For this post, I should call us "IGDA Wisconsin!" For the first time in our group’s history, our quarterly meeting will be held not in Madison but Green Bay, in honor of our friends to the north, Frozen Codebase.

The meeting will be held on Tuesday, July 15th at 7 PM at Titletown Brewing Company (200 Dousman Street. Green Bay, WI 54303) in the Frost Room. To start off, Tim Gerritsen and I will speak on the subject of chapter elections and other formalizations the IGDA is currently going through. Our main speaker will be Frozen Codebase’s programmer, Vince Mysliwiec.

Vince has been with Frozen Codebase for one year, and during that year he's been exposed to a great deal of consoles and engines. He has been a constant point of reference for Frozen Codebase’s’ staff, and he plans to discuss what he has learned about developing for the Nintendo Wii. Recently returning from the Wii conference and leading our code team on Frozen Codebase’s first Wii title, Vince will, no doubt, have great things to shares. After this session, Frozen Codebase has graciously offered to give a studio tour so that we might see “how the other half lives." Thank you, Frozen Codebase, and thank you, Vince!

Eric Francksen

IGDA Madison Chapter Coordinator

For a summary of the event, check out the new entry (an RTF file) in our "Minutes" section. Also, Matt Ciarlante—the IGDA Green Bay Student Chapter Secretary—came up with a pair of videos documenting the evening. While they're not as good as being there, they are the next best thing. The first covers the introduction and the talks from Ben and Tim, and the second wraps up with Chris's chat and the following Q&A session.

We have three speakers scheduled for the event, each talking for about 30 minutes. The first speaker is Ben Geisler, who will talk about the story of Frozen Codebase: how they started, how they got together, and how they got to where they are now. Ben is titling his talk "The Camaro of Game Development," because he thinks Camaros are funny.

Tim Gerritsen of Big Rooster is the second speaker. His talk is called "They've come to Snuff The Rooster." It's about how Big Rooster got started, how it almost died, the trials and tribulations thereof, and how it's now back and better than ever.

Chris Rhinehart of Human Head Studios rounds out the night with "Heads Will Roll." In it, he discusses the formation and history of Human Head, including the company's challenges and triumphs.

Finally, we will close with a Q-and-A session with all three speakers. After that, we will walk over to Erins Snug Irish Pub (4601 American Parkway), just around the corner from the school, to continue the conversation.

We hope to see you there!

As I mentioned at the meeting, we've had a heavy influx of volunteers lately, and we’ve wasted no time putting them to work! Member Jason Compton wrote an excellent briefing of the November meeting that can be found on our new “Minutes” section.

Also, for those of you who couldn’t make it, we have a video of the meeting for you to watch at your leisure. At the moment, we only have the Filament talk posted. The Frozen Codebase portion of the evening will be posted soon.

Our next meeting will be held February 12, 2008, at 7 PM, at Rocky Rococo's Madison East Theater at 1753 Thierer Road. More information will be posted closer to the date. In the meantime, have a great New Year's Eve, everyone!

The meeting will be held at the Rocky Rococo's Madison East Theater at 1753 Thierer Road. That's the Rocky's near I-90/94 and East Town Mall on East Washington. We'll be in the larger theater in the back, same as last time. This time, however, we'll start thirty minutes later than normal, at 7:30 PM.

Thank you, Filament! We’ll see you all soon.

The meeting will be held at the Rocky Rococo's Madison East Theater at 1753 Thierer Road. That's the Rocky's near I-90/94 and East Town Mall on East Washington. We'll be in the larger theater in the back. There's pizza, beer, and games, so come in early for dinner or stay late and enjoy the evening.

After Mark Nelson's talk, we'll split in to two groups, with Mark reviewing artist portfolios and giving commentary on improving your craft. This is your chance to have one of the top artists in the field take a look at your portfolio, so please bring yours along if you are an artist. Here are some samples of his gorgeous work.

The other roundtable talk for this meeting will be for those people who want to improve the IGDA Madison chapter. We've been doing this for a year now, and we'd like to hear your feedback on what we can do to make the chapter more beneficial to you.

We hope to see you there!

For our next meeting, Mark Fernandez (producer of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City for Rockstar and now VP of Marc Ecko Entertainment) will be joining us as our guest speaker on August 14th at 7pm at the East Washington Rocky Rococo’s (Please note, this is not the west side Rocky’s.) We have reserved the large conference room in the back. More information will be posted in regards to Mark’s talk closer to the date. Until then, best of luck in all our endeavors.

The first hour will feature a panel discussion: "Tales From The Trenches: Starting and Running a Video Game Company In Wisconsin." The speakers will be Ben Geisler (President, Frozen Codebase), Chris Rhinehart (Vice President, Human Head Studios, Inc.), Tim Gerritsen (Executive Director, Big Rooster, LLC).

For the second half of the talk, we'll have special guest Seth Johnson of WizKids doing a round-table discussion on licensing issues in games and dealing with licensors.

We're looking forward to seeing you there!

Again, I’m excited to introduce our board of directors to you (Norb Rozek, Tim Gerritsen, Matt Forbeck, and a representative from Human Head yet to be named). If you work with any of these distinguished fellows, remember that they are a point of reference to the rest of us for anything you might like to offer or any need you have.

Although I couldn’t make it myself, the reports coming in tell us that the student exhibition in Green Bay was a resounding success. More information about the event, check out our student chapter.

Our next meeting will be hosted at the Midwest Gaming Classic in Oconomowoc on the evening of June 9th. Since this event will be held out of town, please feel free to use the forums for carpool and hotel inquires if you are interested. For our keynote at this meeting, we will be having Tim Gerritsen, Ben Geisler, and a number of others (yet to be confirmed) from our own chapter hold a panel discussion on the subject of starting and working a studio in Wisconsin. This should be a really fun chance for all of us to get better acquainted and learn more about our demographic. Be seeing you soon!

For our next meeting, scheduled for February 21st at 7pm at the Casbah Restaurant, we welcome Professor James Paul Gee of UW—Madison. Professor Gee is the Tashia Morgridge Chair in Reading in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, and he has been a great source of insight in regards to the subjects of videogames as educational tools. This man doesn't spend his time on the latest and greatest Math Munchers, however. His studies include primarily Triple-A, top-selling games and the tools they employ to teach and challenge their players. While researching Professor Gee’s work, I ran across a great interview by Louis Bedigian, which gives great insight into Professor Gee’s research and perspective. If you plan to attend this meeting (and I hope you all do), please RSVP to igdamadison@hotmail.com.

Our first formal meeting this past month was a strong success. We owe a debt of thanks to our friends down at Wideload for, not only providing us with a great speaker, but also sharing their experiences from IGDA Chicago. Thanks are also due to Human Head, The Co-Lab, Big Rooster, Frozen Code Base, and the IGDA Student Chapter for being so strongly represented and willing to share your time with one another. FCB only had one man come down, but for a crunch time, I’d call that well represented. I do hope everyone enjoyed the venue. If anyone has strong feelings for or against it for our next meeting, shoot us an email at igdamadison@hotmail.com. Also, we are still looking for more volunteers who are interested in regular help. If you are interested, please let us know. More information about our February meeting will be posted as soon as the date is set. Take care, everyone, and enjoy the holidays!