Me!
Been exploring more of San Francisco this year. A brief log of what I’ve been up to…
GDC 2009 – Pre GDC Days in San Francisco
Me!
Category Archives: Videogame Conferences
Videogame conference posts.
Me!
My GDC 2009 Session! Everyone please come! :)
I’m helping the IGDA this year at GDC, where I got offered to help by hosting the Students Social Gathering, and I’m on the GDC site too, wow 🙂 – and I look terrible, yes, oh well! Let’s hope I move on from “Graduate” too, in one way or another. I’m not exactly sure what the event will consist of yet, I might have to plan something, but it is a social gathering, so should be great (I missed last years – it clashed with something else sadly). I hope also that the social is open like 2008, where people who just had an Expo pass could get to the IGDA booth (I think), making it more accessible to students, which for this is perfect.
Also up is the Preservation SIG Roundtable (we’ll see, but I doubt there’ll be any history sessions, although there was one last year I missed), and all the other IGDA things. I’ll be hopefully attending Dave and Alex and Many Other’s organised AI Summit, too. I’ll see if there is anything else interesting, nearer too it I think.
IGF 2009
The entries are now out, all 226 of them. I didn’t realise so many got past the initial entry phase! (I’ve no idea if it’s more or less then last year). There is a lot of competition, from some great games – I’ve only have the opportunity to play around 5-10 of them, and the others all look good too. I’ll do a post about the ones I’ve played later, once I’ve had time to mull it over, and I’ll also try and see what other games on the list are playable.
Now I just wish I had a clue on what might win so I could play them before GDC!
Women in Games Day 3
I’ve written up/added all my notes for the Women in Games, Day 3. That completes the set – Friday was a half-day, and I finally got home to upload my photos. Hooray for blurryness! (I didn’t want to use the flash much – it wasn’t much use when I did anyway). Look at them at lower resolutions and it’s okay 🙂 gives you an idea of who was speaking anyway.
Included in the photos are the visit to Warwick Castle and the banquet, and to download also are 3 videos from the night – Are e do are e do (singing), the rules and some comedy, and finally the Lord Oliver the Vegetarian tasting the meat, since he’s a supposed poisoner.
The conference was fun, and very interesting – a mix of academic, industry and plenty of other things. Incredibly talented people presenting, and various important topics raised. I’ll try and make next years, I think!
Day 3 – September 12th
- KEYNOTE : Karen Clark – Project Manager, BioWare
- “How can a design Wiki serve a game dev team?” – Emmeline Dobson, Game Designer, NiK NaK, Kuju
- “Women working in games: developing a model of influences” – Julie Prescott, PhD student, University of Liverpool
- “Passion, women and the games industry : influences on women’s participation in the Australian Digital Content Industry” – Ruth Christie, Associate Professor, Course Coordinator – Bachelor of Games and Interactive Entertainment, Queensland University of Technology, Australia
- “From Italy to the video game industry in the UK” – Simona Tassinari, Software Engineer, Rare Ltd
- PANEL – “What are the challenges facing women coming into the industry from outside?” – Chair : Mary Matthews, Strategy and Business Development Director, TruSim (Blitz). Panelists : Kim Blake, Education Liaison Manager, Blitz Games Studios; Simona Tassinari, Software Engineer, Rare Ltd; Helen Grimbly, Software Engineer, Attractive Games
- OPEN Meeting – Futures – Open to all – to discuss future direction(s) of Women In Games conference. Chair : Steering committee
Women in Games Day 2
I’ve written up/added all my notes for the Women in Games, Day 2, again no pictures sorry 🙂 Some really good stuff today, look out for the panel discussion too at the end of the day, a lot of good points brought up.
Day 2 – September 11th
- KEYNOTE – “Technology in Schools: Why do girls get turned off?” – Eileen Brown, Evangelism Manager, Microsoft
- “Girls and Gadgets: The Future” – Alison Brown, Senior Lecturer, School of Computing, University of Teesside
- “Girls get EX.I.T.Ed by IT” – Helena Pugsley, Software Group IT Service Manager, IBM Hursley Software Development Laboratories
- “Motivating Young Women in Game Development Via the Pixels, Programming, Play and Pedagogy Project” – Scott Leutenegger, Professor and Game Development Program Director, Computer Science Department, University of Denver
- “Turning girls on to Technology: the Role of Professional Societies” – Cornelia Boldyreff, Professor of Software Engineering, Department of Computing and InformaticsUniversity of Lincoln (and member of BCSWomen committee )
- DISCUSSION – “A Vision for Science and Society : influencing the government’s new consultation paper” – Ruth Wilson, Resources and Partnerships Coordinator Services for Women Team, UK Resource Centre for Women in Science, Engineering and Technology
- KEYNOTE – “Sowing the Seeds for a More Creative Society” – Karen Brennan – Graduate student and research assistant at MIT Media Lab in the Lifelong Kindergarten group
- “IBM’s INNOV8 and PowerUp” – Kevin Farrar, Programme Manager, IBM Academic Initiative, NE Europe, IBM Hursley Software Development Laboratories
- “Play to learn: Designing games with kids for kids” – Hilary Hall, Executive Producer, Illumina Digital Ltd
- “Soft Skills Please! The importance of management training” – John Nash, Art Manager, Blitz Games Studios
- “What skills are needed to work in the games industry?” – Bev Bush, Senior Lecturer in Games Design, University of Central Lancashire
- PANEL – “From boys’ toys to girls’ games: attracting more women into games” – Chair : Natasha Angelopoulou, Senior Lecturer in Computer Science, University of Westminster. Panelists : Nick Burton, Senior Software Engineer, Rare Ltd; Cornelia Boldyreff, Professor of Software Engineering, Department of Computing and Informatics, University of Lincoln (and member of BCSWomen committee ); Dr Alexandra Psarrou, Head of AI and Multimedia Department, School of Computer Science, University of Westminster; Aurore Dimopoulos, Student (BSc Computer Games), School of Computer Science, University of Westminster, and QA Tester (TT Games Publishing)
- Warwick Castle – Conference Dinner. Included in the photos are the visit to Warwick Castle and the banquet, and to download also are 3 videos from the night – Are e do are e do (singing), the rules and some comedy, and finally the Lord Oliver the Vegetarian tasting the meat, since he’s a supposed poisoner.
Women in Games Day 1
I’ve written up/added all my notes for the Women in Games, Day 1, which are usually brief – would be better with slides (or at least some of my pictures of slides), which might be available later, but in any case I’ll upload my pictures to the articles when I’m back home. Day 2 and 3 will come as I write them up and my laptop battery lasts!
Day 1 – September 10th
- KEYNOTE – Sara de Freitas – Director of Research at the Serious Games Institute at the University of Coventry
- “Hunting for Fun – The Serious Games Challenge” Mary Matthews, Strategy and Business Development Director, TruSim (Blitz)
- “Diagetic Media’ – Beyond First-Person Shooters” Ana Kronschnabl, CEO, FluffyLogic
- PANEL – “Getting down with the kids!” Chair : Divinia Knowles, Head Of Operations and Financial Controller, Mind Candy Ltd. Panelists : Toby Barnes, Managing Director, Pixel Lab; Louise Ridgeway, Animation Supervisor, Rare Ltd; Rachel Bardill, Interactive Executive, CBBC
- WORKSHOP – “The Pink Wink Workshop” – Fiona French, Course Leader BSc Computer Games, Associate Director; and Barbara Zambrini, Producer : Gamelab London, London Metropolitan University
- “Women in Games: an Iranian Perspective” Ms Faranak Fotouhi-Ghazvini, PhD student, Department of Electronic Imaging and Media Communications, School of Informatics, University of Bradford
- “Playing with Constrained Agency: Video Games and the Question of “Choice”” – Juliette M. Ludeker, PhD Student, Rhetoric and Composition, English Dept, Purdue University and Wendy K.Z. Anderson Doctoral Candidate, Rhetorical and New Media Studies, Humanities Dept, Michigan Technological University
- “Play in between: Women player identifies and the practice of skin making” Hanna Wirman, PhD Student, University of the West of England
- “Mama Ludens: Interviews with women who play” – Jessica Enevold, Visiting Assistant Professor, IT University of Copenhagen; Charlotte Hagström, Assistant Professor, Lund University and Espen Aarseth, Associate Professor, IT university of Copenhagen
- KEYNOTE – “Development and Play – Do Women do it differently?” Paulina Bozek, Executive Producer, SingStar, Sony
Visiting the Women in Games Conference
I decided to go to the 2008 Women in Games conference, on this week, a while back. Apart from being game related, the organisation was recommended by my GDC mentor Neil Kirby, which I missed a meeting of at GDC due to the clash with the GDC Awards (which of course I’ve never attended). At least once I’d like to visit the majority of the conferences around the world, since there’s a great breadth of knowledge I’d love to take in at them (at the moment, I also have the time to do this! in the future, probably less so).
Anyway, it was relatively cheap and has a great aim. There was, in my year in Computer Science at Loughborough exactly zero girls – an anomaly we were told, but there we go, the percent is rarely double figures. After meeting so many great Develop volunteer and GDC Scholarship girls, it seems a real shame to not see more making games, or doing the technical roles in industry – if in the future I’m in a position to change it, It’d be nice to know now. “Male, Computer Science Graduate” might be not who this is aimed at, but I think it’ll be more interesting then some other conferences I’ve been to.
I’ll post up anything interesting, and see about pictures. At the very least it’ll be something more relaxing then learning C++ right now 🙂
Back from Brighton
I’m back, with many a photo and note on what I went to at the Develop conference this year. Helping out was good, with better start times and organisation this year. I’ll post up all I can over the next few days, there was some really interesting things that are worth noting. My notes won’t be as brilliant as a few of the Gamasutra writeups – I might invest in some kind of audio recorder next time and use that, if the conference organisers allow it, since it’d make it a lot easier to record quotes since the sessions are not recorded.
Going to Brighton Again
I’ll be at the Brighton Develop Conference for the second time volunteering all next week. If I have the internet, I might make nightly posts, but probably my hotel won’t have wifi or more likely I won’t have time. There’s a lot more going on this year out of hours, so I really hope I’ll be busy to be honest 🙂
I’ll take some pictures and see if I can’t note anything interesting down. There’s a few game AI talks, one being a keynote, and I am sure to see many other interesting things. Keep an eye out in a weeks time 🙂
No VGMS – I’vz Hot A Vloody Gold
Stupid illness has me by the nose, so a radio show is out of the question. I hope to be back next week – last time before exams, and a bank holiday! (Yay for holidays! It’ll be even more fun when I have work on those days 😉 ).
This week I’ll be mostly going to the Imperial College Games and Media Event on Wednesday, which I’ll also report here. It’ll be an interesting day – and there is an AI talk I’ll be interested in hearing. Hopefully my ruddy cold will clear up a bit before my early train journey.