IGDA Chicago and Industry Night Present Game Dev Holiday Mixer for Charity

IGDA Chicago and Industry Night, two local game development groups who have been active since 2011, are collaborating on the 2013 Game Dev Holiday Mixer on December 17th at the Emporium Arcade bar, with the goal of raising donations for the Comer Children’s Hospital.

Proceeds from the sales of Drink+Token Vouchers will be donated to the Children’s Hospital. Everyone wins when attendees get the drinks and game tokens they love while helping the cause!

Additionally, buy-in for the Mortal Kombat 2: Fight for the Kids arcade tournament is only $5. The top fighters will take home great prizes, such as a Collector’s Edition of Injustice: Gods Among Us courtesy of NetherRealm Studios.

IGDA Chicago will be accepting donations to the Children’s Hospital throughout the event. The first attendees to donate toys or funds will receive a free Drink+Token Voucher courtesy of Wargaming West!

A food truck for attendees will be provided by Jerk. Modern Jamaican Grill.

Please help us spread the word and join us for good times and a good cause on December 17th from 7-11pm at the Emporium Arcade Bar, 1366 N Milwaukee Ave, Chicago, IL.

http://game-dev-holiday-mixer.eventbrite.com/

Dive Kicks

It has been an exciting few months for Chicago’s One True Game Studio and Iron Galaxy during their release of legendary 2D fighter, Divekick. The game has magnificently has leaped out of their studios and into our hearts in a series of flying feet to the chest. Wikipedia may call it a parody fighting game, but that’s only because they failed out of the qualifying round in the Divekick tournament. There is no questioning that only the most skilled will emerge victorious.

Proceeding the game’s launch, Iron Galaxy released two hilarious installations of “Divekick – Making of the Game.” You can really tell they put their soles into the game into that last one. Following the release, the team hosted a panel and tournament in conjunction with IGDA Chicago. If you missed the event, you can still imagine you were there, enjoying the glory of grunts and smacking sounds, with the tournament results, the event’s photo gallery, and a little imagination.

A Fine Day for a Picnic

My alarm rings. It’s 7:00am on a Sunday. My game-developer work ethic won’t even let me sleep in on the weekends. The IGDA picnic isn’t until one o’clock, so I set another alarm for myself and get in another hour or two of sleep. When the time finally comes, I double check the event details eleven times and catch a bus up north. Burying my head in a book, I reemerge at my destination, like a zeppelin ride in World of Warcraft.

Lincoln Park is big (the place, not the band), and I feel like I’m checking a quest log when I take out my phone, forced to read through the quest description to know where to go. Luckily, Patrick “Event Planner” McCarron planted a big marker at the south tip of the lake. Thank goodness for mindful game designers—I make my way there without incident.

“We’ve got some chipotle lime marinated flank steak and pineapple teriyaki chicken skewers with cilantro cream sauce.” Pardon me? The silhouette of Master Chef Eric Shofe gleams in a brilliant aura. I try to imagine which stamina boost the food will provide and sadly realize “pleasantly full” is the fanciest buff I’ll receive in the real world, still hoping we have someone who can cleanse “food coma.”

The rest of the picnic cheerfully greets me and the other guests slowly trickle in. Looks like it isn’t too hard to spot big group of nerds. I desperately try to remember the cascade of names rushing down on me and jot down a few. We sit in the cool shade of a large tree and I overhear someone comment, “Whoever invented shade was awesome.” A programmer, probably. A passing breeze reminds everyone of the perfect day. Did the Board plan that too? Looks like someone invested a few skill points in clairvoyance.

Once most people have eaten, a bag filled with board games rattles as the pieces shift within, and the ears of every developer, partner, and child turn in its direction. Sheri pulls out half a dozen hidden-gem board games and asks which one we’d like to start with. Is that Tsuro? I open a text from my brother sent last night and read with uncanny suspicion, “Play ‘Tsuro’ NOW!” I send him a picture of the game board with the note, “On it.”

A few hours later, I grudgingly relinquish my reverie after narrowly losing a game of Can’t Stop. I really don’t want to, but real life buzzes on my phone like an incessant fly. Thanking the incredible organizers and bidding farewell to all my new friends, I head back toward the south-bound zeppelin and embark on my journey back home.

Photos from An Afternoon with Brenda and John Romero

Enjoy some photos from our June 29th event, An Afternoon with Brenda and John Romero!

Special thanks to Brett Rubin and Tribeca Flashpoint Academy for taking these pictures.

We’d like to extend our appreciation to John and Brenda for making the drive to visit us here in Chicago, as well as Flashpoint and Casual Connect for providing event space and refreshments.

Our afternoon with Brenda and John Romero

One of them entered the games industry when she was 15 years old, and the other vividly remembers every game he has ever played. They’ve built impressive legacies on their own, and together, they make up one of the most influential couples in games. However, on June 29, Brenda and John Romero outdid themselves by with an eloquent offering of advice, anecdotes, and answers during an intimate panel hosted by IGDA Chicago. With the support of Tribeca Flashpoint Media Arts Academy and Casual Connect, game developers from Chicago and the surrounded area came together for an evening with a pair of the greatest minds in games.

With topics ranging from their approach to starting new games to Brenda’s intense love of mariachi, the duo kept everyone engaged throughout both segments of the Q&A with responses often both useful and entertaining. Brenda recalled working on the Wizardry series and asking herself what, if she were a player, would keep her playing past 3am. John reminisced about all the times his groundbreaking new games were rejected by publishers and his persistence to share what are now consider foundational.

Brenda Romero

John Romero

In response to a question from the audience, John explained that discipline and focus are much more important in game development than instinct. He reminded that small distractions detract large amounts of attention, and that productive progress requires sizable chunks of time to lead to effective work flow. Brenda added that games let you know when they’re not good. Since it’s impossible to know whether a game will work before you play it, she emphasized the importance of playtesting and iteration.

Later, Brenda also affirmed that every designer should know how to program, and the two shared their praise for the mobile game and app development tool, Corona SDK. Corona, which has partnered several times with the IGDA, offers their SDK for quick, 2D development on their website with both free and paid plans. John suggested that new programmers should start with something small, like a recreation of Pong, but Brenda—who is a novice programmer herself—joked that she refuses to listen to her husband and plans to start with a massive RPG. More than limiting her development skills, Brenda explained that, as a non-coder, she has greatly limited herself as a designer by struggling to communicate clearly with coders on her team.

Beyond excellent game development, John and Brenda’s responses reflected exemplary accomplishments in their lives outside games. During the panel, they were kind, funny, passionate, and charismatic. Their openness transformed the room, making it feel closer to a living room than a classroom. At one point, John even shared his wish that people would ask developers that burning question only they could answer over a handshake and a polite “nice to meet you.” In addition to the great advice and fun stories, they showed the importance of being good people in addition to good developers.

Injustice Tournament

IGDA Chicago is hosting our second game tournament, this time featuring locally developed Injustice: Gods Among Us!

Injustice is critically acclaimed and the IGDA Chicago Board can personally attest to how much fun it is to play. We’ll likely run two tournament brackets back to back and it’s first come first serve to participate. The tournament will take place at 1871 inside The Starter League classrooms, from 2-7pm on Saturday, July 27th, 2013.

RSVP for this event on Meetup!

NerdRiff – Superman: The Movie!

In partnership with The Nerdologues, Chicago Loot Drop is hosting a MST3K-style live movie screening/riffing. For this inaugural “NerdRiff”, The Nerdologues will be lending their comedic brilliance to the 1979 classic “Superman”, starring Christopher Reeve. Tickets are $10, with proceeds benefitting CLD and Comer Children’s Hospital.

http://chicagolootdrop.org/nerdriff

June 29th Brings an Amazing Day of Game Developer Goodness!

Saturday, June 29th, is a day you won’t want to miss.

Starting at 1:00 P.M. the crew at Indie City Games kicks off the day with their

Indie City Games June Meeting at DePaul University College of Computing and Digital Media.

The theme of this meeting is going to be “design rants”. They’ve got a rapid-fire succession of quick talks on topics from AI programming to level design lined up.

 In addition, Rob Lach’s got a few things to say about some new games they’re adding to the Indie City Arcade cabinet, Ryan Wiemeyer’s announcing a new coworking space he’s got up and running, and they’ll have open play with one another’s games.

After that, you will want to head on over to Tribeca Flashpoint Media Arts Academyfor

An Afternoon with Brenda and John Romero.

How does the guy who made Quake tackle a new genre?

How does the designer of Train approach a new platform?

How did they go about starting up a new business from scratch?

This is YOUR chance to ask! 

This special Q&A session will run from 4:00-6:00.

 A social mixer will follow at Potter’s Lounge from 6:30-8:30pm, which includes beverages and snacks!

And that’s not all.

Starting at 8:00 pm, join Indie City Games at the Emporium Arcade Bar for the release of their

New Collection of Games for the Indie City Arcade Machine.

Don’t miss out on this memorable day filled with opportunities to check out what you fellow devs are up to, pick the brains of two legendary game designers, do some networking, play games, and have a good time!

1:00 P.M. – ICG June Meeting

4:00 P.M. – An Afternoon with Brenda and John Romero

6:30 P.M. – Social Mixer at Potter’s Lounge

8:00 P.M. – Indie City Arcade Machine Games Release at Emporium Arcade Bar

Industry Night is May 28th

This month, Industry Night is May 28th from 7-11:30pm at Cork Lounge. Be sure to RSVP here on Facebook!

Industry Night is put on monthly by the wonderful folks over at Chicago Game Developer Industry and is a fantastic social gathering for game developers of all disciplines. Enjoy!

Chicago Loot Drop Helps Gamers do Good

Local charity Chicago Loot Drop has been on the scene now for over three years, and is now the largest Chicago-based charity supporting Child’s Play. They were instrumental in bringing the very first Chicago hospital into the Child’s Play network, University of Chicago Medicine’s Comer Children’s Hospital. 2013 has been their most active year to date, with two fundraising events already under their belt and a third coming up next weekend.

They held a unique event at C2E2 in late April, called Drawing Dreams. For Drawing Dreams, they paired five local comic book and game artists with five children receiving treatment at Comer to create unique interpretations of the children’s visions of themselves as super heroes. Head here to see the children and artist’s submissions.

And just last weekend, they partnered with local comedians The Nerdologues for Cinco de Bilbo, combining Lord of the Rings-inspired sketch comedy with a sing-a-long style screening of the 1977 Rankin-Bass animated classic, The Hobbit. It was truly epic, and philanthropic to boot.

If any of this sounds interesting, and it should, you should consider checking out the Dweebutante Ball next weekend, on Sunday, May 12. The ball is a celebration of the 10th anniversary of Chicago Game Lovers, a 1300+ gaggle of gamers and gaming enthusiasts. As you’d imagine, the all-afternoon+evening event features plenty of open (tabletop) gaming tables, along with a Costume Ball and the must-see Nerds Against Humanity, a unique improvisational comedy event co-created by Cards Against Humanity and The Nerdologues. Truly hilarious stuff. Tickets are $25, benefiting Chicago Loot Drop and Comer Children’s Hospital.

Thank You, C2E2 Booth Volunteers!

We would like to give a shout out to the outstanding volunteers who made the IGDA Chicago booth at C2E2 a success:

• Jared Steffes

• Shannon Steffes

• Eric Shofe

• Kevin Casper

• Nicholas Cassleman

Thank you Jared, Shannon, Eric, Kevin, and Nicholas for making the booth a friendly place to visit throughout the show.

Thank you, Jay Margalus, for obtaining and organizing the space we shared with a fantastic host of indies!

We appreciate everyone who stopped by to say hello and we hope to see you again soon! 

Upcoming Events in April

We’d like to share some of the great things happening in the Chicago game development community in April:

Indie City Games

Indie City Games is having their bimonthly meeting on Saturday the 20th of April from 1pm-4:30pm at Depaul.

C2E2

IGDA Chicago will be at C2E2, which takes place April 26-28th. Look for us at booth 810, among the booths of our fantastic local indies. Additionally, there will be three panels featuring local Chicago developers.

Industry Night

Industry Night is on Tuesday, April 30th from 7pm-11:30pm at Haymarket Pub & Brewery. It’s put on by our friends at Chicago Game Developer Industry.

Chicago Video Games Hits C2E2

IGDA Chicago will be hosting three panels at C2E2, as well as a large booth space on the C2E2 show floor.

If you’re a studio interested in booth space at C2E2, contact Jay Margalus. We have an awesome deal lined up with C2E2, and some really great space next to the IGN booth area.

Here’s a preview of some of the panels we’ll be doing:

1. Building Your First Video Game: Have you ever wanted to build your own video game? Have you ever wanted to leanr what the first steps are? C2E2 is happy to get together some of the top game designers in Chicago to talk about what it takes to build a game from the ground up. Whether you are looking an independent or major game developer this panel will give you the tools to really know where to begin. We will be taking questions from the audience on game design, concept, and developing for the mobile market.
   

2. How do I get my Comic Book Character into a Video Game: Bringing together the best in Comic Books and Video Games this year at C2E2 we wanted to host a panel about getting your comic book characters into a video game. From design ideas, to buidlign games, to ways to talk with developers and publisher, this panel hopes to offer some guidance for game designers and comic book developers alike. The panelists are proven veterans from the game market who have worked on titles about superheores. We hope you walk away with some great ideas for games as well as new directions for your comic book characters!

3. Future of Gaming from Consoles to Online: C2E2 is bringing some of the top professionals in games to talk about the ever changing game market. From the switch to new consoles, to the rise in mobile gaming, these experts will outline what we will all be playing in the next decade. Also, the panel will focus on buying game vs. free to play and other changes coming to the market.

Get tickets to see video games at C2E2 here.

Wideload and OUYA Mega Event

Sponsored by OUYA

Friday, March 1st from 6pm-9pm at 1871 in the Merchandise Mart.

IGDA Chicago is proud to host Wideload Games and OUYA for our March event From Console to Mobile, and Mobile to Console.

The game platform landscape is changing rapidly, and with it, how we consume media.

Join us as Julie Uhrman, CEO of OUYA, hosts a Q&A for developers curious about what OUYA does and how to publish on their platform.  Following this, Wideload Games talks the transition from console to mobile and the release of their recent title, Avenger’s Initiative.

Purchase tickets here.

Global Game Jam Play Party

Thursday, February 21st at 7pm.  IGDA Chicago hosts the second annual Chicago GGJ Play Party.  Come out to play the raw experimental games made at GGJ sites all around Illinois.

IGDA Chicago Game Night

Starting at 7pm on March 7th, come out to play with fellow gamedevs at The Starter League in 1871 (Merchandise Mart)!

Games.com Sponsorship

Special thanks to Games.com for sponsoring Game Jam Survival Techniques this evening!

DePaul Global Game Jam

Registration open now!

From DePaul’s Website:

A Game Jam is an event which brings together artists, programmers and designers to spend a weekend working together in intense game development and design. Why? To work with people you might not otherwise meet, to show off your skills and creativity and to get respect for making great and innovative games under extreme time constraints!

The DePaul Game Jam ’13 is the sixth annual game jam in Chicago and it will be held between Jan 25 – Jan 27 2013. The event is non-profit and it is organized by the College of Computing and Digital Media at DePaul University.

Once again, the DePaul Game Jam is part of the IGDA Global Game Jam that takes place all over the world during (mostly) the same 48 hours. The Global Game Jam will start at 5:00p Friday, January 25, 2013 through 3:00pm Sunday, January 27, 2013, (all times local). All participants in the Global Game Jam, including those in the DePaul Game Jam, will be constrained by the same rules and limitations, with each time zone having one distinct design constraint.

Run by Jose Zagal and DePaul University, the DePaul Game Jam is the longest running and largest annual game jam in Chicago.  Come on out and make some games with fellow developers!

Game Jam Survival Techniques

Speakers: Ryan Wiemeyer (The Men Who Wear Many Hats), Kevin Zuhn (Young Horses), Dave Fulton (Jacksmack), Dan Loane (Wideload).

Want to participate in a game jam?  Looking for tips and tricks on how to survive one?  Or maybe you just want to hear old war stories from seasoned game jammers…

Come check this event out, where game jammers and game devs will talk shop on how to get through a game jam with a finished game and your sanity intact (sort of)!

IGDA Chicago and Indie City Games Collaborate

Sponsored by Gree.

Working on a mobile game? Pitch us your latest build or GDD on the spot, for a chance to win swag and other cool prizes.

Gree is a leading mobile social gaming company that recently launched the open beta of their GREE Platform, a global platform that brings together developers and players.

Want to know more? Email us at greelovesindies@gree.net

Come see:

• Dave Engelberg (Director of Developer Relations) of Gree speak about their new “Gree Loves Indies” program!

• Schuller Heinz, former art director at Day One Studios, will talk about developing the Top-20 XBox Live Indie Games title “Avatar Lazer Wars 2.”

• Craig Stern will talk numbers for Telepath RPG: Servants of God. What worked to drive sales? What didn’t? What impact did pricing have? We’ll find out!

• Kevin Geisler will talk about free and cheap tools for collaborating with other developers, and Jake Elliot and Tamas Kemenczy will discuss how they used Unity, Github and Dropbox to develop Kentucky Route Zero.

• Open Play! Bring your laptop with a working copy of your game; we’ll be setting up around the edges of the room and playing each others’ games!

We’ll also be holding a raffle for a Nexus 7! (bring your business cards)

WHERE: 243 S. Wabash, 9th floor
WHEN: November 10, 2012 at 1:00 PM – 4:30 PM

(As always, we’ll be sticking around afterwards to socialize and network after the meeting proper. Bring business cards if you have ’em!)

Come RSVP, and we’ll see you there!

http://www.igdachicago.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/igda-chicago-indie-city-games-collaborate-flyer.pdf