Montreal

As IGDA-Montreal ramps up plans to make the chapter bigger and better for the upcoming 2010-11 "season", we're looking to round out the chapter team with the following folks:

Social Media Guru
IGDA-Montreal wants to make sure that our members know what's going on locally and we need to reach them through any channel they use for news. Whether it's our homepage, RSS, Twitter, Facebook, or another source, we need someone who's reliable and social media-savvy to get our messages out into the world. This is a volunteer position, asking for a commitment of about an hour a week for the upcoming season (ie, September 2010 to June 2011). Bilingualism strongly preferred.

To close out IGDA-Montreal's 2009/10 "season", we hosted a relaxed social at the Terrasse Bonsecours, in the Old Port. About 75 members showed up to have a drink and socialize before our two month summer break.

Here are some quick snaps from the night:

Guillaume Voghel (EA) and Morgan Kennedy (Ubisoft) approve.
 

Pierre-Yves Savard (Ubisoft) and a startled Clint Hocking.

The always intense Phil Fish (Polytron).

[English]
Saturday the 26th, from 3:30 to 6:30pm, Game Artisans will be hosting a Portfolio Review Day for game art enthusiasts, students and artists looking for careers as a texture artist, modeler, animator, or concept artist for games. Come meet pros in the industry to ask all your questions about getting a career in this wonderful industry. How to make a solid portfolio? What to include or add? Are you on the right track? Website portfolio navigation hints? Where to find additional training? Come and benefit from encouragement, feedback, and possible future job offers in the games industry.

Artists with the following experience will attend:
Vladimir Dergachov – Experience includes working for EA and GameLoft Montreal
Rodrigue Pralier – Experience includes working for EA and Bioware Montreal
Vincent Joyal – Experience includes working for Ubisoft and Eidos Montreal

By Steve Wark

Kelee Santigo's design post-mortem on Flower.

Le vendredi 7 mai, La Société des arts technologiques [SAT], l’École de technologie supérieure (ÉTS) et ABB Robotics feront converger art et technologie à un autre niveau avec l’événement WE ARE ROBOTS, nuit de musique électronique produite sous l’étiquette ONOBOTS avec performance chorégraphique inédite pour robots industriels.

VanArts is presenting a Masterclass in Animation & Story Development, with instructors from Pixar Animation Studios. The event takes place in Toronto, Canada this summer on June 18/19th.

When: Tuesday, May 11th @ 7:00pm
What: IGDA-Montreal Presentation Night
Where: The SAT, 1195 St.Laurent
Why: Kellee Santiago on prototyping
Who: All game developers, and those related to the game industry
Entry: free for IGDA members; $5 for non-members

The 2010 Canadian Games Studies Association annual conference will be held at Concordia University in Montreal this year from May 28-29, in conjunction with the Canadian Congress of the Social Sciences & Humanities. This year, the theme for the Congress is "Le savoir branché/Connected understandings".

Since its inception in 2005, the CGSA has grown with each annual conference. This year, we are pleased to offer presentations from over fifty digital games researchers and graduate students, representing a wide array of perspectives and interests -- from film studies to human-computer interactions, and from EVE Online to Little Big Planet.

And the gaming industry just keeps getting bigger in Montreal. Warner Bros has announced that it will be opening a studio in Montreal with up to 300 employees.