Program
With it’s theme of ‘The Journey’, GCAP 2011 was held from 14 to 16 November 2011. It delivered a series of lectures and discussions designed to identify the processes, resources and opportunities that will grow the Australian industry over the next few years.
See GCAP presentations in Video
Videos and presentations of many of the sessions are being added as they become available. Check the orange buttons for links.
See GCAP in photos
http://www.irmedia.org/#gallery
Speakers
GCAP 2011 SPEAKERS
Insomniac Games
Mike Acton is Engine Director at Insomniac Games. When he’s not searching for new ways to optimize Insomniac’s engine, he’s dreaming about how to help the development community. Mike can often be found extolling the virtues of understanding the data and the hardware first along with programming for performance.
Keynote Address: #gamedev: We Need To Aim Higher
GCAP 2011 opening address and Mike Acton keynote presentation
Head of School, AIE
Neil Boyd is the Head of School at the Academy of Interactive Entertainment (AIE) Sydney and manages AIE’s animation curriculum. In 2012 Neil coordinated the iFEST Independent Games Festival and launched the AIE Incubator Program, both designed to support the growth of Australian independent games. Neil’s professional game development work includes seriously fun educational games for Royal Australian Air Force, Australian Information Industry Association, Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs, Seeing Machines and the Australian Federal Police
Session: Meeting the Needs of an Evolving Games Industry
Session Description
Director General Simulation
Mike Brennan was appointed as Director General Simulation in June 2009, on secondment from the Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO). In this role he has responsibility for simulation governance in Defence, and for initiating the Defence Simulation Capability major program JP3028. He holds a BSc(Hons), and a PhD in Atomic and Molecular Physics from Flinders University in South Australia. Since completing his PhD in 1986, Mike’s professional career has spanned appointments to the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, the Research School of Physical Sciences and Engineering at the Australian National University and the Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO). Within Defence he was initially responsible for simulations in support of the Royal Australian Navy’s proposed mid-life upgrade to the Laser Airborne Depth Sounder (LADS), leading to reductions in the uncertainty associated with laser depth soundings. Later, as part of DSTO’s Land Operations Division, he held responsibility for DSTO’s constructive simulation and wargaming capability, support to Army’s Experimentation and Modernisation Programs and, as Research Leader Human Systems Integration, he maintained oversight of LOD’s Human Sciences Capability and Army S&T program. This included leadership of the Army Training and Preparedness research area. He is the co-author of influential papers on strategic policy and the capability requirements for contemporary land tactics.
Serious Games Session: Making and Owning Future Serious Games for Defence – There’s an App for that – but an App Store as well
Paul is a freelance writer and independent game developer who has worked in the games industry since 1998 as a programmer, designer, writer, and teacher for companies as diverse as Atari, Infinite Interactive, AIE, 2K Marin, Chocolate Liberation front, the ABC, and The Project Factory. An active member of the development and education community, Paul has presented on topics including writing for games, play, what education can learn from game development, and the fundamentals of game design at the National Screenwriters’ Conference, GCAP, VITTA, TEDxMelbourne, the Emerging Writers’ Festival, the State Library of Victoria, Screen Australia, ACMI, CAE, and RMIT. Paul is the director of the Freeplay Independent Games Festival and currently sits on the board of the Game Developers Association of Australia and the advisory panel for if:Book Australia. His writing on games, play, and storytelling has appeared online at if:Book Australia, Kill Your Darlings, ibrary, The Edge, and The Australia Council for the Arts, and in print in the Emerging Writers’ Festival Reader, Newswrite, Storyline, and Meanjin.
Session: Turning Off Our Screens
Presentation
Presentation
Panel Session: The Assessment Panel
Video of Panel Session
Unity Evangelist
Carl is Unity evangelist at the award winning company Unity Technologies. Carl has 10 years experience working in game development and game education around the world.
Panel Session: Streamlining Your Games Development Pipeline
Session Description
Video of Panel Session
Video (Courtesy Tsumea)
CEO, Tantalus
Tom Crago is the CEO of internationally renowned video game developer Tantalus, a studio with more than thirty-five highly acclaimed titles to its credit. Tom is also the CEO and Founder of Straight Right, a sister company to Tantalus focusing primarily on digitally distributed content. Straight Right recently released Need for Speed Shift 2: Unleashed on iOS, in partnership with EA Mobile. Recent Tantalus titles include Cars: Race o Rama, Drift Street International and MX vs ATV. Tom has degrees in Arts, Law and International Business, is a past President of the Game Developers’ Association of Australia, and is presently serving on the Federal Innovation Minister’s IT Industry Innovation Council, as well as the Book Industry Strategy Group.
Panel Session: Who Says the Australian Video Game Market is Dead? It Doesn’t Even Smell Funny
Session Description
Video of Panel Session
Video (Courtesy Tsumea)
Matt Ditton has a long history in Australian Game development. Starting as one of the original people at Krome in 1999, Matt has worked the gamut of roles. From Environment Artist, Lead Artist, Principle Technical Artist, Programmer and Producer. Matt’s worn a lot of hats. In the last couple of years Matt has been the Convenor of the Griffith Film Schools Bachelor of Games Design, while also working on his PHD in procedural game art systems. An amazing rewarding and hair losing experience. Recently Matt has just finished production on the ABC’s Alternator project with Defiant Development. He’s going on sabbatical and moving to Melbourne to work on his PHD and further interstate relations in the Australian Games Industry.
Panel Session: Journeys with Friends
Session Description
CEO, Halfbrick
Shainiel Deo is the founder and CEO of top Australian games developer Halfbrick Studios. He began the company in 2001 and has since managed internal development across many handheld and digital platforms including Nintendo DS, Sony PSP, Xbox Live, iPhone and Android. Under Shainiel’s direction the studio has served over 100 million downloads worldwide in 2011, establishing Halfbrick as one of the premier mobile and digital developers in the world. He also serves as Vice President of the Game Developer’s Association of Australia.
Panel Session: Understanding the Chinese Mobile Market
EEDAR
As the Vice President of EEDAR’s Financial Services Division, Mr. Jesse Divnich is responsible for the business development and execution of EEDAR products for the private investment and equity sector. Prior to joining EEDAR in 2007, Jesse operated as an independent industry consultant and analyst for numerous private firms and institutions with strong financial interests in the interactive entertainment sector, in addition to his over 7 year’s experience within multi-media retail. In addition to contributing to the development of new product lines for EEDAR in the areas of due diligence, risk management and analysis of industry trends, Mr. Divnich also represents EEDAR for the majority of media and press relations activities. Mr. Divnich is most known for his appearances on CNN Money, G4TV, The Street, Reuters, Market Watch, GameSpot, and IndustryGamers. Additionally, Mr. Divnich is a regular on the speaking circuit and has presented at GDC, MIGS, DigiLond, EMA Conferences, Interactive Ontario, and many more.
Keynote Address: Stop Building Games, Start Building Brands
Video of Session
CEO, Simulation Australia
Alisha Fisher joined Simulation Australia as the inaugural Chief Executive Officer on 4 April 2011. Alisha was previously the Chief Executive Officer (SA/NT) of the Australia-Israel Chamber of Commerce. For over ten years there, she re-branded and grew the organisation, and strengthened its relationships with Government, Academia and Corporate. She has experience in liaising with large and small businesses through industry-focussed trade missions and business introductions; Professional Event Management Services; Business to Business Networking – Fostering networking and consistent attention to connecting people and Partnerships with high-level industry leaders from government, corporate and academic areas.
Serious Games Session: The Simulation Industry & Serious Games – The Reality
Session Description
Senior Developer Account Manager, Worldwide Games Publishing, Microsoft Corporation
For the past 21+ years, Rod Fung has led top-tier game development studios, created AAA award-winning games, and led major games publishing divisions. In addition Rod is a founding member of the the Xbox 360, Kinect, and Xbox LIVE launch teams. He is currently a senior manager within Microsoft’s Worldwide Publishing team, Rod manages developer relations with top tier game studios throughout the world helping them to create ‘best in class’ titles for all Microsoft gaming platforms including Xbox 360, Xbox LIVE, Games for Windows Live, and Windows Phone 7 gaming.
Panel Session: Who Says the Australian Video Game Market is Dead? It Doesn’t Even Smell Funny
Session Description
Video of Panel Session
Video (Courtesy Tsumea)
OLIVER GLENN
Senior Account Manager, OpenFeint division of GREE
Oliver Glenn is a Senior Account Manager for OpenFeint division of GREE, the world’s largest mobile social game network with 125 million users and 7,000 games. He spends his days helping developers implement distribution, social and monetization hooks into their games. Prior to OpenFeint, Oliver worked for mBlox, where he helped content and service providers transact using txt services. He lives in San Francisco with his wife and daughter, enjoys playing golf and living the California dream.
Session:
CEO, Screen Australia
Dr Ruth Harley was appointed Chief Executive Officer of the newly established Screen Australia in November 2008. For the ten years prior to this, Ruth was CEO of the New Zealand Film Commission where she oversaw the transformation of the organisation and assisted it in attracting strong political support. During Ruth’s tenure the international profile of New Zealand filmmaking grew significantly and there was resurgence in domestic audiences. Ruth has more than 20 years experience in the cultural and media sectors. Her previous roles include Commissioning Editor of TVNZ, inaugural CEO of television funding agency New Zealand On Air and National Media Director of Saatchi and Saatchi. She also held a senior management role at the Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council. Ruth holds a PhD from the University of Auckland. She is a former Fulbright Scholar and former Chair of Fulbright NZ. Ruth’s commitment to broadcasting and the arts was recognised in 1996 with an OBE and in 2006 when she received a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for her services to film.
Session: Screen Australia’s State of Play
Session Description
Ruth Harley’s Speech at GCAP launching the report ‘Playing for Keeps: Enhancing Sustainability in Australia’s Interactive Entertainment Industry’
Speech
LDB Accountants & Advisors
Luke is a Partner at LDB Accountants & Advisors, a firm with a long history of partnering with start-up developers to guide them from part-time enthusiasts to large studios with multiple projects and a myriad of issues. As well as his work with the GDAA, Luke advises many developers on taxation, accounting and general business issues. He provides a unique perspective to the issues facing start-up developers and aims to bridge the gap between creative minds and faceless ‘suits’.
Session: From Conception to the Console: A practical guide to beginning your own Start Up
Session Description
BioWare
Richard Iwaniuk is the Senior Director of Business Planning and Development for BioWare. Currently, Richard and his team support multiple aspects of BioWare’s business operations, including the development and execution of key business, strategic, financial and legal initiatives. A Chartered Accountant since 1993, Richard joined BioWare in 2000 where during his tenure as BioWare’s Director of Finance, BioWare grew from a studio of 80 developers to a multi-studio operation with over 600 employees. Richard is a recipient of the Early Achievement Award by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Alberta, which recognizes Chartered Accountants who demonstrate excellence and accomplishment in their career and commitment and excellence in community and volunteer services.
Keynote Address: The Evolution of Audience Engagement
Session Description
Video of Session
Morgan is a game developer with over a decades experience in Australia and North America. He’s worked for Irrational Games, Relic Entertainment and Pandemic Studios before co-founding Defiant Development in 2010. Defiant are current hard at work on Warco (a game about journalism in warzones) and Quick Quest (an action RPG for mobiles and tablets).
Session: Green sprouts among the wreckage. Building a profitable independent in Australia.
Session Description
Panel Session: The Assessment Panel
Session Description
Video of Panel Session
Video (Courtesy Tsumea)
Uppercut Games
Andrew received a degree in Industrial Design from Newcastle University in 1996. He worked as an animator and later Art Lead for a number of years at Brilliant Digital Entertainment in Sydney. In 2000 he moved to Los Angeles to setup a new animation studio for BDE, focused on creating music videos. In 2002 Andrew moved to Canberra to work as Lead Artist at Irrational Games/2K Australia, after leading the team of artists on many award winning projects, in 2009 he became Art Director of the Studio. In early 2011, Andrew left 2K Marin to co-found Uppercut Games.
Games of note:
• XCOM (2011), 2K Games
• BioShock 2 (2010), 2K Games
• BioShock (2007), 2K Games
• Freedom Force vs The 3rd Reich (2005), Irrational Games LLC
• Tribes: Vengeance (2004), Vivendi Universal Games, Inc.
Session: Creating EPOCH for iOS with UDK
Session Description
Video of Session
Co-Founder, The Voxel Agents
Simon co-founded The Voxel Agents in 2009, brought Train Conductor to iOS, and is currently working on a new brain teasing puzzle game. He leads the creative direction in the studio and openly loves gameplay driven titles. He is active on the board of the GDAA, strongly believes there’s never been a better time to go indie, and gets furious when his development pipeline is not in shape! He has recently found the joys of Unity.
Panel Session: Streamlining Your Games Development Pipeline
Session Description
Video of Panel Session
Video (Courtesy Tsumea)
CEO, Holopoint
Ben Kilsby is the co-founder and CEO of Holopoint Interactive who are an Adelaide based simulation and serious game developer. Ben has worked extensively at Holopoint to create a number of interactive developments for a diverse range of industry sectors including transport, security, music tuition, healthcare, mining and most recently defence. He is a passionate advocate of serious game developments and has a strong interest in developing a future capability in the interactive space. Ben has demonstrated this in the founding of The Indie Games Room in 2007 and his numerous appointments in state level round tables, steering committees and advisory boards.
Panel Session: Streamlining Your Games Development Pipeline
Session Description
Video of Panel Session
Video (Courtesy Tsumea)
Iron Helmet Games
Jay spent over 10 years building games for publishers before founding Iron Helmet Games in 2010, an independent developer of innovative web based strategy games. Jay’s credits include the upcoming Xcom, Bioshock and Bioshock 2, Swat 4, Tribes and Freedom Force. Iron Helmets first game Neptune’s Pride was well received and even won a few awards in the 2010 end of year round up. PC Gamer Magazine awarded us web game of the year, and Edge Magazine awarded us runner up to indie game of the year.
Session: From a team of 50 to a team of 1, the awesome power of no meetings!
Session Description
Video of session
Video (Courtesy Tsumea)
Uppercut Games
Ryan started in the video game industry in 2002 with Canberra company Irrational Games, working his way up from junior programmer, through mid and into a senior programming role. In early 2011, Ryan left 2K to pursue his own game-making desires, and then joined Uppercut Games with Ed Orman and Andrew James.
Games of note:
• XCOM (2011), 2K Games
• BioShock 2 (2010), 2K Games
• BioShock (2007), 2K Games
• Swat 4: Stechkov Syndicate (2006), Vivendi Universal Games, Inc.
• Tribes: Vengeance (2004), Vivendi Universal Games, Inc.
Session: Creating EPOCH for iOS with UDK
Session Description
Video of Session
Chief Marketing Officer, Halfbrick Studios
Phil Larsen is the Chief Marketing Officer at Halfbrick, the studio behind mega-hit games such as Fruit Ninja, Jetpack Joyride and Age of Zombies. A lifelong gamer and marketing professional, over the past three years he has helped to build the games and bring the brands of Halfbrick to over 80 million players worldwide, firmly securing the Brisbane studio’s spot as Australia’s most prominent game developer.
Session: Position With Power!
Session Description
Video of Session
The Voxel Agents
Yangtian Li has been working at The Voxel Agents as the lead artist since completing her bachelor degree in animation and receiving Valedictorian at Qantm college. She has worked on the company’s flagship titles; Train Conductor Australia and Train Conductor 2: USA. Yangtian is also in charge of the art direction of the company’s new project that is in development.
Session: Invisible Art – Throw Your Work Away
Session Description
Co-founder, iDreamsky
Jeff Lyndon has over 10 years of experience in game development and publishing, his first game was Shadowbane. He co-founded iDreamsky, a mobile game publisher and brand manager focused in Greater China. Under Jeff’s direction, iDreamsky has successfully become one of the best partners in China for mobile game developers including Rovio, Halfbrick, Hotgen and many more. Jeff is also the first Asian who has won the 30 under 30 Developer award by DEVELOP magazine.
Panel Session: Understanding the Chinese Mobile Market
Session Description
Managing Director – Espresso Communications
With more than seven years at the helm of Espresso Communications, Corrie McLeod is great at working closely with clients to identify innovative PR campaigns and strategies. Corrie has an excellent grasp of the evolving communications landscape, particularly social media, and is skilled in creating PR activities that map specifically to communication and business objectives. Corrie has earned the respect of the media industry and has been nominated three years consecutively for ‘Best Media Relations’ by the Australian IT Journalism community. Espresso has also snagged a Highly Commended for its R18+ Classification for Video Games campaign at the 2010 PRIA NSW State Awards for Excellence and won the same award at the 2011 awards for the pro bono campaign for qldfloods.org. Espresso is a member of the Registered Consultancies Group of the PRIA and Corrie is a member of the Australian Businesswomen’s Network.
Session: PR for Australian Game Developers – Tools to Build Your Profile and Success with the Right Audiences
Session Description
Video of Session
Halfbrick Studios
Luke Muscat is a lead designer at Halfbrick, and the creator the smash-hit iPhone games Fruit Ninja, Jetpack Joyride and Monster Dash. He loves to design, talk about design, argue about design, and design new ways to learn about design. Over the past 18 months, Halfbrick games under Luke’s direction have been downloaded over 45 million times.
Session: I Love Randomness, Sometimes: Working with and designing ‘random’ systems
Session Description
Uppercut Games
Ed started in the video game industry in 1997 with Canberra company Micro Forte, rapidly moving into a senior management role as Lead Designer and Associate Producer. In 2001 he joined Irrational Games/2K Australia, continuing his work as a designer on several award-winning games. In early 2011, Ed left 2K Marin to co-found Uppercut Games.
Games of note:
• XCOM (2011), 2K Games
• BioShock (2007), 2K Games
• Tribes: Vengeance (2004), Vivendi Universal Games, Inc.
• Freedom Force (2002), Crave Entertainment, Inc., Electronic Arts, Inc.
• Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel (2001), Interplay Entertainment Corp.
Session: Creating EPOCH for iOS with UDK
Session Description
Video of Session
Federal Bureau of Investigation
Randy Pargman is a learning game designer and programmer for the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Randy was the first member of the FBI Simulation Team at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia, where he has worked for the last seven years. Randy has designed and developed 3D animations and a viewer program in DirectX to help instructors teach tactical room clearing, firearms teaching animations, and games to help learners comprehend complex topics through simple, fun interactions. Randy is currently working with the Simulation Team to design simulation training on the topic of crime scene processing, consulting on a virtual reality tactical training system, and reconstructing an actual crime scene in a virtual environment. Randy’s current topics of interest include the design of simpler navigation controls for 3D environments and user interfaces that feel natural to users, and he would love to talk with anyone who has ideas to improve user interfaces for non-gamers. Prior to working for the FBI, Randy was a Software Engineer with MTL, Inc., a Computer Scientist with the US DoD in High Performance Computing, and a Communications Officer with the Washington State Patrol.
Serious Games Session: How Serious Games and Simulations Are Used For Training at the FBI
AIE
Sebastian has been delivering courses for over 10 years for Academy of Interactive Entertainment. He has been involved in the development of students games thought AIE’s Advanced Diploma of Game Development delivering the 3D art stream of the course. Sebastian is also a practicing 3d artist and traditional artist. He holds a Bachelor of Visual arts from the Australian University and an Advanced diploma in Professional Computer Game Development from AIE.
Session: Meeting the Needs of an Evolving Games Industry
Session Description
Developer Account Manager for Asia Pacific, Microsoft
Jean-Francois has been part of the games industry since 1998, when he joined the then recently founded Montreal studio of Ubisoft in his native country of Canada. There he had the chance to develop his technical skills working on several AAA games for consoles and PC. He was primarily involved on the technical side of the game development being Lead Programmer for many years, and then Technical Director. He relocated to Singapore in 2008 and immediately fell in love with the region! He is now part of the Third Party Publishing team at Microsoft in Singapore, where he is a Developer Account Manager for Asia Pacific. He manages developer relations for all Microsoft gaming platforms including Xbox 360, Games for Windows Live and Windows Phone.
Session Description: The Rules of Kinect
Supergiant Games
Amir grew up in the very place in which Supergiant Games was headquartered for its first two years – the same home in which he took up hosting pen-and-paper role-playing sessions at the age of 10. After majoring in English at Columbia University, he joined Electronic Arts to work on the Command & Conquer franchise, where he was responsible for design on Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars and Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3. He left EA in 2009 to co-found Supergiant Games in his ongoing quest to give back to gaming what gaming’s given him. At Supergiant, Amir designs content for the studio’s games and manages day-to-day operations.
Keynote Address: The Building of Bastion
Session Description
Video of Keynote Session (and GCAP 2011 closing)
Video (Courtesy Tsumea)
Tin Man Games
Neil comes from a background in product design. He first started out as a 3D modeler and got his first games industry break working with Razorworks in the UK on a series of racing games. Working as a freelancer for a number of years, Neil then started Fraction Studios, a game art contracting outsourcing company specialising in handheld and low-end console art asset modeling and texturing, with aimed at designing robust art pipelines for developers. Neil has worked on over 20 published games including high profile titles such as the Need For Speed series, Nascar series, Sims series and the Tiger Woods series for a variety of platforms including iPhone, DS, PSP, and Wii. In 2008, Neil moved to Melbourne and started Tin Man Games, an independent game developer and has released 10 titles on the App Store including the highly acclaimed Gamebook Adventures series. Neil has spoken many times on games industry related subjects, including 18 months part-time lecturing on an animation degree in the UK as well as partaking in numerous presentations and panels for IGDA (Midlands UK and Melbourne) and Freeplay.
Session: Creating a brand from scratch
Session Description
Video of Session
VP Marketing and Developer Relations, OpenFeint division of GREE
Eros Resmini has over 15 years experience in digital entertainment and gaming focused on Marketing and Customer Relationship roles in both large and small company settings. He currently runs Marketing and Developer Relations at OpenFeint division of GREE, the leading mobile social gaming network with 125 million users and 7,000 games. He has held similar roles at Hewlett Packard, Real Arcade (GameHouse), and is a founding partner of San Francisco’s independent label Los Kamikaze Records.
Session: The Rise of Free to Play on Mobile: Best Practices
Session Description
Cam is a screen industries lawyer, specialising in film, tv, transmedia projects and the games industry. He is a founding board member of the Freeplay Independent Games Festival. Cam has acted for several games companies around Australia, including Tin Man Games and The Voxel Agents, and is passionate about the future of the industry in Australia.
Session: From Conception to the Console: A practical guide to beginning your own Start Up
Session Description
Giselle discovered the creative and analytical space that is local games development in 2007 when working in marketing and public relations at the Academy of Interactive Entertainment. For the past two years Giselle has been the driving force behind IGDA Melbourne, opening up collaborative learning spaces through community development and educational networking opportunities (alright, and the occasional beer).
Panel Session: Journeys with Friends
Session Description
Autodesk Specialist
Kevin specialises in performance capture and animation for film, games, live events and broadcast. He has worked for Walt Disney, Imagineering, Sony Pictures Imageworks as well as consulting on projects for universities in the USA, Australia, South Korea and Singapore. Kevin has been with Autodesk for over five years representing the Media and Entertainment 3d product suites and has run presentations in over a dozen countries.
Panel Session: Streamlining Your Games Development Pipeline
Session Description
Video of Panel Session
Video (Courtesy Tsumea)
My research interests mainly lie in the history of digital games and the roles they play in different societies. I first explored this field in my German Masters thesis, which covered the history of digital games in East Germany in depth and explored how they helped to support the regime. In 2005 I moved to Australia to acquire my Master in Arts and Media from Griffith University, where I was awarded the Griffith Award for Academic Excellence. My doctoral thesis, written at the University of Film and Television Studies Potsdam, Germany, deals with the differences in perception of mass media in Germany and Australia and how these differences relate to modes of distinction. The thesis is the first social history of gaming in both countries. In 2010 I permanently returned to Australia and currently act as the Academic Coordinator for the Sydney campus of Qantm College and lecture in digital game design.
Session: Designing for Innovation or The Aristocracy of the Hardcore vs. The Great Unwashed of Farmville
Session Description
Academy of Interactive Entertainment
Epona grew up in the games industry; spending weekends with Dad at the office during Crunch time at Microprose and proofreading Game Design Documents during summer vacation. It was from him and the industry around him that she learned about and fell in love with the craft of game development. She has since run the creative gambit between theatre, illustrating comics to leading teams on academy award winning films; but nothing has been able to match the camaraderie and innovative energy of that early games industry exposure. After leaving entertainment to learn business development in the IT and finance sectors, Epona has come back full circle to exploring the craft of great game design. When she isn’t coordinating game projects she’s helping Indies with the business side of game development.
Session: Working with Humans – Tools for Talking when Communication is Difficult
Session Description
Session: Meeting the Needs of an Evolving Games Industry
Session Description
Tin Man Games
Ben has been developing software for over 20 years, and developing apps using Cocoa on the Mac platform for over 15 years. He was the senior programmer and architect for Spydercam Aerial Camera Rigging for 8 years and won an Academy Award for technical achievement in 1995 for his work on 3d volumetric motion control. His software was used in over 40 feature films including films such as Spiderman and IronMan. He has been developing applications on the iPhone since the SDK became available. Due to the similarities between Cocoa and CocoaTouch, Ben was able to bring his 15 years of application experience in Cocoa to bear in his iPhone projects. Ben has been the senior or sole developer for over ten applications for the iPhone. In late 2009, Ben joined Tin Man Games and has since become the Technical Director, developing the Gamebook Adventures series. Ben has given many industry based presentations over the last few years to Australian education institutions as well as Freeplay in Melbourne. He is well known for his technical talks on the subject of developing using Unity.
Session: Creating a brand from scratch
Session Description
Video of Session
PricewaterhouseCoopers
Marcus is a Partner within the R&D Incentives group at PwC. He has worked solely in the R&D tax space over the past 11 years enabling 100’s of clients to maximise R&D tax claims and gain access to grant funding. The clients he has advised include many local, national and international companies, organisations and Government agencies, which cover most industries including games, software, mining, construction, property, biotechnology and manufacturing. Marcus has assisted many companies within the Games sector including large platform game developers and numerous companies involved in App developments for the iPhone and iPad.
Session: R&D Tax Incentive Classroom: Everything You Need to Know About Preparing Your R&D Claim
truna aka j.turner is the Brisbane IGDA Chapter auntie, game activist and researcher. She is dead keen on supporting a vibrant Aussie independent game community and has been involved in running a series of outreach programs to foster understanding about the medium (and business) of the game since 2004. Along with a number of partners in crime, truna is also responsible for the fabulous 48-hour game making challenge – now entering its fifth year. She believes that the game is an extraordinary powerful form of media and that more people should be exploring and extending its potential. truna is into software culture, she writes about the nature of the game interface, its fun, flaws, foibles and [f]antasmagorias … she believes design is power, and game design more so.
Panel Session: Journeys with Friends
Session Description
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR MARCUS WATSON
Executive Director, Clinical Skills Development Service – Queensland Health
A/Prof Marcus Watson has 12 years experience in healthcare simulations that builds upon his work in defence simulations. He leads Australia’s largest healthcare educational and research simulation program distributed across Queensland. He is an A/Prof in Medical Education at the School of Medicine and an Honorary A/Prof in the School of Psychology at the University of Queensland. His work in healthcare simulations has led the development of systematic approaches to the integration of simulations to address individuals’, teams’ and systems’ concerns.
Serious Games Session: Healthcare, Pedagogy & Serious Games
Defence Program Manager, Sydac Pty Ltd; Owner, The Serious Games Consultancy
With a history that includes “blowing things up!” John Welsh is the defence program manager for Sydac Pty Ltd and owner of the serious games consultancy. Based in Adelaide, South Australia, he oversees the provision of Live, Virtual and Constructive simulation solutions for various industries including transportation, defence and healthcare. Passionate about experiential learning he has been instrumental in defining serious game solutions nationally and internationally, spearheading serious game initiatives and providing consultancy, subject matter expertise and turnkey solutions through the serious games consultancy (www.theseriousgamesconsultancy.com). Building on a career that spans service in the British Army, the video games industry and the simulation industry he also applies extensive training experience, capability and knowledge gained through managing and delivering developmental training. A regular speaker on serious game capabilities John has previously presented at GCAP and the national simulation event SimTecT. Having travelled extensively, including time spent operating a marina and water sports business in Jamaica, he and his family are currently based in Adelaide, South Australia. John is a very mediocre video games player (but he thinks he’s getting better).
Serious Games Session: Serious Games – A Vanilla Slice
Vice President of Business Development, Epic Games
Jay Wilbur is a 22-year veteran in the computer gaming industry. Currently, Wilbur holds the position of Vice President of Business Development to Epic Games where he works as part of the Epic management team. Jay’s responsibilities include managing Epic’s Business Development, Finance, Legal and Engine Licensing teams. Under Jay’s management Epic’s success in these key areas remains dramatic most recently expanding Epic’s reach with engine license and/or support teams in Asia and Europe. Previously, Wilbur was the co-owner and business manager of id Software, a highly successful computer game development company. At id, Wilbur managed all of the company’s business activities including developing, implementing and maintaining id’s highly successful direct and retail distribution and marketing strategies for such blockbuster titles as Wolfenstein 3D, Spear of Destiny, DOOM, DOOM II, Final DOOM, QUAKE and all related ancillary software/non-software products. Wilbur’s responsibilities at id also included managing publishing and third party developer relationships; public relations; overseeing legal affairs, including all contract negotiating/closing activities; and managing financial related activities. Prior to id Software, Wilbur managed Apple II and IBM-compatible software development at Softdisk Publishing in Shreveport, LA. Before that, Wilbur spent three years managing Apple II software development for UpTime, a software development company in Newport, RI.
Panel Session: Who Says the Australian Video Game Market is Dead? It Doesn’t Even Smell Funny.
Session Description
Video of Panel Session
Video (Courtesy Tsumea)
Konami Digital Entertainment
As the Head of Sales and Marketing, Americas for Mobile at Konami Digital Entertainment, Jim Willson is responsible for defining the business and product strategy for mobile and driving revenue for the division. Prior to Konami, Jim held various roles in sales, operations and business development with JAMDAT Mobile, EA Mobile and Vivendi Games Mobile.
Session: The Pros and Cons of Working With Established Video Game Publishers in the Age of Digital Distribution
Session Description
Panel Session: Who Says the Australian Video Game Market is Dead? It Doesn’t Even Smell Funny.
Session Description
Video of Panel Session
Video (Courtesy Tsumea)
Executive Producer, Media Saints
Michael Woods is the most under qualified person on this glorious list of video game professionals. But this 24 year old uni drop out has still managed to build Media Saints, a 14-man development studio based in Melbourne. From humble beginnings in 2006 filming video game tournaments, Michael’s career has flourished. By 2008 he was the youngest member of the Australian CEO Institute, Journalist in the MX newspaper and was running eSport competitions with prize pools at nearly $100,000. Stepping up in the food chain in 2009 to run the Digital Distribution Summit with Film Victoria, Michael saw that the time was ripe to start his own studio. Taking $50k out of his bank and partnering up with Per Bredenberg, Media Saints was launched in 2010 after securing the development contract for Knowledge Quest. Today, Michael can be found every day having breakfast at Dukes on Chapel Street.
Session: Media Saints: The Journey of a Successful Startup
Session Description
Chief Surprise Architect at Surprise Attack
Chris Wright is a veteran of video games marketing with more than 100 campaigns executed under his care for publishers including THQ, Microsoft, Sega, Capcom, Disney Interactive Studios and many more. He was the Marketing Director for THQ’s Australian studios (Blue Tongue Entertainment and THQ Studio Australia) when they were closed in August 2011 and recently launched Surprise Attack, a marketing agency focused on helping independent developers promote their games. Chris has been a member of Film Victoria’s Digital Media Assessment Panel since 2009. The panel assesses applications in respect of Film Victoria’s Digital Media funding programs, providing recommendations to the Board for final approval.
Panel Session: The Assessment Panel
Session Description
Video of Panel Session
Video (Courtesy Tsumea)
Sessions
GCAP 2011 Sessions
#gamedev: We Need To Aim Higher
Mike Acton – Insomniac Games
Keynote Session Description:
It’s time for game developers to get out of their own way. To refuse to be boxed in by fear or creatively diminished by rigid, outdated schools of thought. We need to reclaim our genius, expand our visions, and get back to doing what we do best: Evolving our products and ourselves and taking the world along with us. We need to aim higher.
GCAP 2011 opening address and Mike Acton keynote presentation
Video (Courtesy Tsumea)
Neil Rennison and Ben Britten Smith – Tin Man Games
Session Description:
A detailed account of how Tin Man Games brought alive Gamebook Adventures and the reasons taken as to why we decided to look at a long-term approach (the long-tail) over one-off individual game developments. How important was creating a brand in this decision?
Details as to how GA was inspired by 80s gamebook series such as Choose Your Own Adventure and Fighting Fantasy, and how GA is now mentioned alongside those brands whenever digital versions of such series are mentioned in the press.
Why did we name the series Gamebook Adventures? Keeping the title simple and memorable, as well as describing exactly what the series was within the name was very important.
Designing the logo. How was this important for merchandising?
Where do we see GA moving forward? What happens when we start working on licensed IPs and how we aim to continue using the GA brand. How valuable is GA?
A quick look at the perception of made-up characters. How we used the imagery of “The Tin Man” to help us reach over 2000 twitter followers in just over a year.
Video of Session
Creating EPOCH for iOS with UDK
Andrew James, Ed Orman and Ryan Lancaster – Uppercut Games
Session description:
The pros and cons of working with a tool like UDK for iOS development. Using UDK to it’s strengths, not trying to make game it’s not suited for. Our development methodologies, prototyping and fate iteration of core game play ideas, using Engine artist tools like Matinee and Kismet (Scripting).
Video of Session
Designing for Innovation or The Aristocracy of the Hardcore vs. The Great Unwashed of Farmville
Session description:
The talk will predominantly deal with concepts of “technicity” and “cultural capital” and how we need to overcome these to truly innovate and appeal to a large audience. By employing these and explaining these terms I hope to explain the mechanisms behind the shift from classical “hardcore games” to more casual titles that are able to reach an ever-expanding audience.
As such the talk will be loosely based on concepts explored in my PhD. and also take its historical approach into account.
So what do the terms refer to?
Technicity is that aspect of identity expressed through the subject’s relationship with technology. Particular tastes and their associated cultural networks have always been marked by particular technologies, e.g. rockers with motorbikes and mods with scooters. In the 21st century, technicities associated with the consumption and manipulation of digital technologies become key characteristics of the preferred subject, which in turn means the marginalisation of other kinds of technicity.
The dominant identity/technology interfaces were born in a male environment, laboratories, the MIT Model Railroad Club, etc., and influenced by such popular myths as that of the ‘hacker’. In the biographies of what we call dominant technicities there is a remarkable homogeneity rather than ‘creolization’.
Games have been produced by very particular kinds of people who have developed very particular cultures and tastes which command a disproportionate amount of ‘cultural space’. This resulted in contents and marketing strategies which did not appeal to large demographics such as women or ethnic minorities.
It took until Nintendo’s Wii to finally break with this dominant form of technicity was playing digital games. The hardcore crowd hated it, there were hardly any “real” games on the “white box of waggle” – they, the “true” gamers were threatened in their identity and did not react kindly. The market didn’t care and the Wii made billions.
The next question is; why is this dominant technicity so difficult to overcome? Yes, there’s the aspect of threatened identity, however, it is also very closely related to the issue of distinction and “cultural capital”.
With the help of Pierre Bourdieu’s ideas on symbolic economies on power I will demonstrate how the resistance against more accessible games and the people who play them is motivated not only by a threatened hardcore identity, but also by a threat to the “traditional” players’ distinction and devalued cultural capital; they can’t set themselves apart as an elite anymore.
It’s a similar to mechanisms we witnessed when movies made their impact felt and the keepers of high culture opposed them – their legitimacy dwindled, no one cared about them and their inaccessible art anymore, an art that only the “truly cultured” understood.
From a Team of 50 to a Team of 1, the Awesome Power of no Meetings!
Jay Kyburz – Iron Helmet Games
Session description:
I’d like to talk about the differences between running a studio with over 50 people to working as an independent. More interestingly, I’d like to highlight what things are the same as many of the differences are obvious!
Example: There is the same amount of “Games Design” done. There is roughly the same amount of game mechanics that need to be developed, iterated on, and tuned. This is because the decisions making for the player, the things a player can do is about the same in an indie game as it is in a AAA console game.
Example: There is just as much crunch time and crappy working conditions. You’ll crunch because every hour spent on your game will be rewarded with more money in your own pocket, and all those perks, well you have to pay for those yourself!
Video of session
Video (Courtesy Tsumea)
From Conception to the Console: A practical guide to beginning your own Start Up
Session description:
This session aims to demystify the process of creating your own start up company. It will flag and discuss the most important issues that people first encounter when beginning an indie studio. The session will discuss the process of getting started – who you need to speak to, and the decisions you will need to make. The session will cover the following aspects:
- company structures and partnerships;
- essential copyright principles;
- taxation basics;
- employment law principles;
- dealing with funding bodies (inc Film Victoria);
and other issues that indie studios will face in their first year of operation.
Green Sprouts Among the Wreckage – Building a Profitable Independent in Australia
Session description:
From studio closure to thriving independent developer in 5 easy steps. Morgan Jaffit from Defiant Development will discuss how to build a strong, growing, independant development studio in Australia. Outlining the transition from the point of closure of Pandemic Australia through to the current day, Morgan will discuss in detail how to go from having a studio shut down to running a 12 man studio launching multiple games per year, including details on the high profile war journalism sim, Warco. If you’ve been involved in a studio closure and are thinking about heading out on your own, this is the talk for you.
Healthcare, Pedagogy & Serious Games
Associate Professor Marcus Watson – Executive Director, Clinical Skills Development Service – Queensland Health
Session description:
Healthcare, as one of the world’s largest industries, is experiencing significant long term growth due to an aging population in the developed world. Australia needs to quickly address the current clinical skills shortfall to meet the demands of an ageing population and to address the serious patient safety issues in healthcare. Healthcare must transform the way it trains clinical staff to cope with the large increase in training requirements and more importantly as part of a long term solution to make healthcare safer and more efficient. Significant start up funding has been allocated by Health Workforce Australia for the integration of simulation into clinical training. Traditionally healthcare has used face-to-face simulations to augment learning in clinical settings; however, the advancements in serious games will allow a greater proportion of the training to be delivered through a blended approach to learning.
How Serious Games and Simulations Are Used For Training at the FBI
Randy Pargman – FBI
Session description:
Randy Pargman from the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia will talk about how the FBI is using video games, simulations and 3D interactive animations to help Special Agents learn and better understand topics such as firearms operation, tactical arrest planning, crime scene investigation and room clearing techniques. This is an interactive presentation, so please bring your Internet-connected laptop, tablet or smart phone.
I Love Randomness, Sometimes: Working with and designing ‘random’ systems.
Luke Muscat – Halfbrick Studios
Session description:
The designer on a puzzle game marches across the room, heading straight for the lead programmer’s desk. “Well, this build is totally busted!” he snaps. “I’ve been playing for a full minute now, and I’ve had nothing but L shaped blocks. Clearly, the random block generator is broken”.
The programmer looks up at the designer for a moment, and takes a deep breath. “I keep telling you, it’s not broken. It’s random, just like you wanted.”
Humans brains are finely tuned, pattern finding machines. We find shapes in the clouds, faces in ink blots and strategies at the casino. It’s this natural wiring that makes working with completely random and procedural systems so challenging.
This talk will cover both the power, and the problems with procedurally generating content in Fruit Ninja, Jetpack Joyride and Monster Dash.
Invisible Art – Throw Your Work Away
Yangtian Li – The Voxel Agents
Session description:
In this session, Yangtian Li will present the art progression of The Voxel Agents’ current working title. She will showcase roughly 30 artworks that have been discarded, from the very first idea to what’s in the latest build of the game. She will also talk about a communication tool that she used for communicating the art direction with the designers and programmers.
Truna aka J. Turner, Giselle Rosman and Matt Ditton
Panel Session description:
We are no longer an industry (alone) we are a sector. Where the model once consisted of industry making games, we now see the rise of a cultural sector playing in the game space – industry, indies (for whatever that distinction implies) artists (another odd distinction), individuals and well … everyone and their mums. This evolution has an affect – on audiences and who they are, what they expect and want, and how they understand the purpose and language of these “digital game forms’; how we talk about our worlds and the kinds of issues that are raised; on what we create and how we create it and on our communities and who we are. This evolution has an affect on how these works are understood within the wider social context and how we present this understanding to the next generation of makers and players. We can see the potential of this evolution from industry to sector in the rise of the Australian indie. We can see the potential fractures created by this evolution in the new voices that ask questions about diversity and social justice. And yet, we still see a ‘solution’ type reaction to the current changing state of our sector which announces the monolithic, Fordist model as desirable (albeit in smaller form) – with the subsequent ramifications for ‘training’ and production of local talent. Experts talk about a mismatch of graduate skills and industry needs, insufficient linkages between industry and education providers and the need to explore opportunity for the now passing model in new spaces such as adver-games and serious games. Head counts of Australian industry don’t recognise trans media producers as being part of their purview or opportunity, they don’t count the rise of the cultural playful game inspired creative works as one of thier team. Such perspectives are indeed relevant to the Australian Games Industry, but what about the emerging Australian Games Sector? How do we enable a future in such a space? This emerging sector is perhaps best represented by Melbourne’s Freeplay audience: a heady mix of indie developers, players, artists, critical thinkers and industry. Such audiences are no longer content with an ‘industry’ alone; they are the community who already see themselves as an important, vibrant cultural sector. Part of the discussion presented here seeks to identify and understand the resources, primarily in the context of community and educational opportunities, available to the evolving sector now relying more on the creative processes. This creative process and community building is already visibly growing within the context of smaller development studios, often involving more multiskilling production methodologies where the definition of ‘game’ clealry evolves beyond the traditional one.
Making and Owning Future Serious Games for Defence – There’s an App for that – but an App Store as well
Dr Mike Brennan – Director General Simulation
Session description:
The defence industry and international defence forces have been amongst the first and most prolific adopters and users of serious game solutions. The Australian Defence Force is one of those early adopters, constantly exploring every opportunity to enhance capability through cutting edge initiatives. This presentation is a forward-thinking exploration of how Defence is using serious games now, how Australia’s allies are applying games and what does the growth path for increasing adoption look like. Defence has also maintained a healthy and interesting relationship with the video gaming industry and this presentation will explore where that relationship is going, particularly where it relates to applying standards and governance. Defence training, experimentation and evaluation determine national security and operational integrity. It’s a serious business that requires serious solutions.
Media Saints – The Journey of a Successful Startup
Michael Woods – Executive Producer, Media Saints
In this presentation I will analyse the startup success of Media Saints. The aim is to review some key business, creative & cultural decisions made that have enabled the business to successful operation today. In the presentation I will be breaking it down to around 10 major decisions that were hard decisions at the time, though in retrospect have been the enabling factor for our success.
Meeting the Needs of an Evolving Games Industry
Neil Boyd, Sebastian Perri, Epona Schweer – AIE
Session description:
Every day the games industry is changing and shifting around us. There are more games being made in a variety of sizes, genres and styles and the approach to game development changes from company to company. How do we meet the needs of an industry that is constantly reinventing itself? What can we do, as educators, to prepare graduates to both actively contribute to and grow the Australian industry?
Phil Larsen – Halfbrick Studios
Session description:
Many developers discussing the development of their next title agree that “Yeah! We have to do marketing!” without entirely understanding what that term as a whole actually means. This session will highlight one particular aspect of the marketing function – positioning. It is how the image of your company, and your game, will be viewed by consumers in relation to other games, competitors, and as a product on the marketplace. What makes your three-star physics puzzler so unique? Why should you theme your XBLA game with radioactive ponies instead of Amish pirates? Is making a radioactive pony game a dumb idea given the available research? You’ll find out about where you need to be making key decisions and gain some insight as to how to position your game, your company and your brands – with sexy results!
Video of Session
PR For Australian Game Developers – Tools to Build Your Profile and Success with the Right Audiences
Corrie McLeod – Espresso Communications
Session description:
PR can be an invaluable and cost effective tool for a company when done well or a waste of time and money when done poorly. This session has been designed to help attendees to ensure the former. It will provide attendees with the skills to implement PR activities that can help developers raise the profile of their company, bring new product releases to the attention of the right audiences and cut through traditional media and online noise. The session will include an overview of the media and influencer process and how to best work with it and how to develop a great media release that maps back to business messaging and strategy.
Attendees will take away practical materials that will help guide them through the process of announcing information to the media. This includes media release templates and tips, steps to develop a launch strategy and what to include in a media kit. They will also leave equipped with a framework for developing a set of key messages for their company that will help ensure clear and consistent messages throughout all communications.
Video of Session
Serious Games – A Vanilla Slice
John Welsh – Defence Program Manager, Sydac Pty Ltd; Owner, The Serious Games Consultancy
Session description:
There has been substantial hype with regards serious games (and all its derivatives); and much of it justifiable given the range of applications and increasing uptake associated with the subject. So why are serious games not yet the mainstream solutions that they have the potential to be? Serious Games are technologically and even socially a revolutionary capability. However, they are not a silver bullet, either for the video games industry or for those industries wishing to use them. Instead serious games are game changers…for every industry. This presentation is an introduction to the GCAP 11 serious games forum, focusing on the critical elements of serious games as both capability and business opportunity. Touching on the diversity of what’s currently available, this presentation provides a vertical slice of current applications, who are using them and why. In particular it establishes that the strength of serious games capability is in engagement. And that any successful engagement first needs a strong relationship.
Stop Building Games, Start Building Brands
Jesse Divnich – EEDAR
Session description:
With the revolution of tablet, social and mobile games, new business models are beginning to emerge that focus on smaller teams and lower development costs. This shift, however, is temporary and as these new markets mature established games brands will increasingly receive a bigger slice of the growing pie. Divnich’s presentation will provide an in-depth look at the power of brands, the role the brand equity plays in the purchasing decision process, and how independent developers can capitalize on these emerging technologies to create the powerhouse brands of tomorrow.
Video of Session
Streamlining Your Games Development Pipeline
Ben Kilsby – Holopoint; Kevin Schooler – Autodesk; Carl Callewaert – Unity and Simon Joslin – The Voxel Agents
Panel Session description:
An informative 1 hour panel discussion that gives you the chance to learn about pipeline modeling and the most efficient way to manage your workflow. Hear from leading technology vendors as well as your peers who have made pipeline optimisation into a fine art. Topics to be covered include:
- Overcoming workflow issues
- The ability to link between your game development tools
- What works the best (and what doesn’t)
- Build your own vs. off the shelf
- Ease of integration between the tools
- Q & A
Video of Panel Session
Video (Courtesy Tsumea)
Paul Callaghan, Chris Wright - Surprise Attack, and Morgan Jaffit
Panel Session description:
Submissions to any funding agency go through a process of assessment and evaluation that involves those administering the funds and outside experts who bring a range of experiences and lenses through which to view the applications. This panel brings together assessors who have worked for state and federal agencies, including Film Victoria, Screen Australia, and Industry and Investment NSW to share what they look for in an application, what works and doesn’t work, and how to make your submission stand out.
Video of Panel Session
Video (Courtesy Tsumea)
Amir Rao – Supergiant Games
Session description:
In this session Amir discusses how Supergiant Games created the award-winning, self-funded downloadable game Bastion.
After the studio cofounders quit their jobs at Electronic Arts, they set out to build a team, a technology base, and an original intellectual property from the living room of a house in suburban California. The session covers the company story, displays the early prototypes and outlines the strategies used to develop, market, and publish an original game from conception to certification.
Video of Keynote Session (and GCAP 2011 closing)
The Evolution of Audience Engagement
Richard Iwanuik – Bioware
Session description:
BioWare will discuss its history, lessons learned, and future plans in building and maintaining audience engagement at a time where customers and technology are evolving at an accelerating pace.
Video of Session
The Pros and Cons of Working With Established Video Game Publishers in the Age of Digital Distribution
Jim Willson – Konami Digital Entertainment
Session description:
A comprehensive overview of the benefits and drawbacks of distributing a title with a major video game publisher in the digital realm. The proliferation of digital distribution channels hasn’t resulted in a level playing field. These new channels can offer significant revenue opportunities but the lack of experience or knowledge regarding those channels can be signification barriers to success. Successful video game publishers still have the all important distribution relationships, marketing budgets and general expertise in the space that can many times mean the difference between a hit and a failure. Gesundheit!, the Revolutionary Concepts developed, Konami Digital Entertainment published iOS title will be examined as a case study.
The Rise of Free to Play on Mobile: Best Practices
Eros Resmini – OpenFeint
Session description:
Free to play developers successfully leveraged social features on Facebook to achieve viral game distribution, user acquisition and engagement. Recent changes to Facebook have limited what developers are able to do and as a result, the free to play market is rapidly shifting to mobile. Traditional developers are also transitioning to free to play to take advantage of what seems to be the winning business model on mobile.
Join Eros Resmini, SVP of Marketing and Developer Relations at OpenFeint, to learn about the implications of the rise of free to play games on mobile. He’ll provide an overview of the free to play model, explain why these titles are the highest grossing on the charts, and describe how community and social features can play a key role in the success of these games. Finally, he’ll discuss best practices on launching a free to play game and how to leverage channel and distribution partners.
Jean-Francois Prevost – Developer Account Manager for Asia Pacific, Microsoft
Session description:
Controller-free gaming affects menu design and in-game controls more than any other part of the game. This is new ground for most developer and in this talk we will introduce some “Rules of Kinect”, some guidelines that you should never lose sight of as you develop your Kinect games. We will explore several items that affect the gamers and therefore, the developers. This will not be a technical deep dive, but should be of interest for anyone on a development team that plans to work with Kinect.
The Simulation Industry & Serious Games – The Reality
Alisha Fisher – CEO, Simulation Australia
Session description:
Simulation Australia operates in a dynamic international environment, with a mandate to deliver national policy and support services for a range of businesses within the growing simulation community. The Training and Simulation Industry in Australia offers world-class capabilities at internationally competitive prices. The business environment promotes competition and innovation, enabling companies to provide best-value solutions to the world market. For over 14 years, Simulation Australia Limited (formerly the Simulation Industry Association of Australia Limited) had volunteers driving to extend the awareness of training and simulation. In April 2011, Simulation Australia employed a full-time team to meet the changing needs. Simulation Australia’s role as an industry leader is fundamental to our remaining relevant to current and future members. Our work must focus on pre-empting the requirements of industry and shaping systems that provide for supporting the industry through change. This presents many opportunities for securing our future and reducing our reliance on membership fees. We need to grow our international exposure and local exposure at National conferences with International attendees. In the next 12 months we will be investing resources to find out the real value of the simulation community in Australia and what the R&D investment is to keep competitive in an international arena.
Session description:
With so much of our development and playtime devoted to screens and technology, it’s easy to think that videogames are a screen medium with the same, or at least similar enough, strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities for storytelling, or that they’re a technology industry trying to build better, faster, smarter, widgets or tools for creating widgets. Anyone working in games has, at some point, suspected if not outright known that this isn’t the case. This talk looks at other lenses through which to view games, and along the way wonders aloud what it might look like if we broke away from the reliance on screen culture and the surrounding dialogue – and also what we might need to start telling ourselves and others as part of that shift.
Presentation
Screen Australia’s State of Play
Dr Ruth Harley – CEO, Screen Australia
Session description:
Screen Australia presents the key threats and opportunities facing the Australian game industry. The game industry is currently undergoing fundamental industrial, technological and cultural shifts. This report synthesizes original research and secondary sources of industry information to map options for Government support to best leverage the advantages of the local industry and position Australia as a leading hub of interactive entertainment development.
Screen Australia has undertaken qualitative and quantitative research: interviewing heads of local development studios, commissioning executives from major international publishers and local film and television producers, and undertaking economic modeling in partnership with PwC.
Understanding the Chinese Mobile Market
Shainiel Deo – CEO, Halfbrick & Jeff Lyndon – Executive Director, iDreamsky
Panel Session description:
This panel session will provide an overview of the complex Chinese mobile marketplace and offer insights into how to effectively bring your games to this massive potential audience. Panel members from Halfbrick and iDreamSky will outline the potential pitfalls and opportunities associated with releasing game in China using Fruit Ninja as a case study.
Who Says the Australian Video Game Market is Dead? It Doesn’t Even Smell Funny.
Panel Discussion
Jay Wilbur – Epic Games, Jim Willson – Konami, Rod Fung – Microsoft, Tom Crago – Tantalus
Video of Session
Working with Humans – Tools for Talking when Communication is Difficult
Epona Schweer – Academy of Interactive Entertainment
Session description:
We are good at many things as game developers. We craft fantastic worlds to delight and inspire! We create experiences that beg to be retold again and again. We give internet trolls a reason to live and something to flame about! But what happens when the art we asked for comes back three weeks late and doesn’t match the brief? Or when our programmer insists he should be paid more than the sound designer? Or when the team you’re managing works across three different time zones and everyone seems to be working on a different game? When it comes to making great games sometimes the most critical moments won’t be decided by code, art or design but will come down to your skills with people.
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