1. Brett welcomed everyone and thanked them for coming.

2. Brett informed everyone that he would be stepping down from any official IGDA capacity soon, as this would give him more time to work more directly with individuals and help them more. It is high time for fresh leadership and all interested parties should contact Brett for more information about getting involved.

3. Stephen Tang from TAR and Loh Khai Yann stepped up and volunteered to be academic representivies to the IGDA. They will make sure academic matters are heard by the IGDA and coordinate with everyone to help build the industry here.

4. Johan from MDV discussed strageties MDV is using to attract international game developers to Malaysia. He said that there was a lot of interest in Malaysia, and that they were getting quite far along the process with at least one developer. He also asked about the certification discussions and said that the certification idea was very interesting and worthwhile to pursue, at least in the short term, in that he felt it would be helpful in attracting international developers to the area.

5. Bazil Akmal Bin Bidin, Muhamad Fadli Ishak, and Mohd Rizal Mohd Taib gave a demo of a work in progress. They brought along some nice design documentation and artwork too. They are currently evaluating technology to build the game with. Kevin from GameBrains gave some advice on art styles. Keep it up guys! You can get more info on the team here: www.notathing.net

The team includes:

Bazil Akmal Bin Bidin (leader and programmer)
Muhamad Fadli Ishak (lead programmer)
Mohd Rizal Mohd Taib (game and graphic designer)
William Ban Kar Weng (GUI Programmer)
Muhammad Hazrat Muslimen (Network Programmer)
Razzizul Azmi Talikop (2D and 3D artist)
Ahmad Fikri (2D and 3D artist)
Chan Swee Min (3D artist)
Ahmad Ajwad (3D artist)
Fairuz Abu Bakar (Sound artist)

6. Stephen Tang demo'ed a game he did for Tiger beer that was a flsh soccer game. Was really cool! Nice job!

7. Azmir Saifuddin Mutalib from MDC discussed the upcoming incubator and how it basically works. There was a lot of interest in this potential.

8. Mayling and others pointed out that it would be nice to meet other colleauges in the industry at the meetings.

9. There was lively discussion on funding and jobs. We learned that MDV has a minimum investment amount of RM2 million which makes it difficult for them to fund small startups with smaller contracts. There was some mention that MAVCAP may have some programs in the works that address startup needs. John and his development team are looking for small jobs that can help sustain them. Brett said he would meet with John and see if he could introduce him to people with projects. In the end, everybody agreed that there was a gap in the low end of the market, and it was hard to bootstrap a company. Several meetings were scheduled within the next week to try and come up with some specific ideas and plans to address this.

10. There was much rejoicing!

All in all, I think everybody who attended had a good experience.

Brett

I will be there from 7:30 pm onwards to grab a bite to eat first, anybody who wants to come earlier please drop by and makan with me!

Souled Out Cafe
No 20, Jalan 30/70A
Desa Sri Hartamas
50480 Kuala Lumpur
Malaysia

Tel 603.2300.1955 / 603.2300.1929

The agenda is:

1. Introductions to new members
2. Open floor for discussion
3. Form IGDA plans for 2006
4. Working group meetings
5. Networking

See you there!

Brett

A big Thank You to Hilmy from MMU for taking notes and send them to me! This post represent his work more than mine!

Academic Working Group Report
The next academic's meeting will be held on either December or January at MMU. Hilmy will arrange.

The boot camp for game developers was discussed. Need more details on who the participants will be, who the teachers will be and what material will be taught.

Yann indicates there'll be a lecturer in HELP that will give talks focusing on math and sciences.

Brett suggested an education-based forum under MGDA's control, tied in with a way to provide content for teaching game design & development. The content will be based on the IGDA game design course syllabus. IGDA Malaysia will begin development of this site and let the work help flesh out the syllabus.

Brett is willing to host; he already has the domain mgda.org.my for it. Brett prefers ASP.NET for development. Yann suggested that open source is good, however Brett cautions the use of open
source, because open source apps tend to be released before it's ready. Brett is worried that the requirement to release the code may restrict what we're trying to do. Investigation is needed.

Brett wishes that MGDA (Malaysian Game Developers Association) will be the certifying body for the accreditation project.

Brett will look into funding for this project.

Stephen will contact the .NET people within Microsoft to determine available support.

Yann will look into the course requirements for the content of this project.

IGDA Meeting Report
Thanks to Terence for AGDS.

AGDS post mortem: More than 100 ppl attended. Hasnul and the press were happy. Only ATI were possibly unhappy.

There will be a next AGDS, however the question now is where to run it: Malaysia or Singapore. Terence will provide guidelines on how to host the next AGDS, and a formal submission process for those wishing to organize AGDS (along with cut-off date).

There are hundreds of IGDA memers in Malaysia, but only a handful of paid members. This implies that we have to improve IGDA paid memberships. Terence suggests that people don't get the value of paying to join IGDA, thus somehow those values must be identified and communicated. IGDA cards and rebates were discussed.

For future meetings, Brett wishes that they will be more organized by making an agenda ready before a meeting.

Venue: need to identify other possible venues besides Souled Out. Yann and Stephen suggested their own campus locations: Yann at HELP and Stephen at TARC near Wisma MCA. Those attending suggested Souled Out is a good social gathering place, but a bad place for doing formal events like meetings and presentations. Sound tend to get drowned out.

Hilmy suggested that potential places be scouted out. Brett indicated it's a great idea, but without the follow-up of people doing the scouting, nothing will happen. Anybody who has specific ideas should table them as they would be very welcome!

Brett suggested an X'mas dinner party to bring people together, including the unpaid IGDA account. Josh will talk with the British Camber of Commerce to help cosponsor the X'Mas party. Yann says he can help organize the X'mas party.

Afterwards, there was much merry-making and discussion. Thanks again everybody!

I'm not sure what to do about the December meeting as it coincides with Christmas. If we don't have the Christmas party, an informal meeting may be a viable alternative.

Souled Out Cafe
No 20, Jalan 30/70A
Desa Sri Hartamas
50480 Kuala Lumpur
Malaysia

Tel 603.2300.1955 / 603.2300.1929

Note that this meeting starts later than the usual time of 7 p.m.!

The agenda is:

1. Introductions to new members
2. Recap of AGDS and current action plan for future events
3. Announcement of jobs available
4. Open floor for discussion
5. Working group meetings
6. Networking

We held our regular meeting on August 25th at Souled Out Cafe and experienced another great turnout of around 20 people. Thanks for coming!

Meeting Notes:

1. Terence updated everyone on the progress of the Asian Game Developers Summit (AGDS) that he organizing along with other volunteers. The preparations are proceeding apace and it looks to be a good turnout.

2. The certification and academia working groups met, see the following. I took part in the certification group, so I don't have direct notes for the academic group.

3. The academia working group discussed the following according to Hilmy Rahim's post on the IGDA forums:

"The one action plan we discussed was arranging meetings between game dev students from various academic institutions, so that they can meet, share and network."

"The first meeting will be at Help Institute, after AGDS, and then the institutions will take turns hosting. Simple affairs to get to know everyone, nothing lavish."

"We didn't arrange another meetup because (seriously!) we didn't think of any other actions to work on. Suggestions on other actions, anyone?"

Yann Loh from HELP added:

"As discussed, the proposed date on student meeting up at HELP Date : Weds, 19 October 2005
Time : 4:30pm ~ 6:30pm
Venue : SR 8, Main Block, HELP University College"

4. The certification group also met. In essence, the idea is that we want to create a certifying body for game development for Malaysia, possibly regional, that can be used as a means to identify qualified people and also provide a platform to induce change in the academic systems to cater to our needs.

The group agreed that we need to start small, and need a pilot program. I volunteered GameBrains as the guinea pig, and there was some discussion, but no conclusion, for which skill(s) we should certify initially.

Generally we want to keep it simple. Create a test, administer it, gather feedback, rinse-and-repeat. Once we have something decent, we will look for an academic setting to administer the test to see how effective it is at identifying qualifications.

5. There was a suggestion to have speakers at future events.

6. There was a suggestion to have an agenda for each meeting.

7. There was lots of merry chat and networking!

Well, that's all for this month. Hope to see everybody at the October meeting.

Souled Out Cafe
No 20, Jalan 30/70A
Desa Sri Hartamas
50480 Kuala Lumpur
Malaysia

Tel 603.2300.1955 / 603.2300.1929

Meeting Notes:

1. Terence updated everyone on the progress of the Asian Game Developers Summit (AGDS) that he organizing along with other volunteers. There are already several foreign speakers that have agreed to appear as well as quite a few regional speakers. There are several openings left so anybody who wants to speak, please contact Terence ASAP. In addition, some funding has already been secured, but more is needed. Anybody who knows potential sponsors should also contact Terence. Finally, Josh and Brett agreed to be part of a roundtable discussion on funding game development.

2. Hilmy brought to everyone's attention that there were talented artists in Malaysia, that if given an outlet, would perhaps be able to better connect the artists with game developers with art needs. While everybody agreed communicaiton is good, no apparent solution was proposed.

3. Brett again brought up the idea of creating a professional certification for game development professions. Hasnul, Hilmy, Steven and Brett agreed to form a working group to examine the matter in more detail.

4. Hasnul expressed the desire to hold some sort of awareness event for game development in Malaysia. Some questioned what could be accomplished by such an event on its own, and several people recommended that the AGDS was probably the best venue for that.

5. A new developer Minimax (did I get the name right?) introduced themselves and explained the projects that they were working on. Several people offered support and encouragement to them and expressed hope they will regularly attend the meetings in the future.

6. Josh agreed to give a talk about the publishing end of the business at our next meeting in August.

If I missed out anything please let me know or post a comment to this report.

Thanks again everybody and hope to see you all at the next meeting in August!

Souled Out Cafe
No 20, Jalan 30/70A
Desa Sri Hartamas
50480 Kuala Lumpur
Malaysia

Tel 603.2300.1955 / 603.2300.1929

This site will primarily contain the activities of the organization here in Malaysia, so be sure and check here for information on when the next meeting is, or get a report on the last one if you missed it.

Enjoy!

Thanks again everybody for coming, and I hope to see more of you in the future.

For those that missed the meeting, here's what was covered (if I missed something important, please post a comment with what was missed!)

Discussed:
1. We started the meeting welcoming everybody, and doing some cross-introductions for those that didn't know each other.

2. Allan from the Singapore Chapter highlighted some of the things happening in the Singapore Chapter, including:

• They are currently focusing on providing information about the local industry, building the community and working to build communication channels with the government.


• They are interested in looking for ways to jointly cooperate with other developers and organizations, especially IGDA chapters, in the region.

3. I explained the current state of the Malaysian Chapter:

• The hiatus of Malaysian Chapter meetings was due primarily to lack of professional interest in attending, mostly due to the high number of students that attended meetings.


• While everybody is welcome at meetings, the focus of future meetings will be focused on professionals.


• We need to build up our professional membership and participation in order to make sure the Malaysian Chapter has a strong foundation and can survive and thrive even when many of the members are in "crunch mode" and very busy.

4. The floor was opened for various particpants to express what they would like out of IGDA. If I forgot somebody below, please post a comment to make sure your voice is heard.

5. Terence Tan of Positronic Dreams expressed interest in forming some sort of Malaysian Game Developer's Conference. He stressed it should be homegrown, and meet local needs. Some people thought it would be good to bring down industry veterans, others weren't sure it was needed and some expressed concern over whether it would be viable at all. In the end, it seemed that everybody agreed it would be good to do something and that more discussion was needed. [Ed: Terence, it would be good if you could drive this along a bit, gather opinion, propose something, etc.]

6. KC Tan and Mayling of GameBrains expressed that having a place, such as IGDA Chapter meetings, to meet and netowrk with colleagues in the industry is a good thing.

7. Hilmy from MMU, and Stephan from TAR, both expressed optimism and interest in working with the IGDA and the Malaysian industry to build closer relationships, develop better curriculums for their students and have an outlet to keep their own skills and knowledge up to date.

8. Hasnul from MDC expressed enthusiasm in working with the IGDA to make sure that the government is doing all it can to support the game development industry locally, and called upon the attendees to be vocal in letting him know what the needs and challenges of the industry were so that he could help develop plans, strategies and programs that would benefit the industry.

9. Jennifer Tai, editor of Game Axis, introduced the magazine to the attendees and explained that she was always on the lookout for content that would be of value to her readers.

10. Loke Uei from Microsoft introduced some of the programs they have and events they hold in Malaysia. He mentioned opportunities for the game industry to be part of their programs, both as presenters and attendees depending upon the event.

11. Josh form Dragonback games offered some insights from his publisher-oriented background that was salient to developers, expressed a number of points with regard to education, students and graduates and pointed out that openings in the game industry are seen as jobs rather than opportunities. [Ed: Josh, you really should do an article on this as it's so relevent to Malaysia and would be helpful to students and interviewees to understand the employer's point of view]

I hope I've got the main points covered, but again, if I missed anything please add a comment to point it out!

Souled Out Cafe
No 20, Jalan 30/70A
Desa Sri Hartamas
50480 Kuala Lumpur
Malaysia

Tel 603.2300.1955 / 603.2300.1929