IGDA Chicago - Meeting Report

Meeting Report

GDC and Postmortem

Mar 25, 2003

by Carrie Gale

After a month hiatus, the Chicago IGDA chapter was back in full-force for our March meeting. Around 40 people met to hear Steve Latta from NuFX and Ron Langtiw of Magathi Game's summary of the Game Development Conference. Steve gave a Q&A session on what it's like to work at a game company and the highs and lows of modern day game development. According to Steve, the group "was fantastic, with lots of insightful questions from both students and veterans alike. The conversation was centered on the amount of work that goes into creating a game in today's game dev atmosphere, and what can be done to help Aleve that. We also had some great discussion about what sort of skills and attributes are necessary to break into the game industry. I had a great time talking to everyone, and hopefully we can have more talks like this at IGDA with perspectives from people working at other companies".

Ron Langtiw gave a presentation on the highlights of this year’s Game Developers Conference in San Jose where he has been a volunteer for the last four years. He touched on the different types of sessions of the Conference, focusing on the keynotes and the GDC Mobile. He also described the IGDA presence at the conference and the different Group Gatherings that were held. According to Ron, a high point "was meeting a number of the Chapter Coordinators from all over the country and the world " . Ron also described the excitement of the Game Developers Choice Awards and the Independent Games Festival, the Expo floor and life as a Conference Associate. We closed Ron’s portion by giving away some swag that he brought home from the conference.

Here are some images from the talk

Audience members listen to Ron talk about how cool GDC was.

The audience was all ears for Steve's talk on game development

Steve talking about the life of a game developer

Audience participation was a big part of this meeting

Steve listens to what others are saying

Despite the serious looks, a good time was had by all



		Meeting Report GDC and Postmortem Mar 25, 2003 by Carrie Gale After a month hiatus, the Chicago IGDA chapter was back in full-force for our March meeting. Around 40 people met to hear Steve Latta from NuFX and Ron Langtiw of Magathi Game's summary of the Game Development Conference. Steve gave a Q&A session on what it's like to work at a game company and the highs and lows of modern day game development. According to Steve, the group "was fantastic, with lots of insightful questions from both students and veterans alike. The conversation was centered on the amount of work that goes into creating a game in today's game dev atmosphere, and what can be done to help Aleve that. We also had some great discussion about what sort of skills and attributes are necessary to break into the game industry. I had a great time talking to everyone, and hopefully we can have more talks like this at IGDA with perspectives from people working at other companies". Ron Langtiw gave a presentation on the highlights of this year’s Game Developers Conference in San Jose where he has been a volunteer for the last four years. He touched on the different types of sessions of the Conference, focusing on the keynotes and the GDC Mobile. He also described the IGDA presence at the conference and the different Group Gatherings that were held. According to Ron, a high point "was meeting a number of the Chapter Coordinators from all over the country and the world " . Ron also described the excitement of the Game Developers Choice Awards and the Independent Games Festival, the Expo floor and life as a Conference Associate. We closed Ron’s portion by giving away some swag that he brought home from the conference. Here are some images from the talk Audience members listen to Ron talk about how cool GDC was. The audience was all ears for Steve's talk on game development Steve talking about the life of a game developer Audience participation was a big part of this meeting Steve listens to what others are saying Despite the serious looks, a good time was had by all