SIGGRAPH 2005
by Tom Sloper
On August 2nd, 2005, the IGDA hosted its third annual Game Developers Birds of a Feather gathering at SIGGRAPH 2005 in Los Angeles, California. Billed as the "next-gen game development series", the session hosted several industry speakers to discuss trends, challenges, and opportunities in game art, design, programming, and business. The speakers were:
- Bob Rafei - Art Director, Naughty Dog
- Dan Arey - Creative Director, Naughty Dog
- Richard Taylor - Cinematic Director, Electronic Arts LA
- Matt Britton - Art Director, Electronic Arts LA
- Doug McNabb - Senior Graphics Technology Engineer, Rainbow Studios
And, I served as the moderator, in addition to covering next-gen business topics. The panel's presentation began a couple minutes before 3:30 since the room was filling up nicely and we were all present. It went spectacularly. Before the first pair of speakers, the EA guys, had even gotten well into their topic, the room was "standing room only" and it stayed that way right on up until yours truly started speaking. (^_^)
Grab the zip file of the PowerPoint slides used by the various presenters.
The Q&A session was lively, with excellent questions. All panelists got a word in, and it was well received by all. A success, in my opinion.
For more details on what took place at the conference/expo itself, check out the coverage from Gamasutra:
Finally, here are some shots taken during the BoF session:
The EA guys fiddle with the laptop settings, with some help from Doug McNabb, as Tom Drew's crew finishes taping down cords.
The Naughty Dog guys prepare their laptop.
We're zeroing in on the technical diffugleties!
Here's the panel (everyone except me, since I'm working the camera).
The room is starting to fill, and it's nowhere near 3:30 yet!
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