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IGDA co-chair resigns

August was a busy month for the volunteers of the IGDA's board of directors. They elected Tobi Saulnier as co-chair.

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

A story is currently circulating the blogs about a trademark dispute between Edge Games and Mobigame over the game Edge for Apple's iPhone.

This is an imported event from the old site.

IGDA London members gathered at the Slug and Lettuce in Soho to socialise. Demetri Detsaridis (Massively Mobile) gave an informal debrief on GDC'08 "the best and worst of the show". Unfortunately there was a mix up with the booking and the downstairs area was not available. Fortunately, the turn out was fairly low so we all got a seat!

Over the last few years, many game developers have found themselves on the wrong side of the law. From careless use of copyrighted imagery to unintended violations of a game's intended age rating, game development is full of hidden legal pitfalls. This evening gave us a better insight into how to protect ourselves and our companies.

On Wednesday 27th June 2007, the IGDA London held a social event at 26 Smithfield where the new committee members introduced themselves to the London Chapter members.

Pictures:

IGDA London is working with Sense of Play 06 and JumpStart Workshop.

The event started at 7.00 p.m. with Autodesk giving an exclusive presentation of their new software. This was followed by a talk from Richard Hince of Artem Digital on their head scanning and facial capture systems.

With the rapid advancement of game console and graphics technologies, game developers are now able to create highly detailed and realistic looking game characters. But how believable are these characters when it comes to emotional interplay? Are we even approaching effective simulation of basic human emotion? And do mainstream developers and publishers even care?

The event was held at the Kings-Cross O'Neil's and as has been typical of our meetings, all went smoothly in hosting another interesting I.G.D.A gathering. We introduced a £2 entrance fee for the first time for non-members, and the turn-out was decent considering the added fee (around 25-30 people, with 15 being non-members). Most people who came didn't mind the entrance fee, though we believe it turned more people away.

Speaker: George Bain, Developer Support Manager, SCEE Technology Group
Sponsor: mary-margaret.com

This event which turned out to be the chapter's largest, second only to the party held last September, had an attendance of been eighty to ninety, including the sponsors for the event (mary-margaret.com, developers and some media), was an eye opener in terms of what was revealed for the development options and potential for the forthcoming PlayStation3 (PS3).

What does 'IDDQD' do for you?

How well do you think you know your games? Could you name the hospital in Silent Hill? Do you know how many dots are on a Pac-Man board? Or could you name the famous producer of Boktai? These were just a small sample of the 50 questions posed to a large audience of gameaholics at O'Neills, Kings Cross under the guise of the Xmas IGDA quiz. There were five rounds each with ten questions, and each round finished with a bonus 'Woo Hoo' question.

1. What is it about retro games that keep us coming back for more?
2. What do we mean when we describe a game as retro?
3. When does a game become retro?

These were the questions that sparked off riotous but friendly debate amongst an abundance of games people in the function room of O'Neill's last week, Our two speakers of the evening, Oliver Hume and Paul Scargill, both Audio Programmers from SCEE, moderated these debates amidst the beer drinking that was donated by Climax, and the previous function room occupant's Halloween decorations.

Mark Baker and Derek Poon took us through a great demonstration of the CAD tool SketchUp, originally developed for architectural applications but now adopted by the games industry. They took us through how quickly simple structures could be made in the minimum amount of time and the capabilities of the tool in creating more complicated environments.

After a beer session session several of us went for a lovely Chinese meal.

Will the next generation of hardware stifle creativity in the game industry? Is it possible to get original concepts onto the next gen hardware and if so how? These were just some of the questions asked and answered at the London Chapter meeting that took place on Wednesday 29th June.

Bluegfx and Autodesk give a presentation showing off tghe latest middleware demonstrations highlighting the workflow and integration between some of the most widely used 3D modelling tools in the industry, namely: 3DS Max, Maya and MotionBuilder. Latest technologies and capabilities will be shown from the material given at the recent GDC '06 event.

"Is the industry in trouble?" was one of the questions answered with a confident denial last Wednesday night. Answered in the first part by James Grant, Probe Games' Programmer specialist, speaking on employment trends in the games industry, which included a balanced assessment of contracting as a way of working. The gathered group of industry insiders, peripheral parties and other keenly interested individuals also displayed healthy evidence to the contrary.

On October 6th, IGDA London had its first event for some time, organised by a new committee and marking the start of a new series of events for the London game development community.

Held in a spacious pub room, near the building site that is Kings Cross station, it was well attended by around 60 people from many different game companies, academics and some looking to break into the industry.

Informal, friendly, dynamic, - Two words alone can describe the experience of the IGDA London chapter night, "great fun". The IGDA London crowd were lively, particularly ready to get involved and up for a good night among fellow developers. The night itself was perfectly in place, in both indoor and outdoor setting a beautiful summers night in England.