The Oz Invasion

by Jason Della Rocca (May 2002)

For our May meeting, the Montreal Chapter was happy to welcome the delegation of game and media developers from Australia's state of Victoria. On their way to E3, they scheduled time to visit Montreal in order to build stronger relations with our game development community.

The companies on hand were:

• Act III
• Blue Tongue Software
• C4
• Multimedia Victoria Game Plan
• Tanatalus Interactive
• Torus Games

The Alliance NumeriQC kept them very busy for the visit, which included a visit to the IGDA's Montreal Chapter. The Chapter took advantage of this opportunity and had them make some short presentations. First, Mark Bishop spoke about their game industry and the steps their state government has been making to develop the industry. Next we heard from Bill of Torus Games, one of the true industry veterans who coded on the Commodore 64 and drew graphics with the Super NES game pad! Then we heard from Pat Sarell of animation shop Act III talk about storytelling and working around limitations in cut-scene production. Finally, Tom Crago of Tantalus spoke about the business challenges of working so remotely from the rest of the game industry and how to better nurture the developer-publisher relationship.

After the presentations, everyone went to the usual arcade bar for drinks and schmoozing. It was a great time and it was a pleasure to welcome our new friends from abroad.

Big thanks to our sponsor for the May gathering:

• Alliance NumeriQC

May gathering - Pictorial

...here are some shots I took during the May gathering of the Montreal Chapter. (all persons are identified from left to right)

Tom Crago of Tantalus shows off his E3 racing demo for the first time.

Tom Crago (Tantalus) and Pat Sarell (Act III) still standing after a 30-hour flight from Australia.

Warren Currell (Sherpa Games), JF Arseneau (Alliance NumeriQC), Gregan Dunn (Strategy First), Pat Sarell (Act III), Tom Crago (Tantalus) and Claudia Marcoux (Alliance NumeriQC) enjoy a "few" beers...

Game industry business evangelists from across the globe - JF Arseneau from Quebec's Alliance NumeriQC with Mark Bishop of Australia's Multimedia Victoria.