WELCOME

Welcome to the web page of the Albany chapter of the International Game Developers Association. This group meets in the Albany, New York area to talk about the various aspects of game development, make games, and meet other local people who make or are interested in games. Professional and independent game developers, students, hobbyists and anyone interested in learning about how games are made are invited to join us.

Meetings

The Albany IGDA meets roughly every other month or about six times a year. We are always on the look out for new presenters and ideas for chapter activities so please send an email to albanyigda@gmail.com or speak to one of the coordinators at a meeting if you have something you would like to talk about. Past meeting topics have included - do's and don't for a great artist portfolio, sex and censorship in games, quality of life, and post-mortems on titles like Puzzle Quest: DS, Crash Nitro Kart for the PS2 and Game Cube and Plan of Attack for Half-Life 2.

The Albany Area

The Albany, NY area is home to over 250 professional game developers from studios like Vicarious Visions, 1st Playable Productions and Agora Games. Game companies have been in the area for over 10 years, since 1994 when Vicarious Visions was started. In addition to the professional developers, there are hundreds of students taking classes and pursuing degrees in game development from RPI, Mildred Elley, Russel-Sage and SUNY. It is a great region for small start up companies - from the low cost of living, accessibility to large nearby cities like Boston, New York city and Montreal, access to urban centers and rural activities, and resources for start up companies like the Rensselaer Incubator Center (Vicarious Visions, 1st Playable and Agora Games all started there) and the Center for Economic Growth.

Games

Many high profile games have been developed here like Doom 3 for XBox, the Spiderman series of games for handheld and console systems, Tony Hawk for hand held systems, Puzzle Quest for the Nintendo DS, and the Star Wars: Jedi Knight games for console systems. Area developers have also collaborated on projects like Metroid for the DS and Supreme Commander for the PC. Popular mods have been developed here too like Last Man Standing for Doom3 and Plan of Attack for Half-Life 2.

Schools and Research

Game development related research also happens at schools in the area like Katherine Isbister with her research into interactive character design, and Casey O'Donnel with his research into Global Issues with Quality of Life. Many innovative student projects are developed every year and featured at events like the Annual Game Festival at RPI and local Game Jams. There are opportunities for kids in Grade School and Highschool to attend summer camps at Mildred-Elley and RPI and also to help with game testing at companies like Vicarious Visions and 1st Playable Productions.