February Boston Post Mortem

I’m just now finding time to write up some thoughts on Tuesday’s Post Mortem. What a great send-off to Yilmaz, who is returning to Turkey on February 14th. Scott Macmillan gave a great little speech about Yilmaz being sorely missed in the community. It’s definitely true, and good to see how quickly both he and I were welcomed into the Boston community after moving to the area not long ago.

Seeing the 3 site’s Global Game Jam games was really a great subject for a talk. Lots of interesting ideas and some great execution. Special thumbs up to the Quest for Stick group and Morgan Quirk’s excellent Flixel game. Some serious talent there and at every site. I’m REALLY impressed by this years GGJ turnout.

It goes without saying that I owe a great thanks to Scott Macmillan and Darius Kazemi as well as Les and the other BPM organizers for allowing Yilmaz and I to speak at the Post Mortem and to bore the crowd with images of ramen, cats, and energy drinks. A fun time all around.

The Skellig was packed once again, and Elliott Mitchell was kind enough to send me some pictures he snapped during the event. I’d guess the turnout was in the 150 range, which is surprising for a non-sponsored talk.

I’m posting the slides here in case anyone is interested.

Cheers, and I look forward to the next one.

RunRunRunJump

Our Global Game Jam game RunRunRunJump has been deployed as a web playable version! You can play the game here:

http://gtproductions.net/projects/runrunrunjump/

Also, the theme music is now available for download :) Grab it here:

http://gtproductions.net/projects/runrunrunjump/Runrunrunjump_music.mp3

iPhone game development talk at Apple Store

For those interested in learning about game development on the iPhone, I’ll be giving a talk next week at the Boylston St. Apple Store. This talk will be focused specifically on the use of the Unity engine to create iPhone games. The presentation will cover the prerequisites of iPhone development, the Unity interface, code examples, and a showcasing / postmortem of my completed iPhone game SpringFling. The event details are as follows:

Date: December 2nd
Time: 6-8pm
Location: Boylston St. Apple Store, 3rd Floor

Come with questions. No laptop necessary as this will not be a development workshop.

Edit: Apple posted a blurb on Apple.com/boylstonstreet

Boston Area Game Development Meetups

Calling all Boston-area game developers! Many people know and love the Boston Postmortem; a popular game developer meetup and local IGDA chapter for the Boston area. For many, the BPM is a staple industry event but some are not aware of the other meetings for devs in the area. Here’s a list of some lesser known game development related meetups and hubs that feature periodic events or game dev related goodies:

Game Development

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Boston Postmortem – The main monthly game developer meetup in the Boston area and local IGDA chapter. I would drive in from Worcester every month just to attend this back when I was in college. It’s that good. Drink some beer, network, and hear from competent industry speakers. Good times will ensue. Also, the website is a central hub info, with a job board, event board, local company listing, and gobs of local industry news.

Boston Indies - A great monthly meetup put on by Scott Macmillan, previously at BetaHouse, now held at the Asgard in Cambridge. You don’t need to be hardcore indie like Scott to attend, but if you’re not, he might point and laugh at you. Overall, a wonderfully supportive community. Come demo some work in progress projects or just network and eat some pizza.

Boston Unity Group - The bi-monthly meeting of Unity game engine users, held at the Microsoft NERD center or the Asgard in Central Square. Run by Alex Schwartz and Elliott Michell.

NEiA SIGGRAPH - A monthly talk by a leading Game or Film Animator in New England. Usually the fourth Thursday of the month, 7pm at The New England Institute of Art (10 Brookline Place West, Brookline MA, at the Brookline Village D Green line stop).

NE Games SIG - New England Games Special Interest Group puts on some interesting talks and industry events. Come hang with the MIT guys and gals to enjoy some networking and a great location at Microsoft’s NERD building.

Dorkbot Boston / Axiom - Dorkbot is an interesting crowd of hackers, modders, artists, and code monkeys that like to experiment with all things electrical. They’ve done a few game development related events such as a recent talk on interactive fiction and use the Axiom Art Gallery in JP as a venue from time to time. Check out Dorkbot and Axiom for event listings.

NE Digital Artists - North East Digital Artists Group hosts events such as Z-Brush training and advanced Z-Brush workshops. Note that not everything they do is Z-Brush related! Check out their sweet site and help keep the digital artist community alive.

WPI GDC / Speaker Series – Worcester Polytechnic Institute’s Game Development Club hosts both development and entertainment events from time to time during the school year. I’m not sure which other schools in the area run similar style events open to the public, but check out the club’s website for details. In addition, the IMGD major at WPI hosts a speaker series throughout the school year consisting of great talks from industry members.

Boston Game Development Meetup Group - There’s actually a Meetup.com group for game development that’s small but interesting. They usually meet at an Au Bon Pain in Cambridge. Some cool guys.

Drinks on Tap – An iPhone developer meetup held at Jillians near Fenway every few months. Recommended for mobile folk.

Purple Blurb – An MIT series on digital writing. Looking at their previous events, they have had some interesting speakers on interactive fiction.

Expos

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Boston GameLoop – Scott Macmillan and Darius Kazemi put together this ‘Unconference” in both 2008 and 2009. A 2010 date has just recently been set! A highly recommended and very down to earth conference for game industry folk only. Very good signal to noise ratio and only the popular talks are chosen.

MIGS – Montreal International Game Summit is a yearly game development conference in Canada. While it’s not exactly in the Boston area, it is definitely worth the hike to attend. Prices are very fair compared to GDC and the quality of sessions definitely rivals it. Highly recommended for students, industry members, and developers of all shapes and sizes.

MIT BIG – MIT’s Business in Gaming is a yearly conference centered around the business of games. Even if you’re not into that sort of thing, the sessions are interesting and it’s worth attending. Parking is horrendous and the 2009 edition fell on the same day at IGC East, but those problems aside, it’s a good one-day event.

IGC East – Although I was personally unable to attend the 2009 edition of IGC East, held in May, I heard good things about this conference and the demo night. Supposed to be accompanied by a job fair, but that fell through for the 2009 edition of IGC East.

More Gaming

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PAX East – Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) is coming to Boston March 26th-28th. Woot.

Game Unicon – Do you find yourself going to comic/anime/game conferences only to spend the entire time in the game room and playing in the tournaments? Well check out Game Unicon in Marlborough, MA for non-stop game tournaments, prizes, and LAN’ing.

Improv Boston’s Rock Band night - Check out the monthly Rock Band nights at Improv Boston in Central Square. Rock out and get judged by a panel of Harmonix employees. WPI troupe and Rock Band night regulars Crystal Math pulled off a first AND second place win this past weekend. You should attend if only to see their performances. Harmonix also does RB nights at Great Scott, a rock venue in Boston.

Am I missing anything? Did I mess up any important details? Have I deeply offended any religions? Leave a comment and let me know.