joda.sapp's blog

MOUNT ROYAL, NJ (August 6, 2010) – The lineup for the IGDA Leadership Forum continues to grow as Laura Fryer, Vice President and General Manager, WB Games Seattle, is tapped as a keynote speaker. Laura joins Mark Pincus, founder of Zynga, on the list of confirmed keynote speakers for the annual event, scheduled this year for Thursday – Friday, Nov. 4 - 5 at the San Francisco Marriott Hotel. 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MT. ROYAL, NJ (July 28, 2010) - The IGDA is proud to announce Mark Pincus, the founder of Zynga, as a keynote for its highly anticipated upcoming Leadership Forum. The massive success of Zynga, the popular social network game developer, has been a testament to the extraordinary leadership abilities of Mark, making his address at this year’s Leadership Forum an exciting addition to the event.  The 4th annual Leadership Forum will again be held at the San Francisco Airport Marriott Hotel on November 4th and 5th, 2010.   Since its inception in 2007, the IGDA Leadership Forum has quickly grown to become a must-attend industry experience. 

Dear IGDA Members,

It has been a great pleasure serving as your Executive Director over the last year.  By now I am sure you are aware that I have accepted another opportunity to lead the American Institute of Architecture Students, and will be ending my tenure with the IGDA in August. 

Dear IGDA Members,

Registration for this year's Leadership Forum is now open, reserve your spot today!  If you are in a leadership position within the game development industry and want to expand your leadership abilities then the Leadership Forum is an event you cannot miss.  You will hear from industry professionals as they speak on what it takes  to be a great leader in the game development industry.  Attendees can also attend three tracks - Personal, Project, and Tools; - all focused on advancing the state of the art in game development.  For the second straight year we will also be offering a Scrum Certification Course, presented by Clinton Keith.

Dear IGDA Members,

With the recent push on social games, the place of casual games has been put into question. Are casual games the hot thing anymore, or is social gaming the key to playability and profitability? Undoubtedly, we’re finding a space to merge the popularity of Massively Multiplayer Online games with the simplicity and ease of casual games through apps and sites such as Facebook. This month’s issue of the IGDA Perspectives Newsletter focuses on this dynamic shift but also on the tried and true practices of casual games development.

We would like to thank this month’s contributors, in order of appearance: Erin Robinson, Thomas H. Buscaglia, Jeff Spock, Tom Rassweiler, Jim Charne, Dave Rohrl, Liz Canacari, Jason Della Rocca, Nils Holger Henning, and Alla Khramtsova. As always, the IGDA Perspectives Newsletter is made by IGDA members for IGDA members.

Dear IGDA Members,

Ian Schreiber, a professor and industry veteran of 10 years, is offering an online course this summer called Game Balance Concepts (http://gamebalanceconcepts.wordpress.com/) and invites IGDA members to sign up for the premium experience with a $10 discount.

Parts of the course (which begins July 5) are available for free, but premium features require a $55 registration fee. This upgrade includes lectures (live and recorded), Powerpoint slides, Excel spreadsheets, access to the private course wiki, and direct email to the instructor.

IGDA members can register for just $45. Learn more at the blog here: http://gamebalanceconcepts.wordpress.com/
 

Hey there, everyone!

Welcome to the new and improved IGDA Perspectives Newsletter. From here on out, each month we will have a theme. This month’s theme focuses on iPod, iPhone, and iPad game development. Now, I don’t have an iPad, yet, but you better believe I’m looking out for one to experiment with. The recent push on iPad and Android gives developers from a wide range of backgrounds opportunities to re-envision and create games anew.

The IGDA is proud to announce that IGDA membership will once again be an accepted form of Industry Identification for this year's E3 Expo to be held June 15-17 at the Los Angeles Convention Center.  Being an IGDA member together with another form of Industry Identification will allow complimentary access to the event.  Please note complimentary registration ends May 3.  Accepted forms of ID can be viewed by visiting the E3 website.  Beginning on May 4 IGDA members will have access to a special 20% discount on the E3 Expo Exhibit Floor Pass.  Details on this discount will be available within the

Over 3 months ago the first ever IGDA Lifetime Membership program was announced.  Today we now have 95 Lifetime Members.  These 95 people have showed their support of IGDA by letting the community know they truly believe in the IGDA and its mission "To advance the careers and enhance the lives of game developers by connecting members with their peers, promoting professional development, and advocating on issues that affect the developer community." 

If you are interested in becoming an IGDA Lifetime Member contact us by visiting www.igda.org/contact.  This opportunity is only available to a limited number of members.

Get your Lifetime Membership today!

IGDA's very own board member Mark DeLoura has taken the position of Developer Advocate for games at Google. 

Read full story here: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/27963/Industry_Tech_Veteran_Mark_DeLoura_Named_Developer_Advocate_For_Google.php

Better late than never! Right?  With the hectic schedule of catching up after GDC the columns are up a little late.  Check out what our regular columnist have to say this week.

Matthew Sakey's  The Beast Within: We hurt ourselves, everyday

Jim Charne's  Publisher's Further Use of Developer's Tools and Tech

Tom Sloper's What's The Trick To Avoid Getting Filtered Out? 

IGDA Annual Meeting @ GDC - Watch Live!

BACKCHATTER

a massively multiplayer GDC game

more info: www.backchatter.com

The skinny.

IGDA, Arkadium, and Local No.12 are coming together to bring you BackChatter, a massively multiplayer social game for GDC 2010. BackChatter tests your social and strategic smarts - if you can figure out the backchannel buzz at GDC this year, you will dominate the game of BackChatter.

How it works.

This month's survey topic covers Online Safety: Take Survey

Many of you have questions about what is going on in our industry:  How many..., Who's using..., How often...?  While not confidential or proprietary these type of questions come up all the time, and we see them on discussion lists and hear them at conferences.

Come meet the IGDA Board of Directors Candidates today at 4pm EST. 

Space is limited so reserve your seat for this webinar.

IGDA Board Elections run only until February 28th.  Your vote is important so make sure you know who is running.

IGDA Executive Director, Joshua Caulfield, Interviews the majority of the IGDA Board Candidates.

Questions have been prepared in advance and we will not be taking questions from the floor.  Each Candidate will have 10 minutes to discuss their thoughts on the topics Joshua will ask them about.

For all of you that enjoy the monthly columns check out the newest additions for February! 

http://www.igda.org/columns

Calling IGDA Members! 

It is time to vote in this years Board of Director's Election.   As a member of the International Game Developers Association you are charged with electing the organization's leadership.  This years election has 5 BoD seats up for grabs.  Voting has begun and will run until February 28th.  All IGDA Members above Student level membership in good standing are eligible to vote.  You are allowed to vote one time, but with that vote you may vote for as many or as few candidates as you wish.  If you have any questions or issues trying to vote please contact Joseph Sapp, joda@igda.org or Joshua Caulfield, joshua@igda.org.

Dear IGDA Members,

One of the benefits of your IGDA membership is the ability to elect the leadership.  This privilege will again be yours starting February 14, ending on February 28.  This year over 20 of your fellow IGDA members have been nominated to fill the five open Board of Director seats.  In order to vote, you must be a current IGDA member as of February 10, 2010.  If your membership status is inactive, please renew at www.igda.org today or you will not be able to participate in this year's election.  As per our bylaws, students are not eligible to vote.  Eligible members are allowed to vote only once; however, with that vote you may select as many or as few candidates as you would like.   

Dear IGDA Members, 

The February IGDA Perspectives Newsletter is now available.   To view the February newsletter please click here. 
To view the text only version, please click here.   This month we feature a distinct legal editorial slant with articles by:

IGDA is proud to announce a new benefit for its members, the O'Reilly User Group Program.  O'Reilly is a leading computer technology publisher and event producer.  The User Group opens many benefits to IGDA members, including: