Events

Date: November 10th
Location: Bitheads Studio Theater - 1309 Carling Avenue
Time: Talk will begin at 7pm, people can gather at 6pm
This event is FREE admission.

Please RSVP to Jean-Sylvain [dot] Sormany [AT SIGN] polymtl [dot] ca

Gemini School Winter Open House & Portfolio Day
Join us Saturday February 28th from 10am - 2pm

Tour the school, watch the demonstrations and participate in open sketch! We'd love to see you. If you are a high school student interested in attending Gemini School, set up an appointment to talk with us and show your portfolio.

We had a fantastic time at Thursday's happy hour for IGDA professionals. The turnout was great. We had about 50 people for our first event of the year. Special thanks to Motus Digital for buying the drinks. Take a look at the extended blog entry for more information about Motus Digital.

If you missed this one, rest assured, we're working to schedule more. If you would like to join our developer-only mailing list, please send an email to IGDA-Austin_Correspondence *AT* googlegroups.com FROM YOUR WORK EMAIL ACCOUNT.

EXTREME VOYAGE:

Richard Garriott, Gaming Pioneer, Visits a New Frontier and Shares His Amazing Story With ZACH Theatre Audiences

Austin, Texas - January 5, 2009 - Richard Garriott, famed video game developer, Austinite and former ZACH Board Member, followed his father Owen Garriott’s footsteps into space this last October as he boarded a Russian Soyuz spacecraft and spent 12 historic days on the International Space Station. Garriott is the first second-generation American in space, and the sixth private citizen in history to fly in Earth’s orbit, thanks to the company Space Adventures. On Saturday, January 24th, Garriott will share his incredible adventure with ZACH audiences in two presentations, at 2:30 pm & 8 pm, on ZACH’s Whisenhunt stage. This is a sure sell-out event, so order your tickets early!

Hope the New Year is finding everyone doing well!

This is your invitation to the first annual Global Game Jam!
The Global Game Jam (GGJ) is the first of its kind: a game jam that takes place in the same 48 hours all over the world.

What's a "game jam"?
It's a crazy fun weekend where you team up with other artists, programmers, designers, etc to bust out a small game or game prototype.

The Pittsburgh chapter of the IGDA and the Entertainment Technology Center (ETC) have partnered to provide a local venue for the Global Game Jam!

The Global Game Jam will start at 5:00PM Friday, January 30, 2009 through 5:00PM Sunday, February 1, 2009, (all times local). All participants in the Global Game Jam will be constrained by the same rules and limitations, with each time zone having one distinct constraint.

This game jam is different from other game jams in a couple of ways:

1. There is a theme that will not be announced until the game jam starts
2. There will be one unique constraint for our time zone
3. There is no 'chosen' platform – your team can choose to develop for the pc, iPhone, etc.
4. The teams are not to be pre-formed… so that true collaboration can occur during the 48 hours.

Please visit our website to register - http://www.globalgamejam-pgh.com/. We are requiring a $10 fee to reserve your seat and to defer food costs. Location information as well as details about the jam are available on this site.

Whether you're a student at AIP, CMU, or another local school, or a professional working at a local game & entertainment companies, sign up now so we can have a strong Pittsburgh game industry representation for the Global Game Jam! There is a limit of 75 seats so please sign up early!

The IGDA has also mentioned possibly showing off some of the games at this year's GDC so this is a great opportunity to get your name out there and meet new people.

Additionally, if you are a subject matter expert in a particular application and would like to be denoted as such for your participation in the game jam, or if you can't participate in the 48 hours but you could be available as a 'teaching assistant' in flash, python, maya, etc. it will definitely help the teams out!

Any questions can be directed to Tracy Brown at tracykobedabrown@gmail.com

Austin Game Developers:
It's time for another Peers, Beers, and Cheers Happy Hour! Your friendly neighborhood IGDA chapter decided that it'd be good for us all to get together before some much-needed Thanksgiving time off to share the goodwill with your developer friends and neighbors.

Here's the skinny:
When: 7:00-9:00pm November 19th, 2008
Where: Opal Divine's North (click for map)
Who: Austin Game Developers

We will have complimentary drink tickets on hand - good for those $2.50 Texas beer specials.

No need to show ID or IGDA membership card. This is open to all professional game developers.

Hope to see you there!

Texas Motion Picture Alliance, the advocacy group behind the game and film production incentives, is hosting a fundraiser at Star Ranch on November 7. The honorary chairs are an all-star lot of film and game luminaries, including one of our own: Robert Rodriguez, Terrence Malick, Mike Judge, Richard Linklater and Warren Spector. Gary Clark, Jr. performs, and the Alamo Drafthouse’s Rolling Roadshow provides the food and movies.

The third annual INDEPENDENT GAME CONFERENCE will take place this November 20-21st at the Wyndham Garden Hotel and Conference Center in Austin, TX. This conference offers attendees a two-day program focused on technology and business issues and the critical issues affecting the survival and growth of independent game developers. The two-day, two-track program will include how to raise money to invest in a game studio, emerging development platforms, development for the iPhone, game politics, IP protection, game audio design and recruiting vs. outsourcing.

A2Central.com has a post about the Vintage Computer Festival East 5.0 - taking place on Saturday, September 13th, and Sunday the 14th at the InfoAge Science Center of Wall Township, New Jersey. Bill Loguidice also recommends the event, even though he can't make it.

Gamesniped notes that The Classic Console & Arcade Game Show, for collectors and game enthusiasts, is on in October in Ohio. If anyone happens to get some shots or wants to tell us about it if they go, please contact us, sounds interesting