Category

General

Dec 16
0

Gaslamp Game Makes Top 10 on Gamasutra

By | General, Local News, News | No Comments

The secret of their success? It's all in the eyebrows, kids!

As an early Christmas gift for local indie developer Gaslamp Games, Gamasutra ranked their funny and entertaining dungeon crawler Dungeons of Dredmor #6 in Gamasutra’s Best Of 2011: Top 10 Indie Games. They’re in good company. The list includes many excellent indie games such as Atom Zombie Smasher and Frozen Synapse as well as fellow Canadian developers Capybara Games with their stylish release Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP. Congratulations Gaslamp!

If you haven’t already, give Dungeons of Dredmor a try – it’s a blast. And don’t forget their just released expansion: Realm of the Diggle Gods.

Dec 15
0

Mid-Month Non-Denominational Holiday Brewpub Social!

By | Events, General, Meetings | No Comments

It might be easier to play that game without gloves on, Santa. Just sayin...

I thought a reminder might be in order for the IGDA Victoria Mid-Month Brewpub Social coming this Saturday. This month it transforms into the Mid-Month Non-Denominational Holiday Brewpub Social (or MMNDHBPS for short). Come on out and share some holiday cheer with the rest of the Victoria Game development community and dream about all the new games you might be getting. Hope to see you there, if not have a happy holiday of whatever variety you subscribe to!

When:

Saturday, December 17, 2011, 2:30 PM

Where:

350-B Bay Street

Victoria, BC

Phone: 250 380 0706

Website: http://www.moonunderwater.ca

RSVP:

Level Up meetup event

Dec 12
0

GameHouse Canada Looking for a Few Good Geeks

By | Careers, General, Local News | No Comments

And maybe someday you'll rock as much as this guy!

I just got the word that GameHouse Canada is hiring. GameHouse is one of our largest local game companies and a Platinum Sponsor of the Level Up/IGDA Victoria group, so if anyone in Victoria is looking for a good place to move forward with your game career, or if anyone outside of Victoria is looking for a reason to move here, you should definitely check them out. The job postings are located here on their Facebook Page. Myke Allen, who works as a Game Artist at GameHouse and is an all around good guy, was kind enough to pass on this information, so if you decide to apply, please mention his name.

Dec 03
0

December Monthly Meeting featuring Chris Tihor's ICIDS 2011 Highlights

By | General, Meetings, Presentations | No Comments

The frog kissing is finished for another year...

This is a reminder of the monthly meeting for December taking place on this coming Monday evening. Continuing our Awesome Talks series, this month’s meeting features yours truly giving a presentation on the recently concluded International Conference on Interactive Digital Storytelling (ICIDS) 2011 in Vancouver. Specifically, I’ll be talking about the workshop I ran called Rummaging in the Geek Culture Toolbox, but I’ll also be open to any questions regarding the rest of the conference, and I’ll bring a printed copy of the proceedings for all to peruse. 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 I’m sure that there will be lots of discussion about Microsoft’s recent announcement about Microsoft Studios Victoria.

See you there!

Details:

Monday, December 5th

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

Dec 02
0

Microsoft Brings the Game to Victoria

By | General, Local News, News | No Comments

The new home of Microsoft Studios Victoria. Nothing important was going on in there anyways.

As you may have already heard from various news sources, Microsoft is planning on opening a new game studio here in Victoria. Microsoft Studios Victoria will be opening in the new year and will be located in offices in the Dogwood building on the downtown waterfront. While some local game companies are wary of the new competition for local talent (Microsoft’s looking to hire 50-60 people), industry observers and post-secondary institutions are cheering the move, saying that it will mark Victoria as a viable location for other game companies to set up shop and lure new employees to the area from around the world. Regardless of which camp you belong, everyone has to agree that the Victoria game development industry is about to get a lot more interesting in the next year.

Nov 03
0

November Monthly Meeting featuring Andy Moore's Super Secret Presentation

By | General, Meetings, Presentations | No Comments

We can neither confirm or deny the presence of cows in rubber boots.

Just sending out a reminder of the monthly meeting for November taking place on this coming Monday evening. Continuing our Awesome Talks series, this month’s meeting features the one and only Andy Moore giving a presentation on… well, I can’t tell you! The presentation’s subject is a secret. I can tell you that it’s going to be entertaining and informative and Andy won’t be pulling any punches. Due to the off-the-record nature of his talk, we respectfully request that no recordings be made and no blogging be done about it afterwards. You’ll probably be too busy afterwards socializing with other game developers and checking out the new and exciting projects that people have brought to show off to be blogging anyways.

See you there!

Details:

Monday, November 7th

The Collard Room – Swans Hotel and Brewpub

506 Pandora Avenue, Victoria, BC

Doors open at 4:30pm

Meetup event: Show & Tell @ Swans

Oct 04
0

Awesome Talks Lives Up To Its Name

By | Chapter News, General, Meetings | No Comments
awesome

Seriously. Would Honest Abe lie to you?

The October Monthly Meeting was a smashing success and a great kick-off for our Awesome Talks series. We had a full house out for Sheri Rubin’s presentation: “Your Developers Are Your Customers”. Sheri made it out to Victoria from Seattle despite the slings and arrows of transportation difficulties, gave a great talk, and hung around to chat and answer questions afterwards. There was a good mix of students and professionals, indies and studio folks present, much food and drink was consumed and many lively game discussions ensued. All in all, a great time had by everyone. If you couldn’t make it out, I’ll be posting the slides from the presentation soon. Thanks again to Sheri for coming to visit us in Victoria and thanks to everyone who came out for making it such a great meeting.

Remember that the Mid-Month Social is coming up soon: Saturday October 15th at 2:30 pm at Moon Under Water Brewpub. I’ll be posting a reminder closer to the time. It’s a more casual meet-up and a good opportunity to chat with other game creators while enjoying some of the local brew.

Sep 21
0

Because OrcaJam 2011 Wasn't Gonna Organize Itself

By | General, Local News | No Comments

They look so innocent when they're sleeping.

A resounding success in the Victoria game development community, OrcaJam is over for another year. Many games were made, beverages consumed,  and new friendships began. After all the speeches, rants, and good times have finished, organizer Andy Moore takes a minute to reflect upon the event and consider the successes, failures, and surprises in a article called Organizing OrcaJam 2011.

Sep 14
0

For the Benefit of Mr. Brown

By | General, News | No Comments

Probably not the same Mr. Brown

In a recent post on the Canadian digital media news site Village Gamer, blogger Tami Quiring responds to an incendiary article published by Macleans on tax breaks for game developers in Canada. The original article, written by Jesse Brown, was harsh and flippant in tone and seemly unconcerned with accuracy. The response was, to my mind, an excellent defense of the game industry and an appropriate dressing down to lazy journalism. So I share it with you and am happy not to be in the shoes of Mr. Brown.

Update: Link fixed. Apologies.

Update #2: Another response from Jaime Woo at the Torontoist.

Update #3: Peter Nowak at Canadian Business has picked up the story as well. In addition, Jesse Brown remains unswayed.