=============================== IGDA Newsletter - February 2007 =============================== ================= Table of Contents ================= 0: A Word From Brian Reynolds 1: Game Developers Choice Awards Nominees and Special Recipients Announced 2: IGDA Leadership Forum - Call for Participation 3: IGDA@GDC Update: Member Party, Scholars, Annual Meeting... 4: Columns Update 5: Chapter Meetings/Reports x: Logistical Bits & Unsubscribe Info ================= ********************************************** ** Ad: Game Marketing with a 24-Hour Twist! ** ********************************************** GameDuJour.com is the first to offer "one incredible deal a day" with deep discounts on popular casual games -- but the clock is ticking and each deal expires at the stroke of midnight. Game du Jour is a marketing partner to game developers, offering a great opportunity for a rush of sales and heightened brand exposure during their 24 hours on Game du Jour. To learn more about showcasing your games on Game du Jour, visit: http://www.gamedujour.com/=igda-eml ********************************************** ============================= 0: A Word From Brian Reynolds ============================= Greetings fellow developers! Lots of activity coming this month in two of my favorite areas: Awards and Credits. If you're coming to GDC this month, be sure to make time to attend the Game Developers Choice Awards, on March 7th at 6:30pm. The highlight of the evening will surely be the presentation of the Lifetime Achievement Award to Shigeru Miyamoto, and I'm sure you'll agree that the year of Zelda and the Wii phenomenon is a splendid time to recognize his many accomplishments. We'll also be honoring the IGDA membership's choices for the best games of the year, along with the developers of those games ­ and in keeping with the IGDA's mission of advancing the careers of developers, the Choice Awards include a "mandatory attribution" rule, meaning that actual developers' names will appear on the trophies and awards, in addition to the names of studios and publishers. Meanwhile the IGDA Credit Standards Committee will be presenting a new whitepaper at GDC: a beta version of the IGDA Crediting Guide, through which we hope over time to promote developer-friendly crediting practices throughout the industry. We'll be hosting two roundtables (Wed 4pm, Thu 9am) at which we'd like to discuss these proposed crediting standards and the future of game crediting with all interested parties. As a quick preview, the central principle upon which there was unanimous agreement is that everyone who spends any significant amount of time working on a project should receive proper credit for their work, even if they have since left the company or project. In the future, we hope to find ways to reward companies willing to adopt such developer-friendly crediting practices through increased recognition, such as an authorized "We use IGDA Crediting Standards" type logo for use in recruiting efforts. Hope to see you at GDC - Game on! - Brian Reynolds Chairperson, IGDA President, Big Huge Games ************************************************************************* ** Ad: Competition Addresses Health Care Issues Through Power of Games ** ************************************************************************* Apply your ideas and game design talents to today's toughest health and health care challenges! This national contest will award $30,000 in prize money for storyboards and prototypes of games designed to improve people's health. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation invites you to enter The Games for Health Competition. The entry deadline is April 1. For complete contest details and guidelines, please visit: http://www.gamesforhealth.org/competition/ ************************************************************************* ========================================================================== 1: Game Developers Choice Awards Nominees and Special Recipients Announced ========================================================================== Congrats to all the nominees and special award recipients for the 7th annual Game Developers Choice Awards. The ceremony will be held at the Game Developers Conference on Wednesday, March 7th at 6:30pm in the Esplanade Room in South Hall, Moscone Convention Center, San Francisco. Complete list of nominees: http://www.gamechoiceawards.com/pr/pr_2007_0206.htm Announcement of special award recipients Alexey Pajitnov, Greg Costikyan, George "The Fatman" Sanger and Shigeru Miyamoto: http://www.gamechoiceawards.com/pr/pr_2007_0212.htm ************************************************ ** Ad: Autodesk Maya - Award Winning Solution ** ************************************************ Autodesk® Maya® 8.5 software gives artists enhanced creative control, enabling faster completion of complex animation and simulation tasks. Creative control is achieved through innovative new technologies such as Autodesk's next-generation Maya® Nucleus unified simulation framework. Python integration further extends this creative control, giving script writers the ability to efficiently manipulate, customize, and automate the software for use in next-generation pipelines and industry-leading productions. Maya 8.5 also provides support for Intel®-based Macintosh® computers. For more info: http://clk.atdmt.com/XDA/go/ame0060000012xda/direct/01/ ************************************************ ================================================= 2: IGDA Leadership Forum - Call for Participation ================================================= We invite your participation in the first IGDA Leadership Forum, focused on advancing the state of the art in game production and management. This event will be valuable for producers, team leaders, project managers, studio directors, and all others seeking to learn and share techniques for leading teams in creating successful games. The conference will host two complementary tracks. The Production Track will focus on the nuts and bolts of game production, such as scheduling techniques, post-mortems, and project pipelines. The Leadership Track will cover general leadership skills as well as more advanced team management and motivation techniques. Both tracks will consist of a mix of one-hour lectures, panels, and roundtables To ensure full coverage of all topics, the program is being developed by a conference committee of industry veterans. The committee welcomes nominations of qualified speakers for both tracks. Please review the call for participation details and instructions: http://www.igda.org/leadership/?p=8 ************************************************************************* ** Ad: Women in Games International Announces San Francisco Conference ** ************************************************************************* WIGI has announced their next regional conference, "From Production to Profit: Creating and Marketing Games for Women". Held on Tuesday, March 6 at the Electronic Arts campus in Redwood City. Keynote speakers include Lucy Bradshaw, VP/Head of Production and Development at Maxis/EA, and Ernest Adams, renowned book author and game designer. This half-day conference will introduce ways developers can specifically address the female consumer market. Industry insiders will look at game structure, genre, content, stereotypes and other hot-button topics on developing and marketing game titles for women. Register online today: http://www.womeningamesinternational.org/ Thanks to ECD Systems, WIGI will be a GDC exhibitor this year. Visit our lounge area at Booth #238, where you can meet your WIGI colleagues and grab a WIGI button, courtesy of Mary-Margaret.com. ************************************************************************* ============================================================= 3: IGDA@GDC Update: Member Party, Scholars, Annual Meeting... ============================================================= Some quick updates on various IGDA activities and initiatives for GDC: * Over 850 members have already RSVPd for the IGDA's Members-Only Party on Tuesday night. Don't miss out on the fun - be sure to RSVP before March 1st. http://www.igda.org/events/rsvp_gdcparty_07.php * GDC Student Scholarship recipients announced: http://www.igda.org/scholarships/recipients.php * IGDA Foundation announced the Eric Dybsand Memorial AI Scholarship recipient: http://foundation.igda.org/?p=7 * The IGDA Annual Meeting will be hosted in room 131 from 1:15­2:15pm. Boxed lunches will be provided. For complete details and updates on the IGDA's activities, please jump online: http://www.igda.org/events/#gdc ================= 4: Columns Update ================= Monthly columns have been updated: Famous Last Words ----------------- "Sales Statements Action" - Discussing issues around stating sales results http://www.igda.org/columns/lastwords/lastwords_Feb07.php Culture Clash ------------- "Learn, Baby, Learn - Designing game curricula" - A look at the challenges of game curricula http://www.igda.org/columns/clash/clash_Feb07.php The Games Game -------------- "Focus On Connecting/Listening" - How to maximize your value at events like GDC http://www.igda.org/columns/gamesgame/gamesgame_Feb07.php =========================== 5: Chapter Meetings/Reports =========================== Complete list of chapter reports and upcoming meetings: http://www.igda.org/chapters/updates.php Mexico City Wednesday, March 7 > Social meeting http://www.igda.org/mexico North Carolina Triangle Thursday, February 22 > GRAW 2 @ Kings Barcade http://www.igda.org/nctriangle Quebec City Wednesday, February 21 > IGDA Quebec to announce its 2007 calendar at Le Boudoir Lounge http://www.igdaquebec.org/calendrier.html Montreal Tuesday, February 20 > Clint Hocking on Exploration http://www.igda.org/montreal/archives/2007/02/february_20th_c.html New York City Tuesday, February 20 > Demo Night! http://www.largeanimal.com/igda/demo Manila Report, February 13 > IGDA Manila PS3 first look and chapter meeting http://www.igda.org/manila/archives/2007/02/igda_meeting_re.html Salt Lake City Report, February 2 > Wahoo/NinjaBee - XBox 360 Live Arcade http://igda.org/slc/jan07mr.htm Denmark Report, February 2 > Nordic Game Jam 2007 - 80 people made 12 Games in 48 Hours http://www.igda.dk/nordicgamejam/07/%20%20-%2080%20people%20made%2012%20Games%20in%2048%20Hours Malaysia Report, February 1 > IGDA Meeting 26th January 2007 report http://www.igda.org.my/?p=39 Montreal Report, January 26 > Party Time in Montreal http://www.igda.org/montreal/archives/2007/01/party_time_in_m.html ================== x: Logistical Bits ================== Unsubscribe/Subscribe to Newsletter ----------------------------------- You can unsubscribe or update your newsletter subscription details via your MyProfile page: http://www.igda.org/membership/myprofile.php If you need help, contact us. Thanks to our Partners ---------------------- The IGDA extends its sincerest thanks to all our Partners! Especially those who just joined us, or recently renewed their commitment to support the game development community: - Algoma University College - BigWorld Technologies - Chapman University, Extended Education - Corbel Systems International - Intel Corporation - Kingwood College - One Planet - SN Systems - Softimage - TechExcel Without their support the IGDA simply would not survive - let alone thrive. Further details and a complete list of Partners are available online: http://www.igda.org/partners Contact Information ------------------- Please contact us if you have questions, comments or input: http://www.igda.org/contact.php RSS Feeds for IGDA News and Chapter Updates ------------------------------------------- The IGDA web site has RSS feeds for IGDA news (eg, org announcements, committee work, etc) and chapter updates (eg, upcoming meetings, event reports). Those using RSS readers can point to: IGDA News: http://www.igda.org/igda_news_rss.php IGDA Chapter Updates: http://www.igda.org/igda_chapters_rss.php ------- - end - ------m