Next Wave Independent Game Developers' Conference

MoonUnit: I found a whole bunch of tshirt transfer paper so Im making a shirt for sure!!!

oh yeh head down to your local office jerks and you can get a packet of iron on paper that you can stick right in your printer. Im either doing that or i know this little Tshirt place that does it for like 20-25 bucks, depends which is cheaper :)

EDIT: first T-shirt design, yes thats me in the commy style silohoutte, looks kinda dodgy thanks to our good friend, jpeg compression

[img]http://www.vooks.net/moonunit/blackT2.jpg[/img]

How about updating the Next Wave Independent Game Developers' Conference website (nextwave.org.au/2004/feat_igdc.htm) with the actual details so that we know everything is definately planned and people who are planning travel, accomodation, etc can see if it's actually going to be worth their while attending?

Have a basic outline on page 3 of this forum thread is fine but is now dated and there are no synopsis of talks. All this talk of how bad the AGDC was....at least they had a good guide to the talks, what they were about and who was giving them so I could make a decision about when to go.

Also, this "E3-style" event- have you approached any indie game developers about exhibiting? Can anyone enter? How?

The organisers are in the process of finalising the schedule at the moment, with the speaker list and descriptions being written out right now, so I'm sure it'll be up real soon. I'll be posting it up on Sumea as soon as I get the details. Everything is definately planned - heck, I've even booked my plane ticket!

You have to contact Next Wave if you're interested in exhibiting, and they'll sort you out. gamers@nextwave.org.au

Hey, fair point mutant_fork. The wheels turn slower though when you?re relying on volunteer labour, and believe us, we?ve been itching to get info out to the public (behind the scenes we?ve been organising about a zillion people and sessions) ? we just want to make sure it?s right first.

The official conference website (www.free-play.org) with the programme, speaker bios and logistical info etc. will be up from the 29th of April (to give our website volunteers time to do their thing). However, after a pretty intense process the programme is about 98% finalised so we thought we?d start letting Sumeans know about what kind of stuff they can expect to see. Below is a sample of sessions drawn from the programme.

We?d also like to announce the overseas speakers that have confirmed so far (expect more in a further announcement):
David Michael (US) - Samu Games, author of The Indie Game Developer?s Survival Guide
Brody Condon (US) - c-level (Waco, The Resurrection)
Mario Wynands (NZ) - Sidhe Interactive
Ian Shanahan (UK) - The Cassandra Project

As for demoing/exhibiting your work at the conference, we?ll have a couple of options for you. More on that soon, but in the meantime like Souri said, give us a yell: gamers@nextwave.org.au

The Art of Mapping
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Respected mappers share their secrets to creating polished FPS levels and prime us for the new techniques mappers will need for the next generation of PC game technology. This session will be of interest to participants with at least a basic grasp of level-editing/mapping.

- WetWired
- Rahnem
- Stephen Honegger

Sex in games
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Why did Australia make the BMXXX girl put her top back on? And while Lara Croft books in for breast augmentation surgery every year, why aren't there any third person shooters where female gamers get to stare at Brad Pitt's arse?
In this session we ask: is there a place for sex in games, and if so, what is that place? Come and hear the low-down on the status of game censorship in Australia, and join our panelists in pondering the issues surrounding sex, porn and downright sleaze in games.

- Sarah Van Rompaey (Atari)
- Dr Mark Finn
- Monty (BigKid.com.au)
- Linda Erceg

Homebrew PS2 Development Workshop
-------------------------------------------------
You thought console development was only for developers who could get on a console manufacturer's ?developer programme? and lease a dev kit? Think again. You were thinking of spending your rent money on Sony's official hobbyist PS2 Linux kit? Think again, again.
Because that's right - you can develop and distribute PS2 games on your very own retail console and PC. The guys from PSDev.org will show you how.

- Oobles and Dreamtime (PS2Dev.org)

What game designers *actually* do
-------------------------------------------
You may be one of those particularly annoying people who cynical game developers always seem to meet at social functions. If so, you may have already been informed that while you, and in fact many, many people have the ability to come up with an interesting game concept, the real skill of a game designer is defined by whether they can turn a game concept - often not their own, and often quite mediocre - into a playable, workable, game design.

We've roped in a couple of experienced professional game designers to take us on a step by step journey through this process.

- Ian Malcom
- Thuyen Nguyen (Atari)

Introduction to the legalities of game development
-----------------------------------------------------------
Our friendly kick-arse lawyer-come-indie game developer colleague has kindly offered our community a free crash course on the legal issues faced by independent game studios. From formalising a studio as a legal entity and understanding intellectual property, to your rights when dealing with government grants and the legalities of distribution. All this, and you won't even have to pay by the minute!

- Tim Richards (Neural Entertainment)

Business Model Make-Overs - Alternative Strategies For That New Game Development Company Look.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The way a game company runs its business has an impact on everything - company culture, project timelines, employment policies, pay checks, and product. The idea of imitating standard corporate structures of established fat cat developers can be a daunting prospect to lean new studios starting up on the smell of an oily rag. However, while most existing game developers are run along similar lines, there are many different viable business models being explored by start up studios and independent developers. Often looking for a way out of the established hierarchies and paradoxical 'you need to be successful before we'll look at you' mentality, these companies have looked at other strategies to help pull themselves up by their bootstraps.

- Mario Wynands (Sidhe Interactive)
- Ben Palmer (ThatGame)
- Michael Shamgar (Nocturnal Entertainment)
- Paul Cohen

Here is the official poster for the conference!!!

[img]http://www.sumea.com.au/simagesmisc/freeplay.gif[/img]

spiffy looking, and now we have a venue!!! ill see you lot there :)

I dont think i'll be going, i have exams the following week, have to study hard. Education before fun for me :(, or we could pospone the whole thing for me :)

oooooh actually thats the same for me aswell, i hadnt realised until now that that was the weekend before exams, i should be able to come anyway but.... eeek

Hey moony, what year are you in, aren't you in 10 or something.

Btw, my name is Peter Respondek and I work for Digital Extremes :)

Also you might want to email people on your list that they have been invited to speak/accept. The post on the website was the only indication I had that I was speaking at the conference.

11 bullet (tho im doing a yr 12 subject), and er hi Rahnem :P

Im in 11 to, it sux arse :(

"Mod and Game Project Team Recruitment Forum"

Sounds interesting :)
I'm imagining an auctioning of new recruits to the highest indy/mod developer bidder.
"What am i bid for this fine specimen. Fresh out of school this specimen is willing to work 27 hours a day 8 days a week for YOUR project!"
..
...
....
"Sold, to the man in black for 3 beers a candy bar and halvies on pizza!"

How will the format of this work? Will it just be a 5 minute talk/hype, or will they have the opportunity to show a demo etc. on a large screen, or even just crowd people around a monitor :P
CYer, Blitz

Not that I want to promote being 'unstudious' but in the end, year 11 means diddly squat - so don't miss out on a good oppurtunity like the NextWave Game Dev Conference!

Trust me, I never studied and I got into Uni (^_^)

Can someone post a map with the location of the venue please? Something big so we can see the area and landmarks etc around the place too.. Thanks.

Map :)
http://www.whereis.com.au/whereis/mapping/geocodeAddress.do?streetNumbe…

Are you going to be coming down for the conference souri?
CYer, Blitz

heh not wanting to sound like an absolute child but you try telling that to the over protective hierachy in my house Maitrek :p (that means my parents guys). I will be going to atleast one of the weekend days no worries, but as for anything more, i dont know right now. A bit of a bummer putting it before most students have exams :(

Wow, I'm stoked. I've only just stumbled across this and boy am I glad I did, count me in! BTW, thanks to anyone involved in organizing this event.. I'll do my best to spread the word around.

hey Blitz, on the recruitment forum...

because it takes ages to set up and demo stuff (more like 30 mins than 5 mins) we're offering one hour slots in what we're calling The Demo Room - people can talk to us about booking in to do a proper show and tell session (it can be short - the hour is inclusive of set-up/pack up) and we've already approached some people who we think would have cool stuff to show. Yep, there'll be a computer and data projector there (but you know how this stuff goes, if you want to be safe, bring your own CPU!)

the idea behind the recruitment session (max. 2 hours) was kind of like a verbal notice board where people who don't necessarily have anything to show (or plan to have their demo at E3.1b (the expo) or have done a presentation in the Demo Room) can draw attention to the fact that they're looking for a team member, what kind of skills they're looking for and direct people to where they can find out more info and contact details for the project. Kind of like an 'in-person' noticeboard, MC'd by some degree of, um, charisma!

we weren't sure if this is the kind of thing people think is useful, or whether we should just ditch this and just stick up a notice board (that's kind of why we announced it early - to see the response).

So what do you guys think? Would this session be useful, or should we just stick up a noticeboard for people to post ads for project team members?

man...looking at the Free Play website, I really wish I was going now...I will MOST DEFINATELY be going next year and allow anyone to crack me with a baseball bat if I say otherwise...

if anyone does hit u with a baseball bat u got problems, cause from tassie u got a fare to pay to get here and i dont reckon when you wake up your wallet would still be in your pocket ;)

hey, do I have to pre-register for this? or can i just rock up on the day and get a 3 day pass?

Free Play will have a limited capacity and tickets have been selling steadily since registration opened a week ago. You should really register as soon as possible to guarantee yourself a ticket.

Phone (1300 727 432) and in-person bookings (at the Next Wave office, 31 Victoria St, Melbourne) are working fine, but there's a problem with the NW site at the moment so you can't actually navigate to the online booking area from the front page. In the meantime here's a (shockingly convoluted) direct link:

http://eventfeed.eventshop.com.au/public/htmlfeedentry.php?userid=106&c…

It may look at first as though you can't buy at concession rates (ie for tertiary and high school students), but just have faith as you follow the "buy" prompts and you'll eventually come across an option that lets you select your ticket type.

Just a repost on some news on tickets...

I've just been informed that tickets for Free Play: Next Waves Independant Game Developers Conference were sold out today. If you tried to book a ticket today and couldn't get one, please try again as Next Wave have released some more tickets.

If you haven't booked your tickets yet, it's strongly recommended that you do it as soon as possible.

i booked just yesterday night *phewf*

though ill only be there on sunday because of exams :(

I'll be there on the Saturday. Come see me talk about wacky games journalism fun! I think the panel is on at 12.00. Lots of cool game journos to ask the important questions to!

And I'll be spending the rest of the wandering around... ;)

Registration on Friday:

GET THERE EARLY! The conference kicks off at 10am, and as far as I know you'll have to give your name and booking number at the registration desk to get your conference pass. If everyone turns up at 9:55 there'll be absolute chaos, so try and get there at least 30mins before if you can.

Re online bookings:
As far as I know there are no ticket mail-outs - you just have to give your name and booking number to the registration desk and they'll give you your pass.

I've just seen that 3 day passes, and 1 day passes for the Friday have sold out BTW

"as far as I know you'll have to give your name and booking number at the registration desk to get your conference pass"

What if I never got a registration number? My name will be on the door though, becasue I bought a three day pass a week ago, and my visa card has been charged. But I never got an email to give me a registration number...

Also this is my first year attending and I have a few questions.
Will it be easy to go in and out of rooms to catch different sessions at the same time? There are no finish times listed on your web site. example I want to go to:
ROOM 1 10:15am
"The International Indie Game Developer's Scene"
ROOM 2 11am
"PC Game Audio Systems"

If people go to both then I can imagine that at 11am people will get up and leave Room 1. Is this common? The speaker might get cheesed.. LOL...

Now that the "Mod and Game Project Team Recruitment Forum" is going ahead. How will it be run? Can I take the stage and sell myself for 5 mins? Or do I write something on a notice board? Do you have a notice board I can stick a short resume on?

Thanks,
Peter

I just came back from the first day of Free Play, a computer game development conference aimed at independent and amateur developers. It was inspiring seeing so many people interested in computer game development and who were willing to share their knowledge. I managed to attend a session held by Troy Innocent on his project which was about a merging of computer game art and game play with a dash of genetic programming thrown in. Next up I managed to catch a session on creative game interfaces and was fortunate to catch the sublime Thea Baumann and her personal interaction devices.

Next up I manned the desk and was amazed by the how large the cross section of developers were. People from a large variety of back grounds attended from students to industry leaders.

The next session I caught was with David Jewsbury on vertex programming which was extremely popular. I was also door guy and I felt really bad having to turn people away as it was too full. It was an extremely informative session and we also had a chance to view a large number of video previews displaying the latest in 3d art. His lecture notes are available at www.thatgame.com

Following directly after was a session on playstation 2 development where David Ryan and Tony Saveski gave us and overview of how the community came to be and what the current state is like. In this mean what tools are currently available. They also regaled us with a number of stories of the development of their software kit my favorite being a story of a guy who had managed to make a small fortune working in Saudi Arabia and who then moved to to Sweden I think and who for the past year has been able to be financially independent and who has been able to spend a lot of his time just playing around and working on expanding various aspects of the kit. More information can be found at www.ps2dev.com

Finally we had an inspiring talk from Harvey smith about his experiences in the industry. I was particularly inspired by his belief that Melbourne has a great potential to grow into a computer game development hub if people were willing to step up and help the community grow. He was an wonderful speaker able to relate his experiences in a very informative and entertaining manner. His lecture notes are available at www.planetdeusex.com

Following this was a social event where people unwound and I had a chance to speak to fellow attendees and hear about their experiences. There were many positive responses and it was fascinating learning about the projects were were up to. At the moment it is unknown whether this conference will be held next year but I hope it will. There were a large number of other sessions and more information can be found at www.free-play.org