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February 13, 2005
January 2005 Meeting Report
Over 30 strong, the members of the chapter got together once again on January 23, 2005, this time on the campus of the Michigan State University.
The following were on the agenda for the meeting:
Made in Michigan Game Presentations
Scott Brodie and Jared Riley presented a 2D tank combat game, called Steel Savior, that they developed in Brian Winn's Game Design class. The game is still in development but a playable demo is available for download.
Mentorship Update
The mentors and apprentices that took part in our initial mentorship program each gave a brief presentation on how their mentorship went. We hope to present the concept to coordinators of other IGDA chapters at GDC this year.
Chapter Updates
With the reduction of price in the national IGDA and removal of sponsorship funds for the meeting, we discussed instantiating a local chapter membership fee. This fee will likely be fairly inexpensive ($10-$20 per year). The fee will help cover the cost of food, room rental, and any other expenses that come up for the chapter. The chapter coordinators are working out the details for the next meeting.
Mike King and GBA Post-Mortem
Mike King gave a wonderful post-mortem on his recently developed GameBoy Advanced title, GunKid. The presentation covered the specific technical challenges of developing an independent title on the GBA. GunKid is a winner of the GBADEV.ORG 2004MBit Development Competition.
Pizza Break
After Mike's presentation, the pizza and pop arrived so we grabbed a bite to eat and got on with the show.
Quality of Life Roundtable led by Matt Toschlog
Matt Toschlog and a round table of industry veterans, including Paul Kerchen , John Andrussi, and Patrick Shaw discussed Quality of Life issues in the game industry, particularly at both large and small development studios.
Some of the topics discussed were:
- What is a normal work week and your typical crunch time.
- What crunch time is acceptable? (Length, hours)
- Compensation for crunch time (money, time off, other?)
- Married / kids? Culture
- John, Paul: Climate change at acquisition? QoL issues influence decision to leave previous company?
- Is crunch mode shared fairly?
- Can you tell before you take a job how the company will treat you?
- Are there differences between small & big companies?
- What can you do if you find yourself in a bad situation? Can you change anything?
- Non working-hours issues: Other benefits (health club, concierge, etc.)
To see a detailed description of the panel members experience, visit our forums and ask questions related to the topics discussed there. You can also visit these sites for more Quality of Life questions, issues and how the IGDA is addressing them:
IGDA Quality of Life page:(links to committee, white paper, & forums)
Quality of Life Summit at GDC 2005
http://www.igda.org/qol/summit.php
and http://www.gdconf.com/conference/igdaqolsummit.htm
Book Giveaway
We had our book giveaway, randomly drawing four lucky members names for their choice of books from our library (generously donated by
Peachpit Press,
Focal Press,
Charles River Media,
A K Peters),
GDC Posters from
CMP Press,
and some T-shirts by
Perforce Software
.
Titles of some of the books were, Artificial Intelligence for Computer Games by John David Funge
and
Interactive Storytelling: Techniques for 21st Century Fiction
by Andrew Glassner
Socialize!
After which many people hung around to discuss informally.
Next Meeting
Sunday, March 20th 3:00pm-6:00pm in Ann Arbor at the Media Union on the campus of University of Michigan.
The Chapter Coordinators
Rich Elswick
Jay Semerad
Brian Winn
Posted by BrianWinn at February 13, 2005 04:43 PM