Previous Events
May 2008
General Meeting During NVGA Championship & Super Con (5/21-5/25)
Our next general meeting will occur during the NVGA Championship. Date, time and topic are still being discussed. Join our Google Group for updates and/or to participate in planning.
For more information on the National Video Game Association Championship and SuperCon. Visit http://www.nvgaonline.com/SuperCon/.
March 2008
Our third general Rio Grande IGDA Chapter meeting was held March 26th at UNM's Art, Research, Technology and Science Lab (ARTS Lab), with speakers discussing their experiences at the Game Developers Conference. Also discussed were ways to help local companies grow, and efforts to involve game development principles in educational programs. For a more thorough recap, visit: http://groups.google.com/group/riogrande-igda/web/march-event-presenters
January 2008
NM MEDIA INDUSTRIES SUMMIT & CONFERENCE (1/11-1/12)
The annual statewide Media Industries Conference included a summit focusing on education, building local production and preparing to face the opportunities and challenges posed by new and emerging media. Game Development took center stage this year with panels, workshops and speakers from the local game development community.
For more information, visit the Media Industries ("MISP") Site or the UNM ARTS Lab events page at: http://artslab.unm.edu/
December 2007
Our second Albuquerque "Rio Grande" IGDA Chapter meeting ran Thursday, December 13th at Sauce|Raw Nightclub in Downtown Albuquerque. Over 30 local game developers and artists participated and 9 people were brave enough to present in "Pecha Kucha" style. It wasn't an official Pecha Kucha event, but presenters had 10 slides, 20 seconds each on the topic of their choice to discuss their projects, products and events.
Additionally, in the spirit of the holidays, Chapter member Jonathan Whetzel set us up to take Child's Play donations for our local Children's Hospital, taking in $161 and a game.
Presenters included:
- Glyn Anderson (Abalone Studios)
- Tom Greenbaum (Intel Corporation)
- Bill Klein (Extreme AI)
- Aaron Kraft (Escher 5D)
- Khepran Mathes (Cinematic Hero)
- Jason Montoya (NVGA Super Con)
- Eric Renz-Whitmore (Games for New Mexico's Future)
- Jonathan Whetzel (Sandia National Labs)
- Ed Zennelli (Novint)
Several of the presentations are available on-line at our Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/riogrande-igda
November 2007
Game Developers Honored at NMITSA IT Excellence Awards (11/15)
Many of the people instrumental in moving NM's game industry forward were nominated for the NMITSA (New Mexico Information Technology and Software Association) annual IT Excellence awards, including Game Production Services, LLC (dba Abalone Studios) for its Future Combat Systems Mobile Demonstration Trailer (FCS MDT), Novint Technologies for its Novint Falcon, Sandia National Labs for its Adaptive Thinking and Leadership Simulation, and the ARTS Lab's Eric Renz-Whitmore for Industry Leadership.
HALO 3 Tournament @ ARTS Lab (11/9)
UNM's Advanced Graphics Lab worked with ARTS Lab and Microsoft to present a HALO 3 Tournament for students and aspiring game developers, talking up IGDA membership and local chapter activities, local game-related education, and new Microsoft competitions for game developers.
October 2007
Membership Kick-Off Meeting (10/26)
UNM's Advanced Graphics Lab and ARTS Lab host a HALO 3 Tournament at the ARTS Lab from 7:00 - 11:00 PM.
Great kick-off meeting on October 25th with Radical Entertainment President Kelly Zmak, and a good range of participants. Attending were students and educators, visual artists and programmers, with representation from all the local companies and organizations that we were aware of (and even some that we weren't).
(Kelly's been kind enough to share his presentation slides here.)
Over 35 people attended the event which we held at the Sauce |Raw nightclub in downtown Albuquerque. As our first meeting, our main intent was to identify the people most interested in participating in a local chapter, and getting everyone excited. Our special guest gave a rousing presentation on what it takes to build a viable and sustainable game industry in North America. After some vigorous Q&A we had a good opportunity to use the Global Haptics 'Orb' and Novint 'Falcon' -- and meet and connect with more of the people who are doing good and interesting things in game development here in Albuquerque.
Sauce | Raw in Halloween Mode
Global Haptics' Mike Wallace
Abalone Studios' Janeen Anderson & Radical Entertainment's Kelly Zmak
Jonathan Whetzel, Carolyn Miller & Terry Borst
Studio Hunty's Hunter Gough strikes a thoughtful pose
Global Haptics Orb Demo
Student, Novint's Tom and Bill Anderson & Abalone Studios' Glyn and Janeen Anderson in Discussion