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IGDA Wisconsin Meeting
The Roman Candle West Pizzeria
1920 Parmenter St.
Middleton, WI
Our Next Meeting Around the Corner!
IGDA Wisconsin's announced Thursday, November 19 meeting will be held at The Roman Candle pizzeria at 1920 Parmenter St. in Middleton. We will be in the basement dining area.
The evening's feature presentation is a panel discussion on video game audio, including music and sound effects. Several in-house and freelance audio artists from major Wisconsin and Illinois studios are planning to participate.
Next Meeting: February 26!
After the culmination of much effort, the formalization of local IDGA chapters has finally been resolved and is ready for implementation. The charter forms have been finalized, after a brief delay, and we should be getting benefits within a few months. This should include funding support (for guests and pizza) and insurance (for afore mentioned guests and any pizza hazards that may occur). All chapters, nation wide, will be signed up by the end of April. Once this is done, the process to formalize all international chapters will begin.
In other news, Jason Della Rocca, the long standing Executive Director of the IGDA, has decided to leave the IGDA and pursue other opportunities. If you never met Jason, I should say that he was an extremely helpful and friendly guy to work with while we were starting up. He’s also been a tremendous source of support along the way. If you do know Jason, be sure to send him your best wishes.
Also, one of our members, John Bergman (Guild Software), has informed us that he was interviewed by the Nintendo Community Fangame Convention and was kind enough to share the post with the chapter. Thanks, John!
Our next meeting will be held Thursday, February 26th at Herzing College (5218 East Terrace Drive), starting at 7 PM. There, Eric Francksen will share with us Frozen Codebase’s first Wii Ware title: Sandy Beach. We’ll talk about the game itself, as well as development challenges that came up along the way. We’ll also continue our talks on the chapter chartering process.
Hope to see you there!
The Upcoming IGDA Madison Election
As announced at our meeting last week, we are working hard to comply with the IGDA's new bylaws concerning affiliate chapters. One big part of that is having elected officers, and as such we're going to run our first official election. The plan is to cast ballots sometime in December, but before we do that, we need candidates! That's where you come in.
We have three different positions we need to fill for this election: Chair, Secretary, and Treasurer. Six months later, we'll have an election for a Vice-Chair as well. For now, though, see below for details about the positions and their duties.
Chair: The Chair shall give active direction and have control of the business and affairs of the Chapter. He or she may sign contracts or other instruments, which the Board of Directors has authorized to be executed, and shall per form all duties incident to the office of Chair as may be prescribed by the Board of Directors.
Secretary: The Secretary shall keep the minutes of the meetings of the Board of Directors; see that all notices are duly given in accordance with the provisions of these Bylaws, ensure appropriate records are kept; and in general perform all duties inci dent to the office of Secretary and such other duties as may be assigned by the Board of Directors.
Treasurer: The Treasurer shall be responsible for and oversee all financial administration of the Chapter. The Treasurer shall ensure that accurate bookkeeping and accounting of the Chapter's moneys are performed, and in general perform all the duties incident to the office of Treasurer and such other duties as from time to time may be assigned to him or her by the Board of Directors.
The deadline for nominations for any office is October 28, 2008. You can nominate yourself, or you can accept a nomination from someone else if you like. If you're interested in running for any of them, please e-mail us right away!
Next Meeting September 30
The next meeting of the IGDA Madison chapter will be September 30, 2008, at Herzing College (5218 East Terrace Drive), starting at 7 PM. Herzing College has kindly donated the meeting space, which holds up to 70 people.
The IGDA has recently changed its structure and its relationship with its chapters. This meeting opens with details about these changes and how it will affect the chapter and the board of directors. It also provides notes about how the board of directors works and how to run for election to a position on the board. The election is slated to be held at our next meeting later this year.
After that, our friends at Big Rooster give an overview of the Unreal Engine and how it's best used to make great games. This includes a Q-and-A session about implementing this popular engine.
Once the meeting ends, we make our way to Erins Snug Irish Pub (4601 American Parkway), just around the corner from the school, to continue the conversation.
We hope to see you there!
April Meeting Report
The April meeting was a huge success. Many thanks to Herzing College (especially Jeff Westra and Erik Pedersen) for providing the space, along with pizza and pop. Thanks also to our three speakers: Ben Geisler of Frozen Codebase, Tim Gerritsen of Big Rooster, and Chris Rhinehart of Human Head Studios.
For a summary of the event, check out the new entry (an RTF file) in our "Minutes" section. Also, Matt Ciarlante—the IGDA Green Bay Student Chapter Secretary—came up with a pair of videos documenting the evening. While they're not as good as being there, they are the next best thing. The first covers the introduction and the talks from Ben and Tim, and the second wraps up with Chris's chat and the following Q&A session.
April 1st Meeting, No Joke!
The next meeting of the IGDA Madison chapter will be April 1, 2008, at Herzing College (5218 East Terrace Drive), starting at 7 PM. Herzing College has kindly donated the meeting space, which holds up to 70 people, and Jeff Westra and Erik Pedersen of Herzing are providing free pizza for those who can fit into the room. Click on the image to the left to see the promotional poster.
We have three speakers scheduled for the event, each talking for about 30 minutes. The first speaker is Ben Geisler, who will talk about the story of Frozen Codebase: how they started, how they got together, and how they got to where they are now. Ben is titling his talk "The Camaro of Game Development," because he thinks Camaros are funny.
Tim Gerritsen of Big Rooster is the second speaker. His talk is called "They've come to Snuff The Rooster." It's about how Big Rooster got started, how it almost died, the trials and tribulations thereof, and how it's now back and better than ever.
Chris Rhinehart of Human Head Studios rounds out the night with "Heads Will Roll." In it, he discusses the formation and history of Human Head, including the company's challenges and triumphs.
Finally, we will close with a Q-and-A session with all three speakers. After that, we will walk over to Erins Snug Irish Pub (4601 American Parkway), just around the corner from the school, to continue the conversation.
We hope to see you there!
February Meeting Postponed
Due to unforeseen circumstances, the upcoming IGDA Madison chapter meeting scheduled for February 12 has been postponed. Please spread the word and stop back soon for more information about the rescheduled event. In the meantime, have a great time at the Game Developers Conference if you're going, and don't forget about the IGDA Members-Only Party at the show!
November Meeting Wrap-Up!
I'd like to extend a great thank you to last month's presenters: Norb Rozek of Frozen Codebase and Dan Norton and Dan White of Filament Games. Our November meeting was an excellent opportunity for many of us to get to know a few of the Filament founders (the newest studio affiliated with our group). Equally as exciting was the opportunity to share the thrill of frozen Codebase’s first released title, Screwjumper.
As I mentioned at the meeting, we've had a heavy influx of volunteers lately, and we’ve wasted no time putting them to work! Member Jason Compton wrote an excellent briefing of the November meeting that can be found on our new “Minutes” section.
Also, for those of you who couldn’t make it, we have a video of the meeting for you to watch at your leisure. At the moment, we only have the Filament talk posted. The Frozen Codebase portion of the evening will be posted soon.
Our next meeting will be held February 12, 2008, at 7 PM, at Rocky Rococo's Madison East Theater at 1753 Thierer Road. More information will be posted closer to the date. In the meantime, have a great New Year's Eve, everyone!
November Meeting Coming Soon
Our November meeting is coming up fast, and our newest studio member, Filament Games, has graciously offered to give our keynote talk. Developers Dan Norton, Dan White, and Alex Stone will share their experiences in the field of independent, educational game design.
The meeting will be held at the Rocky Rococo's Madison East Theater at 1753 Thierer Road. That's the Rocky's near I-90/94 and East Town Mall on East Washington. We'll be in the larger theater in the back, same as last time. This time, however, we'll start thirty minutes later than normal, at 7:30 PM.
Thank you, Filament! We’ll see you all soon.
November Meeting Plans
Our next meeting will be Tuesday, November 13th, 2007, starting at 7 PM. The meeting will be held at the Rocky Rococo's Madison East Theater at 1753 Thierer Road. That's the Rocky's near I-90/94 and East Town Mall on East Washington. We'll be in the larger theater in the back, same as last time. We hope to see you there!
August Meeting Update
Our next meeting will be Tuesday, August 14th, 2007, starting at 7 PM. We've had a change in speaker due to Mark Fernandez having a schedule conflict, so our speaker is now Mark Nelson, former Professor of Art at Northern Illinois University at DeKalb, former artist at Raven Software, comic-book artist, and currently Lead Teacher for Animation at the Madison Area Technical College. He'll be talking about creating art for both print and for computer games, the challenges involved in both, and showing off some of his portfolio in both areas.
The meeting will be held at the Rocky Rococo's Madison East Theater at 1753 Thierer Road. That's the Rocky's near I-90/94 and East Town Mall on East Washington. We'll be in the larger theater in the back. There's pizza, beer, and games, so come in early for dinner or stay late and enjoy the evening.
After Mark Nelson's talk, we'll split in to two groups, with Mark reviewing artist portfolios and giving commentary on improving your craft. This is your chance to have one of the top artists in the field take a look at your portfolio, so please bring yours along if you are an artist. Here are some samples of his gorgeous work.
The other roundtable talk for this meeting will be for those people who want to improve the IGDA Madison chapter. We've been doing this for a year now, and we'd like to hear your feedback on what we can do to make the chapter more beneficial to you.
We hope to see you there!
July Update
The June meeting went off very nicely. Thank you, to all who came out on a weekend to share your time at the Midwest Gaming Classic with us. If you missed it, and you have any interest in the history of videogames, I would encourage you to mark it on your calendars for next year.
For our next meeting, Mark Fernandez (producer of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City for Rockstar and now VP of Marc Ecko Entertainment) will be joining us as our guest speaker on August 14th at 7pm at the East Washington Rocky Rococo’s (Please note, this is not the west side Rocky’s.) We have reserved the large conference room in the back. More information will be posted in regards to Mark’s talk closer to the date. Until then, best of luck in all our endeavors.
June Meeting Coming Soon
The next meeting is Saturday, June 9th, beginning at 2 PM, at the Olympia Resort and Conference Center, 1350 Royale Mile Road, Oconomowoc, WI 53066. We will be guests of the Midwest Gaming Classic Convention.
The first hour will feature a panel discussion: "Tales From The Trenches: Starting and Running a Video Game Company In Wisconsin." The speakers will be Ben Geisler (President, Frozen Codebase), Chris Rhinehart (Vice President, Human Head Studios, Inc.), Tim Gerritsen (Executive Director, Big Rooster, LLC).
For the second half of the talk, we'll have special guest Seth Johnson of WizKids doing a round-table discussion on licensing issues in games and dealing with licensors.
We're looking forward to seeing you there!
March Update
A lot is happening with GDC ’07 this week, but I’ll focus right now on all we’ve accomplished this past month. Our February meeting featuring Professor James Gee was a great success! Be sure to check out his book What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy.
Again, I’m excited to introduce our board of directors to you (Norb Rozek, Tim Gerritsen, Matt Forbeck, and a representative from Human Head yet to be named). If you work with any of these distinguished fellows, remember that they are a point of reference to the rest of us for anything you might like to offer or any need you have.
Although I couldn’t make it myself, the reports coming in tell us that the student exhibition in Green Bay was a resounding success. More information about the event, check out our student chapter.
Our next meeting will be hosted at the Midwest Gaming Classic in Oconomowoc on the evening of June 9th. Since this event will be held out of town, please feel free to use the forums for carpool and hotel inquires if you are interested. For our keynote at this meeting, we will be having Tim Gerritsen, Ben Geisler, and a number of others (yet to be confirmed) from our own chapter hold a panel discussion on the subject of starting and working a studio in Wisconsin. This should be a really fun chance for all of us to get better acquainted and learn more about our demographic. Be seeing you soon!
Next Meeting February 21st, 2007!
For our next meeting, scheduled for February 21st at 7pm at the Casbah Restaurant, we welcome Professor James Paul Gee of UW—Madison. Professor Gee is the Tashia Morgridge Chair in Reading in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, and he has been a great source of insight in regards to the subjects of videogames as educational tools. This man doesn't spend his time on the latest and greatest Math Munchers, however. His studies include primarily Triple-A, top-selling games and the tools they employ to teach and challenge their players. While researching Professor Gee’s work, I ran across a great interview by Louis Bedigian, which gives great insight into Professor Gee’s research and perspective. If you plan to attend this meeting (and I hope you all do), please RSVP to igdamadison@hotmail.com.
November 21, 2006: Postmortem
Our first formal meeting this past month was a strong success. We owe a debt of thanks to our friends down at Wideload for, not only providing us with a great speaker, but also sharing their experiences from IGDA Chicago. Thanks are also due to Human Head, The Co-Lab, Big Rooster, Frozen Code Base, and the IGDA Student Chapter for being so strongly represented and willing to share your time with one another. FCB only had one man come down, but for a crunch time, I’d call that well represented. I do hope everyone enjoyed the venue. If anyone has strong feelings for or against it for our next meeting, shoot us an email at igdamadison@hotmail.com. Also, we are still looking for more volunteers who are interested in regular help. If you are interested, please let us know. More information about our February meeting will be posted as soon as the date is set. Take care, everyone, and enjoy the holidays!
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