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Okay, lets get this place going again

Forum

I'm a bit upset that this forum has quieted down entirely. Especially as it was partly through here that I actually got into the industry. So let's see who's left, what they do... where they work and what they're currently wasting time on. As per standard I'll go first

Currently a programmer at Pandemic in Brisbane. I need to get back into my side hobbies of modding and drawing but crunch periods, real life and some games have really been hampering my progress there.

Submitted by Killa Dee on Thu, 05/06/08 - 2:19 PM Permalink

i'll go second :)

ima 3d noob sent from the future. i like roller skating and long walks by the beach. Just got 3dsmax 2009 at work, wooOOTT! happy dayz.

Submitted by souri on Thu, 05/06/08 - 3:29 PM Permalink

This place just won't let me go O_O

I've lost count on how many people who used to be regulars here that disappeared right after they get their first job in the industry. There've been a fair few. And yeh, I do want to get the forum and activities a lot more active here again. I definitely miss seeing the creative work you lot were doing in the forum, and I miss drawing/painting as well.

The new site provides some better ways to accommodate quick activities etc rather than make specific forum sections for it, so I'll be looking into that once most of the design niggles and fixes are complete.

Submitted by bozza on Thu, 05/06/08 - 9:01 PM Permalink

I guess ill post here too! Ive lurked for about a year now, mostly just seeing other peoples work but the past few months just looking up the latest jobs as im currently looking at getting into the industry. I think ill start putting up my work to get the ball rolling, im constantly trying to improve my portfolio so ill post up some work to get some feedback on hopefully. :)

Submitted by The Flying Monk on Thu, 05/06/08 - 10:09 PM Permalink

The forums are working again, also I'm still here.
Nice new look Souri.

And I swear that I'll get my entry for the modelling comp #9 completed. Even if it is a few years late.

Submitted by threedninja on Fri, 06/06/08 - 10:45 AM Permalink

My turn,

1st year game design / animation student at the Griffith QCA, all assignments nearly finished for the semester(I'll post some of this semesters work soon).

Just about to start relaxing over the holidays and catch up on gaming and start a few personal projects.

Also looking forward to the start of modeling comp #10 ;)

Submitted by Kezza on Fri, 06/06/08 - 6:05 PM Permalink

You leaving here would count for not one but two signs of the apocalypse :)

Well... I can't speak for other people but I've been trapped in rolling crunch periods for a while now. A lot of people thought I had died or something.

I'm planning to get some side projects going in the near future, assuming my work releases the death grip it's got on me right now. The most likely direction I'm headed is a second attempt at the "Citadel" mod prototypes that I made while doing prep work on the now dead "Sumea the mod".

Submitted by Kezza on Fri, 06/06/08 - 6:07 PM Permalink

I know three people involved in that course, one student, one current lecturer and one who's been hired and will start lecturing soon.

All the best, and don't give up your own projects no matter what. They're the things that really get you places :)

Submitted by Johnn on Sat, 07/06/08 - 1:18 PM Permalink

New forum and i got a new avatar to go with it :)
I hope some regular posters get active here again. I'll endeavour to get a bit more regular with posting too.

Submitted by Soul on Wed, 11/06/08 - 12:44 PM Permalink

Hey hey - I'm still lurking from time to time.

I'm back at University again, finishing off my Computer Science degree here in Adelaide, with the hope of one day finding a company foolish enough to hire me. My interest lies mostly with game design theory, but I'm fairly handy with the ol' coding when required :)

'Tis a bit sad the forums are so quiet these days - I constantly recommend the site to fellow students to no avail. It was great meeting up with many of the regulars for FreePlay way back in.... ahh.... 2003? 2004? I still have my funky blue sumea t-shirt to boot!

Submitted by Tejay on Wed, 11/06/08 - 11:57 PM Permalink

yeah i'm still here, trolling forums but being to lazy to post.

For all those who have yet to know me...which is most of you... I am a female second year student at aie in canberra studying my games diploma. I've been doing 3d since last year, but i've been doing drawing for a good 5-6 years... i dunno i lost count XD

Submitted by souri on Thu, 12/06/08 - 4:22 AM Permalink

Nice to see you still alive and kickin :) I wonder what's happened to the rest of the Adelaide contingent that I met during Free Play 2004 :)

Submitted by compactjerry on Thu, 12/06/08 - 11:19 AM Permalink

Hey everyone

Games Design graduate from RMIT in Melbourne. Currently working contractually for Playscape Games on an mobile game. Will start an internship at Infinite Interactive in August as part of the Good Game 'Game' competition.

Submitted by Neffy (not verified) on Fri, 13/06/08 - 10:29 AM Permalink

Hellozor
This is my 2nd year at the tribe of red, plugging along just finished a 2week holiday in which I played Age of Conan its pretty cool I'm diggin it for now combos are sweet. Current games finished, waiting on the next one so just chillin hence the trolling.

quick activities would be awesome and id def have full intentions of doing them, possibly even starting. However I found I've developed a huge dislike for finishing any personal work at home, especially 3D work it sickens me and i end up watching a movie instead. *sigh*

Submitted by Soul on Mon, 16/06/08 - 11:08 AM Permalink

Letsee, I know where a couple of people are...

Maitrek is graduating with a degree in Applied Mathematics this year, and mostly rambles on about groundwater hydrology these days. Tykeil works at an ISP help desk, but still does art/code/design in his spare time, and Daemin (whom I don't think you met) works in some small firm, probably producing death rays or something....

I will attempt to get on their backs to post here with more detail.

Submitted by Yug on Wed, 18/06/08 - 12:43 AM Permalink

Whether Souri likes it or not, I'm always going to be hanging around here for a long time to come.

I run the website www.AustralianGamer.com, and tend to be heavily involved in promoting the local developers at expos and conferences, as well as online of course.

And I throw bitchin parties :)

Submitted by dark_virus_2007 on Wed, 18/06/08 - 4:28 AM Permalink

I occasionally still take a browse around the sumea site, so i am still hanging around sometimes. Maybe not as much on the forums anymore but still in terms of around the site.

I have been an original at sumea. I joined in 2006 during the times of ye olde sumea site. A that time I was studying my Games Diploma at Vic Uni, I have graduated that and now I am at Swinburne doing a BA Degree in Games and Interactivity.

Submitted by Horror on Thu, 19/06/08 - 11:41 PM Permalink

Got a job as an LD, but I still check in here every few days or so. I like seeing the work that other Aussies are producing, but it's just so quite at the moment (the Exhibition sections can go for weeks without a submission). So show off your work people - I know there is a lot of local talent here.

Submitted by StephenWade on Sat, 12/07/08 - 2:31 PM Permalink

Okay I meant to reply to this ages ago, I'm a bit slow.

Yup - I think I've been around this website for ages, since maybe 2003, I can't really remember. Anyway, as Soul pointed out and as per my profile I just finished my degree (Bachelor of Maths and Computer Science) and about to do a year of research/study to get honours in applied mathematics.

As far as games industry aspirations go I'm still needing to develop my own skills and knowledge further regarding programming and hopefully I can start contributing in some fashion to independent projects.

E3 Invitation

Forum

Does anyone know the best way to get an invitation for E3 this year? I'm going to be in LA when E3's on, and really want to check it out and meet up with other game devs. (Wish I'd been visiting the US when the GDC was on, heard it was awesome this year...)

I mailed Dan Hewitt at the ESA and he told me to ask a "participating publisher" for an invite, so I've been sending out a few emails, no luck thus far though. Anyone know what I can do?

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 26/05/08 - 4:56 PM Permalink

Probably not worth it if they're making it hard for us plebs to get in. From what I hear a few of the major devs are pulling out - Activision, Id, etc. and it's more likely to be suits selling games than devs talking dev stuff.

Submitted by Rustam on Wed, 28/05/08 - 12:05 AM Permalink

Thanks for the reply. I've heard that as well - I wish I'd been visiting when GDC was on, but I was hoping that, even though the new E3 kinda sucks, it'd still be worth being at as a member of the games industry. I don't know... maybe E3 isn't meant for developers - just for the gaming press and PR departments to commingle and spew forth propaganda.

Gah... If anyone has any more news or ideas, please let me know.

--
"Uproot your questions from their ground and the dangling roots will be seen. More questions!"
-Mentat Zensufi

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

Need help from industry expert for school project

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Hi, I'm a matric student aspiring to become a games programmer. At the moment I'm doing a subject called 'Extension studies' in which the students research and develop their skills in their chosen field (in this case, programming). For this I need a mentor who is basically an expert in the field with whom I can consult with. If anyone wants to help me out, contact me via email at smallfurrymammals@gmail.com

Leaked GTA4 movies

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Check it out, someone has uploaded a cam of the intro to Grand Theft Auto IV. Looking pretty cool! It looks like Take Two are removing them left, right, and centre on youTube, but Dailymotion still has them up. http://www.dailymotion.com/search/gta%2B4/1 http://www.ineed2getaway.co.uk/gtagameplay1.mp4

CNRL, Cyber NRL

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Im Creating a nrl association called CNRL (cybernational ruby league), its done like fantasy nrl but ill be running it over a website, there will be a player draw at start to sort team out, only 16 spots allowed, so get in quick, you will chose a nrl team to be, then once we have 16 ppl i will hold the draw and sort the teams using real nrl players. Each Match will be determined by win using my own dream team match up system i downloaded, i put in the players and then it generates a result, good luck, but to make it competitive there will be a currency system put into place, and you may bid on other peoples players to strengthen your squad over time. i will be creating the site right now, using a free webhosting. ill give you updates soon. This will not take 3 years to finish

I will post more info with the site url and other updates in a few hours

Industry Experts and students I need your help!!!!

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Hi guys!!!!

I have just created a website which is dedicated to high school students and other individuals who want to get into the gaming industry.

I need some help from developers to help answer some questions over the next year or so. I also need people to do interviews and get some feedback on the industry.

If any developers/students want to be part of helping people get into the industry (answer question, etc) email me at: Jamie@gamecareers.com.au

or visit http://www.gamecareers.com.au

The site is dedicated to Australian's and hopefully help them with information and details on schools in Australia.

Is anyone able for interviews?

Anyone playing TF2?

Forum

Hey folks,

This could also belong in the Design section but as it's not specific to designers, I'm wondering if anyone here is playing TF2?

I've been working on a level for the past 2 months or so and so far I've only managed one playtest. That was overseas with some folks I played with regularly. I'm back in Aus now and I don't really have a base group of players to draw from, so I'm trying to find some new ones that might be interested in play testing.

I plan to hire out a GameArena server for a month, but before I do that I'd like to make sure I can find roughly 12 folks. So far, I've found 2 :) So if you're interested, please let me know!

Cheers
Kris

Submitted by souri on Sat, 12/04/08 - 4:48 PM Permalink

How much does TF2 cost on Steam? I saw the Orange Box at EB Games for $100 but decided to pass on that. Got any pics to share? :)

Submitted by Kris on Sun, 13/04/08 - 4:25 PM Permalink

It's $49.95 USD on Steam, and TF2 alone is $29.95 USD. I just bought Bioshock at these rates, even with my country listed as Australia. Though my account was created whilst I was in Canada, so I'm not sure if the prices would be listed the same if someone created their account here.

No pics yet :) I might post a couple soon, but visually it's very basic. I want to nail the gameplay before I work on detail and publicising it too much. But I might have to post a couple to build some interest in playing it too! ;)

Submitted by Kris on Sat, 19/04/08 - 11:08 AM Permalink

Excellent!

I'm looking to put a short video together over the next couple of weeks to build up some hype, would be great if that could be posted when done, cheers!

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 10/06/08 - 10:51 AM Permalink

Reviving an old thread here... but I'm a rather agressive medic in tf2. Lots of people at work are playing it every day :)

Submitted by souri on Tue, 10/06/08 - 5:18 PM Permalink

It seems that if you allow anon. postings in the cms, they apply to everywhere the comment system is being used, including news items and forum.

My Dominance War 3 Character

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Oh K I didnt know where I should post this, as it is a bit out of context with other artworks.I dunno I just felt like I wanted to post something that I waa working on and I didnt know where I could put it.
but anyways here is the thread for it: http://www.gameartisans.org/forums/showthread.php?t=2256

feel free to comment on what it looks like on Sumea if you like:P, I hope I can finish it in time as I have about a week or so before the deadline.

Submitted by Mitch P on Thu, 10/04/08 - 6:08 PM Permalink

Looking good dude :) Hope you finish on time.

Tejay: You've done a great job with the normal map and textures there, first time i got to have a good look at him :)

Don't know if mine will be completed on time at the moment

Where is everyone?

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Its rather quiet here and this forum has been up for quite a while, start chiming in people :)

Submitted by tojo on Fri, 28/03/08 - 10:53 PM Permalink

yeah it is pretty quiet
.. im going to start posting some work soon.. just short on time at the moment but have some stuff that i have been working on...

ive been guilty of not contributing much for quite a while

Submitted by souri on Sat, 29/03/08 - 4:43 PM Permalink

I think once the new design is finished, and we redirect all the traffic from sumea to here, things will get back to normal. I guess people are still loitering on the old site.

Submitted by Horror on Fri, 04/04/08 - 1:42 PM Permalink

Yeah, gotta get that traffic moving again. I've been finding myself lurking around on the IGDA forum and CGtalk because I kinda feel like it's just me and the tumble weed here.

EDIT: Btw Souri, is it possible to change the name of my account? I havn't used the forum name "turkeyplague" in ages.

Submitted by dark_virus_2007 on Sat, 05/04/08 - 12:45 AM Permalink

Im still with you guys but as I stated in another thread on these forums, I had to change my username from happy_virus to dark_virus_2007 simply because the old account wasnt working.

I couldnt keep the old username either so I had to go with the change and it just kept doing strange things on my PC as either I had set my firewall up wrong or there was some bug in my computers firewall system.

I also was having problems afterwardsd trying to log in from one of my computers but it is all fixed now so as soon as I have more time on my hands, I will be checking the new Sumea site ou more often.

Submitted by threedninja on Sun, 06/04/08 - 3:26 PM Permalink

Greetings all again, i had to re-create a new user name as i could not login with my old user name (ny7ros). I'm the same as you guys, i hope everyone starts using the forum again. I've been flat out trying to get organised for Uni this semester. Working on a few different projects right now, hopefully I'll have some WIPs to post very soon.

Submitted by Lurks on Tue, 15/04/08 - 8:45 PM Permalink

I reckon I'd start by dumping the horrendous DIY forum software. What's with the silly stripy blue background on posts? Honestly, no. PHPBB or something. It'd take minutes. Bosh.

This is a funny one because game developers do this stuff all the time. Reinventing the wheel but not actually making all of it round. :)

Gosh and new posts slap up to the top too? Good lord.

Submitted by souri on Thu, 17/04/08 - 6:46 AM Permalink

There's no reason to go the phpbb route. We've had a asp bulletin board which was just as capable as phpbb, but the reason why we're going with this system is that we have a lot more functionality, and everything is unified. You'll have to read my news post about it.
As for the forum here, sure it doesn't look as snazzy as the other forum software, but the main functionality you'd expect from a forum is here. And if and when I have the time, I can easily make it look like a phpbb forum if that's what is really needed.

Submitted by Mitch P on Fri, 18/04/08 - 10:08 AM Permalink

This recent update is a major improvement. The background on the page when your typing your reply is a bit weird but could be easily fixed.

The only thing I would is that the threaded conversations confuse me. Does one of the options down the bottom pf the page set it so all replies are just by date?

(edit: flat list expanded is what I wanted I think. seems to be working fine)

Submitted by souri on Fri, 18/04/08 - 3:07 PM Permalink

The way the comments are currently defaulted at is in line with many blogs and comment systems (as well as the old Sumea), so we'll keep it like this. But yeh, you can changed the way it's displayed to your liking, if you wish. Threaded/flat/expanded/sorted by date etc, so it's pretty cool.

Yeh, I'll be going around and fixing things here and there.

Submitted by Mitch P on Fri, 18/04/08 - 5:46 PM Permalink

I assume you mean the comments people left on news posts were threaded like this? If it was like this on the forums I never noticed.

I know a lot of places use the system but I think I am just easily confused to be honest :S Anyway good work Souri ;D

Submitted by souri on Mon, 21/04/08 - 3:07 AM Permalink

Oh right, yeh the forums were never threaded like this. It will take some getting used to, yeh. The thing is, the comments system and the forum are pretty much the same (and it makes sense that it is, really), and unfortunately if you set the default as threaded for the comments then the forum gets set like that as well.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 02/05/08 - 5:02 AM Permalink

Well there is because this still looks awful and has a fraction of the features of an off-the-shelf solution, and works in an arbitrary weird way that doesn't inspire one to actually use it.

But hey, it's your site :-)

Submitted by souri on Fri, 02/05/08 - 5:17 PM Permalink

At the moment it has the core features to mimick the old Sumea site, which is what I wanted. Sure, I could add a whole heap more whiz-bang features and bloat, but I doubt that anyone would be more satisfied if there were more sliding ajax effects and news tickers happening. If you're lamenting the lack of features on here, then you really need to look at the old Sumea where there are even less (other than the comments voting system).

At the moment, it's functional, works great, and the design I will admit needs more work but it's simple and usable for the time being. I wouldn't say it looks awful, but if you think it is, then that's fine. I've been working on a redesign for the last month, but as with things you do for yourself, you're your own worst critic and so I've been redesigning, building, scrapping and redoing things for weeks.

I'm sure most people will agree that content is the main reason people visit, and if you look closer, there've been more articles, news stories, job ads, event information than ever.

Submitted by Neffy on Tue, 06/05/08 - 5:46 PM Permalink

Also it really freaks me out having the names of posters down the bottom right hand side, and post new topic txt was really hard to find and that seems to me something you wouldn't hide away so neffy has to spend 10mins looking for it in tears T_T

I like the colour gradient background and it looks very clean =D

Submitted by souri on Thu, 08/05/08 - 1:06 AM Permalink

Yeh, I'll be fixing how things look, and I don't think the end result will look too much like it does now.

I've settled on a design look, and I'm hammering on polishing it as much as I can before I chop it up and do the css, so it's a little while off yet.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 15/05/08 - 7:34 PM Permalink

how do you know who has typed what?,, are these posts meant t be anonymous or something? something not as friendly with the new layout/forum design or something?

need avatars and personal stuff...

i feel like i am reading a forum on property development or someting....

not a forum for creative types

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 20/05/08 - 1:16 PM Permalink

didnt mean for that to sound as negative as it does... probably should have thrown in a few emoticons...

i was more reffering to the lack of human feeling without the avatars and personalizing stuff..

didnt mean to sound ungrateful.. because on the contrary i am very gratefull... this is a brilliant site..

and i hope it stays that way, that is all

Submitted by souri on Wed, 21/05/08 - 2:46 PM Permalink

You actually do have avatars. Look in this thread and you can see Neffy and Horror have uploaded an avatar and it's showing. Granted, it's not placed very well in the threads, but I'm still working on the redesign which will change it all. And that's what I've been saying, I've been working on a redesign for the last month or so (I've thrown away 3 designs already, having cut up and built two of them as well, so it's been frustrating to settle on something I really, really, really like), and all the complaints about the current design (which I pretty much agree with) is mute when it's only temporary.

If you really must see, the design I've settled on and trying to finish off now is this: http://www.tsumea.com/downloads/tsumea.jpg

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 21/05/08 - 3:58 PM Permalink

holycrap that looks nice

Submitted by Johnn on Wed, 21/05/08 - 6:13 PM Permalink

Interface visual looks super-good Souri. Can't wait to see it implemented. I better start sorting myself out with a new avatar to go with the new site.

Submitted by Horror on Wed, 21/05/08 - 6:37 PM Permalink

Much easier on the eyes I have to say. Whenever I load up a page with a white background it's like that scene from Judgement Day where the nuke goes off.

Submitted by Kezza on Thu, 29/05/08 - 10:50 AM Permalink

I've been in development madness for a while now so I dropped off the radar. Back now, but the madness isn't over though of course.

Submitted by souri on Tue, 03/06/08 - 3:35 PM Permalink

There are a fair few things that need fixing, but I will work on them and other things in the following weeks.

New Sumea Forum and Website

Forum

Is it safe to post in here without destroying the universe?

looks great to me!

bio-shock demo!

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just played the PC version of the bio-shock demo, and it was sick! check out my glowing hand. Has anyone else played the demo?



fileplanet demo







just found this when i was poking around, however i could not find the editor .exe

Killa Dee2007-08-23 05:43:01

Submitted by ScottS on Thu, 23/08/07 - 5:30 PM Permalink

If I wasn't on Dial-up I would have downloaded it. I'll have to wait for a magazine to get it on the cover disc. Even then I'm not sure my computer will run it.
How well does it perform on your system? Have you ever played System Shock2? I want to know how it compares to that since bio-shock is considered the spritiual sccessor to the system shock series.

Submitted by souri on Fri, 24/08/07 - 12:44 PM Permalink

I haven't had to time to download the demo yet, but I've been watching all the commotion surrounding the release of BioShock and have been finding it a but amusing. It seems to have gotten way out of hand with people getting way too angry. They really need to settle down...



I have been watching a lot of footage on youTube though, and while it's impossible to really appreciate the game that way, what I've seen has been pretty cool.

Submitted by Killa Dee on Fri, 24/08/07 - 12:55 PM Permalink

Weird, I just got my copy no problems here. This link to the demo should be faster than the fileplanet one i posted unless your a subscriber. i was getting about 800kbs per sec from this link -->http://www.nzone.com/object/nzone_bioshock_downloads.html



[QUOTE=ScottS]How well does it perform on your system? Have you ever played System Shock2?

[/QUOTE]



it runs good, my computer is not that flash - amd 3.2, 1.5 gig of ram and a 7600gs. I have watched ss2 u-tube walk through, but I haven't played it. There are similarity's, I don't really want to post any spoilers so i'll shut up.        Killa Dee2007-08-24 05:59:56

Submitted by souri on Fri, 24/08/07 - 8:30 PM Permalink

This thread is missing an important ingredient.











Now it isn't!

Submitted by shika on Sat, 25/08/07 - 8:43 PM Permalink

seriously considering getting a 360 for this...







and Mass Effect

Submitted by redwyre on Sun, 26/08/07 - 8:32 AM Permalink

Gold, souri.



I'm waiting for a new video card before I can play :/

Submitted by Killa Dee on Sun, 26/08/07 - 12:04 PM Permalink

i have seen that big daddy before! hahaha

Ponies Friends gets an M rating

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This isn't really news, but it's funny:

Pony Friends more gruesome than originally thought



Oh, and what I said about Pony Friends getting an M rating, well it's not.

Women in Games -dissapointed response

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Here i am in the games industry and a women and trying to organise a night for guys and girls to get together(WIGI mixer 20th October) , industry and students to get more girls interested in getting into the games industry and  i get a lacklustre response.....whats going on??? here i am reading about how girls and such a growing part of sales of games ....so where are you all? this is a great opportunity for making contacts in not only the games industry but other areas as well and noone seems interested.As a fully sponsored event with industry professionals i cant believe that i have recieved such a lacklustre responce......

Submitted by Owen2 on Tue, 21/08/07 - 8:40 AM Permalink

if i pose as a woman, will this make me more eligiable for a job in the industry?

Submitted by rezn0r on Wed, 22/08/07 - 4:00 AM Permalink

Sad to hear that your event didn't get the expected response.



I'm behind your cause 100%... I think we need a greater balance of males and females in our industry for a whole host of reasons.



As part of my work I find myself doing talks at schools (primarysecondary) as well as Universities (lecturesopen days). I always stress to the girls that games isn't a boys club, and that we're crying out for their help.



Times are achanging, and we're seeing more and more girls jump on the boat every year... right now as I look around, most of the managers here are women... some of our artists are women... no girl programmers or designers yet, but they're coming.



Owen, posing as a woman probably won't make you more eligable for a job (strong portfolio + getting on well with us in interviews will always win)... I reckon it would make for a memorable interview if you did though. ;P



I'm not sure what the agenda for the Women in Games meet was. Girls are always welcome at the IGDA meets and such, and they might feel a bit more at ease in that environment.



A neutral setting seems (to me) less confronting than a "mobilising of the troops".



I also remember when I was a student trying to get my break, and resenting the perceived "unfair advantage" girls got. Experience has shown me that there is no such divide, but I'm mindful that not everyone knows this.



I hope you have better luck with your next event. Out of interest, in which city was the event held?



Scott.

Submitted by souri on Wed, 22/08/07 - 9:48 AM Permalink

It's only been three weeks since the Mixer event was announced, and with another two months to go, there's still ample time to drum up more noise. I can imagine the response would have been greater if this was held in Melbourne or Queensland since we don't have as much in the way of developers in Sydney, but I reckon it's still worth sending a few emails to the companies listed in our developers listing.



Actually, I think it would be beneficial to contact some of the panellists and contributors from various women in gaming panels and luncheons from past AGDC's for advice on drumming up more support.

Submitted by Brawsome on Wed, 22/08/07 - 12:16 PM Permalink

Tantalus has 2 animators, a coder and a designer that are female, which is a bit less than 10% of our current staff. It's always good to see more females getting into the industry it really enriches the workplace dynamic.

Submitted by Frostblade on Thu, 23/08/07 - 1:04 PM Permalink

What are the other areas?



It might be better if you open it to more people; not just students and industry people. I'm sure there is a whole mass of girls who are unhappy at their current unrelated jobs or looking for something different to do and it might just be the right inspiration for them to change their mind to do game related work in the future.

Free Play on this Saturday

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So who's coming along to Free Play this Saturday?

Submitted by davidcoen on Fri, 17/08/07 - 4:47 AM Permalink

gewd damn it, another year has passed?



not to admit to being ego driven, but i would prefer to go if i had something to show off (and not having anything to show off, spare time should be spent making something, (cough, as well as wasting time on the web...))



probably not going to go, but will try to get something finished by next year (and say that every year)

Submitted by souri on Wed, 22/08/07 - 8:10 AM Permalink

Anyone else here go? Care to give some impressions?



Chameleon has some footage of the event and we'll be uploading it up on Sumea hopefully by the end of this weekend.

Submitted by Brawsome on Wed, 22/08/07 - 1:10 PM Permalink

It was great! I'm glad I went. Really inspirational to see where the games industry's real creative force, the indie developers, are coming from. Jonathan Blow's keynote speech was brilliant, he has some great ideas about how games will be taken to the level of art, and focuses on the "Why" you should make indie games rather than the "How".



Jason Hill has a write up about it on ScreenPlay. But check out the video of it when it goes up too.chameleon2007-08-22 03:11:56

I started at.....

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Started at AIE yesterday, pretty cool. Wondering if anyone else started yesterday from here.

Submitted by Killa Dee on Thu, 09/08/07 - 2:32 PM Permalink

not me, but AIE is rad! Melbs or Canberra?   (ACT FTW!)

Submitted by codyalday on Sat, 11/08/07 - 2:45 PM Permalink

Melbourne, pretty good place. At the moment pretty much know all the sh*t we learning, but first couple of weeks is introuduction to max.

Submitted by MoonUnit on Sun, 12/08/07 - 8:15 AM Permalink

Wow hey cody, man I remember when we were the two starry eyed kids in high school. Now were both actually studying at uni finally. I'm at RMIT doing digital art myself. Being that I taught myself a whole bunch during the early years like you I often find myself sh*t bored already knowing what I'm being taught but hey, beats anything else you could be studying right?

Business Networking (Xing, Linkedin, etc)

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Because Business Networking is taking off, and it seems to be (at least for me), that a large amount of contacts are involved in games, and creative media (marketing, design, etc) i am wondering who has accounts, or who would like an invite to join these community's?



I currently have a in depth profile on Linked In at:

http://www.linkedin.com/in/amckern



I was only invited to join Xing by one of my ex employees, who i keep in contact with a few days ago, this is my profile there:

https://www.xing.com/profile/Adam_McKern



BTW, yes thats the old MPEG2 Player domain.



So, who here on Sumea has an account, or would like an invite? The sites seem to be the new way to get a job, and keep in contact with people in the industry.



Adam

Submitted by souri on Wed, 22/08/07 - 8:14 AM Permalink

You know, I created a myspace account and have only been back there once There's just too many of those social networking sites around. Just yesterday I was told how good Facebook was.

Submitted by amckern on Thu, 23/08/07 - 2:29 PM Permalink

I only joined MySpace so i could see the profiles of people who leach from the random folder (Has over 700 funny images) on my personal website :P

Any game devs in Adelaide?

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Hello,

My name is Andy Anderson, I've moved to Adelaide like 2 months ago from Europe. Game dev is pretty much all I do all day, I've been working for the last 3 weeks on a game, started with nada (0, null, nothing) in C++ with DirectX and other goodies, and its been going pretty good: I've got a mesh format up, made an exporter for Blender and got some models rendering, some GUI is up and now I'm doing some more on the GUI. But there's more to it than that, there are more than 100 source files, around 15000 lines of code etc.

I'd like to use that code to make a serious game, I made some small games in the past, and I can do all the coding myself (though its a bit boring that way), but I really can't do the artwork (textures and models).

So I was wondering, if there's anybody in Adelaide with a bit of free time to help me out, I'd love to make some kind of game like a platformer or a FPS (there isn't much content to do at a first person shooter), who knows, we might get something out of it actually... or at least a decent addition to the CV so we could get jobs into the gamedev industry...

If any modeler is interested, then I have no preferences in the actual game type, you can choose, I just like to code games, not design them :)

In any case, here's a bit of an old screenshot, with the monkey head from Blender, which doesn't look too good without the lighting.... (an important todo on my list)

Submitted by souri on Tue, 10/07/07 - 11:07 PM Permalink

It might be worth making a post at www.adelindie.org which is a community of indie game devs in Adelaide as well.

Good, cheap video cards

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Im looking to upgrade my current video cards to a new one. Primarily one that will allow me to view shaders like STyle's skin shader, in realtime through the MAX viewport.
Admittedly, money is tight so i dont want to shell out too much.
Anyone got any suggestions?

Submitted by Killa Dee on Mon, 09/07/07 - 2:57 PM Permalink

agp or pci express?

Generic GeForce 7600 GT 256Mb =$125.50
XFX GeForce 7600 GT =$180
MSI GeForce 8600 GT 256Mb =$230.00

I got a 7600gs at the end of last year to run pixel shader 2.0b for unreal engine 3, its been pretty solid and it was cheap.

Submitted by raicuandi on Tue, 10/07/07 - 9:34 PM Permalink

I'd put a little extra and get the 8 series... since its DirectX10 compatible, there isn't much nVidia can go from now in those terms, probably only raw performance... and it's good to have that, it should last enough to worth its money.

Transformers Movie

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This is hard. I don't usually start threads in forums to vent, but I'll bite this time.

Why is it that SO many people think this movie is good? I simply cannot understand it. I'll paste what i wrote in another forum


"saw it tonight, and it was seriously, without a word of a lie, one of the worst movies i have ever seen in my life. The dialogue was terrible, the comedy forced and painful, the action sequences (by which i mean autobot vs decepticons) awesome but few and far between. the movie lacked logic, the plot had gaping holes.

The canon of the transformers was butchered and disrespected.

i seriously cannot stress how bad i think this movie is. I really tried to just sit back and enjoy a movie without complaining or being over-analytical. it was so bad it was hard to appreciate the awesome transformations and CG (which were both very awesome)

there are movies that dont take themselves seriously, but a transformers movie does not translate into that format.
it was a concept that had SO MUCH potential. and yet, this is what Michael Bay comes up with? Im not a super hardcore transformers fan - i can name maybe 5 total transformers if i think hard, and yet the movie just left me feeling robbed of $8, which is ridiculous, because its only $8

im finding it hard to believe how many people think this movie is good. not that they are not entitled to believe that, but i just dont see how..."

the transformers rocked. some of their dialogue was badly written and out of character, but their design and visual execution were superb. its just the movie they are in thats utter garbage.

Somebody needs to agree with me, because I'm starting to go crazy from utter disbelief that so many people love this movie.PeterDavis2007-06-30 08:42:06

Submitted by Killa Dee on Sun, 01/07/07 - 4:30 AM Permalink

Best movie ever. sry    *1 SPOILER REMOVED* sry

you say its the worst movie you have ever seen, have u seen jaws 4, 4 weddings and a funrel, weekend at bernies 2, blues brothers 2000, 3 Ninjas: High Noon at Mega Mountain, You Got Served, Epic Movie, Howling III, Battlefield Earth, BloodRayne? (i have more but i wont torture you with them right now.)

Killa Dee2007-07-01 21:58:11

Submitted by PeterDavis on Sun, 01/07/07 - 4:56 AM Permalink

its not the WORST movie i have ever seen, not by a good shot. But i, personally, thought it was garbage, except the action transformers shots, they rocked.PeterDavis2007-06-30 19:06:04

Submitted by shika on Sun, 01/07/07 - 7:51 AM Permalink

To be honest, I thought it was pretty average, 6/10 kinda film.
Having no empathy for the autobots didn't really help.

Submitted by PeterDavis on Sun, 01/07/07 - 8:54 AM Permalink

i found it hard to have empathy for anyone, especially the humans, of which we saw far too much.

Submitted by Johnn on Sun, 01/07/07 - 3:51 PM Permalink

Some bad reviews on Transformers! Strange how it has been well recieved by the critical media. I was thinking about seeing it until someone pointed out who the director is and what other movies they were responsible for. From what has been said here, I think Mr Bay hasn't strayed from the tried and tested formulas he know.

edit: and bad Killa, BAAAD! posting a spoiler on details of the action in the movie.JohnN2007-07-01 05:54:09

Submitted by souri on Sun, 01/07/07 - 5:15 PM Permalink

Haven't seen the movie yet, but c'mon.. Michael Friggin Bay.

The Island
Bad Boys II
Pearl Harbour
Armageddon

and a whole lot of other turds....

Personally, I would love to see the original Transformers: The movie remade in beautiful CGI

Submitted by immellmann on Mon, 02/07/07 - 2:08 PM Permalink

I reckon it was pretty awesome. It was like watching the Transformers when I was a kid again. Granted it's not going to set the world on fire with its script, storyline, but neither do the cartoons if you watch them now. It's just a big kids movie. It reminds me of all the cool memories I had when I was a kid, and that's not a bad thing. And considering I walked out satified with my $15 being spent, is alot more than I can say for Spidey & Pirates 3

Submitted by Killa Dee on Mon, 02/07/07 - 2:22 PM Permalink

[QUOTE=JohnN] edit: and bad Killa, BAAAD! posting a spoiler on details of the action in the movie.[/QUOTE]

Opp's, you'll be happy to know I have disciplined myself with chocolate cake.   

Submitted by Maitrek on Wed, 04/07/07 - 4:01 AM Permalink

I thought it was pretty sucky. I didn't expect much going in, maybe that's why I'm less aggro about it ;) It had some slightly cool actions shots (not one sequence was put together well though) and if I were to be 'critical' the entire movie was basically bollocks.

None the less, I've seen worse

Two words -> Ghost Rider

Submitted by souri on Wed, 04/07/07 - 4:29 AM Permalink

I saw it last night and thought pretty much the same.

The visual effects were really cool, except when the action was a blurry mess. The robot designs are just too busy looking with chrome metal pieces every where, and when you add motion blur and the fast action of two of them bashing each other to the mix, it's hard to figure out what the hell was going on.

I knew when I was going in, I was going to see a typical Michael Bay movie, and I got exactly what I was expecting. Just like a lot of his movies, I think I would have loved this if I was 8 years old or so. I mean, it has everything a boy would wanna see, lots of explosions, tonnes of cool stuff, and a really mind numbingly simple story. Nothing extraordinary about the dialogue or plot, hell, a lot of it was pretty cheesy. ("Sam, push that cube into my chest".. gawd.)

That movie ruined the legend that was Optimus Prime though. None of the autobot (other than Bumblebee, and perhaps Optimus and Megatron) or decepticon characters got any character development at all. Seriously. They were just things in the background most of the time. I dunno, the biggest flaw about the whole movie was they set it up as a love story and most of the time is spent on these two young students (and not on the robots), and rather than having the guy pursue or prove himself in some way to gain her affection, it gets shoved into the background during all the action, and then bam, he gets the girl at the end.

Blah, what the hell am I doing. I'm trying to make sense out of a Michael Bay movie

Submitted by Neffy on Wed, 04/07/07 - 4:58 AM Permalink

I want a transforming yellow car thats awesome like that one in the movie.

I liked the story, they just modernized it I cant understand why people hate it.
my only complaints was that it was stupid to take the secret thingy into the city if you wanted to protect people. Just an excuse for special effects :P

Submitted by IronhideNT on Wed, 04/07/07 - 5:38 PM Permalink

It's ruined all my childhood memories in one mind-numbing hit. I'll say that.

The movie had so many holes, I began to start questioning the very concept of the Transformers - why bother Transforming when clearly they don't care about disguising themselves as they're wrecking things aimlessly.

I mean, as a kid I remember episodes where there would be crowds of people cheering the autobots as they "Transformed and rolled out"...but after that Bay disgrace I realised how much I took the series for granted. The Tranformers transform for no reason! I've been conned!

Holy sh*t I gotta change my username!

Submitted by Malus on Thu, 09/08/07 - 3:57 PM Permalink

[QUOTE=Neffy] I want a transforming yellow car thats awesome like that one in the movie.



I liked the story, they just modernized it I cant understand why people hate it.

[/QUOTE]

Modernised it hey? hehe



So modern equates to badly written, cliche puns which lack any substance or relevance to there original source material?



That means Michael Bay is the new Andy Warhol. lol



In all seriousness I thought it would be what it was and thats ok, I can turn off my inner critic every so often for a few explosions and a hot broad but come on it's not a 'good' movie it was just a 'fun' movie.

[QUOTE=Neffy]

my only complaints was that it was stupid to take the secret thingy into the city if you wanted to protect people. Just an excuse for special effects :P[/QUOTE]



I cracked up that they carefully hid the big fella and put his ultimate weapon in the next room with him....

Quake Wars will have in-game ads

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I have some mixed feelings when it comes to the new trend of in-game ads, so it got me pretty curious when Splash Damage announced they're planning to have in-game advertising in the upcoming Quake Wars (a game that I'm highly anticipating) Announcement here...

[quote]Choosing to place ads in Enemy Territory was not a decision we made lightly. However, in doing so we hope to be able to provide a higher level of on-going support to the Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars community than would have been possible otherwise.[/quote]

In-game advertising caused a avalanche of negative responses for Battlefield 2142 when a slip inside the retail box notified you of its ingame advertising and player tracking with, I think, browser cookie information. I think the amount of feedback was so bad that EA haven't yet begun streaming regular in-game as (although there have been reports of an ad once in a blue moon). Valve has announced that they were going for in-game advertising for some of their games like c**terstrike Source, but it does bother me somewhat that these ads will just stick out like a sore thumb for futuristic games like BF2142 and Quake Wars. Nevertheless, it's interesting to see that developers are starting to offset their development costs with in-game advertising.

Submitted by Killa Dee on Wed, 20/06/07 - 12:35 PM Permalink

Good old Wolf ET was FREE, FREE, FREE! I guess now they want their mucho E-money return. I'm willing to look at in-game advertising as long as there is no Spyware, Phishing, Trojan's or Evil Worm's involved. In-game advertising and monthly subscription make me feel like playing snes.

Submitted by souri on Thu, 21/06/07 - 2:01 PM Permalink

I've been reading some of the reactions that this bit of news has caused around on other sites, and most of it seem pretty negative. What worries me more though is that the Quake Wars beta keys for Fileplanet subscribers were handed out today, and from a few reports, there are a few reports that there is:

1: some work left to do

or

2: it's quite a disappointment and not matching the hype that this game has built.
Souri2007-06-21 04:01:51

Submitted by nexx on Thu, 28/06/07 - 7:11 AM Permalink

I managed to get a Beta key but have only played a few hours.

I think there's a lot of negativity for a few reasons:

a) Most people dont understand this is Beta, and expect a polished game.
b) The servers are full of noobs :)
c) ETQW is too much like Battlefield for ET fans (like myself) to really enjoy. And it's too much like ET for Battlefield fans to enjoy. I think both sides are somewhat dissapointed so far.

As for ingame ads, I read somewhere that Australian law doesnt allow them, that's why we dont see ads in Battlefield, can anyone confirm?

In the beta there are placeholder posters (with a promo for Quake Wars) on the sides of a few buildings, I assume ads eventually go there. It's not intrusive, yet, but I think it's a slippery slope.nexx2007-06-27 21:15:24

id's new engine tech demo at WWDC'07

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Hey, looky here! John Carmack shows off the id's new engine called Tech 5 at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference 2007...

WWDC'07

Fast forward to the 12 minute mark to see the Carmack enter. He doesn't say too much other than mention the megatexture capabilities and that it's cross platform (PC, PS3, Mac, and Xbox 360). Need a higher res version of the video though, but it still looks pretty cool.

There are some more pics at Engadget.com

Pic1
Pic2
Pic3
Pic4Souri2007-06-12 01:50:03

HL2 freebies for ATI customers

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Half-Life 2: Deathmatch and Half-Life 2: Lost Coast are available free for ATI customers:
http://www.steampowered.com/ati_offer1a/

Submitted by souri on Tue, 12/06/07 - 9:50 AM Permalink

I got Half Life 2 for free when it came with my ATI gfx card. When Lost Coast was available, it was for download as well, but I never got around to it. I wonder if I can grab it, now that I have an Nvidia card <_< >_>

HL2 Deathmatch was fun for a few minutes...

Simple game

Forum

I need a simple medical game created for a presentation. It needs to simulate putting an intravenous (IV)drip into a patient. If you know of anyone that can help me that would be great. As long as it looks good I am willing to pay for it to get done. I can be contacted at jckn_will@hotmail.com.

Thanks.

Jack

Submitted by amckern on Fri, 08/06/07 - 8:29 AM Permalink

There is a Half-Life 2 (Source) mod that simulates medical stuff called 'pulse' you might have some luck finding it on http://www.moddb.com

Freeplay 2007 coming August - suggestions?

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It's great to hear that Freeplay is back again. The organisers are open for suggestions for the conference, but I thought I'd open a thread to see what you'd like to see in the next Freeplay conference.

Submitted by Brawsome on Wed, 30/05/07 - 6:00 AM Permalink

Will there be some representatives from Film Victoria that indie developers can talk to about their funding opportunities, what they all mean, and how to get their hands on them?

Also, will anyone be recording any of the sessions to maybe put up on the web in the form of a podcast? This was done by Gamasutra for GDC 07 (and many other events), and it's good to be able to listen to the sessions if you can't manage to be one of the lucky ones to make it down.

Submitted by Killa Dee on Wed, 30/05/07 - 7:01 AM Permalink

bean bags and Wonderboy in Monsterland.

Submitted by souri on Wed, 30/05/07 - 7:08 AM Permalink

Actually, I was going to ask you if you were interested in covering the conference for Sumea. I can send you the trusty Sumea camcorder we used for Game Connect and the opening of the Hits of the 80's exhibition at ACMI last year. We'll discuss this in the news editor forum

Submitted by Brawsome on Thu, 31/05/07 - 2:07 AM Permalink

Yeah, awesome! Glad it's on a Saturday. Hope you've got a tripod, because if my holiday videos are any indication, I can only take crooked shaky video, must have one leg shorter than the other or something.

Submitted by amckern on Wed, 06/06/07 - 7:54 AM Permalink

Its on the day after GC ends - i hope they know that, seeing that GC is this years the must see games show.