Join Your Local IGDA Chapter

[leunas]

The IGDA is a GREAT place to learn about making games and also to meet people in your area that are interested just like you.

The local chapter is held annually in Westwood College every October.

What's it like? Well they sometimes have invited speakers, sometimes they have things like "demo reel night" (pictures included so you can see my local Chapter.)

Westwood College kindly shares space and hardware for free. (So make sure to ask all your local colleges.) What if you don't have a local chapter? (START ONE!!!)





(For those who are wondering what Dave Perry founder of Shiny looks like, he is pictured below in a gray tshirt with mike in hand. Judging from the pic and standing next to him, I'd say he's about 6'6" . UPDATE 6'8")







www.dperry.com/archives/articles/by_dp/join_your_local/

[leunas]

NEWS!!!

For those who would like to see a showcase of the new versions of Maya and 3DS Max, IGDA chapter coordinator Mark Warner has mentioned during the meeting to expect something to come up in December.

I personally would like to see this and recommend everyone to attend.

[leunas]

IGDA WESTWOOD 2006 DEMO REEL NIGHT RECAP

- mike, ariel, cj, stuff(towards the end) and I sat in the middle section
- main projector screen on the front, 3 side tvs played for those further back
- 5 demos will be showcased
- a panel of 4 industry professional(1 pr firm owner, 1 game designer CEO, Gerald Jo(model/texture artist/Westwood instructor, Dave Perry - Shiny founder)will critique the reels
- audience members may ask questions after each showing

DEMO #1 - Vancouver Film School guy modeler(not present - in Vancouver)
- played to rock music
- showed an impressive looking tank-like vehicle(cross between Metal Gear Rex & Rey)
- greco-roman looking soldier with jet pack
- Mr. Jo liked to see more wireframes to the models
- PR guy liked to see them in action and some background
- game designer guy says perhaps have a guy placed next to the tank for scaling purposes
- Mr. Perry says since student is a modeler, it's not expected as much to have motion or combined models, but it would be better, also the jet pack was not believable because it looks like it can fry the soldier's @$$ when flying - need space shuttle heat shields

DEMO #2 - San Diego Student animator - chubby "computer geek" type guy
- played to a "Bill & Ted's" type music
- showed a caricature selfrendering whom pulled the title of reel from his backpack and splattered it across the screen
- starts off with a transformer robot breakdancing and transforming midair and landing as a car
- two robots start fighting briefly
- one robot starts playing hackey sack skillfully
- stop motion graphics of a bunch of geometric figures duking it out
- stop motion drawings of a woman dancing seductively around an invisible pole
- stop motion of a figure hitting a ball across three separate sheets of paper
- static images of figure poses - with and without color
- panel likes the reel, but feel that he should focus on selling to a specific company(ie. Warcraft do not show demos of robots and cars)

DEMO #3 - Technical Artist - slim skinny guy
- plays to Atlantis
- starts with UI of Maya (all works done in Maya)
- shows working format of a planet to the right and a "saturnesque" planet revolving towards the camera, transitions to a fully rendered space sequence with "saturn" moving in and the giant planet to the right
- more space sequences, leading up to a boring looking space ship flying left to right with the particles from the acceleration showing a trail of unrealistic looking smoke
- scene of a broken down room with a japanese style looking bed on the floor to the left, very dark and depressing, a silhouette of a gate bathed the ground to the bed from the right.
- photo of a bamboo water pump, transitions to a wireframe of the pump, then fully rendered (very realistic looking), textured come from all corners to the center to show the magic
- underwater sequence with seaweeds flowing, water bubbles, light beams penetrating the water
- slow zoom out of what appears to be a massively distorted tree with tire swing, as it zooms out we see it being a bonsai tree against a portrait of a sunset beach
- panel really enjoyed this presentation - very professional - Mr. Perry couldn't stand the rocket ship for the above reasons, bonsai tree was a good effect, but too distorted to look like a real tree, dark room could be more interesting with better lighting, some motion

DEMO #4 - San Diego? student texture and model artist - petite blond girl
- starts with a cathedral mosaic window at the top of a landing beaming a very yellow light?(too much)
- a dark messy room with a closet that had a strobing light flickering on and off
- panning sequence through a public restroom that looks like from Silent Hill or Resident Evil, complete with blood stains, graffiti, rust, and even mist on the urinals, sinks, mirrors and stalls
- 360 view of a rainbow chamelon type(chicken like - chickameleon?)
- a circle of alien plants are next shown rotating couterclocwise at eye level, the most striking(and perhaps unbelievable) is the eyeball plant, or "calamari" plant
- panning from left to right of the Black Cat Cafe - something out of Vampire Masquerade, zooms in through the front door, on the left side is a lounge stage with mic and stand overlooking a floor of chairs and tables, past that through an arch is a static pillar of an aquarium, moving right we see an empty dark bar with stools and an island counter with a small stack of tuna(haha), further right we reach the cash register
- a 360 rotation view of a "brooklyn bridge" type - with safety cables and openings at either support beams for pedestrians
- static drawings of zebras, horses, unicorns, etc.,
- panel thinks it's a start but needs more work, the mosaic should have multicolor light since there are multicolor tiles, bathroom was very well-detailed, static art is not necessary and the overall the sequence was too quick and inconsistent, good potential

DEMO #5 - Westwood's own Dini Macmurry - texture artist / modeler?
- showed a prerendered wireframe of a gothic like church
- rendered showed ashgray bricks with yellow trim and a mosaic window in the rear, not too clear on the default black background
- lighting appears to be internal
- panel commends bravery to show an early version of the work(nowhere nearly finish), church is nicely structured, but too plain(I think there should be some flying buttresses), textures for the roof tiles, walls, towers are all too uniform - looks to be brand new - should
have some aging to improve overall look(rust, water stains, discolorations, oxidizations, etc.,

- panel make suggestions on how to make demo reels for artists, musicians, programmers and even writers(feel free to ask me if you are interested)
- meeting ended roughly 9:30pm and most departed, a few people stuck around to schmooze with the pros
- Stuff and I helped with putting away the chairs and setting up the tables


AFTERMATH: It was a fun and learning experience. You get to hear pros advise on what to do and what not to do with the demos and what every budding game creator should do to give them the best advantage with boosting their portfolios. I plan to have something to show next year, and I think each of you should as well.

NOTE - Flowerboy was all over Dave Perry like a schoolgirl. After we talked to Mr. Perry about our race game and he went to prepare, Flowerboy said to me "You just saw God walk out".
I replied "Maybe yours, but not mine."
He asked me who would be mine, I responded "Mr. Metal Gear -- Hideo Kojima-san."

That shut him up. Heh

[leunas]

David Perry was at IGDA Demo Reel Night at Westwood College.

The Orange County IGDA meetings where we focus on Demo Reels (hosted by Westwood College) are always worth the time...

I have to say, it really is a lot of fun looking at how students (wanting to get into the video game industry) present themselves. Sometimes, industry professionals are there, and they have a very lazy approach, they kinda expect the next job will come their way by showing a few pictures they printed out.

The students on the other hand work really hard. They make business cards, study articles on the web on how to present themselves and they do whatever it takes to make that reel good.

This time I recorded the event to HD video so if I ever get some spare time, I'll edit that tape into a web video so you can see how it works.

We average between about 50->200 people attending each time we do this, we have a panel of around four judges and we get about 5 to 10 reels to take a really close look at.

First, the person that made the reel explains what it's all about, then we all watch it, then the panel comments on it, then the audience asks questions or gives comments.

One guy who wants to be a technical artist showed some photoreal work that really blew me away. So far there's always been at least one of these demos at every meeting I've been too. So if you are looking for talent, I'm DEAD serious, get your local IGDA to start hosting these events.

It's incredibly interesting as we have NO idea what's coming up next, and to date we've NEVER had a really sucky one. (I've been dying to do my Simon Cowell impression, but haven't had a decent chance yet.)

As I find myself giving similar comments to more than one reel, I've started a list, so we can keep adding to it. (For people that can't make it to these events.)

I just want to thank Glennon @ Westwood College, you've been an incredible supporter of the developers and of the IGDA.

I want to thank Mark who runs the IGDA Orange County Chapter. It's a non-paying gig, but it's really helping people Mark. When I get back to my desk I'm getting some really sincere emails.

I want to thank AutoDesk for funding the Pizza's. We get through a ton of them and we make sure to thank them at the event.

And thanks to the students that are brave enough to stand up in front of their peers and show their personal work to a panel of judges.
I can't wait for the next one.

dp



www.dperry.com/archives/news/dp_blog/david_perry_was/

[leunas]

Blog: 3/16/2007

Spent some time with the team discussing the plans for the Top Secret forums.

We've been working out a long list of all the major areas we're gonna to need our team to think about, every time I think it's done, I come up with a few more! Argh!

It's a pretty long list now, and I think EVERYONE will find an area that interests them.

I wanted to keep working on that, but had to rush off to a meeting.

I'd promised (months ago) to speak again at my local IGDA Chapter meeting about my experiences so far with MMO games.



The meeting took place in Westwood college, Anaheim, 7PM.



This turned out to be a bad idea, as I brought some cool stuff to show (like our Dance game two builds into the future), but due to the really strict net restrictions on campus, I couldn't get a connection out of there, other than to view pre-qualified websites etc. No porn argh!

So now I've got a room of people sitting there, a useless net connection, no IT guy (it's late), and 4 hours to kill, so I dove into a presentation I had on my laptop that I gave in Northern Ireland in November.

It actually turned out to be a lot of fun.

For example, the students were designing their own game boxes (with the super important pitch on the back), here's a shot of some of them presenting their ideas. (Tag lines, arwork, team name and all.)



They did a FANTASTIC job!

Working with people like this makes me realize just how much un-discovered talent is out there.

Some examples of game ideas.

(1) To play as a soldier in an army, in a city that's under a massive heavy dangerous attack. The invaders plan to seize control of your cities and land and change everything to their regime. Now you personally, you actually like this idea, your world kinda sucks (sorry, but it does). So your job is to SEEM (pretend) to fight on the side of your army, but actually you're carefully trying to weaken them, to expose them to ambushes, to bring attention to them when they are trying to be stealthy, if it's just a few guys left, you turn on them yourself etc. Basically to make sure your side loses, so you can become part of this new world. It's a cool twist (on the typical first person shooter) and I can immediately see some cool (fresh) gameplay coming out of that.

(2) To have control of time, so that centuries can change at the flick of a button (in realtime). So you can be running down a street, getting attacked and bombed by fighter planes. When you think you're completely screwed, you flick the switch, the world shimmers, bubbles and animates all around you (think the old Time Machine movie), then suddenly a Tyrannosaurus Rex runs across the street being chased by an army of other dinosaurs (without loading.) Meaning you are playing in multiple time zones at the same time, taking items from one time to another to use them completely out of time context. Again, it gives me a ton of ideas.

(3) One idea I thought of (on the way there), was for Xbox Live or PS3. You earn store credits if you leave your PS3 turned on (for example.) This is kinda how SETI works (the search for extra terrestrial intelligence) , well without the payment. For SETI you can run a program, then leave your PC running and it shares it's processing power to their research. No imagine Sony started a bank of maybe 1,000 of these SLAVE PS3's and then users all over the world did the same thing (for virtual credits). With the help of time zones spreading out the usage spikes around the world, this means there would be tons of processors just waiting to help out with your game experience. It's something we don't really consider (having insane computational power) so I'm sure designers would really get a kick out of thinking of cool uses. Just imagine (as an example) that every NPC in your game is powered by an entire Playstation 3. So they can completely understand speech (really understand it) and form intelligent sentences in response, they could also think, remember, learn and generate new "creative" solutions to problems etc. It could be fun. The flight simulator dudes would freak, knowing that everything around them is correctly simulated, creating richer worlds than you could ever afford to generate on hardware you personally own.

Anyway, just hanging out with students is fun, it makes you think, and so I HIGHLY recommend (if you're a professional in the business), to give up some time to help these people. They really appreciate it, and don't think for a minute that it's only a one-way exchange.

You can sign up to your local chapter here: www.igda.org/chapters/

David Perry.


www.dperry.com/archives/news/dp_blog/blog_3162007/

[leunas]

IGDA Notes

What's New Today

March 16 - 2007 Planning (Nexus)

We had a meeting tonight, the topic was MMO's or least it was meant to be! But due to technical difficulties that we were unable to overcome, the meeting instead was a talk on the industry and a design exercise lead by Dave Perry.

Lucky for us that Dave was prepared to talk about something else and as always the Orange County chapter extends our thanks for his contributions to the chapter.

We plan on rescheduling the MMO topic sometime later this year.

Upcoming Events:

Max & Maya Night

Currently set for Tuesday April 24 at Westwood College. We are planning a meeting where the owners of both Maya and 3DStudio Max will be coming out and showing off the latest versions of both side by side.

Games for Windows

I am working with the people at Microsoft that are in charge of the Games for Windows initiative. We are working on getting them down here to talk about the initiative and how it affects us as gamers and developers. Right now looking at May unless we do double meetings in April

Design Pitch

If you haven't yet started on a design pitch, now would be the time. Much like our Demo Reel Night, we are going to have a game design pitch event where you will put forth a concept and present it to a panel. Key things are the "hook" and the idea of "feature IP". So get busy...as we will have this meeting soon. We may also have a pre-meeting where we go through some basics that will help you in this project.

Producer Q&A, QA, LAN party, and other topics are also being considered. If you have something you want to see, the head over to the forums and post it for me.

Also please help us to grow by spreading the word and getting people to join the Yahoo group list (link on the left.)

Stay tuned....

I continue to hope that we will have a new site up soon also.

If you have any questions, or to help with the site, please contact me.

More of Your IGDA News...


www.igda.org/oc/