4 April, 2012
Meeting called to order at 6:05PM CST and adjourned at 6:36PM CST.
Attended by Neal, Jay, Sheri, and Heather via Skype
Indie Game: The Movie event details
C2E2
Chartering Status
Future Events
Newsletter
Meeting Time
Motion to revise the weekly call time — Unanimously Approved.
Wednesday, May 2nd, 2o12 at 2pm via Skype.
IGDA Chicago will be co-hosting a showing of Indie Game: The Movie with its producers/directors James and Lisanne. For those of you who still haven’t signed up, now’s a good time! We’ve also been provided with a discount code for all IGDA Chicago members (IGDACHICAGO) that’ll get you $3.00 off the entrance fee.
Stay tuned for more details, as we’ll be helping organize an after show get-together where you’ll get to meet and speak with James and Lisanne.
If you’re going to GDC, be sure to stop by IGDA Chicago’s Community Hour!
On Wednesday, March 7th from 11am-12pm, I’ll be at the IGDA booth at GDC, rallying up excitement for Chicago, spreading the word about how awesome our chapter is, and basking in the warmth of everyone who joins me there. I’m hoping to see a whole lot of Chicago love, so mark this on your calendar as the official IGDA Chicago meetup at GDC. What better way to express how magnificent Chicago is than by amassing our glorious community for all to see?
Also worth noting, the big IGDA Party 2012 will be on Tuesday, March 6th from 6-10pm. The venue is 21+, so I’d recommend bringing your ID. Members and non-members alike can attend simply by registering!
Safe travels to all! I’ll be looking forward to seeing you in San Francisco
Many great groups are putting on events this month in Chicago! Have you heard?
Kinect Workshop Hackathon Extravaganza
Thursday, February 23nd, 2012
7pm – 11pm
Join Indie City Games at Toy Studio, with Ross Gerbasi of 15letters, as they explore a native extension for Adobe AIR that allows easy interfacing with the Kinect hardware.
Industry Night: West Loop
Tuesday, February 28th, 2012
6:30pm – 11:30pm
This month’s Industry Night is happening downtown, at Holiday Grill & Bar. Since it’s the last Industry Night before GDC, join everyone in discussing all things related to GDC!
General Industry Night guidelines: open to all Chicago Game Developers, no recruiting.
Looking ahead, IGDA Chicago will be holding a Post-GDC Meetup on March 21st at 7pm. We’re hoping to see you there!
In the mean time, enjoy the above events, put on by some of our great friends in Chicago!
1 February, 2012
Meeting called to order at 6PM CST and adjourned at 6:44PM CST.
Sheri, Neal, Christian, Jay, and Heather in attendance via Skype.
Approval of Minutes
Global Game Jam Play Party
Newsletter
Sponsorships
Chartering Status
March Meeting
IGDA Lunches
1/22 Meeting Minutes approved
Motion to approve revised IGDA Chicago Bylaws— Unanimously approved
To be rescheduled, to accommodate for GDC.
On Wednesday, February 15th, 2012, we held our first annual Global Game Jam Play Party. Our intent was to get everyone together to play the products of the GGJ and socialize. Overall, it was a great success!
Five of the teams from the DePaul Jam site were present with their projects: Team Jam, Emotionally Unavailable, Godbros, Backyard Origami Club, and Sharks, Rockets, and Dinosaurs. They were all more than happy to share and discuss their work, which was an excellent experience. Not only did we get to play the games, but we were personally introduced to them by the very people who crafted them in that hectic 48-hour window of time!
There were so many great conversations going on throughout the event and so many awesome people. Chicago’s game development community is truly inspirational!
Thank you, DePaul University, for hosting the event, and thank you to everyone who joined us there!
It was great to see you all and we hope you’ll join us again March 21st for our Post-GDC event!
We’ll be playing Global Game Jam games and rating them. Here are some links to get it kicked off:
Some of the DePaul GGJ teams will be in attendance, as well:
God Bros – B’ak’tun
Backyard Origami Club – What Goes Around
Team Jam – The Trial
For a full list of the games made during the GGJ, head over to this link.
Looking ahead to March, IGDA Chicago will be holding a Post-GDC event, in which everyone can get together and share the knowledge they gained from attending conferences such as GDC and SXSW!
If you’re planning on attending one of these upcoming conferences, be sure to take plenty of notes. On March 21st at 7pm, we’ll all assemble and share what we’ve learned, for the benefit of our local community.
Didn’t make it to GDC? You can still glean some insights from those who did.
Went to GDC, but had to make some tough decisions between great talks in the same time slot? Perhaps another developer has captured the details and can share!
Whatever the case may be, this should prove to be a great conclusion to a month featuring huge conferences. Safe travels and happy note-taking!
As previously mentioned, this month’s event is a highly interactive look at the projects that emerged from Global Game Jam 2012! Join us at DePaul on February 15th from 7-9pm, where we’ll be playing and rating the jam games, as well as socializing and generally having a good time.
Feel free to head on over to GGJ Play Party 2012 on Meetup and let us know if you’re attending.
We look forward to seeing you there!
Mark them on your calendar! IGDA Chicago is aiming to hold at least one event every third Wednesday of each month, starting this month. See our calendar for more information.
Global Game Jam 2012 concluded last weekend, a world-wide annual event in which jammers come together to rapidly make games within a common set of constraints and specified theme, over a 48-hour period.
This year, there were 10,684 participants registered from 242 official Jam Sites across 47 countries, who created approximately 2,320 game projects.
In Chicago, DePaul University ran a Jam Site for the annual DePaul Game Jam. You can check out pictures and video on their site, as well as the game projects that were created!
IGDA Chicago and DePaul are gearing up for a post-GGJ event in February, during which attendees can play the 2012 jam games and socialize! Stay tuned for details 🙂
(originally posted on Built in Chicago)
Today, after an official election and a lot of work, IGDA Chicago can proudly announce its official formalization with elected board positions. There’s a story behind this, though; it didn’t happen overnight.
A little over 2 years ago the dream of a new IGDA Chicago began with Neal Sales-Griffin. After Neal: Heather Decker-Davis, Jay Margalus, Sheri Rubin, and now Christian Arca. Here we are.
The IGDA Chicago board is comprised of entrepreneurs, developers, teachers, industry professionals, and combinations of all of the above. People passionate about Chicago, about games, and about the individuals at the intersect of both of those communities. An organization as diverse as the group it represents.
After over a year of successful events — from the Chicago Games Showcase to guest speakers Eugene Jarvis and Ian Schreiber — our organization of game industry professionals is moving further forward.
What’s next?
Amongst the next six months: game jams and showcases, convention panels, post-mortems, and local meetups. Additionally, new events and initiatives to take the organizaiton further than last year. Most importantly, though, an organizational promise to further strengthen the benefits behind being a supporting member of our great institution.
So on behalf of the incoming IGDA Chicago board: Thank You, and we look forward to serving you in 2012.
Jay Margalus – Chair
Heather Decker-Davis – Secretary
Sheri Rubin – Treasurer
Neal Sales-Griffin – Media Director
Christian Arca – Business Development
22 January, 2012
Meeting called to order 12:00 PM CST and closed 2:59 PM CST
Sheri Rubin, Neal Sales-Griffin, Jay Margalus, Heather Decker-Davis
Conferenced with Christian Arca via telephone for Motions
Board of Director Roles
Bylaws for IGDA Chicago
Other Chapter Charter Docs
Plan for Bank Account
Account Access
Mailing List
Events
Communication Plan
Promotion/Sponsorship
Voting
Misc
Motion to appoint Jay as Chair, Heather as Secretary, Sheri as Treasurer, Neal as Multimedia Developer, and Christian as Biz Dev — Unanimously approved
Motion to amend IGDA Chicago Bylaws accordingly — Unanimously approved
Motion for proposed IGDA Chicago bank account — Unanimously approved
To be held February 1st, 2012 at 6:00pm CST via Skype.
The Global Game Jam is a world-wide event in which participants are given a theme and challenged to creating a game over 48 hours. For 2012, it will be taking place from January 27-29th.
For more information, please see check out the official Global Game Jam site.
There are many available sites if you’re interested in participating! DePaul is a GGJ site, one of three sites total in Illinois.
Interested in helping out? DePaul’s Global Game Jam could use volunteers to drop by and mentor participants a bit, particularly designers or producers. Please contact us if you’re interested in helping out January 27th or 28th! Email: info [at] igdachicago.com
Last but not least, we’ll soon be announcing details about our Global Game Jam Play Party, where you can check out the local games produced during the GGJ! Stay tuned
Hi all,
If you were affected in the Day 1 layoffs and agreed to be on the list given out by Day 1 please check your inboxes and spam folders. I just sent an email from sheri@designdirectdeliver.com detailing some additional global/local support that came in and could share now that I could email you all directly.
If you believe you were on that list, and you released your email, but don’t see an email please reach out to me directly at sheri@designdirectdeliver.com.
Stay awesome!
Sheri
Hello IGDA Chicago,
We did it!
We’ve successfully completed our first official IGDA Chicago Chapter Board of Director elections. Voting closed December 26th, 2011, and the newly elected officers will take office on January 1st, 2011. The elected officers are (listed alphabetically by last name):
Christian Arca
Heather M Decker-Davis
Jay Margalus
Sheri Rubin
Neal Sales-Griffin
Congratulations to our new Board of Director members!
For the stat lovers of the chapter here’s some visual displays of the results (click to see larger):
Now that elections are over, the new board of directors will work together to appoint a chair (and other officers) sometime in the next few weeks. This chair will serve as the Chapter’s main liaison to IGDA central.
Thanks to Andrew Leaf who worked the backend and verified the results and membership of voters.
Double-thanks to those of you who stepped up and voted!
If you have any questions for the new board of directors please send them to info@www.igdachicago.com.
Stay Awesome!
Sheri
P.S. If you have any suggestions for next year’s election, or ideas for encouraging higher voter turnout, please drop me a line at sheri@designdirectdeliver.com.
Hi All,
I’m supposed to be getting the contact list from Day 1 from those who agreed to have their info given out. I’ll be using that list to send you all some offers of help that can’t go up on the blog or in the Facebook group.
If you are affected in the Day 1 layoffs and you did not agree to be on the list but you would like more info on the previous offers of help posted on here as well as what I’ve gotten from friends and colleagues throughout the industry please email me at sheri@designdirectdeliver.com.
If you’re reading this and you weren’t affected but know someone who was please make sure they see are posts and feel free to have them contact me ASAP.
Stay Awesome!
Sheri
The elections continue. They end on December 26th. Voting is underway!
What you need to know about voting:
Elections for the IGDA Chicago Board of Directors are underway (they started December 12th). We have 7 nominees running for 5 seats. We presented to you the candidates for the IGDA Chicago BoD so you can review who it is that has stepped up and is asking for your vote to let them help run IGDA Chicago.
Learn more about the candidates at http://www.igdachicago.com/igda-chicago-board-of-director-elections-2011-candidates/
Rules:
– Any paid member with a core, hardship or lifetime membership as of 12/1 is eligible to vote. Student and free members are not eligible.
– Vote for up to 5 seats. You may vote for fewer, but you may only cast one vote for up to 5 seats.
– Once you vote, you cannot vote again
– Duplicate votes will forfeit all votes, and voting for more than 5 candidates will also forfeit your vote. Voting for fewer than five candidates is acceptable.
– Voting closes on 12/26 at 11:59PM CST
Those eligible to vote should have received an email with the link to vote (check your spam filters if necessary).
*Note: The form allows you to vote for more than 5, however, any vote that includes more than five candidates will be forfeited.
Please include your name and email address to verify your vote. Incomplete submissions will not be counted.
If you have difficulty voting, or believe you should be eligible to vote, please contact sheri@designdirectdeliver.com.
The elections have started. They end on December 26th. Voting is underway!
My crack team (Andrew and I) were able to take the list of emails/names given to us by IGDA and figure out to the best of our abilities who was a full member. Then anyone whose account was shown to be a Full paid member was placed on a list for voting.
What you need to know about voting:
Elections for the IGDA Chicago Board of Directors are underway (started December 12th). We have 7 nominees running for 5 seats. We presented to you the candidates for the IGDA Chicago BoD so you can review who it is that has stepped up and is asking for your vote to let them help run IGDA Chicago.
Learn more about the candidates at http://www.igdachicago.com/igda-chicago-board-of-director-elections-2011-candidates/
Rules:
– Any paid member with a core, hardship or lifetime membership as of 12/1 is eligible to vote. Student and free members are not eligible.
– Vote for up to 5 seats. You may vote for fewer, but you may only cast one vote for up to 5 seats.
– Once you vote, you cannot vote again
– Duplicate votes will forfeit all votes, and voting for more than 5 candidates will also forfeit your vote. Voting for fewer than five candidates is acceptable.
– Voting closes on 12/26 at 11:59PM CST
Those eligible to vote should have received an email with the link to vote (check your spam filters if necessary).
*Note: The form allows you to vote for more than 5, however, any vote that includes more than five candidates will be forfeited.
Please include your name and email address to verify your vote. Incomplete submissions will not be counted.
So that’s the good news.
The bad news is that some of you are inevitably going to say that you’re a full paid member and should be able to vote but didn’t get that email. If that’s true and you do not receive an email today please send me an email at sheri@designdirectdeliver.com that tells me this. There are three likely reasons for this:
1) You are not a full, standard paid member (free and student members do not get to vote) after all. But hey, we warned you.
2) You signed up for your membership with the IGDA after we received our list from the IGDA of members in the area. (We’ll just need to verify with IGDA and then we’ll get you the link to vote.)
3) The IGDA list did not show you with the proper membership status or a membership status at all. (Similar to #2 but this also means we just need to verify with IGDA.)
Everyone but #1 can be addressed for these elections, but we still encourage you to join the IGDA and fix #1 for next time. :>
If you have difficulty voting, or believe you should be eligible to vote, please contact sheri@designdirectdeliver.com.
Hi All,
Elections for the IGDA Chicago Board of Directors are about to get underway (December 12th). We have 7 nominees running for 5 seats. We present to you the candidates for the IGDA Chicago BoD below so you can review who it is that has stepped up and is asking for your vote to let them help run IGDA Chicago.
If you are a paid IGDA core member please keep an eye on your inboxes tomorrow for your link to vote.
Stay awesome!
Sheri
——————————-
(The following are presented in alphabetical order by last name.)
For the past 4 years the one constant in my life has been the game industry. I began at Agora Games in Troy, NY where I worked with amazing people in a small team. As time passed Agora grew and so did the industry. Soon enough I wasn’t just working with the small team at Agora but also much larger teams on AAA titles such as Guitar Hero and Call of Duty. After Agora I was offered an amazing opportunity at an exciting time in the game industry and ended up here in Chicago as the studio director for Toy Studio – our focus in social and mobile titles. I’m not recounting my experience to convince you to vote for me but rather to give you context to what experiences I might have encountered so you can leave the convincing to yourself.
To put it briefly I think we are still a rather immature industry – I’m not the only one to think so (Mike Capp’s of Epic calls the game industry shockingly immature – http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/114594-Epic-Boss-Games-Business-is-Shockingly-Immature). We’re quick to throw each other under the bus and the illusion of secrecy we attempt to maintain between each other is nothing short of comical. Why shouldn’t we share with each other, help each other, give each other “new life”? For the past couple of months I’ve talked with developers at other Chicago game studios. Our meetings have been brief but they were always honest and true. From those few meetings not only have I been inspired but have gained a vast amount of knowledge and perception that has ultimately helped not only myself but others whom I share my new found knowledge with and ultimately, everyone at Toy Studio.
Being a close community is a broad concept. What could come of it? The answer is anything. By connecting with each other, using each other as collaborative resources we can work to improve our own studios, titles, quality of life, geographical incentives, and ultimately our industry. My goal for the IGDA of Chicago is to connect our community so that we may benefit from each other. Once we are a connected community, I want to listen. As Ernest Hemingway said, “I like to listen. I have learned a great deal from listening carefully. Most people never listen.” I do hope I receive the opportunity to listen from each and every one of you.
We all share a passion for game development, so uniting as a community makes perfect sense. Together, we’re able to do so much more to support the growth and influence of Chicago game development, as well as provide opportunities for enrichment to our local developers.
There are many facets of game development in Chicago and our local chapter would benefit from leadership with the dedication to listen closely and seek feedback in the interest of most effectively responding to the needs of our diverse community.
Over this past year, collaborating with my fellow organizers to revitalize the chapter has been an absolute pleasure and I’d very much appreciate the opportunity to continue to serve you as a board member of the IGDA Chicago chapter. Thank you so much for your consideration!
Please be sure to read up on all of our candidates and vote so you can help shape your chapter leadership!
Biography:
Heather M Decker-Davis is a regular writer for #AltDevBlogADay, adjunct faculty at Clinton Community College, and MFA candidate at Savannah College of Art and Design. She is proud to have been chosen as an IGDA Scholar in 2011 and continues to strive to contribute to the development community and education.
Volunteer Credits:
One of the organizers behind the 2011 reboot of the IGDA Chicago chapter
IGDA Perspectives: layout for the events section of the print newsletter and curating the events listing for the online edition
Co-chair of the Education Track for the 2011 AltDev Conference (#AltDevConf)
Graphic Arts Technology Program Advisory Committee Member for Clinton Community College
My personal philosophy, priorities, and goals are taking the new generation of game developers forward by carrying on the rich tradition of the Chicago game development community while upholding the core values established by the IGDA. This will be done by further establishing IGDA Chicago through connecting with local colleges and the unsung developers of the community at large. Also, hopefully, getting regular postmortem presentations out of already established studios. I’d like to convince AcTiVision Blizzard, Microsoft Studios, EA (yes again) or Ubisoft, Nintendo, or Sony to open up a AAA development studio downtown. In addition to or as another option I’d like to also be the catalyst for opening on my own AAA development and entertainment studio as well.
The key here is being able to showcase that while the Chicago game development scene is small (29 studios by my count only 6 of which are AAA and one of those 6 is all the way down in Urbana-Champaign) there’s enormous potential for the world class city. Just think of the legacy from Bally’s Midway to Chicago Coin and Bungie. Also the birthplace of Freeway from legendary designer David Crane to Eugene Jarvis and Ed Boon who call Chicago home and head up their own studios. For that matter maybe even getting Alex Seropian to, “come home” from Disney would be incredible to head up another AAA studio.
I believe the IGDA Chicago is poised to show the world that like California, Washington state, and Texas; Illinois to is great place to define the future of entertainment.
Personally, I started as a tester almost five years ago with AcTiVision on Spider-Man 3. After the hard work of two failed attempts at going independent my passion burns more then ever to hit my stride in this business. I am in a unique position to be the one to represent, “The Player” on the Board of Directors. I’ve been playing since 1985 with my Father’s Intellivision. However with the introduction on the Nintendo Entertainment System the Big N took hold and still holds a special place in my heart to this day. I am a new spirit with an old soul. I would be honored to have the privilege in serving the IGDA Chicago in the years to come by making the Chicago game development community more accessible and attractive currently and for the generations to come. Thank You!
Since writing about yourself is awkward, I’m going to tell you why Jay should be on the board for the Chicago IGDA.
Jay is one of the most sincere and talented people I’ve ever met. His enthusiasm is infectious and he inspires me to believe that we can achieve greater things in our community. He’s always willing to put in the time that no one else seems to have. His efforts have helped to unify our community though organizing and supporting events across the multiple developer groups here in Chicago. He is already involved in creating a community that makes people proud to be in Chicago.
He makes games and he cares about games. I think that’s really important too.
I’m Ryan Wiemeyer and if Jay Margalus doesn’t make it on the board of the Chicago IGDA, we’re doing it wrong.
About Me (Jay):
I co-own, develop at, and do marketing/business development for a Chicago independent games studio called Lunar Giant. I also own a web development studio, co-founded Chicago’s first suburban hackerspace Workshop 88, and have enjoyed being part of the IGDA Chicago reboot from the beginning, along with Neal Sales-Griffin and Heather Decker-Davis.
Nurturing a vibrant developer community can directly benefit each of us. It’s vital to have a strong network of peers to rely on, especially during these tough economic times. That is why it’s in our best interest to bring together our collective knowledge and experience to help make game development a better place for all of us. In Chicago, we have a lot of history and influence to the medium, and I want to see our Chapter become even more influential once again. I want to help make game development a better atmosphere for everyone involved and would very much appreciate the opportunity to do so as a board member of the Chicago Chapter of the IGDA. With dedicated leadership, I strongly believe that we can grow this Chapter into something we can be immensely proud of. Thank you so much for your consideration.
Biography:
Sheri Rubin is founder and CEO of Design Direct Deliver, a company that strives to improve the customer experience and provides independent contract and consulting services to businesses primarily within the video game industry. She got her start in the industry over a decade ago, has been an active part of the IGDA since 1999 (and is a lifetime member), and has appeared on G4TV twice. Though she has more than thirty game credits under her belt, Sheri’s proudest moment came from showing her father her name on the Golden Tee machine in a Chicago pizzeria. www.designdirectdeliver.com.
Sheri’s volunteer contributions:
Former Executive Board Member/Current Organizer, Chicago Chapter
Former IGDA Orange County Chapter Board of Directors (moved to Chicago)
Member, Chapter Committee
Chair, Quality Assurance SIG
Advisory Board Member, Women in Games SIG
Member, SIGs Committee
Founder and Former Leadership Council Member, Sexuality In Games SIG
Participant in over twenty other SIGs
Member, Marketing and Communications Committee
Member, Voter Guidance Task Force
Volunteer, Global Game Jam Team
I’m Neal, I believe video games will be the future of our education system.
One day I got tired of being merely a consumer of video games and other technology and wanted to get involved in developing software myself. In my journey to learn I ended up discovering I wasn’t the only one that had that problem, so I started a school called Code Academy to help solve it for myself and others. My goal is to take an entrepreneurial approach to software development by building web applications that are designed as games.
In the past I’ve helped start some companies, and I’ve worked at a couple venture capital investment firms where I did research on the video-gaming industry and analyzed technology and for-profit education start-ups. I convinced one of those companies to send me to the GDC last year and after getting to know the awesome guys at Tap.me as well as connecting with Josh Tsui of Robomodo, I wanted to find ways to help galvanize the Chicago game development community.
I crashed an IGDA member meeting with the Board of Directors last year in San Francisco, and asked them why there wasn’t much activity in Chicago. They said they didn’t know but wanted to talk further. So I followed up and discovered that things had been dormant for quite some time! Instead of sitting back and complaining or dissing the chapter’s inactivity, I decided to take matters into my own hands by getting involved. In doing so I helped re-establish the IGDA Chicago Chapter last summer with the help of Tom Dowd, Sheri Rubin, and Josh Tsui.
It was a tough road at first, no one really knew who I was (or cared much about IGDA/ Chicago for that matter), but I persisted and kept trying to make connections in order to seize an opportunity to start helping Chicago become a vibrant community again. In doing so I met Jay Margalus and Heather Decker-Davis, two amazingly committed people. I would love to continue serving the Chicago community through the events, workshops, game jams, and parties that we have been successfully planning and implementing over the past year.
Simply put, all I really want is to keep working with these awesome people. would you kindly vote for me to continue doing so?
Hello!
My name is Jared Steffes and I currently work as a co-founder of Tap.Me. Tap.Me started as a mobile game studio and just about a year ago became a venture capital backed mobile in-game advertising start-up based downtown Chicago.
I attended DePaul University’s College of Commerce and helped create DePaul’s Video Game Degree program while being the first president and co-founder of DeFrag, which continues to be DePaul’s largest student organization.
Video game work experiences include work for EA Chicago, training video games for Rush University and the Department of Defense, game proposals, Technology Consulting, and Video Game Consulting.
My Goals for IGDA Chicago:
The video game industry has changed and has not stopped mutating. Mobile and social platforms have created a serious outlet for creativity and spawned thousands of new game development studios. Big studios are now developing for these new platforms because console gaming is no longer the only viable platform to support a studio. The rise of “freemium” games and hobbyist freely giving away fun content has created new difficulties for studios.
Right now is the best opportunity for anyone to get into game development and the goals I have in mind are pretty straightforward to support game development of all shapes and sizes. I want to make sure people have the best resources and knowledge to succeed in today’s climate whether you are an Indie or AAA studio.
My Philosophy:
Communication and a sense of community are a large factor to creating a healthy advantage for the Chicago area. It is difficult to share information and consistently get together in person because our geographical area is so large, but the technology is available to make a studio in Champaign capable of sharing professional knowledge with a studio in Chicago in a secure and digital format.
Professionals need to have access to professional type events, Indies to Indies, students to students, and there needs to be mixed level events to create community and growth. People willing to share their experience need to be able to feel comfortable sharing with their peers.
When someone moves to Chicago and searches the Internet for video game industry in Chicago, I want to make sure they have a powerful resource and comfort because of IGDA Chicago. Let’s share our triumphs because making games is a passion. We are all rock stars!