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Meetings

Jan 02
0

January Monthly Meeting – The Road Ahead

By | Chapter News, General, Meetings | No Comments
Hopefully we can avoid the goblins this time.

Hopefully we can avoid the goblins this time.

This meeting we’re going to do something a little different. Along with our regular announcements, and discussion of the upcoming Global Game Jam, we’re going to have a casual discussion about the future of the group, and we want to hear your ideas. From the ideas gathered from the meeting, we’ll create a survey to be sent out to everyone, the result being an accurate idea of what you, the member, are looking for from LevelUp – IGDA Victoria. So please come out if you wish to put in your two cents, or if you can’t make it on Monday, keep your eyes peeled for the upcoming survey. Together we can make this group as awesome as humanly possible.

Schedule:

  • 4:30pm: Doors open (room is locked earlier)
  • 5:10pm: Opening announcements by group organizers
  • 5:15pm: Discussion begins
  • 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, January 6th

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

Oct 31
0

November Monthly Meeting Featuring Brian MacKay From Race Rocks 3D

By | Meetings, Presentations | No Comments
Brian is a long time... wait, was that a stick cracking? He may not be alone in these woods!

Brian is a long time… wait, was that a stick cracking? He may not be alone in these woods!

This is a reminder of our monthly meeting for November taking place on Monday, November 4th. This month’s feature presenter is Brian MacKay from Race Rocks 3D! Brian will be talking about “An Agile Approach to Life”

“If you’ve worked in software or game development you’re probably familiar with the concept of “Agile Scrum” project management, however what you might not realize is that many of those principles can be applied to other major (or minor!) goals in your life.  The focus of this presentation is around looking at ways you can move your projects, goals and ultimately your life forward by embracing change and keeping things simple.”

More details about Brian:

“Brian first started making games at the age of 6 using HyperCard on the Mac Plus, and since then his passion for interactive storytelling has led him through a variety of mediums. With over 10 years experience working as an entrepreneur, brand strategist, game designer, and creative director, Brian specializes in applying his broad spectrum of finely honed skills to a variety of creative projects.  He is currently working as Lead Designer at RaceRocks 3D and has an independent mobile game set for release in 2014.”

Come join us for Brian’s presentation and hang around afterwards to socialize or check out new projects from your peers. 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, November 4th

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
Jul 31
0

August Monthly Meeting Featuring Joel Green… at Swans!

By | General, Meetings, News | No Comments
Hey, this place looks familiar! Although slightly fancier than I remember...

Hey, this place looks familiar! Although slightly fancier than I remember…

This is a reminder of our monthly meeting for August taking place next Monday, August 5th. As you may have noticed, this meeting is going to be held at our old haunt: Swans Brewpub. Unfortunately, holding our meetings at Christie’s didn’t really work out. I won’t go into it here, but the upshot of it is that we’ve arranged to have our monthly Main Event held at Swans in the good ol’ Collard Room again. One of the good things about this is that we can once again have underage members attending our meetings here, so we are discontinuing the After School (Work) Special meetups effective immediately.

To kick off our first meeting back at Swans, we’re having a presentation by Joel Green. Joel is a free-lance, free-range game developer and audio designer, currently living in the wild woods of Vancouver Island where he is experimenting with merging a technology career with a rural lifestyle.  Past credits include audio and systems design for Mass Effect 2 and 3, Dragon Age 2 and 3, and Need For Speed: Undercover.

Joel will be giving his talk “Game’n’Farmer” which he recently gave at the excellent Full Indie Summit in Vancouver. The talk is described thusly:

Why do I have to live in a city to make games?
Thanks to small teams, remote collaboration, and widespread internet access, Indie developers have a unique opportunity to live and work wherever they want.  This short talk relays the benefits and challenges of making games outside of cities, approaching the work/life balance issue from a unique perspective. 

Please come out and welcome Joel to our new/old meeting space!

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, August 5th

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

Jun 25
0

July Monthly Meeting feat. Richard Vahrman – "Beyond the Invisible"

By | General, Meetings, Presentations | No Comments
Richard is a game designer who is outstanding in his field.

Richard is a game designer who is outstanding in his field.

This is a reminder of the monthly meeting for July taking place Monday, July 8th. This month, we have the distinct honour of welcoming Richard Vahrman to our meeting. Richard is a game designer visiting from Brighton, UK, who was kind enough to offer to give a presentation to our chapter. Here’s a description of the talk from Richard:

“The title of my talk will be ‘Beyond the Invisible’ and will give an introduction to location-based gaming, plastic waste pipes and how to dig up a field by jumping up and down. Beyond the Invisible refers to the work we are currently doing in updating a game I created called Invisible Buildings (virtual archaeology for school children).”

Richard also describes his background and how he eventually made his way into game design:

“After getting a degree in Biology, I became a musician and truck driver before working for 12 years with Prof. Heinz Wolff for the Medical Research Council, Brunel University and European Space Agency. We made equipment for the elderly and handicapped, and plant-cultivating robots for use in micro-gravity. I then started my own company specialising in RFID and container tracking systems. On my move to Brighton, I founded Brighton Web building and hosting content management systems. 7 years ago. I became interested in location based games and formed LocoMatrix. After a number of false starts, we now actually make a game that people do play!”

You won’t want to miss Richard’s fascinating presentation. Be sure to RSVP as space is limited and we’re expecting a good turn out.

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: Featured presentation
  • 6:15pm: Open stage for show-and-tell, networking and socializing
  • 11:00pm: Venue closes

See you there!

Details:

Monday, July 8th

Christie’s Carriage House Pub

1739 Fort Street, Victoria, BC

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.

Please RSVP via the Meetup event: The Main Event. We need to let Christie’s Pub know how many people to expect. Thanks!

May 29
0

June Monthly Meeting featuring You?

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The LevelUp - IGDA Victoria Empire, that is...

The LevelUp – IGDA Victoria Empire, that is…

This is a reminder of the monthly meeting for June taking place Monday, June 3rd. This month, we will be trying something a little different. We want *you* to give a micro-talk. Got a few minutes and something you want to talk about in the realm of game creation? Why not share it with the rest of the group? It can be something you’ve learned recently, something that bugs you – whatever you like! (within reason, of course) Share and get some discussion going!

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
  • 5:35pm: Presentations begin
  • 6:30pm: Open stage for show-and-tell, networking and socializing
  • 11:00pm: Venue closes

See you there!

Details:

Monday, June 3rd

Christie’s Carriage House Pub

1739 Fort Street, Victoria, BC

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.

Please RSVP via the Meetup event: The Main Event. We need to let Christie’s Pub know how many people to expect. Thanks!

Apr 24
0

May Monthly Meeting featuring Jacob Schwartz

By | General, Meetings, Presentations | No Comments
So Indie

Local indie game creator and concrete wall enthusiast Jacob Schwartz.

This is a reminder of the monthly meeting for May taking place Monday, May 6th. This month, we will be featuring a presentation by Jacob Schwartz, creator of iso and other fine games. Jacob will be presenting a post-mortem on his latest game: Ragdoll Boxing: Match of the Century. Anyone interested in releasing a game independently and/or through the Apple app store will definitely want to come out for this.

Also! We will be featuring a Super Secret Surprise Guest. Who could it be? I’m not telling. You’ll have to come out and find out yourself.

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
  • 5:35pm: Featured presentation
  • 6:30pm: Open stage for show-and-tell, networking and socializing
  • 11:00pm: Venue closes

See you there!

Details:

Monday, May 6th

Christie’s Carriage House Pub

1739 Fort Street, Victoria, BC

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.

Please RSVP via the Meetup event: The Main Event. We need to let Christies Pub know how many people to expect. Thanks!

Apr 11
0

Game Dev News: Just Like a Beautiful Flower

By | Chapter News, Events, General, Local News, Meetings | No Comments
Now if only it would stop staring at me...

Now if only it would stop staring at me…

Wow. After a long winter of hibernation (and possibly discontent), spring has come to our corner of the globe, and like a flower bursting from the icy soil, many game-related things are blooming around here (and not just my poetry).

As you may be aware from last meeting’s announcements, our friends at Full Indie in Vancouver are holding the first Full Indie Summit on April 20th, 2013 from 11AM to 4PM at the Rio Theater @ Commercial and Broadway. The Summit is planned to be a day of lectures by leading independent game developers that will teach and inspire, and at $10 a ticket it won’t be breaking any indie budgets. And it seems like a few gaming news sites are picking up on the buzz about it already. Should be great time for all.

Because the Full Indie Summit shares the same day as our scheduled mid-month Casual Gathering at Moon Under Water (and because so many of us are keen to attend), we’ve decided to move the meetup to the following weekend. It’s already been updated on the meetup site, but you may want to check your own calendar so you don’t end up alone at a local brew-pub with nothing to do.

Speaking of meetups, we’ve been asked by our new hosts at Christie’s Carriage House to provide them with an estimate of attendees before each Main Event meeting so that they can serve us better, and so we’d like to ask everyone who’s planning on attending to RSVP via the meetup event for every meeting we hold there. Please remember to do so. Thanks!

Last but not least, we would like to welcome aboard a new member of the organizing team: Melissa Reams! Mel will be well known to most of you as a long-time regular member of the group and she has graciously accepted the position of Sponsorship Coordinator. Please join me in welcoming her.

Mar 30
0

April Monthly Meeting Featuring Jeff Saamanen

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Tip #3: Minions are a key component of development pipelines.

Tip #3: Minions are a key component of development pipelines.

This is a reminder of the monthly meeting for April taking place this Monday. This month, we will be featuring a presentation by Jeff Saamanen, creator of 4Villains and The Pirates of Haven. Jeff’s presentation, The Importance of a Development Pipeline, will include a discussion of his methods and routine in the process of developing a game from concept to finished product.

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
  • 5:35pm: Featured presentation
  • 6:00pm: Open stage for show-and-tell, networking and socializing
  • 11:00pm: Venue closes

See you there!

Details:

Monday, April 1st

Christie’s Carriage House Pub

1739 Fort Street, Victoria, BC

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

Feb 27
0

March Monthly Meeting featuring Stephen McCallum

By | Meetings, Presentations | No Comments
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