IGDA Meeting Melbourne (Au) Jan 25th 7pm
polycounter lvl 18
Just passing on the message for any who might like to come have a beer with us tomorrow.
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G'day all.
Here are some preliminary details of the industry discussion panel we'll be having as part of tomorrow night's meeting.
I'm providing these so that you can start thinking about some of the issues a little ahead of time, and perhaps come up with a curly question for a panellist you're particularly (or not so) fond of. Audience participation will be actively encouraged.
The general theme for the discussion will be something like:
"Where is the industry headed, with the next generation of console hardware on the horizon?"
This will be discussed particularly in light of EA's recent spending spree, in which it has aggressively pursued developers, technology and licensed properties. These moves have been very much in the collective consciousness of the game development community lately, and should give us some solid, concrete examples to argue about, with which everyone's familiar.
In this increasingly hit-driven industry, dominated by a few mega-hits and mega-publishers, what is the role of small and medium-sized developers, like the ones many of us work for?
What will be the role of independent developers, looking ahead?
How will the typical Melbourne-based game developer build next generation console titles? Do we allow ourselves to be swallowed up? Do we outsource? Do we collaborate with each other? How do we fund, manage, and profit from such projects?
How do Melbourne's "work for hire" developers compete against AAA developers from Japan, the US and the UK? How do we compete against even more cost-effective "work for hire" developers from emerging nations? How do we avoid getting squeezed out of the middle?
Better yet, how does a "work for hire" developer become a AAA developer?
For students or those planning their game development careers - what are the career paths to focus on, and the skills you'll need, looking ahead? Where's the security and satisfaction to be had in this climate?
Answers to all of these questions and less, at the next IGDA Melbourne meeting. Tomorrow. 7pm. Details here:
http://igda.somee.com/events.aspx
I'll be moderating the panel, and attempting to guide the discussion along the lines I've mentioned above, in a fairly neutral fashion. The panellists will be:
Mark Bishop
(Representing Multimedia Victoria and the Government, generally.)
Mike Fegan
and
Andrew Lacey
(Representing the publishers, and "big" game development, including EA itself. I'm reliably informed that they won't mind being characterised as the "bad guys" for the purposes of this discussion. By all means ask them the tough questions, but do please listen to what they have to say in response.)
Ben Palmer
(Representing the management side of small to medium-sized development.)
Peter Donald
Murray Lorden
and
Damian Scott
(Representing smaller-scale and independent development, academia, and the rank-and-file. The good guys.)
Thanks go to all the panellists for agreeing to participate at short notice, and for giving up their time to support Melbourne's game development community. It should be a heated and thoroughly entertaining discussion. It's a great line up, and extraordinary value for money for IGDA Melbourne attendees at $0 per head.
The discussion will likely last for around an hour or so, after which time you'll be encouraged to have a drink, and stick around and argue with each other in smaller groups or individually. Any fist fights should be held outside, although please let Murray know first, so he can get some photographs for the meeting report.
You're all invited to turn up, speak up, drink up, and most of all, enjoy yourselves. I'm looking forward to a really fun night. I hope to see you there.
-David.
--
David Hewitt
Lead Designer
Tantalus Interactive
www.tantalus.com.au
Chapter Coordinator
IGDA Melbourne
www.igda.org/melbourne
[/ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
G'day all.
Here are some preliminary details of the industry discussion panel we'll be having as part of tomorrow night's meeting.
I'm providing these so that you can start thinking about some of the issues a little ahead of time, and perhaps come up with a curly question for a panellist you're particularly (or not so) fond of. Audience participation will be actively encouraged.
The general theme for the discussion will be something like:
"Where is the industry headed, with the next generation of console hardware on the horizon?"
This will be discussed particularly in light of EA's recent spending spree, in which it has aggressively pursued developers, technology and licensed properties. These moves have been very much in the collective consciousness of the game development community lately, and should give us some solid, concrete examples to argue about, with which everyone's familiar.
In this increasingly hit-driven industry, dominated by a few mega-hits and mega-publishers, what is the role of small and medium-sized developers, like the ones many of us work for?
What will be the role of independent developers, looking ahead?
How will the typical Melbourne-based game developer build next generation console titles? Do we allow ourselves to be swallowed up? Do we outsource? Do we collaborate with each other? How do we fund, manage, and profit from such projects?
How do Melbourne's "work for hire" developers compete against AAA developers from Japan, the US and the UK? How do we compete against even more cost-effective "work for hire" developers from emerging nations? How do we avoid getting squeezed out of the middle?
Better yet, how does a "work for hire" developer become a AAA developer?
For students or those planning their game development careers - what are the career paths to focus on, and the skills you'll need, looking ahead? Where's the security and satisfaction to be had in this climate?
Answers to all of these questions and less, at the next IGDA Melbourne meeting. Tomorrow. 7pm. Details here:
http://igda.somee.com/events.aspx
I'll be moderating the panel, and attempting to guide the discussion along the lines I've mentioned above, in a fairly neutral fashion. The panellists will be:
Mark Bishop
(Representing Multimedia Victoria and the Government, generally.)
Mike Fegan
and
Andrew Lacey
(Representing the publishers, and "big" game development, including EA itself. I'm reliably informed that they won't mind being characterised as the "bad guys" for the purposes of this discussion. By all means ask them the tough questions, but do please listen to what they have to say in response.)
Ben Palmer
(Representing the management side of small to medium-sized development.)
Peter Donald
Murray Lorden
and
Damian Scott
(Representing smaller-scale and independent development, academia, and the rank-and-file. The good guys.)
Thanks go to all the panellists for agreeing to participate at short notice, and for giving up their time to support Melbourne's game development community. It should be a heated and thoroughly entertaining discussion. It's a great line up, and extraordinary value for money for IGDA Melbourne attendees at $0 per head.
The discussion will likely last for around an hour or so, after which time you'll be encouraged to have a drink, and stick around and argue with each other in smaller groups or individually. Any fist fights should be held outside, although please let Murray know first, so he can get some photographs for the meeting report.
You're all invited to turn up, speak up, drink up, and most of all, enjoy yourselves. I'm looking forward to a really fun night. I hope to see you there.
-David.
--
David Hewitt
Lead Designer
Tantalus Interactive
www.tantalus.com.au
Chapter Coordinator
IGDA Melbourne
www.igda.org/melbourne
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Replies
I love that pub