Report Archives

April 2004
Tuesday April 20, 2004 - Gavriel State (of Transgaming Technologies) showed us his most recent project: Tron 2.0 for the Mac. The game looked terrific on Mac OS X (10.2). Transgaming offers game portability solutions for Mac, Linux, and console development. They have offices in Ottawa and Toronto.

Brian Robbins came back loaded with swag from GDC. He will provide a conference summary at the next business meeting (June). He also attended Flash in the Can, where Fuel Industries' "Cowboys and Engines" took home honours for "Best in Show" and "Best 3D". Their game "GM Rev Racing" won "Best Game."

Finally, I encourage you to join our new IGDA Yahoo! group.

March 2004
Tuesday March 16, 2004 - A small group gathered for conversation and libation at the Oak. Newcomers Louis (Tetraglyphics) and Dave (Artech) joined us for the first time and got us caught up on what was going on in their corners of the industry. Beer was consumed, ideas were exchanged, and a good time was had by all.

Join us on April 20 for our next meeting. Brian Robbins will be updating us on the GDC.

February 2004
Tuesday February 17, 2004 - Jeff Wacheski (from Iteration Games) demoed the sound renderer he has been working with. He showed some examples of how it could work, and demoed related software that uses similar methodologies.

Brian Robbins (from Fuel Industries) then did a walkthrough / demo of their new corporate website. This will be launched publicly within the next few weeks.

Finally, we discussed a slight change in meeting format. Every other meeting will now be a social gathering instead of a formal meeting and discussion. The first will be our next meeting (March 16, 2004) at the Royal Oak on 1217 Wellington. Meetings will also now begin at 7:00.

January 2004
Tuesday January 20, 2004 - A dozen braved the elements to show up at our first meeting of the new year. Mark was first off, giving a demonstration and post-mortem of his Independent Games Festival Entry "cquest." This was followed up by a rather spirited discussion (led by Kenton and Steve) of how game techniques and technology could be used for adult learning, instead of burdening people with existing -- and boring -- Computer Based Training methods (think: First Person Learner).

February's meeting will feature Jeff's demonstration of his Sound Renderer, Brian's demonstration of Fuel's new interactive website, and a continuing discussion on edutainment. Depending on his progress, Dave will show off his new space shooter game.

December 2003
There was no December meeting.

November 2003
Tuesday November 18, 2003 - Close to 20 showed up for our November meeting. Thanks to Brian and Fuel Industries for providing the space. Fred started us off with a demonstration of an open source game he worked on, called Hooptie the Penguin. While a good game, the real reason behind it was to provide code samples/examples to other developers to ease them into learning Objective C. Our theme for November was "Graphics over Gameplay - Gameplay over Graphics". Phil showed us NetHack, which generated a great deal of discussion over how such a "low-tech" game can still garner such a huge and devoted following. Greg walked us through EDrugTrader and moderated a discussion on how it, and games of this nature, could be made better.

For January's meeting, Christian and Mark (Carleton U students) will show us their Independent Games Festival entry. We'll also open up the floor for Steve and Kenton to discuss games and their role in education.

October 2003
Tuesday October 21, 2003 - More than a dozen showed up at Fuel Industries to talk gaming. Thanks to Brian and Fuel for providing the space and the beer. We welcomed some new faces and got caught up on who was doing what. We decided that in subsequent meetings, attendees will critique various games based on a monthly theme. November's theme will be "Graphics over Gameplay / Gameplay over Graphics". Greg James will discuss the former, while Phil Glofcheskie will address the latter. I'll be posting a discussion thread soon. See you in November.

September 2003
Tuesday September 23 2003 - Another successful meeting. Thanks to all who attended. Special thanks to Brian Robbins and Fuel Industries for providing the meeting space. Some pictures from the meeting are availible. Here's a quick wrap up;

* Adrian, Dave, and Chad told us about their experience developing a game engine at Carleton University.
* Jeff showed us a demo of "Return to Wor", an isometric remake of Wizard of Wor being developed at iteration GAMES.
* Brian started a list of topics that we'd like to discuss at future meetings (i.e. Intellectual Property law, breaking into the industry, etc.).
* Marco enlightend us a bit about developing Legacy Online, and it's business history.
* Brian gave a tour of the Fuel Industries facilities.

August 2003
Tuesday August 19 2003 - Our second meeting went well, we heard about a new small team project working between Ottawa and Montreal that has found proof of concept funding. Had a GBA demo to play with, thanks Christopher. Some contract work was evident as money changed hands. And we discussed the local area development happenings. Post ideas for the next meeting in the forum, and we'll see you all in September.