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March 28, 2005
March 2005 Meeting Report
Around 20 members of the chapter got together on March 28, 2005, on the campus of the University of Michigan.
The following were on the agenda for the meeting:
 GDC2005 took place at Moscone West in downtown San Francisco, CA |
 Gregg Seelhoff singing the praises of Indie/Shareware game development |
GDC 2005 Wrap Up
Brian Winn and Jay Semerad led a discussion about this years Game Developers Conference, including impressions from the Game Design Workshop Tutorial, the Serious Games Summit, the EA Academic Summit, the Microsoft keynote, the Nintendo keynote, Will Wright's Future of Content session, the Emily Dickinson session, the Rant session, the various awards ceremonies, and the conference in general. There is also excellent coverage of the conference at Gamasutra.
Gregg Seelhoff on Indie/Shareware Game Development
Greg discussed the Association of Shareware Professionals and their recently created Indie Games Special Interest Group (SIG). He hilighted the September 2004 Membership Poll to demonstrate the many of the members are actually making a living from shareware software development.
Greg then compared and constrasted the typical software distribution chain from developer to consumer (and maybe including publisher, distributor, and retailer as intermediary steps) between shareware and "retail" titles.
Chapter Issues
Jay Semerad and Brian Winn discussed the conversations they had at the GDC with Jason Della Rocca and other IGDA chapter coordinators about the recent reorganization of the IGDA (separating from CMP.) Many chapters are remaining an informal local organization associated with the IGDA while others are forming into non-profit companies to become "super chapters". In discussions at the meeting, we felt at this time that we were not ready to become a "super chapter" but will continue to think about it as the IGDA experiments with the idea. With that said, we are going to be seeking corporate sponsors for food and drinks at each chapter. In lieu of corporate sponsorship, we will be asking for donations at each meeting for food and drinks. For the time being, we will not be collecting a local chapter membership, but encouraging attendees to join the IGDA ... which, among other things, will give them access to the book/product giveaways at each meeting.
On a different note, two subgroups have emerged in the chapter, one related to the "Mentorship Program". Rich Elswick (not in attendance) had us announce that he will be leading up that group. Brian Winn announced that he would lead up the other group "Promoting GameDev in Michigan". After the meeting Jay Semerad informed the coordinators that he would lead a third group charged with developing resources for students to help them bridge the gap between academia and a job in industry.
Socialize!
After the formal meeting, twelve of the members moved to a local pizza establishment for food, drinks, and informal discussion.
Next Meeting
The next meeting will be on a Sunday in May either before or after E3. We are working out the specifics, which will be posted soon.
The Chapter Coordinators
Rich Elswick
Jay Semerad
Brian Winn
Posted by BrianWinn at 04:18 PM | Comments (0)