Silicon Valley IGDA » Uncategorized

June 23 Pizza Night Meeting

Ann Burkett — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 06:55:03 +0000

In the words of the inimitable Matthew Kagle who is helping post this Month:

Wednesday, June 23th at Kapp’s in Mountain View
(191 Castro St)

Who is invited? You and your friends/coworkers/family!
What are we talking about? Games!
What are we eating? Mostly pizza!
What happens if I don’t come? Deep sadness!

Details & Directions here

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Wednesday April 7 — Red Octane (Guitar Hero), Blackpoint and dSonic Studio Co-Founders on “the Business of Being Creative”

Ann Burkett — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 04:42:57 +0000

Cost: Free, register here however to assure a space

Gone are the days, if they ever really existed, where creatives could count on being sponsored by a large studio for their entire careers. By choice or necessity we may have to create our own.

Ever wondered what is the secret to founding and keeping a creative studio alive? Unfortunately there’s no magic lantern you can rub, yet there are many aspects of that “business” thing that involve creativity, which you might – god forbid – enjoy.

We have the founders of a game, graphic and sound studios here to share the stresses, the sucesses and the inflection points for the unexpected. Walk away inspired and apply some points to ease your own journey.

Bios:

Kai Huang, co-founder of Red Octane and its President and CEO since 1999. Publishers of the popular Guitar Hero franchise, RedOctane was acquired by Activision in June 2006. Prior to RedOctane, Mr. Huang was co-founder and CEO of Adux Software, a software company developing solutions for the server appliance market and prior to that, he was a consultant with Accenture. Mr. Huang holds a BA in computer science from the University of California at Berkeley

Alejandro Gil, co-founder of Blackpoint Studios. Alejandro has been working on television, film and games for nearly 15 years, starting his career in real time Broadcast TV back in Spain and transition to film and commercials after his arrival to Los Angeles in 1998 in the middle of ‘El Nino’ storm. He moved north to join EA at the beginning of the Lord of the Rings trilogy and then spent 4 intense years as founder and creative director at Blackpoint Studios.He joined EA for a second term, to help finish Godfather 2 and is now Lead Environment Artist at a brand new studio opened by Activision.

Simon Amarasingham, co-founder and CEO of dSonic Inc., a company that has been creating audio for games for 10 years including titles such as Brutal Legend, Bioshock, and Farmville. Starting from amongst a sea of competitors, dSonic has grown to become one of the game industry’s premier suppliers of audio for games. Prior to his dSonic days Simon did a little programming during the dot com boom and composed music and sound effects as an independent contractor both in the US and Australia.

When: April 7, 6:30pm
Where: Cogswell Polytechnical College
Who: Three Fabulous Studio Founders – Game, Graphic and Sound.
Presented By: The Silicon Valley IGDA — linkedin, facebook, google group
Cost: Free and you must register here

Agenda:
6:30 – 7:00 Refreshments, socializing
7:00 – 7: 15 Intros, Abert Chen (Cogswell) & Ann Burkett (SV IGDA)
7:15 – 7:45 Simon Amarasingham of dSonic, special prepared talk
7:45 – 8:00 Refreshments, Socializing break
8:00 – 9:00 Panel with Kai Huang, Alejandro Gil, and Simon Amarasingham, then Q&A.
9:00 – 9:30 Socializing/Networking and byes

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March 22 Zynga’s Farmville Creative Mastermind and Traffichoney on Keys to Viral Game Success

Ann Burkett — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 07:11:43 +0000

NOTE: Registration is full for this event. If you previously registered through Eventbrite see you there!

Join us March 22 at 6pm for the “Keys to Viral Game Success”

Whether you a web, mobile or console game designer or developer you know that going viral is a critical key to success. Virality is a puzzle you must continually solve and plan for. No games seem to be solving this puzzle more succesfully than some of the social games which don’t even have state of the art graphics or gameplay. Join us to hear Mark Skaggs, the lead man behind the largest game on Facebook Farmville whose previous work also included such hits as Red Alert II with EA, and Sana Choudary, Chief social strategy consultant at Traffichoney, a company that consults with and creates social games for the largest traditional game companies as they discuss keys to virality and how those apply to both social and other games.

We plan to finish with an interactive Q&A so designers and developers can get a chance to get some brief direct opinions or strategies on some of their own game & app virality issues.

You can view articles and more information about Mark and Sana at:

Mark Skaggs accepting prize on behalf of Farmville
Sana Choudary on Casual Games and Facebook
Zynga’s Skaggs On Social Games’ Developer Appeal
http://traffichoney.com/
http://www.linkedin.com/in/sanachoudary

When: March 22 6p-9pm, 2010
Where: Hacker Dojo
Register: http://sgf2010march22.eventbrite.com/

Speaker Bios:

Mark Skaggs is an award winning game developer and most recently known for creating the world-wide phenomena, “FarmVille” for Zynga.

With a career spanning 17 years, 2 AIAS awards, 4 console transitions and a track record of creating games which have sold over 16 million copies at retail, Skaggs is also known for creating multi-million selling RTS games such as “Command and Conquer: Red Alert 2”, “Command and Conquer: Generals” and “Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle-earth”.

Skaggs joined Zynga in 2008 and is currently Vice President of Product Development, leading the charge to create new and interesting games in the social gaming space.

Sana Choudary is Founder/Chief Virality and Social Game Strategy consultant at Traffichoney. Sana works with game companies who are having the challenge of understanding how to build social games. Traffichoney helps them optimize virality and engagement to build popular social games.

Sponsors:

Feb 24 – Party Time! Chapter Meeting at BBC with Wild Pockets

Ann Burkett — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 07:56:16 +0000

Hi Everyone!

Only this Wednesday our,
Next Chapter Meeting Social Event will be combined with Wildpocket @
Bay Area Game Jam 2010 Pre-event Meet Ups! Location: BBC Menlo Park -
Wednesday, February 24, 2010

When and Where?
Silicon Valley Meet Up:
Wednesday, February 24th 7:30 – 9:30pm
BBC Menlo Park
RSVP – http://wildpockets.com/gamejam?quicktabs_5=2#quicktabs-5

Want to win $3000 and recognition for your game?
Want to learn more about the Bay Area Game Jam 2010 hosted by Wild
Pockets and Microsoft?
Want to find teammates, share ideas and meet other game
developers?

Join us for one or both of the informal pre-event meet ups leading up
to the Bay Area Game Jam. Drinks, food, giveaways, and games!

Also, Please feel free to also attend :

San Francisco Meet Up:
Wednesday, March 3rd 7:30 – 9:30pm
Jillian’s @ Metreon
RSVP – http://wildpockets.com/gamejam?quicktabs_5=2#quicktabs-5
Cost: FREE (includes drink ticket, giveaways, and more)
For more info on the Bay Area Game Jam 2010 please visit our website -
http://www.wildpockets.com/gamejam

Invite can also be passed along on Facebook -
http://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#!/event.php?eid=318470758584

When and Where?
Silicon Valley Meet Up:
Wednesday, February 24th 7:30 – 9:30pm
BBC Menlo Park
RSVP – http://wildpockets.com/gamejam?quicktabs_5=2#quicktabs-5

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January 29- 31 IGDA Global Game Jam will be held around the world

Ann Burkett — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 23:32:12 +0000

More than 125 sites around the globe this year for the IGDA’s Global Game Jam.
There are three sites in and near Silicon Valley; in San Jose, Santa Cruz, and Sunnyvale.

Here are URL’s to the three sites on globalgamejam.org

http://globalgamejam.org/sites/national-university-san-jose

http://globalgamejam.org/sites/university-california-santa-cruz

http://globalgamejam.org/sites/cogswell-polytechnical-college

Late breaking note — Santa Cruz is full, and Cogswell is looking pretty packed also, contact
Mark Resch and take advantage of National University San Jose’s beautiful new labs and have some global fun.

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Wednesday Jan 27 Next Chapter Pizza Night meeting

Ann Burkett — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 02:43:56 +0000

Happy 2010. Join us for our next Pizza Night meeting at 7:30 pm at Kapps. Time to talk games, projects and fun again. Details here

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Friday, December 4th at Stanford — Steve Meretzky and Dave Castelnuovo on “New Media and Games”,

Ann Burkett — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 21:49:30 +0000

Silicon Valley International Game Developers Association (SVIGDA) siliconvalleyigda.org
in collaboration with the Business Association of Stanford Entrepeneurial Students (BASES) bases.stanford.edu
present:

Games and (new) New Media,

Speakers:
Steve Meretzky, VP Game Design, Playdom, and
Dave Castelnuovo, cofounder Bolt Interactive.

Logistics:

Free entry, but seating is limited.
6:30PM Friday, December 04, 2009
Jordan Hall, Stanford University
room 420-040
Go downstairs, or around to the back entranc

____________________________________

Steve Meretzky:
adventure game luminary, currently
VP Game Design at Playdom, publisher of Mobsters. Number one game on
Myspace.

It’s hard to have a serious conversation about gaming without mention
of Steve.
It’s also hard to have a humorous conversation about gaming without
mention of him.
Steve’s contributions to the industry began in 1981 at the legendary
adventure game company Infocom,
where his titles included Planetfall, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the
Galaxy (a collaboration with Douglas Adams),
Leather Goddesses of Phobos and Zork Zero. Prior to joining Playdom,
Steve co-founded Boffo Games and held senior creative posts at Blue
Fang Games,
Floodgate Entertainment and WorldWinner.com. Over his prolific
career,
Steve also consulted with teams at Activision, Blizzard, Disney, EA,
Harmonix, Hasbro and Legend, to name a few.
A former board member of IGDA, Steve is co-organizer of the annual
Casual Games Summit at the GDC and the annual Game Designers
Workshop.
Steve holds a BS in construction project management from MIT, but
otherwise assures us that he did not waste his four years there.

Titles include
Infocom
- Planetfall (1983)
- Sorcerer (1984)
- The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (1984) w/Douglas Adams
- A Mind Forever Voyaging (1985)
- Leather Goddesses of Phobos (1986)
- Stationfall (1987), Infocom
- Zork Zero: The Revenge of Megaboz (1988)
- Lane Mastodon vs. the Blubbermen (1988)
Activision
- Leather Goddesses of Phobos 2: Gas Pump Girls Meet the Pulsating
Inconvenience from Planet X! (1992),
(under the “Infocom” label)
Legend Entertainment
- Spellcasting 101: Sorcerers Get All The Girls (1990)
- Spellcasting 201: The Sorcerer’s Appliance (1991)
- Spellcasting 301: Spring Break (1992)
- Superhero League of Hoboken (1994)
Boffo Games
- Hodj ‘n’ Podj (1995), Virgin Interactive Entertainment
- The Space Bar (1997), Rocket Science Games, SegaSoft
WorldWinner
- Word Cubes (2001)
- SwapIt! (2003)
- Skillgammon (2004)
- Haunted Mine (2004)
- Paint Buckets (2005)
- …more than 25 more…
Awards:
Game Developers Conference, Winner of the Game Design Challenge (2008)
British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Best Online Game
(2005):
Hitchhiker’s Guide (20th anniversary edition)
PC Gamer One of the 10 Funniest PC Games of All Time (2003):
Hitchiker’s Guide
PC Gamer One of the 10 Sexiest PC Games of All Time (2003): Leather
Goddesses
+ 40 More…

Dave Castelnuovo cofounder Bolt Interactive.

Title: Pocket God
Number one game on the iPhone for numerous weeks.

Dave Castelnuovo is a veteran flash developer, entrepreneur and
consultant, and is half the team behind the iPhone sensation Pocket
God.
Castelnuovo founded Bolt Creative in 2001 as a flash development
company and game studio,
and helped to lead the indie charge onto the iPhone in 2008 and 2009.
Castelnuovo has worked with a variety of internet technology companies
throughout his career,
as well as leading game publishers such as Electronic Arts.

Moderator: Joseph Gilby
Titles include:
Vice President Product Development for Looking Glass Studios
- System Shock 2, EP
- Thief: The Dark Project, Thief II: The Metal Age,Thief (Gold) EP
- Flight Unlimited II+ III EP
Vice President of Game Development, Flipside Inc. publisher of:
- Hoyle series multiplayer online games,
- You Don’t Know Jack: Louder! Faster! Funnier!
- a plethora of downloadable casual games

Introduction: Ann Burkett
Chair SVIGDA

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Wednesday Nov 18 Next Pizza Night and Planning Meeting

Ann Burkett — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 04:47:14 +0000

Hi All, join us for our next Pizza Night meeting at 7:30 pm at Kapps. It’s a been a wonderful year for the chapter, let’s plan a new one and also just simply talk games and munch. Bring your ideas an/or your smiling face and appetite! Details here

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Demo Night Wednesday Sept 30

Ann Burkett — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 23:12:05 +0000

Game Demo Night is a evening where new and upcoming games and game tools are presented, after which the audience has a chance to interact with and give feedback to presenters and check out many of the demos. Of additional fun and benefit will be hearing about the wide range of game approaches and experiences. Developers range through creative college students, the untamed wild of small independents, to well established larger companies. Presentations are concise game and tool overviews.

Event: Silicon Valley International Game Developers Association (SV IGDA) Game Demo Night

When: Wednesday September 30, 2009 6:30pm – 9:30pm.

Where: Cogswell Polytechnical College in the Dragons Den Auditorium

Cost: Free and open to the general public

This upcoming Demo Night we have the great fortune to have cutting edge 3d game engines, beautiful independently crafted games, the latest on the very, very hot topic of game monetization, an interesting new tool for 3d graphic artists and the beloved Game Development Club. The start time was also moved up a bit to 6:30pm to help ensure that we have some casual time to see demos at tables and chat at the end of the evening. More detailed presentation summaries, speaker bios and information are coming however I wanted to get the list out as soon as possible.

Cogswell Game Development Club: One of the most popular presenters from last year, Brody Brooks , is back to chat about the ultra caffeinated “game in a day” experience.

Trinigy: Trinigy CEO Danie Conradie will be coming fresh from Austin GDC to speak. Trinigy has come to talk about the latest developments in their multi-platform 3D game engine, including all new integrations with, and support for, some of the game industry’s leading technologies. Those who are interested can get more hands-on with the technology after the presentations. A big thank you to Trinigy who has helped make this event possible.

Lazy 8 Studios: Founder Rob Jagnow will present the gorgeously crafted independent game Cog and his philosophical insites gained. Two people made this game. Look and weep.

Refreshment Break

PlaySpan: Karl Mehta, Co-Founder & CEO and GM of Social Networking Monetization at Playspan will be providing a demo of DDO Unlimited, game marketplace for digital goods, as well as an overview of the companies new Ultimate Payment Wall for social network games. They will be speaking to how developers can use these platforms to tap into a new distribution mecahanism to monetize games and applications.

Bioroid Studios: Founder Martin Robaszewski will talk about his wild and wooly, (you think I kid, look at the costume on his site) experiences at Comic-Con with his series of XBOX Live Indie games about Cyborg Mice and perhaps give us a peek at the latest Cyborg Mice Game.

Terathon’s C4 Game Engine: Eric Lengyel, Founder and CTO of Terathon Software will cover some of the new developments for their C4 3D game engine. Should be an especially great night for those interested in game engines.

Mixamo – Stefano Corazza, the CTO and mastermind behind Mixamo’s advanced technology will speak about their upcoming products for streamlining the 3d motion animation process. Mixamo is also local and enjoys direct developer feedback on their new products so make sure and chat with them after the presentation.

Who is the Silicon Valley IGDA? It’s you, that’s why it works.

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Upcoming Social Game Fests

Ann Burkett — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 18:55:52 +0000

Interested in creating a social game or app, or promoting your existing game through one?

Join the Social Game Fest group on

Check out and register for a Social Game Fests in the Bay Area this Fall at http://www.socialgamefest.net/

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