local news

Carleton School of Information Technology will once again host the Global Game Jam, on January 29-31, 2010, as part of the Carleton Game Day series of events.

Hi IGDA San Francisco folks - welcome to our new (if currently somewhat sparse) home page. The new IGDA site is still a work in progress, and as it gets all the kinks worked out, so will our page. Stay tuned for more information about our upcoming events!

Best,

   ---The IGDA San Francisco organizers

You only have two days left to take advantage of the “Early Bird” special prices. Don’t delay! Click here before September 25 to register and click here to book your room at the Hilton Montreal Bonaventure hotel.

You could save up to 210$ by registering today!

IGDA Philly would like to extend an invite to the Montreal IGDA Chapter to the GameX Industry Summit taking place October 24-25 in the Greater Philadelphia area. GameX Industry Summit is a 2-day conference with game development-focused lectures, panels and keynotes from more than 40 games industry leaders, designed exclusively for game industry professionals.

Keynote speakers include Chris Foster, Design Director for Harmonix Music Systems; Clint Hocking, Creative Director for Ubisoft Montreal; Jason Della Rocca, President of Perimeter Partners; and Richard Rouse, Lead Designer for Kaos Studios/THQ. You can read our entire list of sessions and the speakers at http://gamexpo.us/summit/sessions.html.

As a bonus: IGDA members get a discounted price on Summit passes! Early registration prices end on September 29.

Also taking place on-site at the Industry Summit is the 2nd Annual Philly Game Jam. The Philly Game Jam is open to any team that is able to attend and participate, regardless of where they hail from! You don't need to be from Philly to participate.

For students, a GameX Career Forum will be taking place as part of the consumer show on Sunday, October 25. The GameX Career Forum is an informative one-day conference for young people and industry newcomers to learn the ropes from industry experts and educators.

You can purchase tickets at http://gamexpo.us/summit/pass.html. Space is limited so we recommend you register early. If you need travel information, you can find that here at http://gamexpo.us/summit/travel.html.

CBC is reporting that Age of Conan dev, Funcom, is opening an office in Montreal. News sites are reporting that Funcom is expected to employ approximately 50 people to start.

This is an article from the previous web site by Amanda Allen.

The AIIQ is presenting, on Sept 20th at the Lion d'Or, a portofolio night featuring about 40 illustrators.

This free activity could be of interest to those looking to hire character or background illustrators.

L'AIIQ organise en septembre prochain, le 30 au Lion d’Or, une soirée portfolio où une quarantaine d’illustrateurs présenteront leurs portfolios.

Cette activité est gratuite et pourrait intéresser ceux qui embauchent des illustrateurs pour concevoir des personnages ou encore des arrières plans.

Looking for a reason to escape the city's mid-summer heat? Darius Kazemi writes:

Scott Macmillan and I are hosting the second annual Boston GameLoop, an all-day unconference on Saturday, August 15th in Cambridge, MA. It's a self-organizing game conference: people show up and, if they have a talk they'd like to give or a roundtable they'd like to moderate, they throw it up onto the board. There are rooms for people to meet in, and a big board with a schedule grid to coordinate it all. Last year's GameLoop was a huge success: we had 42 attendees from about 25 companies, including 2K Boston, Harmonix, Rockstar New England, and MTV Networks. But while last year was mostly Boston and NYC people, this year we already have attendees coming from Xbox Live in WA and Bethesda Softworks in MD.

The signal-to-noise ratio at a conference like GameLoop is pretty astounding. What I like best about it is that it's just developers talking about stuff they want to talk about. Last year we had sessions about procedural animation, ethics in rulesets, distributed version control, and many others. Some sessions were incredibly small and focused, just three really passionate people who don't know each other discussing a topic they care about. Other sessions were more like standard conference lectures. You can see the whole 2008 schedule, along with some audio and notes from the sessions, here:

http://www.bostongameloop.com/event-recap

Keep in mind that none of this was really planned! A lot of the sessions were born out of discussions over breakfast in the morning.

There's no entrance fee, but we will ask people to donate $20 or so to help us cover costs, if they're willing. Our plan is to sponsorship for breakfast and lunch. That night, groups of people will head to dinner to hang out. And as a side note - we're limiting attendance to industry professionals. Academics and students who have worked as devs are considered professionals, but basically we want this to be a by devs, for devs event. And yes, indie devs count as devs! We pretty much just care that you make games in some capacity.

IF YOU LIVE OUTSIDE OF BOSTON: Scott and I are more than happy to try and set you up with crash space while you're here for GameLoop. Just let us know if you'd like that and we'll see if we can arrange it. We can also recommend nearby hotels.

If you'd like to RSVP, drop us a line at bostongameloop@gmail.com, and we'll add you to the list. Then you'll receive a logistical email with travel details, etc. We've set up a wiki at www.bostongameloop.com with more info on things - please feel free to take a look. We'd also love to get some possible talks up on there - if you're interested in speaking on something, just let us know.

To donate, go here: http://www.bostongameloop.com/pay-for-registration

Artificial Mind & Movement's latest game is going to be coming out this fall and recently it got lots of press coverage at E3. An SNL comedian interviews Eliza Dushku at E3 as she tries hard to talk about the game, Wet, where she'll be providing the voice for the main character, Rubi.

Montreal Chapter

The NAD Centre (National Animation Design Centre) is looking for someone who is a specialist in video games and fascinated by the 3D animation industry to serve as a 3DS Max teacher. This is for a full time position within the Design and Digital Art for Video Games department.

See the NAD Centre site for more details regarding the tasks and requirements of the role.

Building off of the success the American counterpart MODSIM WORLD, MODSIM WORLD Canada 2009 is a unique multi-disciplinary international conference and exposition for the exchange of modeling and simulation (M & S) knowledge, research, and technology across industry, government, and academia that will take place at the Montreal Sheraton Centre between June 8-10.

MODSIM WORLD Canada features a wide variety of workshops, exhibits and speakers focusing on the unique multi-disciplinary applications of modeling and simulation. Topics covered include the following: M&S in program & project design and management; applying 3-D development tools in modeling, simulation, and gaming for education & training purposes; preventing medical errors using simulations; virtual worlds and national security; government & industry viewpoints on the application of M&S in today’s workforce; teaching via multi-player online serious games and virtual worlds.

Streams are planned for each of the following areas:
* Defense and Homeland Security
* Aeronautics, Engineering, and Transportation
* Government, Research and Education
* Health, Medical, and Biotech

Philadelphia, PA---Wednesday, May 13, 2009---The GameX Industry Summit today announce its first confirmed keynote speaker, Chris Foster with Harmonix Music Systems, creators of game phenomenon Rock Band. Co-located with GameX (Games & Media Expo), October 23-25, 2009, GameX Industry Summit is presented by the International Game Developers Association (IGDA) chapters in New York, New Jersey, Boston, Baltimore and Philadelphia.

Le Groupe Collège LaSalle recherche des experts de contenu pour l’élaboration de ses nouveaux programmes en jeux vidéo

Ilasalle, une division du Groupe Collège LaSalle, recrute actuellement des experts de contenu pour participer à l'élaboration de ses nouveaux programmes en jeux vidéo : Conception-scénarisation, Modélisation 3D et Animation 2D/3D. Les axes de spécialisation recherchés sont, entre autres, l’infographie, l’animation, la modélisation et la conception de jeux.

En prenant bien soin d’indiquer votre nom dans l’en-tête du message, veuillez faire parvenir vos envois à experts@ilasalle.com

Détails ici.

VanArts has announced a 2-day Masterclass in Montreal with artists from Pixar Animation Studios. The first day will focus on animation, including basic principles, staging, gestures, blocking and much more. The second day takes a close look at storyboarding and story development.

When: June 13-14

Where: Cinematheque Quebecoise, 335 Boulevard De Maisonneuve East
Cost: $450

For more information download their PDF brochure.

De Gilles Perron, Coordonnateur, Ressources humaines du Cégep Limoilou:

Le Cégep Limoilou, situé à Québec, est à la recherche d’enseignants à temps complet ou à temps partiel pour son programme en Animation 3D et synthèse d’images. Nous recherchons des enseignants polyvalents, intéressés à l’ensemble des aspects du domaine. Mais plus spécifiquement, nous avons besoin actuellement d’au moins deux enseignants dont l’un a un profil spécialisé en modélisation, et l’autre en jeu vidéo. Dans les deux cas, la maîtrise du logiciel 3DS Max est essentielle. L’enseignement se fait en français et commencera en août prochain.

Si vous êtes intéressées par ces emplois, contactez Gilles Perron (418.647.6600, poste 3535 ).

The Escapist reports that the Entertainment Software Association of Canada is lobbying MPs for tougher copyright laws. A previous similar bill faced tough opposition from grassroots resistance. The new bill is expected to be introduced in this session of Parliament.

The details of the conference programme are now up on the website for the Thinking After Dark: Welcome to the World of Horror Video Games Conference to be held in Montreal from April 23rd to the 25th, 2009.

That means it starts tomorrow! Registration is done at the venue, in cash. It's free for students and $45 for a 3-day pass for everyone else.

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IGC East has added new sessions to their upcoming Boston conference taking place May 7-8. The new sessions include How to Build Games Quickly with XNA, Independent Self-Publishing on Playstation Network and Managing Your Brand.

Register before May 5th to save $50!

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The Canadian Screen Training Center in Ottawa is presenting its annual Summer Institute of Film and Television workshops from May 26-31. There will be 20 workshops in new media, screenwriting, directing, producing, documentary, acting, camera/lighting and editing. Workshops are offered at various levels and taught by top industry professionals. They even have New Media Workshops that include Writing for Video Games.

Early registration ends on Tuesday!

The GameX Industry Summit is a 2-day games industry conference co-located with Games & Media Expo (GameX) in Philadelphia, October 24-25. Game professionals are invited to submit session proposals for lectures, panels, roundtables and workshops for our ‘Right Brain’ Creativity Track and ‘Left Brain’ Leadership Track. GameX Industry Summit attendees are also invited to attend GameX, the only major game convention in U.S. supported by a major media sponsor NBC.

Philadelphia, PA (March 25, 2009) Virtual Rush Gaming, game consumer and technology specialists, today announced the Games & Media Expo (GameX), October 23-25, 2009 at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center. The only major game consumer show in U.S. supported by a major media sponsor, GameX will partner with NBC Local Media in Philadelphia – WCAU TV/NBC 10 -- to host a high-profile event appealing to local, regional and national audiences of game players, film and TV fans, comic book buffs and tech enthusiasts.

Quebec's language laws are hitting video game retailers. As of today, stores will not be allowed to sell English-only versions if a French version exists. Some retailers are saying that this could be a huge problem for them since games that are produced for the largest French market, France, can't be sold here because of regional issues.

The Montreal International Games Summit has announced its dates for 2009 along with their new venue. This year's conference will take place Nov 16 & 17, 2009 at the Montreal Hilton Bonaventure Hotel. They are currently accepting submissions for speakers until April 24.

Quartier Libre, the independent newspaper for students at Universite de Montreal, has a series of game related articles including coverage of the game development scene in Montreal.

They also cover Wii gaming by seniors and research efforts between films and games.

The Independent Game Conference is launching its first east coast event in a few months. The Independent Game Conference East will take place in Boston this May 6-7, 2009.

IGC East is for developers of all platforms, including iPhone, Web, Flash, and Console who want a leg up on the competition and for the publishers who want to see the hottest games in development by the rising stars of the industry. Publishers can find the next big game at the Game Demo Night where independent developers bring their skills and commitment to the show. The sessions at the IGC focus on the business of being an independent developer as well as the technical demands of game development. With our two track approach the IGC is the place to be no matter what stage of development your company has reached.

Advance registration is only $249 for both days, which includes the Job Fair and Demo Night, but IGDA members can use this code: IGDAIGCE09 to receive a 10% discount on advance registration!

Alberta-based Bioware has announced that they'll establishing a 30-person team in Montreal to work on Mass Effect 2. The team will be located in the EA Montreal offices. The team size could grow and go on to work on other upcoming Bioware titles as well.

The IGDA's Board of Directors announced today that Jason Della Rocca will be stepping down from his position as Executive Director of the IGDA. A Montreal-native, Jason has led the development of the organization and been its public face for the past 9 years.

But while he's leaving the Executive Director position at the end of March, he will continue to coordinate the local Montreal chapter.

Thank you for all your hard work Jason!

Willoughby & Baltic, an excellent hacker/maker space in Somerville of which I happen to be a member, is holding a class on 

IGDA-Montreal is excited to announce a fourth edition of Dominance War, a massive international online game art competition. Dominance War IV, starting February 20th, is a truly unique game art competition. It brings together the globe's best online art forums to compete for world champion standings in an Olympic-like setting. In this event, Game Artists are the athletes and online forums are their countries.

Dominance War gives game artists a fantastic opportunity to showcase
talents, get employed, make great portfolio pieces, receive recognition and enjoy the challenge of competing with fellow game artists on an international level.

Based in Montreal, Canada, DW wants to get as many local artists involved. For more information please visit: www.dominancewar.com

According to the NPD, video game sales across Canada grew nearly 25% over 2007. Like elsewhere around the globe, the Nintendo Wii and DS dominated console and portable sales.

Sylvianne Pilon from UQAM has completed a study that compares the gaming industries in Montreal, Lyon and L.A. The study concludes that cultural factors in a region have a significant impact on why creative industries are drawn to certain regions over others, despite the globalization of the economy.