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June 29, 2005
Future Play 2005 in Michigan this Fall
Future Play 2005, the International Academic Conference on the Future of Game Design and Technology, will take place October 13-15, 2005 at Michigan State University. The Future Play conference focuses on three main themes. The first theme, future game development, addresses academic research and emerging industry trends in the area of game technology and game design. The second theme, future game impacts and applications, includes academic research and emerging industry trends focused on designing games for learning, for gender, for serious purposes, and to impact society. Finally, the third theme, future game talent, is designed to provide a number of industry and academic perspectives on the knowledge, skills, and attitude it takes to excel in the games industry.
A limited number of half price student-only registration slots are available for the conference, so act quickly if you are a student.
There is a call for games, papers, and posters if you wish to exhibit your design work or research at the conference.
There is also an independent game competition held at the conference. Michigan IGDA members, this is a great venue to exhibit your Made in Michigan games alongside games from submissions around the world.
Details are available at futureplay.org.
Posted by BrianWinn at 02:38 PM | Comments (0)
June 2005 Meeting Report
Around 30 members of the chapter got together on June 5, 2005, on the campus of the Michigan State University.
The following were on the agenda for the meeting:
 E3 took place in Los Angeles, CA |
 Thief 2X Shadows of the Metal Age was developed completely by fans of the original Thief 2 game. |
Wil Burton, Chris Williams, and Scott Brodie led a discussion about this years Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3). They spoke about the big news of the expo, the next generation consoles from Microsoft and Sony, and the lack of news coming out of Nintendo. They also spoke about their impressions of many of the new game titles that were exhibited on the show floor. There is also excellent coverage of the conference at E3Insider.com.
Patrick Shaw on Game Production
Patrick Shaw discussed the ins-and-outs of the typical production process that he experienced during his ten years of making games and interactive media. He focused on some of the common problems in this process and suggested some team-structuring and organizational remedies to these problems. Here is an abstract of his talk:
The gaming industry has three big problems now: growing worker discontent, a malaise of creativity, and rising production costs. The problems are partly due to in an outdated production process which relies on top-down, micro-management. Although this industrial process is sufficient for small teams on short projects, it breaks down on larger, more complex games. An important alternative to the current process is through the use of "squads". In a squad based approach, the team leaders are responsible for establishing the vision for the project, but that actual game design is created by the individual developers. By engaging the entire team in the creative process increases employee satisfaction and delivers a superior game at a lower cost.
Valeta Wensloff on Thief 2X: An Adventure in Fan-Made Gaming
Valeta was on the plot/writing team for the new fan-made Thief 2X game. In this presentation Valeta spoke about the communication and staffing challenges while given a thorough overview of the design and production process of creating a fan-made game. Afterwhich, she demoed the game, focusing on the modifications of the gameplay, story, and cutscenes over the original Thief 2.
Chapter Issues
Jay Semerad discussed the successful IGDA/SEMAfx joint event that took place on May 24, 2005 at Schoolcraft college in Detroit. Around 200 people came out for the event, some of which came to this IGDA meeting. We plan to hold future joint IGDA/SEMAfx events.
Gregg Seelhoff discussed the various Michigan legislature articles related to restricting the sale of M-rated titles to teenagers and his futile attempt to represent the IGDA and (most of our) opinions on said legislature. Unfortunately, all the articles recently passed through the Michigan senate. Check out Complaints over some new legislation making the rounds in the Michigan senate, for more background details.
Brian Winn demonstrated our revised blog-based chapter web site.
Rich Elswick discussed the possibility of creating a game showcase/festival in the Detroit area next spring to coincide with the Detroit Electronic Music Festival.
Brian Winn discussed the upcoming Future Play conference in October 2005 at Michigan State University.
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 early September. We are working out the specifics, which will be posted soon.
The Chapter Coordinators
Rich Elswick
Jay Semerad
Brian Winn
Posted by BrianWinn at 01:36 PM | Comments (0)