IGDA Perspectives Newsletter - September 2010 by IGDA

PERSPECTIVES NEWSLETTER ALTERNATE REALITY GAMES SEPTEMBER | 2010

IGDA PERSPECTIVES SEPTEMBER I 2010

NEWSLETTER Going Indie for Meaningfulness and Money | page 3 |

SIG Spotlight: ARG | page 6 |

A Game of Patience | page 8 |

Studio Profile: Six to Start | page 10 |

The Coming AR Revolution | page 13 |

Chapter Spotlight: LOS angeles | page 14 |

Jane McGonigal ’s Gameful | page 15 |

raditionally, Alternate Reality Games (ARGs) refer to multiplatform collaborative puzzle/narrative games. They are generally used to extend the narrative of other existing video games or films, often for the purpose of advertising. However, times are changing. Jane McGonigal has redefined ARGs “to mean games that are explicitly designed to improve our real lives (including games like Nike+ and Foursquare).” Her ARG SuperBetter (2009), which addresses overcoming traumatic brain injuries, originated out of her own post-concussion syndrome. So what happens when ARGs are used for “advertising” causes (in other words, bringing awareness to causes)? In my own experience, I’ve found that making ARGs for nonprofits and research groups through universities is a unique process. Nonprofit organizations and university projects live primarily on grants and donations. This means a different and often more stable revenue stream for independent developers working under a nonprofit schema. Your financial and resource support comes upfront and can be extended as the game continues and broadens. This means the game becomes more about testing and refining — about what can be done. Whether for tapping into the “serious games” world, drawing attention to and extending existing media, or the sake of artfulness, ARGs are complex multiplatform structures that can be re-envisioned time and time again. In this issue, we look back at traditional ARGs, look forward to new ARGs and contemplate the role of augmented reality and other game genres in the transformation of ARGs. Special thanks goes out to this issue’s contributors: Christy Dena, Brooke Thompson, Chris Solarski, Adrian Hon, Andrea Phillips, Jamison Selby, Joel Gonzales, Brian Rubinow, Steve Peters, Maureen McHugh, Gwen Murray, as well as Jane McGonigal, who helped inspire this issue.

It ’s Not an Ad; It ’s Transmedia | page 17 |

Raleigh Wars: The Rain of Terror | page 19 |

Event Highlight: PAX | page 20 |

IGDA NEWS | page 21 |

Beth Aileen Lameman Editor-in-Chief

Our contributors include: Editor in Chief - Beth Aileen Lameman; Art Director - Cat Wendt; Authors - Christy Dena, Brooke Thompson, Chris Solarski, Adrian Hon, Andrea Phillips, Jamison Selby, Joel Gonzales, Brian Rubinow, Steve Peters, Maureen McHugh, Gwen Murray; and Copy Editors Brian Rubinow and Sarah Woody. Special thanks to our sponsors: Shift Worldwide, A.K. Peters and GDC Online. Learn more about the International Game Developers Association at www.igda.org.

GOING INDIE FOR MEANINGFULNESS AND MONEY By Christy Dena

was asked to write an article for this special edition on my company Universe Creation 101. I thought I’d share where I’m heading, which is a path others are taking, too. But first, I probably need to explain a bit about where I’m coming from. I’ve worked as a researcher and educator of ARGs for years, contributed to the first IGDA ARG SIG whitepaper, and conceived the IGDA initiative ARGology. I’ve created educational ARGs for film and TV practitioners labs, worked on pervasive art experiences, such as Love Referendum and Urban Codemakers, and large-scale ARGs, such as Tim Kring and the company P’s Conspiracy for Good with Nokia, Australian Broadcasting Corp.’s Bluebird Project, and No Mimes Media’s The Hunt for Cisco. I also work outside of ARGs, with film, TV, gaming, print and theatre practitioners in lots of different ways. However, right now, although there are some projects I am still working on, most of my time is dedicated to creating my own projects. So what was my cunning plan to make this happen? It would make sense to create something that works as my calling card, if you like, to attract further projects to work on. But that is not my aim. I started the intensive self-learning process of my doctorate and worked in industry for all these years to get myself to the point where I can create my own projects, over and over again. I’m not trying to position myself to be hired; I’m trying to create

my own self-sustaining business so I can create whatever, whenever I damn well please. This is where the crunch comes. I had to make a decision about my creative project(s). I had to make a decision about how much I could and can spend and how many people I’m aiming to

address. Why? Because the size of a target audience and budget influence what you create. The larger the intended audience and the more people and money involved, often the further from a personal vision the creation becomes. There are a few reasons for this, one being the need to justify every decision. Why does the personal matter? For me, the process of creating is what I need to do to be happy, understand the world, contribute to it and be sane. But I guess the most important drive for me is I want to create what I don’t see out there. I want to share with others a way of seeing the world. In short, I’m “going”

what some people describe as “indie.” I’m now talking quite subjectively about what I think and feel. I’m not being diplomatic and rigorous in my descriptions of what many think and feel. So when I say “indie,” I’m claiming my own description of what it means and identifying with people who subscribe to it in the same way. It is a version of indie. So what is this version of “indie”? The chairman of the Independent Games Festival, Brandon Boyer, spoke about how he sees indie at his keynote lecture at Freeplay 2010. His talk was titled “All Play Is Personal,” and Brendan Keogh covers him as follows: “For Boyer, this is how the indie movement is crucial to bringing the entire medium forward and why all play must be personal. ‘Existing and creating under your own auspices means the player needs to feel the “you” in your game. It’s what people respond to. They feel when your game was something you were burning to create. People say, “I didn’t know video games could do this.” That is exactly what we want.’” I agree. In July, Lance Weiler quoted me in his Filmmaker Magazine article on story. He asked me what is needed to promote story more in transmedia projects. This is what I said: “For me, what is needed to promote story in transmedia projects are practitioners who have something to say in this world. Many transmedia projects are mere engines for plots and characters that aren’t meaningful.

I G DA P ers p ect i v es N ews lett eR

SEPTEMBER | 2010

pa g e 3

“I’m trying

to create my own

self-sustaining business

so I can create whatever,

whenever I damn well please. ”

(Going Indie For Meaningfulness & Money Continued from page 3)

Transmedia needs more practitioners to use the form to express highly personal or different visions of the world.” This is a call for more personal visions being created in the transmedia world. Maureen McHugh calls it “authenticity.” There have been many examples already, such as Dave Szulborski’s Chasing the Wish, Jan Libby’s Sammeeeees, Brian Clark’s (GMD Studios) Eldritch Errors, Nonchalance’s Jejune Institute and Jim Babb’s Socks Inc., to name a few. But I feel that like Boyer, the whole area would benefit from more people being wonderfully unique. To me, it is about striving to create projects that are meaningful to ourselves and hopefully others. This is all well and good, but what about the self-sustaining part? How can one be meaningful and make money? This is the second part of my long-term vision. I realized that if I rely on one income source, I won’t survive. To explain, I’ll draw on sociologist Norbert Elias’s conceptions of dependent, independent and interdependent relationships. To Elias, independence can be seen as a relationship characterized by detachment, dependence as a relationship characterized by over-involvement or suffocation, and interdependence as a balance between the two. To me, these concepts can be juxtaposed to economics. I see many

businesses depend on a certain clientele — companies that depend entirely on broadcaster commissions, agencies or brands or artists that depend entirely on funding bodies. Depending on one source of income for your career doesn’t work in the medium- and long-term. As a solution, contemporary practitioners talk about the freedom that digital technologies and the Internet facilitate and how they can bypass gatekeepers (these traditional income sources) and go direct to their audiences. But it seems to me this can be another kind of dependency. Whatever basket it is, you’re still putting all your eggs in one basket. What about independence then? The idea of economic independence is perhaps an illusion. I don’t think it is possible to pay for the creation of my projects over and over again without any input from anyone else. But I guess the idea behind “indie” for some people is not necessarily having lots of money yourself but being independent of certain income sources. For instance, you can create without having to answer to a studio or client. But what I’m working toward is interdependence — giving and receiving from a variety of sources. What I mean by that is I rely on a diverse set of income sources for my business (such as contract work, public speaking, writing, royalties) and startup and creative projects (usage fees, subscription, brokerage, sponsorship,

advertising, licensing). All of these are different income sources from different areas, whether they are the audience, fellow creators or other customers. Another aspect of creating projects that make money is the role of design. I’ve already mentioned I don’t intend to alter my content (messages) too much, but I am looking at design. I am, for instance, developing a system for enabling scalability (to handle increasing players); replayability (people can play it more than once); repeatability (people can play it any time); accessibility (playable by people with scarce time or skills); and commerciality (earn money from it). But rather than just tick these boxes, I’m also ensuring the experience doesn’t negate a deeper, rich and complex experience for the hardcore and still enables the uniqueness of a live event. This isn’t just for me but for others to use, too. Hey, if it works, awesome; if it doesn’t, I’ll just dust myself off and take what I learn to my next idea. I’ve got plenty. I just want to make sure they’re meaningful and somehow make money. It is scary turning down work in these shaky times to bet on this future I may create. But this is what Universe Creation 101 is all about at the moment. I’m not the only one exploring this path, and so I’m look forward to hearing other’s thoughts on how they’re managing or hoping to create their own projects. 

want to write for the igda newsletter?

NEXT MONTH’STHEME IS:

online games

Email ideas, articles & press releases to newsletter@igda.org

Shift Worldwide powers rich exchanges of business intelligence online.

Tired of

ROUTINE WEBINARS or

EXPENSIVE LIVE MEETINGS? Shift Worldwide provides services and technology to power "high stakes" virtual events. We help marketers, executives and trainers bring experts and audiences together live via multi-point web video across our virtual platform. • We organize and produce your fully branded virtual event, reducing risk of technology failure and creating a “wow” experience. • We can help you find panelists, coach presenters, redesign presentations, handle registration, administer surveys and/or run reports...and more.

vPanel User Interface

Our team designs optimal solutions for these virtual or “v” events: • vPanels | Broadcast panel discussions of up to 16 remote speakers to up to 10,000 people • vMeetings | Gather traveling leaders together for vital discussions without distractions • vConferences | Extend reach by broadcasting live events or streaming in remote panelists • vTraining | Provide interactive soft skills training in a high-impact, convenient fashion • vFocus Groups | Conduct rapid, targeted global market research • vClips | Record brief informational clips for blogs and web site bios If you are unsatisfied with unstable, unremarkable or un-user friendly products or support staff of other companies providing web-based platforms or videoconferencing services, then Shift Worldwide is your new alternative.

We'll ensure your next "high stakes" virtual event is easy, customized to your needs and within budget.

Give us a call to get started (312) 788-7150 Great Organizations, Great Clients

Shift Worldwide • 207 E. Ohio St., 332 Chicago, IL 60611 (312) 788-7150 • www.shiftworldwide.com info@shiftworldwide.com

Interview With Brooke Thompson

What is the focus of the ARG SIG?

The ARG SIG is the special interest group on alternate reality games or ARGs. The platform for alternate reality games is real life and can be anything and everything that you use in real life — from your laptop to your mobile phone to your television to the street to anything and everything else that you can think of. And on these platforms you’ll find bits and pieces of story and activity. So as far as interactivity and storytelling goes, ARGs sit somewhere in between games and the more traditional passive media like books, films and television. The ARG SIG, being attached to IGDA, is in a unique position to help connect game designers and writers with those working in the more passive forms of media. Because, let’s face it, those working on those platforms are great storytellers and can create for those mediums, but they lack the experience and understanding of the playful game-like elements required in transmedia projects such as alternate reality games. Likewise, game designers and writers have much to learn about working in a transmedia environment. The ARG SIG has members with a wide variety of experience and who come from a number of different industries. So the focus of the SIG is as much about facilitating the sharing of knowledge between folks from these various backgrounds as it is about serving as a promoter of the need and opportunities for experienced game designers and writers in a transmedia environment. Essentially, we’re a bridge. I G DA P ers p ect i v es N ews lett eR

What are the SIG’s current initiatives and activities?

Currently, a number of the SIG members are putting together an extensive white paper that covers general topics, such as design principles, audience and business models, as well as more specific looks at how ARGs are used in industries, such as marketing, publishing, television and films. We’re quite excited about it as our last white paper was completed in 2006, and much has changed in the last four years. Progress slowed over the summer, but we should have it available by the end of the year. Last year, we put out our first demographic and salary survey, and we look forward to taking what we learned from that to make it even stronger this year. You can look for that sometime in the spring or, of course, download the results from last year.

How does the SIG feel about the future of alternate reality games?

games (and similar) with properties (television shows, video games, etc.) earlier in the development cycle — which is extremely exciting for us. The big challenge of creating games and experiences that fund themselves is still very much on our minds, but opportunities outside of marketing are definitely more prevalent than they were a few years ago.

What are your hopes for the SIG in the future?

There are so many amazing opportunities opening up as media converges and we become a more interactive and connected society. Alternate reality games and similar experiences have much to offer in that environment, and I would very much like to see the SIG take a more active role in sharing knowledge and lessons learned. To do that, we need to work on increasing our membership and making our list a bit more active and productive.

In the last year, “transmedia” has become quite the buzzword, and alternate reality games, along with franchises, are being held up as a successful model of transmedia entertainment. So not only has this brought a lot of attention to alternate reality games, but it has opened up a number of opportunities for growth and exploration within the genre. Because alternate reality games tend to be free to play, we’ve often found ourselves working in the domain of marketing and advertising. While that is still true, with the awareness of transmedia entertainment growing, we’re finding that there is a lot of interest in incorporating alternate reality

Is there anything the greater IGDA chapter community should know about the ARG SIG?

SEPTEMBER | 2010

pa g e 6

While we may not be traditional game designers and writers, we are very much interested in things like game mechanics and finding ways to make narrative in games stronger. We also look at how games fit in our society and on various platforms. So you may be surprised by what you find with the ARG SIG. 

www.GDCOnline.com

Game Developers Conference® Online

October 5–8, 2010 | Austin, TX Visit www.GDCOnline.com for more information

A Game of Patience By Chris Solarski

ext-generation, location-based gaming is a reality with Gbanga, which successfully integrates gameplay into daily life and is already being played as far afield as Indonesia, Burkina Faso and Iran. Most traditional video game mechanics, from simple puzzle solving to complex story-driven, multiplayer quests, can be engineered in the real world using the mobile gaming platform. But as much as we, the developers, would love to host complex gaming experiences as intricate as a Metal Gear Solid plot, the biggest game we have to play is one of patience. The necessity for patience derives from the fact our audience has yet to adjust to this new form of gaming. Who is our audience? On the one side, we have the mainstream: a global community of iPhone and smartphone users schooled

in social media functionality. This group generally has experience with simple location-based services, such as Gowalla and Foursquare. Apps like these suit mainstream audiences because they require little or no changes to a player’s daily schedule. Our challenge is to attract these very same players to the possibilities of next-generation, locationbased gaming. Our chief obstacle for achieving this is time. Mainstream audiences very quickly reach a ceiling figure as to how much time they can dedicate daily to a game. This affects two design factors: the duration of a game and the locations players must visit. Design a game with a short time limit requiring players to visit obscure locations in the city, and you’ll find only a small group of hardcore players take an interest. The solution would appear to be in

making gameplay less time and location dependent. However, in the opposing corner, we have an altogether different group of players dedicated to console gaming and expecting an authentic action adventure akin to real-world Grand Theft Auto (without the real-world violence). This latter group actually has a clearer vision of where location-based social gaming can evolve, with games involving more immediate and immersive experiences, while maintaining a focus on community. This type of gameplay is closer to traditional console gaming than what the current generation of social apps offer. For fear of alienating our time-strapped mainstream audience, it’s simply too early to be introducing such gameplay. The result is that Gbanga’s current games err on the side of game-lite, despite the fact the platform has much more potential.

Images from gbanga.com I G DA P ers p ect i v es N ews lett eR

SEPTEMBER | 2010

pa g e 8

Image from gbanga.com (A Game of Patience - Continued from page 8)

A compromise is necessary to cater to mainstream and traditional gamers. Simple and catchy gameplay is the way to go. But once our growing community is sufficiently familiar with the mechanics of locationbased gaming, the possibilities are wide open for those looking to role-play their favorite video game characters in the real world.

Take Mr. X, one of the very first games developed in-house for the Gbanga platform. Players use public transport to cooperatively track down Mr. X with the help of real-time messaging and an interactive map. The excitement of tracking a real player through the city is a completely new and engaging experience. The game was tested on a group aged in their 40s, outside of our target audience, who found the game exhilarating and cheered when they successfully tracked down a colleague acting as Mr. X. Fun, yes, but even such a simple game takes a lot of organizing on a small scale. Consider, to organize a multiplayer console game, you need only log in to an online lobby, while coordinating a location-specific multiplayer game within a set time is near impossible since all players must be present in the vicinity. Our current mafia-themed title, Gbanga Famiglia, has a more successful balance of time versus immersion. The game brings together a global community of players to form rival families vying for the biggest mafia territory. Players compete over virtual ownership of real-world venues. Gameplay happens on the streets, anywhere in the world, with mafia bars and nightclubs being taken over by players on the move. Conquered establishments become the

property of the players Famiglia and, in this way, players can capture their city one area at a time. Rather than forcing players to act within a certain time limit, Gbanga Famiglia’s gameplay is ongoing, so players can develop their mafia skills over several months. The cooperative structure of Gbanga Famiglia also means players can act individually to increase their family’s power without having to rely on others. Although the daily increase in sign-ups to Gbanga is exciting and demonstrates an audience already exists, the temptation to add more complexity must be held in check. The emphasis in designing games like Gbanga Famiglia must continue to focus on simplicity. Where new genres and experimental games have more freedom to develop is with Gbanga’s open Puppet Master API. The API, scripted in LUA, allows players and the academic community to experiment with location-based gameplay as they wish. The result will be that in the not-too-distant future, we will have all sorts of genres, some entirely new to gaming, being played out on the Gbanga platform. But for now ... Patience.

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS LAURA FRYER AND MARK PINCUS Registration is open for the 4th annual IGDA Leadership Forum, which focuses on advancing the state of art in game production and management * Affordable leadership training for you and your team * Customizable for all levels of management * Presented by a not-for-profit organization dedicated to professional development * Network with like-minded professionals * Topics like; situational leadership, team motivation, software risk management, communications, company culture, and time management The Leadership Forum takes place November 4th & 5th. www.igda.org/leadership/

Images from sixtostart.com and smokescreengame.com

Interview With Adrian Hon How did Six to Start get going? We started the company in fall 2007, a little after Dan and myself had left Mind Candy, where we’d been working on Perplex City. We had some seed investment from NESTA, and on the strength of our previous work, we also won some commissions from Channel 4 and Penguin Books for R&D and game production; still, we were working out of my living room for several months before we were able to get a proper office!

What makes your studio different from any other?

Coincidentally, six people are now working at Six to Start; we’ve got two developers, one artist, two game designer/ writers (including myself ) and our CEO. We always tend to have a few contractors around working on specific projects, and we also might have interns in to learn about game development. (“Six to Start” actually comes from old board games, where you had to roll a six to start playing.)

We focus on three areas: storytelling, play and social interaction. Each is an incredibly powerful and innate way to engage people, but normally, they’re not considered together; in particular, I think many game developers only pay lip service to storytelling. Almost all of our projects occupy at least two of those three areas, and some of our best work has lived in the intersection of the three. Sometimes these are games, like Smokescreen, but other times they’re best described as “story-like” or “play-like” experiences. We also take a very pragmatic approach to technology. While it’s tempting to try and use the most cutting-edge technology for games, particularly for ARGs, the simple fact is that it usually breaks, and most people don’t have access to it. We want to create games that provide really powerful experiences — occasionally this means using some interesting, new technology, but most of the time it means being thoughtful

I G DA P ers p ect i v es N ews lett eR

SEPTEMBER | 2010

How many people work at Six to Start, and what’s your breakdown?

about finding fun new uses of technology that everyone already understands and has access to.

Where does Six to Start fit in ARG development? Good question! Most of the projects we do these days are not ARGs, although they often incorporate ARG-style components; for example, Smokescreen feels like an ARG, but it’s very linear and completely single-player. There are a few reasons for this. Firstly, we feel that traditional ARGs are flawed in terms of their accessibility, scaling and structure. Secondly, many of our clients, including the BBC, Channel 4 and Disney, are aware of these problems, and they view ARGs very much as a double-edged sword; experiences that can be incredibly engaging to a small core but incredibly off-putting to everyone else, and so they don’t want us to make them. Thirdly, we think there’s a lot of potential in taking what’s good about ARGs — the feeling of immersion, the pa g e 1 0

that gives us a lot of freedom. We’ve also put together a brilliant team of developers, designers and artists, and what I love about them is that they all have the imagination to come up with great ideas and the skills and motivation to make them actually work.

What challenges does Six to Start face? We face the same challenges as a lot of studios — we’re still reliant on commissions!

Where do you see Six to Start heading in the future?

(Studio Profile: Six to Start - Continued from page 10)

multiple platforms — and combining it with proven, successful and popular mechanics from other games. So the short answer is, we do still make ARG-like things but not traditional ARGs.

How did Six to Start come up with Smokescreen, and how has it been received? We began researching Smokescreen pretty much as soon as the company was founded, but it wasn’t for another year and a half before full development began. I think the long gestation period helped bring us down to earth after some of the overambitious ideas we had at the beginning, but in truth, we knew very early on that we wanted to “simulate the Internet” in Smokescreen; it was the only way, we felt, to get players to feel like what they did in the game could apply to the real world. Once you take that central idea, though, a lot of other questions arise, like “Are you going to make a sandbox world?” “How is the story going to work?” “Will it be multiplayer?” “What technologies are appropriate?” We spent a lot of time just thinking about the answers before writing a single line of code. For the most part, I think we came up with the right answers, I G DA P ers p ect i v es N ews lett eR

although I know there are a few things I’d definitely change if we made the game again. Smokescreen’s been received incredibly well. We won Best Game at SXSW this year and also a Learning on Screen Award in the UK; that’s on top of close to 400,000 plays and a whole raft of praise from critics. It’s perceived as being one of the best Internet safety and media literacy tools ever developed, and we’re very proud of the game.

What more can you tell me about the games Six to Start is working on? Not a lot, I’m afraid! We’re working on some very interesting commissions on the Web and also on the iPhone and iPad. We’ve got a science game coming out in September for New Scientist and Profile Books called The Last Word Challenge, which has been a lot of fun to work on and should have quite a wide appeal. We’re also in the very early stages of developing our own in-house game, but again, can’t say a lot about that yet. What’s the best part of working at Six to Start? It’s the ability to work on projects for really interesting clients who have the confidence to let us take whatever approach we think is best. We’ve built up a reputation for doing very reliable and very creative work, and SEPTEMBER | 2010

We want to continue making great games and experiences for a wide variety of clients — including publishers of all kinds, broadcasters, nonprofits, charities — and also release our own original games that bring the best parts of ARGs to a much wider audience.

Why is it important to be part of the greater game community, and how does IGDA help you connect? Ideas don’t simply pop into existence — they always come from somewhere, whether it’s a book or a movie or a game. The most valuable thing about being part of IGDA and the wider game community is being exposed to new ideas, practices and points of view that influence and enrich our own games.

What advice do you have for other developers interested in ARG development? Take a long, hard look at the ARGs that are out there, and ask yourself what you think works and what doesn’t work. Compare them to other (more successful, more popular) games. There’s a lot to love about ARGs, but there’s a reason why they’re not as big as Farmville, Call of Duty or even Heavy Rain. 

pa g e 1 1

Our top-selling books for game developers ...

Level Design

Game Engine Architecture

Rudolf Kremers

Jason Gregory

Kindle: ISBN 9781568814087

AKP eBook: ISBN 9781568817071 Kindle: ISBN 9781568816418

Kindle: ISBN 9781568814759

Dungeons & Desktops

Quests

Real-Time Rendering

Matt Barton

Jeff Howard

T. Akenine-Mรถller, E. Haines, N. Hoffman

Kindle ISBN: 9781568816319

Nook ISBN: 9781568815152

Fundamentals of Computer Graphics P. Shirley, S. Marschner

AKP eBook ISBN: 9781568817095

A K Peters, Ltd.

Publishers of Science and Technology โ ข www.akpeters.com

... in convenient eFormats AKP eBooks available at http://ebooks.akpeters.com

THE COMING AR REVOLUT I ON By Andrea Phillips

The following article first appeared on the community blog, Game Design Aspect of the Month, also known as GDAM, under the topic of Design 2020: Imagining the Future of Gaming. Each month, game designers and other industry professionals offer their views on a particular game design issue. Please participate in September 2010’s topic by submitting an article or comment. GDAM is currently edited by Sande Chen, founding member of the IGDA Game Design SIG. In this article, alternate reality game designer and writer Andrea Phillips discusses the near-future of augmented reality games. ere in 2010, the sizzle is all about mobile games, social games and location-based games. I’ll forgive you if you’re a little tired of hearing about them. But you’d better get used to it; these trends are just getting started. Just wait until you see what’s coming down the pike for 2020! I’m talking about the coming revolution in augmented reality games. These games will allow you to interact with real and virtual environments at the same time, overlaying visual or auditory data on your real-world experiences. If you’ve seen Minority Report or Iron Man, you’ve got the right general idea — gestural interfaces and computer-generated images floating in the air. Sure, there’s some Hollywood magic in there; hologram

technology, for example, isn’t quite ready for prime time. But real technology companies are working on building devices that can deliver experiences just as amazing, if not more so. Surprisingly, these Hollywood portrayals of augmented reality don’t show you the real possibilities that come when you take the tech and make it mobile. Just imagine the games you could make with a system like that! (To get you started, you can take a look at some of the games I’ve predicted already. Or just read Rainbows End by Vernor Vinge.) I don’t know about you, but the game design possibilities make me positively giddy. So how do we get there? The biggest hurdle to augmented reality games are the same hurdles mobile games have only recently overcome. The technology needs to be in the hands of a critical mass of potential players, which means it needs to be cheap, easy to use and absolutely reliable. And it needs to be powerful enough to deliver a compelling gaming experience, of course. We’re already on our way. Most smartphones are powerful enough to deliver great games already. The limiting factor in many mobile games is input/ output — screen real estate, not CPU. And these problems are well on their way to being solved.

Companies like Vuzix are already working on transparent augmented reality glasses, so you can interact with the real world and the virtual at the same time. The MIT Media Lab is developing projects like SixthSense, which can turn the whole world — even your body — into input devices. These may seem clunky and impossible right now, but in 10 years’ time, the technology will become lighter, cheaper and near-ubiquitous. Our precedent here is Bluetooth. It took about 10 years for the now-common headsets to percolate into the mainstream; now, you can’t walk into a supermarket without seeing one. The first warning shots of the augmented reality gaming revolution have already been fired. Games like The Hidden Park, Kweekies and Level Head all demonstrate some of the novel possibilities for games yet to come. And companies like Mirascape are building the gaming platforms of the future. As the tech gets better, the games will, too. We’re not there yet; a lot of the augmented reality work out there currently amounts to cunningly engineered party tricks. But the augmented reality revolution is definitely coming, and I mean to be ready for it. Will you?

I G DA P ers p ect i v es N ews lett eR

SEPTEMBER | 2010

pa g e 1 3

CHAPTER SPOTLIGHT

promotes the chapter through the gaming press, social media and every other tool they can access.

How often does the chapter meet?

Interview With Jamison Selby

Who are your chapter leaders? How did your chapter get started? Bring together the right people at the right time, and things happen. In the summer of 2009, a group of LA-based gaming industry folks met up and started talking about the IGDA and its lack of a real presence in the LA area. The IGDA had been active in LA in the past, but in recent years, the only activity had been a small-scale, monthly networking event helmed by Justin Lloyd, who kept the heartbeat of the IGDA alive in the LA area during that period. That same group kept running into each other, at first by chance, then by choice, and the conversation gained momentum. At the same time, Chris Hood was launching the Orange County Chapter and was tasked by the IGDA to help organize the Southern California region. He joined the conversation, and talking led to meetings. Those meetings led to the creation of a Steering Committee composed of the core volunteers who were dedicated to driving this initiative forward. They devoted a huge effort to planning, organizing and outreach with the goal of relaunching the LA Chapter. And that’s just what they did. IGDA LA officially rebooted in January 2010 with a packed house for a panel discussion titled “Beyond Facebook and the iPhone: The Future of Casual Game Development.” Since then, we’ve held monthly events that have drawn over 100 attendees at a time and featured industry all stars like Warren Spector, Danny Bilson and Jenova Chen.

I G DA P ers p ect i v es N ews lett eR

The newly elected board of IGDA Los Angeles is as follows: Chair: Jamison Selby (Senior Producer, TimePlay Entertainment); Vice Chair: Jeannie Novak (Founder and CEO, Indiespace); Treasurer: Joshua Green (Project Manager, Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences); Secretary: Lousie Nemschoff (Owner, Nemschoff Law Offices); Chief Communications Officer: Brandii Grace (Freelance Game Designer, Engaging Designs) Many other people dedicated a lot of time to the relaunch of IGDA LA, including Chris Hood, Krissie Franco, Belinda Van Sickle, Sue Bohle, Luis Levy, Sharan Volin, Mary-Margaret Walker, Stephen Peacock, Dan Fish, Tim Trzepacz, Derek Asato, Tom Sloper and many more. Their time and efforts were indispensable.

How do you recruit new members into your chapter? Outreach, outreach, outreach. We have a dedicated Membership Committee responsible for growing and maintaining the membership of the chapter. Our public events draw as many, if not more, non-members than members. Our focus is to convert those attendees into full IGDA members. We design our events schedule to appeal to a broad audience and give them a reason to join. Our events often feature major companies and industry legends who have their own drawing power for an added boost to attendance. On top of that, our Communications Committee

SEPTEMBER | 2010

The chapter meets regularly on the second Thursday of each month. Our Education Committee hosts a series of special themed events organized around the needs and interests of students, aka the next generation of game industry pros. Additional events dedicated to the special interest groups operating within the chapter are scheduled throughout the year.

Does the chapter have a favorite place to meet, or does that change? LA County covers over 4,000 square miles and about 10,000,000 people. That’s a lot of ground to cover. In response to that, we move the chapter meetings to various hot spots around the area. That allows us to better serve the membership and grow the chapter.

What was your most recent event as a chapter? In August, we held a special joint event with the Videogame Writers Caucus of the Writers Guild of America, West. It was titled “IGDA@WGAW: Writing Videogames: Tall Tales of Triumph & Terror.” The event offered members of both organizations the opportunity to meet their counterparts and discover what points of common ground exist between two groups dedicated to improving the lives and careers of game writers. The meeting featured a panel discussion on game writing with an all-star group of industry veterans whose backgrounds run the gamut from film and TV to gaming: Gary Drucker, Sean Jablonski, FJ Lennon and Marv Wolfman.

What has your chapter done to support ARGs? ARGs have been added to our events schedule, and we’re planning a panel discussion dedicated to the topic. In addition to that, we’re considering launching an actual LA-based ARG to coincide with E3 2011. Any readers with ideas on that topic, please check in with the LA Chapter! 

pa g e 1 4

Jane McGonigal’s Gameful: Unleashing Game Developers’ Secret Powers

By Brian Rubinow

hen Jane McGonigal gave a talk earlier this year at the esteemed TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) conference, the title was “Gaming can make a better world.” Speaking in Long Beach, Calif., she said, “My goal for the next decade is to try to make it as easy to save the world in real life as it is to save the world in online games.” Poverty, climate change and world hunger are all problems that can be solved through the use of gaming, she argued, and that got the attention of many. The response to her TED talk was so overwhelming (to the tune of 50 to 100 e-mails every week) that McGonigal felt the need to bring these people together. “After my TED talk, I got lots of e-mails from people who either wanted to play these world-changing games or get jobs making them,” McGonigal said in a recent

I G DA P ers p ect i v es N ews lett eR

phone conversation. “So I thought I needed a better way for all these people to talk to each other and to get that out to everybody. I wanted to create that social space.”

“Poverty, climate change and world hunger are all problems that can be

solved through the use of gaming ...” To that end, she and several others created Gameful, a website meant to be a central online meeting place for game developers, journalists, students and others who believe in the power of games to change the world. Although it isn’t officially

SEPTEMBER | 2010

launching until Oct. 26, the welcome banner already summarizes its mission and function: “Good games make us better and change the world. We’re the people making and playing those games.” Built on the BuddyPress platform, Gameful will be free to use and will allow anyone who signs up to find others to collaborate with. Nathan Verrill and Matthew Jensen of design company Natron Baxter are also contributing to the design of Gameful to bring game design elements into the structure of the site itself. Though specifics are still being worked out, McGonigal said there would be an achievement system as well as a trust system, which will be essential for successfully finding collaborators. “We’re trying to create a collaboration space, so it’s not just a professional

pa g e 1 5

Jane McGonigal

( Jane McGonigal’s Gameful: Unleashing Game Developers’ Secret Powers - Continued from page 15)

or social network. We’re hoping that people will bring their real life strengths, and we’re hoping they’ll do awesome things,” McGonigal said. Much of McGonigal’s game design background is within the alternate reality

NEXT MONTH’S THEME IS:

online games

I G DA P ers p ect i v es N ews lett eR

game genre, and much of that design philosophy will be noticeable at Gameful. “ARGs have always been a really great way to collaborate,” McGonigal said, “which is very important as we’re trying to tackle the world’s problems.” Another big advantage to the ARG genre, according to McGonigal, is that “you don’t play as a character, you play as yourself. So when the game is over, you are more likely to see yourself as being empowered and capable of extraordinary things.” And extraordinary things are already happening at the Gameful support site at Kickstarter. Initially seeking $2,000 in supportive donations, Gameful has already amassed more than $20,000 from more than 200 different backers. And those who show their generosity will be uniquely rewarded as only an ARG designer could. Each backer will be given a hand-numbered puzzle piece. If the site reaches 500 backers, all the pieces will form a 500-piece jigsaw puzzle that will reveal a “secret mission.” McGonigal is leaving it completely up to the community

AUGUST | 2010

“when the game is over, you are more likely to see yourself as being empowered and capable of

extraordinary things. ”

of backers to decide how and when they will get the pieces together. Gameful is set to launch Oct. 28 at exactly 10:28:10 a.m., but those who donate will be given special early access Oct. 10 (10/10/10, get it?). There are many more benefits listed on Gameful’s Kickstarter site for those who are extra-generous. For more information, check out www.gameful.org.

pa g e 1 9

Email newsletter@igda.org for more information

image © Viacheslav Votchitsev/Veer

By Steve Peters and Maureen McHugh

teve Peters, chief experience designer for No Mimes Media, tells a story: “A couple of months ago, while at the Transmedia: Hollywood panel at USC, a young man wearing a T-shirt from a current viral campaign approached me. He said that he was pretty heavily involved in this experience and was finding himself pretty disappointed in that, while the events were cool (he had recently gone to a location to do something for the game), they didn’t mean anything as far as the story was concerned.” A few weeks later, the same young man sent Peters an e-mail. He talked about the next big event for that transmedia campaign. He had carpooled there with three other people following the campaign. They had a great time. He got a little shout out on a website. Here is some of his e-mail, which Peters shared on the No Mimes Blog with the writer’s permission (and with

the details filed off ): ... there was no benef it to physically being there! I enjoyed being there, don’t get me wrong. I liked [xxxx], and the [xxxx] was cool (but silly), but the whole event lacked meaning for the players. A lot of people put in considerable effort to be there and it was all unnecessary. We got some neat schwag, but no clues!

I G DA P ers p ect i v es N ews lett eR

SEPTEMBER | 2010

“It’s a complex, sprawling, immersive experience that feels a little like living inside a

movie.”

Transmedia fans know that a transmedia campaign is an end in itself. It’s a complex, sprawling, immersive experience that feels a little like living inside a movie. That young man didn’t

pay for the experience. It wasn’t like traveling to a concert. Like television, the model is that transmedia is paid for by advertising or marketing dollars. There’s an inherent tension in that relationship. The designers of the experience want to make the best possible experience. But the people paying the bills, and they can be pretty big bills, want to see results. They can count the people who were there, and that is a result. But transmedia events don’t draw like basketball games or rock concerts. What the marketing folks are looking for are numbers that translate into eyeballs. They’re looking for clips on the news, articles in the press and for blog postings. For buzz. Transmedia experiences are usually created by a surprisingly small group of people, and there are only 24 hours in the day. So it’s easy to concentrate on getting people to a movie theater, a convention or in front of press cameras. Someone has to set that up, make the calls to the press, make press packages pa g e 1 7

(It's Not An Ad; It's Transmedia - Continued from page 17)

and do a little seducing to get those cameras out there. That person can’t also be creating story at the same time. Peters says, “Weighing the ‘prize’ against the effort, etc., can sometimes get lost against how much buzz and press something will create for a project. But in trying to defend it, I found myself getting frustrated as well. And I guess that’s the main rub for me. Because it became very clear to me that if you’re not careful, your player interaction can become player exploitation. And I don’t ever want to be guilty of that.” He names three things that are particularly effective ways for people to interact, to feel as if what they did was meaningful. › Unlock story content for everyone › Interact with story characters › Get information to provide to story characters to move the story along And he goes on to add, “You notice what’s missing from these examples? Stuff We All Get. Swag. Tchotchkes. These folks didn’t go to all this trouble to just get a poster or a T-shirt. They did it for the story. And for the community. And for the fun. Sure, players love the swag (don’t we all?), but I’ve lately been witnessing numerous high-profile incidents of, well, swag

without substance. And this is sort of alarming to me, as it seems like it’s becoming a trend.” “See,” he continues, “merely building huge machines that give away swag isn’t enough. There has to be a there there, ya know? Otherwise the experience ends up feeling hollow, like my friend’s above. Maybe it’s because I started as a player. All I know is that, too often, I’ve found myself being one of the lone voices trying to advocate for the actual people taking part in an experience.” The view that a transmedia experience is a marketing tool, just like a billboard or the star of a movie appearing on Letterman, isn’t wrong. It’s just shortsighted, because if transmedia experience X is developed for movie property Y, for the audience, there isn’t really a boundary between the transmedia experience and the movie. Seeing the stars of True Blood on the cover of Rolling Stone naked, blood-spattered and glowering sexily is fun, but it isn’t part of the True Blood story, and no one expects Bill Compton to say to Sookie Stackhouse during an episode, “Wasn’t the Rolling Stone shoot fun?” When people go somewhere to do something for a transmedia experience, they anticipate they will be, in some way, entering the story. They want what they do to be connected to the story.

I G DA P ers p ect i v es N ews lett eR

AUGUST | 2010

They want it to matter. (One description of what the role of the audience is in a transmedia experience, given by an audience member, was that, “In a [transmedia experience], you play a character who is like you in every way, except that the story is real.”) Driving somewhere with three other friends and contributing to the story will not just enhance the movie-going experience for that young man, but it will dominate the experience of the movie. It will last a lot longer than the movie. He will meet people. It might also mean he goes to see the movie six times, but that’s because in some way, that movie has become a part of his life. It’s partly his story because he lived it. That’s powerful. Transmedia is eventually going to devour the movie until the movie is just a part. The people who can’t design for that, who concentrate on press and swag at the expense of extending the narrative and experience through all of the parts are going to find themselves left behind. 

pa g e 2 1

RALEIGH WARS:

The Rain of Terror By Gwen Murray

“

.“

“

who willingly signed up for three weeks of paranoia. The game started in round robin mode, meaning every assassin was assigned to one target (a fellow assassin). If you killed your target, you inherited their target, and so forth. For most people, Aug. 1 was a typical Sunday, but the rest of us knew the war had begun. The game switched to melee mode

.“

For the past three weeks, I was an assassin. I stalked my assigned target on the Internet, collecting photos and information. I discovered he was not a rookie assassin like me, but a veteran of this deadly competition, a champion among our kind. I contacted him with an alias, posing as an innocent stranger who wanted to schedule time for an interview. I waited in the parking lot of his workplace, trying to confirm his work hours. I developed a plan of attack and executed it with ruthless precision, heart racing as I shot my target square in the chest after he’d let his guard down. However, my gun did not shoot bullets — it shot water. I had just made my first kill in a giant water-gun war. aleigh Wars is a modified form of Assassins (also called Killer or KAOS), a game generally played on college campuses around the world. The rules for every game are personalized for the size and type of crowd playing. Raleigh Wars is played in the city and suburbs of Raleigh, N.C. It’s run by a moderator, known as the Almighty Game Master, and his team of minions. Round 5 of Raleigh Wars began with 150 players

after two weeks. At that point, it turned into a free-for-all. Co-workers, roommates and lovers turned on each other. No one was safe. The game culminated in the Assassin’s Ball, hosted in the close confines of a local bar. The remaining dry assassins

I G DA P ers p ect i v es N ews lett eR

SEPTEMBER | 2010

(myself not among them, unfortunately) used a variety of tactics, such as disguises, bodyguards, spies and stealth, to take out their opponents. In the end, the game went into overtime, and a rookie player emerged as the Ultimate Assassin. Traditionally, assassin games were run non-digitally, meaning the game master had to keep track of dry and wet (living and dead) assassins and all other relevant information by hand. A dedicated player by the name of Walden Raines took the game a step further and created a website that manages everything automatically. “Raleigh has been waiting for this,” Raines said. “It was just a matter of making it scalable.” All players in the game have a profile on the website that includes their kill record, real name, relevant contact information and a photo. In the interest of privacy, users only had access to personal information if the player was their assigned target. The website also provided every player with a “kill code” at the start of the game. When a player was killed, they pa g e 1 9

20s, either young professionals or college students, but there were also local business owners, stay-at-home moms and people taking advantage of unemployment. Raines estimated a 60/40 split between male and female players. Some players were hesitant to classify themselves as gamers and had a wide range of reasons: They didn’t like console controllers, lacked hand-eye coordination or weren’t up-to-date on gaming culture or trends. Sydney Avery describes herself as an “old-school” gamer from the Nintendo/ Atari era. She rarely plays modern-day video games but was intrigued by Raleigh Wars. “I’ve always had the dream of being a spy, and Raleigh Wars was a chance to check my assassin skills. I would be an awful assassin,” she said. Many players attributed their deadly assassin skills to prior gaming experience in other genres. In Raines opinion, “Countless hours of Counter Strike and other FPSs have definitely helped me know when to seek cover and reload, when to charge, when to flank ... We actually like to think of Raleigh Wars as a real life video game.” Although Raleigh Wars shares many traits with typical video games, it also has numerous similarities to alternate reality games: the Game Master runs the game, player actions drive the game, most of the gameplay takes place in real life and the Internet ties the whole experience together. Raleigh Wars cannot be classified as a

pure alternate reality game for two reasons: 1. There is no evolving story driven by player (or puppetmaster) involvement. The assassin narrative is more of a plot device that gives you an excuse to stalk your neighbors. 2. People can play ARGs nonstop until the storyline has reached its conclusion. In Raleigh Wars, once you are assassinated, you are out of the game. The possibility of death, without the convenience of back-up saves or an undo button, adds an extra thrill to the game’s face-to-face encounters. Raleigh Wars’ interesting (and largely unintentional) blend of alternate reality, live-action and first-person shooter games has formed a pioneering example of how technology can be applied to social gaming. In the words of Cory Livengood, one of the Game Master’s minions: “Some people ask, ‘Aren’t you a little old for a water-gun game?’ and that always shocks me; at what age is it inappropriate to have fun? ... At least Raleigh Wars engages the community and gets you outside.” The game encouraged me to leave my house after an eight-hour work day and meet other people in the area (albeit in a uniquely bizarre way). The experience of three straight weeks filled with paranoia, anticipation and heart-racing excitement has earned Raleigh Wars a spot in my top 10 favorite games list. Watch out for me next round!

AX 2010 in Seattle featured a new addition this year - the IGDA. The convention had a new room show up for its attendees – the developer's lounge. Meant as a waypoint to gather those interested in game development, the discussions inside ranged from games journalism to Scott Pilgrim vs. The World's visuals. James Portnow of Rainmaker Games volunteered to handle the logistics required to run the room during PAX's three day duration. He offered the lounge to the IGDA to host four panels taking place on the Saturday of the convention. The sessions kicked off with “What video game school is right for me?” Educators

from four year degrees programs to graduate schools debated the merits of programs being offered to students wanting to join the game industry. The next session, given to a full house, was “Getting a game industry internship.” Students in internships, studio employers, and teachers discussed what role colleges play in obtaining these internships, what to expect, and how to transition from one to full-time employment. The second half of the day started with “Game developers aren’t just programmers.” The panelists shared stories of how they started careers in some of the less publicized professions of the industry such as musicianship and community

management. The last panel featured was “Rise of the indie.” Moderated by the IGDA's own Gordon Bellamy, developers from independent studios of all sizes recounted the problems they were facing during their day to day operations. Being a new addition, both the developer's lounge and its panels and were not highly publicized. This didn't stop anyone from finding it - all the panels were well attended. One guest even prefered the conversations happening there over the other official panels. There's no doubt the lounge will be a big destination for many next year.

I G DA P ers p ect i v es N ews lett eR

SEPTEMBER | 2010

(Raleigh Wars: The Rain of Terror - Continued from page 19)

surrendered their code to their killer, who then entered this code into the website to confirm the player’s death. The killer also had a chance to compose an obituary for their target. Most of the obituaries were quite long and detailed, but here are some shorter gems: • We shared the same watering hole. I knew it would only be a matter of time before her thirst for local beer brought her back, for little did she know that the patron two bar stools away would send her to a final watery resting place. • By the time he realized I was coming out of the tree, he was already dead. • ... I returned to her house to wait her out, I found myself in the middle of the hood. From the hooker who ac costed me on the street to the eagleeyed man on the porch, this stakeout was difficult. But finally, she returned and met her doom. • Eliminated by the game master, reason: Insolence. Second. I really don’t need a reason. Which; is probably the best reason. While Raleigh Wars does not emphasize role-playing a fictional character, I was genuinely surprised by how “in character” some of these obituaries were. That isn’t to say the players were unimaginative; in fact, Raleigh Wars had a very interesting mix of players. The majority were in their

Event Highlight: PAX By Joel Gonzales

pa g e 2 0

 igda

news

IGDA 2010 Membership Drive The IGDA 2010 Membership Drive got moving on September 1st and is now well underway. Does your Chapter have what it takes to win the grand prize? http://www.igda.org/igda-take-challenge-win-prize

IGDA Leadership Forum Don’t forget to register for the IGDA Leadership Forum! Taking place in San Francisco, CA on November 4th & 5th, this year’s Leadership Forum proudly presents both Laura Fryer of WB Games and Mark Pincus of Zynga as keynote speakers. Register today! http://www.igda.org/leadership/

IGDA Foundation Charity Dinner The IGDA Foundation is hosting a charity dinner on the final night of the Leadership Forum (Friday November 5, 2010). Proceeds from the dinner will help support the work of the Romero Archives (created to preserve and promote the work of game designers) as well as other charitable works of the IGDA Foundation. https://www.igda.org/civicrm/event/register?id=13&reset=1

New IGDA Board Officers The IGDA Board recently elected new officers to fill a few vacant positions. Jane Pinckard was elected Vice Chair, Darius Kazemi was elected Secretary, and Tom Buscaglia was elected Treasurer. http://igdaboard.wordpress.com/2010/08/19/new-igda-board-officers/

GDC Online Discount As a member of the IGDA, you’re entitled to $50 off of your pass purchase for GDC Online. http://www.igda.org/gdc-online-discount-igda-members

I G DA P ers p ect i v es N ews lett eR

SEPTEMBER | 2010

pa g e 2 1

EVENTCALENDAR September 18

1st Philippine Game Development Festival Manila, Philippines The Game Developers Association of the Philippines (GDAP) is a non-stock non-profit organization dedicated to furthering the game development industry in the Philippines. http://www.igda.org/manila/1stphilippine-game-development-festival

September 18

IGDA Manila Casual Meetup Manila, Philippines A casual meet up with your fellow game developers this Saturday, September 18 at Freska, along Katipunan avenue. This dinner is set to coincide with the end of the First Philippine Games Festival and is sponsored by Boomzap! Allan Simonsen (technical director of Boomzap and also head of IGDA Singapore) is in town for the festival and he's interested in swapping/ sharing stories on game development between both countries. https://www.igda.org/manila

September 21

IGDA-Montreal Presentation Night Montreal, Quebec, Canada Presentation: "Controlled Rage: Production, Design and Tech Challenges of Revolutionizing the FPS." Starts at 6:30 PM. http://www.igda.org/montreal/ Sep21_Rage

September 22

IGDA NJ September Social Meeting! Hoboken, New Jersey, USA The IGDA NJ Chapter is proud to announce the IGDA NJ September 2010 Social Meeting, taking place at Dubliners in Hoboken, NJ. Come out, share a drink with your fellow developers, and enjoy the beautiful Hoboken and New York City skylines before we get swallowed up by anP ers p ect i v es N ews lett eR

other chilly Northeastern winter! https://www.igda.org/new-jersey

September 23

IGDA Louisiana Launch Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA (All day) A social event to celebrate the launch of the New Orleans and Baton Rouge chapters with a number of special guests, including IGDA Executive Director Gordon Bellamy. https://www.igda.org/new-orleans-0

September 29

Representing the Games Industry, Client 2010 San Francisco, California, USA Live seminar for attorneys who represent clients in intellectual property-related, technology, or entertainment fields; videogame developers and publishersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; counsel; managers and executives with entertainment industry responsibilities. http://www.pli.edu/product/seminar_detail.asp?id=96551

October 1-3

Return of the Fabulous 48-Hour Game Making Challenge Brisbane, Queensland, Australia The Brisbane IGDA and GAME ON is happy to announce our 2010 Game On public program. http://igdabrisbane.org/

October 4

IGDA Denver Chapter Meeting Denver, Colorado, USA General meeting. Come and meet your fellow local game developers! https://www.igda.org/colorado

meeting point for developers and business professionals looking to distill best practices, exchange ideas, and take full advantage of the opportunities of connected gaming. GDC Online offers an in-depth review of diverse online game genres, development platforms, and industry trends. Join industry trailblazers from Bigpoint, Disney, Playdom, Tencent, Relic, Zynga and more to discuss best practices and provide insight on the future of online games. Learn more about GDC Online and your registration options at www.GDCOnline.com

October 20-22

Casual Connect Kyiv 2010 Kyiv, Ukraine http://kyiv.casualconnect.org

November 4-5

IGDA Leadership Forum 2010 San Francisco, California, United States The IGDA, in coordination with its Production SIG, is hosting the fourth annual IGDA Leadership Forum. This event will focus on advancing the state of the art in game production and management. http://www.igda.org/leadership

November 5

IGDA Foundation Charity Dinner San Francisco, California, United States The Foundation Charity Dinner will be held Friday November 5, 2010. in the Ballroom of the San Francisco Airport Marriott, the final day of the IGDA Leadership Forum conference. http://www.igda.org/leadership/2010/08/22/igda-foundation-charity-dinner/

October 5-8

GDC Online Austin, Texas, USA GDC Online is the community SEPTEMBER | 2010

pa g e 2 2