ubisoft and EA, there are a number of indie developers who made the finals including:

Not only that, but an indie game is a finalist for the most awards: Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP by Capybara is a finalist in nine categories. The awards take place during Fan Expo Vancouver on Saturday, April 21st, 2012.

In other news, the results are back from the 2012 IGDA Board Election. The two vacancies on the IGDA Board of Directors will now be filled by Sheri Rubin and Ed Fries. You may remember Sheri from an Awesome Talk that she gave to our group back in October of last year. Congratulations to both Sheri and Ed!

Mar 27
0

Are We Kickstarting a New Era of Game Development?

By | General | No Comments

C'mon kid, this thing ain't gonna start itself!

There’s been a lot of buzz lately about Kickstarter projects by well-known game developers on the interwebs lately. It began with Tim Schafer and his old-school “Double Fine Adventure” Kickstarter project which not only reached its funding goal in very little time, but surpassed it to record-setting levels. This got the attention of Brian Fargo of InExile Entertainment who decided to start a Kickstarter project of his own: the much requested sequel to Wasteland. Brian Fargo’s funding goals were a bit more ambitious than Schafer’s: he was aiming for $900,000 to Tim Schafer’s $400,000. Regardless, he soon attained that goal and left it behind. Last time I checked, they were at over $1.6 million in funding.

So what does this all mean? Both of these projects are ones that the game publishing companies had no interest in backing, most likely because the projects were determined to be too niche, with a limited audience, and therefore too risky to invest any money into. Kickstarter, and crowd-funding websites like it such as Indiegogo are providing an alternative to the traditional game publishing model. Game developers can now go directly to gamers to get the funding they need to make the game that both groups want to be made. As Brian Fargo and In-Exile noted on their Kickstarter page:

“This is a paradigm shift that is way bigger than Wasteland 2. This is the beginning of a new era in gaming where the developer gets to work directly with the fans to build the type of product that the fans want. No focus groups, no pitches to the marketing team, no trying to get an executive committee to group-think their way to a project green-light. Now we just have a developer with a creative idea that resonates and a group of dedicated fans who are willing to lay down their money to buy it.”

It’s an exciting time for indie developers. And it is made more exciting by the announcement of a new initiative: Kicking It Forward. Not content to rest on his laurels with the success of the Wasteland 2 campaign, Mr. Fargo has instead proposed that successful campaigns donate 5% of their profits back into the Kickstarter community to help fund other indie projects. Whether this initiative takes off or not remains to be seen, but as of this writing eleven projects have already adopted the idea and can be found listed on the new website: kickingitforward.org.