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guest speaker

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

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

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Oct 31
0

November Monthly Meeting Featuring Brian MacKay From Race Rocks 3D

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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

—
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"

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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

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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!

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

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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

Nov 02
0

The Main Event for November featuring Jordan Reed

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Warning: Risk of Being Completely Blown Away

This is a reminder of the monthly meeting for November taking place this Monday evening. As you can see, we’re now calling our monthly meetings “The Main Event” to let you know that this is the meeting you don’t want to miss. It will be the gathering that will feature guest speakers, panels, and whatever else we can arrange for your entertainment and illumination. So 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 Jordan Reed, Producer at Freq Wave Studios and one of the hosts of Level Up Radio – our group’s own podcast on independent game development in the Pacific Northwest. Jordan will be talking about all things audio and specifically on producing audio for games. Come on out and give Jordan a warm welcome.

See you there!

Details:

Monday, November 5th

The Collard Room – Swans Hotel and Brewpub

506 Pandora Avenue, Victoria, BC

Doors open at 4:30pm

RSVP via the Meetup event: The Main Event