Posted by IanStead at 12:41 PM | Comments (0)

February 09, 2007

Results from the RPI Student Club Game Jam

The RPI Student Game Development Club (an IGDA Student Chapter) held a game jam on Saturday, February 3rd. After 8 hours of intensive work work several members of the Albany IGDA chapter were brought in to judge the projects. The enthusiasm and dedication of the student teams was impressive as was the variety and quality of their projects.

Following is more info from club's Special Events Chair, Dan Nottingham:

The games from last weekend's Game Jam are now up on the site: http://gamedev.coderanger.net/wiki/GameJam/Feb07. For those who weren't there, 6 teams competed to make games in eight hours based on the theme "hot and cold". You can download and play the games to check them out; most were made with Python and Pygame and require those to be installed. The first place winner was Andrew and Jim's "Igloonators", followed by Graylin and Eric's "Hot Cold Man" and Keith's "Puddles". Also, thanks goes out to our guest judges: Professor Mike Lynch and Ian, Link, Dave, Joel and Chris from 1st Playable, for scoring the games and offering feedback and suggestions on them.

Posted by IanStead at 01:37 AM | Comments (0)

October 25, 2006

Trip to the 3rd Annual Montreal International Game Summit on November 8-9

We are planning a trip to the Montreal International Game Summit which is coming up in two weeks November 8th and 9th. If you are interested in going and would like to share a ride or join us to benefit from the group discount please contact Ian at albanyigda@gmail.com or on the forum.

There are dozens of talks to appeal to all disciplines over the two days of the conference including a keynote by Reggie Fils-Aime, President & COO
Nintendo of America. Tobi Saulnier, one of our own Albany IGDA advisory board members will also be making a presentation in the Business/Production Track. See details of her talk here.

IGDA members get a 10% discount on conference registration and depending on how many people would like to go we can get a group rate.

Posted by IanStead at 05:21 PM | Comments (0)

September 21, 2006

Metroland article about Mildred Elley's game-design summer camp

There's an article by John Brodeur on page 16 of the September 21, 2006 edition of Metroland about Mildred Elley's game-design summer camp for kids. Here's an excerpt:

LEARNING TO PLAY
Mamas, don’t let your babies grow up to cowboys—send them to video-game-design camp!
By John Brodeur

It’s early afternoon on a gor-geous midsummer Friday. A moving truck is parked by the curb outside Latham Circle Mall as men load office supplies through the mall’s entrance doors and onto the waiting truck bed. Another Latham Circle business apparently has gone to pot. That’s no surprise; this place has been on the decline for well over a decade. In fact, the sprawling hull of a building, once the bustling lower half of a semicolon dotted by the Latham traffic circle, now faintly resembles what was once known as a shopping mall: The few businesses that continue to thrive here—or survive, at least—include a bank, a few food stands, and a Burlington Coat Factory. But in a small, dark classroom tucked deep in a corner of the mall’s second-floor, you can almost see the future . . . or something like that: Welcome to video-game-design camp. Now drop and give me 20.

Read the full article on the Metroland website

Posted by IanStead at 01:16 PM | Comments (0)

September 05, 2006

Article by Erin Hoffman in the Escapist Magazine

There's a great article by Erin Hoffman in issue 61 of the Escapist Magazine, an online only publication devoted to game development and culture. Erin is a local designer at 1st Playable Productions who lead our June chapter meeting. Check out the article here: Why We Haven't Lapsed.

Here's an excerpt:

Like any cultural phenom, the game industry waxes and wanes. Its attitude shifts, it grows older, gets pimples, passes some classes and fails others, grows, moves on. The past year, for whatever primal reason lurking in the dark waters of the collective ludological unconsciousness, has been one of intense cynicism, maybe even despair. And I have to say I'm getting damned tired of it.

Read the Full Article

Posted by IanStead at 04:03 PM | Comments (0)

July 09, 2006

Times Union Article on Capital Region Game Development Community

Theres a great article by Larry Rulison in the business section of Sunday, July 10th Times Union about the Game Development Community in the Capital Region. Here's an excerpt:

In the game

The video game industry has grown since the days of "Pac Man," and Capital Region companies are getting a piece of the action

by: LARRY RULISON Business writer

TROY -- The Capital Region is experiencing a video game boomlet.

Fueled by the success of Vicarious Visions Inc., the area's largest video game company, the region has become a minor -- but growing -- center for video game developers, which feed a $7 billion business in the United States.

Read the full article here on the Times Union Website.

Posted by IanStead at 04:41 PM | Comments (0)

December 01, 2005

Two More Game Development Events in Boston and NYC coming up December 7th & 9th, 2005

First the Boston IGDA is having their monthly meeting on Wednesday and then on Friday in NYC there will be a celebration for Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman's second book on game design coming out-The Game Design Reader: A Rules of Play Anthology. I hope some folks from Albany will be able to make it to these events - they will definitely be worth while. If enough people are planning on going maybe some car pools can be set up.

Boston Post Mortem, Wednesday, December 7th @ 7pm in Waltham, MA
The following description written by Kent Quirk copied from the Post Mortem website: http://www.bostonpostmortem.org

Next meeting -- SPECIAL DATE!:
Wednesday, December 7, 2005 at 7:00 PM
The Skellig Pub and Restaurant
240 Moody Street
Waltham, MA

Post Mortem
Speaker: Tom Hunter

Serious Games is a new, small, but rapidly growing market focused on games that teach. Games are being built to save lives, resolve conflict and lower training costs, often all at the same time. The Serious Games Summit was held in Washington DC October 31st to November 1st. This presentation will provide an overview of the most important and interesting presentations and round tables at the conference.

Also, Stainless Steel Studios, the Cambridge-based game developer and longtime supporter of Post Mortem, closed its doors this month after something like 8 years. We plan to raise a glass in their memory. I'm sure there'll be a few good people looking for work.
Serious Games is a new, small, but rapidly growing market focused on games that teach. Games are being built to save lives, resolve conflict and lower training costs, often all at the same time. The Serious Games Summit was held in Washington DC October 31st to November 1st. This presentation will provide an overview of the most important and interesting presentations and round tables at the conference.

Death Match in the Stacks, Friday, December 9th @ 7pm, New York, NY
Following description written by David Allen copied from the Gamoids Wiki and forum

12/09/05 DEATHMATCH IN THE STACKS, NYC — Celebrating the launch of The Game Design Reader: A Rules of Play Anthology, Edited by Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman, published by MIT Press. Sponsored by gameLab, the Design and Technology Program at the New School University, and Games for Change.

Celebrating the launch of The Game Design Reader: A Rules of Play Anthology
Edited by Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman, published by MIT Press

An evening of impassioned discussion and playful debate with game critics, game creators, and game players about the past, present, and future of games

DATE & TIME: Friday, December 9th, 7pm-9pm
PLACE: Tishman Auditorium, 66 West 12th Street, NYC
ADMISSION: Free

DEATHMATCH IN THE STACKS marks the launch of The Game Design Reader, a groundbreaking collection of essays that spans 50 years of game design and game studies. Eight contributing authors to the book, including many of the most influential figures working in the field of videogames and play scholarship today, will share short selections from their essays and engage in spirited exchange with game players, game designers, and game critics. Also featuring a panel discussion on game design with the creators of Half-Life, Paranoia, and Adventure for the Atari 2600.

DEATHMATCH players include Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman in discussion with:

* Ken Birdwell, game designer
* Greg Costikyan, game designer and writer
* Gary Alan Fine, game sociologist
* Linda Hughes, playground folklorist
* Henry Jenkins, videogame scholar
* Warren Robinett, game designer and programmer
* Brian Sutton-Smith, play scholar and theorist
* Stephen Sniderman, game and puzzle designer

Plus: appearances by New York City game players and luminaries
Ze Frank (designer), Tami Meyers (LARPer) Karen Sideman (designer), and McKenzie Wark (theorist)

KATIE SALEN and ERIC ZIMMERMAN are game designers, theorists, writers, advocates, and educators. Katie is the Director of Graduate Studies in Design and Technology at Parsons School of Design. Eric is the co-founder of the experimental game development company gameLab. DEATHMATCH IN THE STACKS follows in the tradition of STORMING THE PLAYGROUND, a raucous and thought-provoking event in 2004 that marked the launch of their critically acclaimed book, Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals.

DEATHMATCH IN THE STACKS is sponsored by gameLab, the Design and Technology Program at the New School University, and Games for Change

Posted by IanStead at 03:57 PM | Comments (0)

November 22, 2005

EMPAC presents Fair Game | Tues. 11/29 @ 7 PM | Troy, NY, USA

This is not an official IGDA event, but is something that should be of interest to the local game development community. RPI's EMPAC program is hosting a machinima show next Tuesday (November 29th, 7pm). For more information check out the website and read the following official announcement:

EMPAC presents "Fair Game"

The Art of Video Game Engines - Quake and Unreal Tournament on Monster Screens vs. Artists That Don't Shoot and Splatter DEMOS - LIVE PERFORMANCE - SHOW AND TELL + MORE

Troy, NY – Rensselaer’s Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center
(EMPAC) presents “Fair Game” at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday, November 29th, 2005.

Fair Game features artists who use video game engines to create work that spans the landscape of cinema, video gaming, hacker art, immersive installation and software development. Unlike the usual panel discussion format - the night will include demos, show and tell presentations, film screenings, and of course, game playing. Watch the video games being played on MASSIVE screens, and then see how artists manipulate the software engines to create their own work entirely by using the tools of these virtual worlds.

Artist Kurt Hentschlager, for example, will present Karma, an installation and performance rooted in moving image representations of gravity (or lack thereof). According to the artist, prior to the release of a recent Unreal Tournament game engine, there were few existing tools that he could use to experiment with gravity visually in such a flexible and open ended manner.

Fair Game artists include Kurt Hentschlager, Friedrich Kirschner, Paul Marino (Academy of Machinima Arts & Sciences), the ILL Clan, and Workspace Unlimited. The event modules will be preceded by expert gamers from RPI's Games Research Lab playing the games that the presenting artists are using to make their work (Unreal Tournament and Quake 3) on oversized screens for the audience.

Admission to Fair Game is free and open to the public. Parking will be available around the Alumni House and in the North Lot. There will be signs to direct you to the event.

Additional information on “Fair Game” may be found on the EMPAC website, http://www.empac.rpi.edu.

Questions? Call the EMPAC Event Hotline: 518.276.3921

EVENT INFORMATION:

Event: FAIR GAME
Date: Tuesday November 29, 2005
Place: Rensselaer Campus, Troy, NY, in the Heffner Alumni Building
Time: 7:00 p.m.

Posted by IanStead at 06:52 PM | Comments (0)

May 09, 2005

New Chapter Homepage!

Here it is, our updated blog-based website! This site will contain the activities of the Albany, NY Chapter of the IGDA, information from local game developers, and the occasional "rant" from yours truly.

If you have suggestions for what you'd like to see on the site please feel free to email me at cr4i9@yahoo.com

A special thanks go out to Jason Della Rocca for helping set this up!

Posted by CraigDerrick at 09:59 PM | Comments (0)