Toronto
Chapter
Summary & Pictorial - June 5, 2002
I don't think many people would disagree that we've just had IGDA Toronto's best event ever, with the visit of Scot Brew (yep, one T), a Technical Director at LucasArts. We've created a pretty high standard to live up to, haven't we?
It was a terrific turnout at the Indian Motorcycle Cafe and Lounge on King West, where we had some cocktails, finger food, and than sat down to see Scot's presentation. Scot showed us the E3 demo reels of upcoming LucasArts games Gladius, Full Throttle II, RTX Red Rock, and Star Wars: Bounty Hunter.
Despite some occasional trouble from a very temperamental microphone, Scot had quite a bit to say on many topics. First he talked about the role of Technical Director, and how it bridges the gaps we sometimes see between programmers and artists on projects. The position was actually spawned by the movie industry (in fact Scot was a Technical Director at SquareUSA, working on tools and pipelines for Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within), but we're now seeing more of it in the gaming industry. In the gaming industry, art and technology have to work together, and there are times when one must serve the other. The Tech Director is there to facilitate that process.
Scot also talked about LucasArts' success with Alias/Wavefront's Maya tools and how it has streamlined their game development process. One example he gave was with Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds, a Star Wars strategy game that took just eight month to complete. The game has a massive amount of units, and Maya made the process of animating and cleaning up the units much easier, thorough, and quicker.
Scot then fielded questions from the audience, which included everyone from students looking to break into the industry, to programmers working in the industry. It was a very educational night.
To cap it all off, some prizes were given out, including a t-shirts, a martini set, and an Xbox and a PlayStation 2.
IGDA Toronto would like to offer a big honkin' thanks to Scot for coming. A special thanks to our sponsor Alias/Wavefront for getting Scot into Toronto and hosting the party. An extra special thanks from me to Nelson Cruz of Alias/Wavefront for providing the (good) pix below.
Enjoy, and we'll see you next meeting!
