Monthly Archives

July 2012

Jul 30
0

OrcaJam III Early Bird Tickets Gone After August 1st!

By | Chapter News, Events, General, Local News, News | No Comments

I like to think Diane Arbus would be photographing Game Jams if she were still alive…

OrcaJam III (or eye eye eye as I like to call it) is coming up fast. Even faster is the due date for the early bird tickets. Organizer Andy Moore recently sent out this message:

“We need to settle on TShirts and get them printed – and we need to order the catering – by August 1st. That means any signups AFTER August 1st become a pain in the butt. So:

If you purchase after August 1st, the ticket price will be higher and there will not be a TShirt for you at the event.

Please spread the word to anyone you know that was *considering* going. Tweet it, post to facebook, anything you can 🙂 I want to make sure nobody comes out disappointed!”

So sign up for OrcaJam before Thursday to get the lower rate *and* a nifty T-shirt! That’s a heckava deal. Share the good word with your friends! OrcaJam is always a good time, so everyone wins!

For more info on OrcaJam, check out the homepage at www.orcajam.com

To register, go here: OrcaJam registration

To visit LEVEL UP, go here: http://www.meetup.com/levelup/

Jul 03
0

Video Games: Not Just For Men Anymore

By | General | No Comments

Anita Sarkeesian thanking her project supporters. Many supported her Kickstarter project in a reaction against those who harassed her. Trolls lose again.

I listened to an interesting segment on the CBC Radio program The Current this morning featuring an interview with Anita Sarkeesian of Feminist Frequency. If you haven’t already heard what happened recently with Ms Sarkeesian and the backlash against her project to analyze the ways women are stereotyped in video games, than you will definitely want to give a listen to this episode. It’s a real eye-opener to the kind of behaviour that some people find acceptable towards women, especially women who would speak up against the sexism inherent to the games industry. This is the sort of thing that is holding back game development from becoming a mature art form and really needs to be addressed by the industry as a whole if we want to evolve.

The second part of the segment features a talk with Brenda Bailey Gershkovitch, one of the founders of Silicon Sisters Interactive. They’re a Vancouver based game developer and they happen to be the first female owned and run video game studio in Canada. And they’re doing their part to address the imbalance in the game industry by focusing on creating games for women and girls while being exclusively staffed by women and girls.

The entire recording of the episode can be found on the CBC website at the following link: Women and Gaming: Smashing Stereotypes.

Jul 02
0

Tonight only! July Monthly Meeting – Canada Day Long Weekend Edition!

By | General, Meetings, Presentations | No Comments

Logo stolen from the Canadian Entertainment Software Association on account of said logo being pretty cool.

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

This is also a continued call out to all you crazy game-makers out there to consider stepping up and speaking at one of our meetings. I’ve met so many talented people at these gatherings and I’d love to have more of you get involved and give a short presentation on some aspect of game development that gets you excited. One of the things that makes game development so interesting is all the different disciplines that go into creating a game: programming, producing, design, sound, music, art, writing, the list goes on. If you do any of these activities in the act of creating games, we want you to talk to the group about it. Or if you have an idea for a talk you’d like to see, let us know. We may just be able to get it together for you. Please send us a note at IGDA Victoria or talk to myself or Andy Moore at one of the meetings. We’re looking forward to hearing from you!

Details:

Monday, July 2nd

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