one of the most fun and enlightening experiences for me and my personal goals. i had so much fun talking to everyone, i got to see melbourn which was lovely, and i became more comfortable about my ideals and directions that im headed.
my fav talks were (in order of showing)
Managing a mod project
"Crunch time" or time to get a life?
Harvy Smith
David Michael
Building the Independent Game Development Community
soo much information.. so little time,,
and thanks heaps to the nocturnal crew for that breakfast, imho that was an excellent touch
things i would like to have improved, was break times. time for lunch and dinner,, and if the weather is good, having a talk in a park i think is a good idea(mostly unfeesable i just like greenery:)
thanks everyone for allowing me to be apart of your lives(attendee's included) and i hope to see you all on irc.uq.edu.au #sumea and definatly next year for another great conference.[:D]
I enjoyed the time i spent there (on sunday), unfortunately all the talks i really wanted to see were on friday and saturday!
The game ai workshop was a bit of a let down.
The audience of the game dev grads talk seemed to do more talking than the panel for the short time i was there! and it was quite amusing to watch Lorien(?)s personal vendetta against the AIE (or just game dev schools with close industry ties in general perhaps).
The physics talk was well done, but aimed at quite a newbie audience, which was unfortunate for the less newbie people there, and quite a few people left :P
The other talks i attended where very good, the one about starting up/managing a game dev studio in the morning (nocturnal was a very interesting discussion) was well done.
The expo at the end was good too.
There were a lot more people than i expected!
Hope it happens again next year, you can't beat that price :)
CYer, Blitz
It was great to meet all those fellow-sumeans (and new/future fellow-sumeans [;)]) who were able to make it to the conference. Had about 10 people at the meet on Thursday night, it was fun playing spot-the-game-developer-wandering-lost-through-the-food-court :) Got myself a Sumea T-shirt from Souri - if you've got the money, grab yourself one of these - they've got a really nice design and are very good quality.
Some really inspiring stuff - esp hearing from Harvey Smith (Deus Ex designer) on his thoughts about his experiences in the/ideas about industry (Jacana, a bunch of other friends and I managed to kidnap him to hear his presentation the day after - for the second time for some of us, it was particularly good) I will post the URL for his talk once he puts his notes up on the web.
We took a vote on the pronunciation of "Sumea" in the building the igd community session - "Sumeeah" won by a rather large margin over "Sumee Aye" :)
Lots of other great sessions too - the organisers did a wonderful job with the conference. Definitely looking forward to next year's!
Freeplay was good fun :) Loved it.
There were some issues with venues with some of the smaller talks having more people then the big talk. The two hours per a talk could get a bit long at times when there is no break. Also, the overlapping times for the talks could be a bit of a pain.
The conference was in no way perfectly organised - but was wonderful! Everyone I talked to would come back next year, as would I.
There were a few talks that I managed to catch in full. One of the best was the Women in Dev talk. There was some amazing talent up on that panel. It was great to listen to some of their views on how things go! They were all extremely intelligent and beautful :) I think there is going to be some women in dev stuff picking up in the near future.
The game dev grad talk was interesting ;) As Maitrek said, it did not really answer if they are good to go to or not. But then I don't have that answer. As everyone saw Lorien had a very different view of the AIE then I did. At the end of the day it's a different experience for each person.
What I do think everyone on the panel agreed with was that Uni is a good option and no one should overlook going to Uni for places like Qantm or AIE.
One thing I was never able to understand from everything. At the drinks friday night beer and basic spirits were free. I order a coke (no spirits) and am charged $2. I order a coke with spirits and it is free.
The conference was "down-to-earth". That was the wonderful part. There were no name tags to label people with a company or such. Everyone was just a person.
And one of the most memorable things (as CW already said) was that Harvey gave us his speach over again the next night. That was just amazing. I was just very impressed with how accessable he made himself to everyone and how genuine he was as well as about what he did.
I am not sure if we scared him or not walking back to his motel room. Oh that was just so much fun ;)
quote:Originally posted by Blitz
The audience of the game dev grads talk seemed to do more talking than the panel for the short time i was there! and it was quite amusing to watch Lorien(?)s personal vendetta against the AIE (or just game dev schools with close industry ties in general perhaps).
I went to the AIE with Lorien, he was one of your programmers. He has personal vendetta against just about everything. No a very happy man.
The AIE is a very laid back place and because of this you only get out what you put in, so for someone like myself which put in a all I could, ended up my dream job. And for others which didn't put all that much in are not working in the industry. So anyone which is thinking about going to the AIE and willing to put in the time you will get a job out of it.
Heh that game dev grads was a bit of entertainment wasnt it, but it was also probably the most benifical to me. Someone mentioned that we needed more time for lunch and stuff, i agree. We went out for lunch after the dev grads talk and missed out on two because we had such a mob and everyone was talking and generally in no hurry to get back :P
oh yea! forgot to add that Souri was a party man for the conference.
I happen to have a short video I took with my mobile of him looking rather hung over the first day of the conference. I am only charging $5 a copy ;)
I think there was mention that on Sunday Souri had breakfast and made it into the conference about 1:20pm ;)
Hope everyone got back ok.
[img]http://www.planetunreal.com/rahnem/images/Dsc00260.jpg[/img]
I have blisters on my feet from walking around Melbourne so much. [:D]
Souri was indeed enjoying himself - I would like to thank him personally for "encouraging" me to get drunk on Friday evening. Maitrek was not impressed when I staggered back into our hotel room.
On the whole, the conference was fantastic. I was lucky enough to meet a few of you and, without exception, everyone from Sumea was amazingly cool & friendly. With that said, it would've been great to have more time allotted to social activities.
Most awesome experience: having the oppurtunity to waste fifteen minutes of Harvey Smith's life with my inane fan-boy ramblings.
I'd also like to second CombatWombat's endorsement of the Sumea T-Shirts - they're a bargain, and guaranteed to improve your social life*.
(* - results may vary)
quote:Originally posted by Jacana
I happen to have a short video I took with my mobile of him looking rather hung over the first day of the conference. I am only charging $5 a copy ;)I think there was mention that on Sunday Souri had breakfast and made it into the conference about 1:20pm ;)
*shakes fist at mobile* I got to the conference at 3pm on Sunday.
Here are the two pics from the Sumea dinner. No photoshopping please.
[img]http://www.sumea.com.au/simagesmisc/sumeans1.jpg[/img]
[img]http://www.sumea.com.au/simagesmisc/sumeans2.jpg[/img]
Well, I'm the guy who's obviously posessed in that last photo (didn't even need to write a pixel shader to get that cool glowing effect with my eyes ;-)
In the first photo, Souri is the guy on the right.
In the second, 2nd from left is Maitrek, 4th is Jacana, 5th Tachyon, 6th Soul, 7th Tykeil, and on the right, MoonUnit. Argh, it's hard translating back to sumea names from real names :)
ok im sorry ive forgotten a name or two and ive probably got some people mixed up but ill do my best, in rahnems photo im the guy in the skelleton T-shirt on the very right, guess which one is jacana and davids posted here once or twice, hes the guy in the brown T-shirt smack in the centre. As for souris photos marks pretty much told you whos who. lol mark you look like your concentrating hard on some sort of evil telepathy with your eyes there
note theres some people in those pics that arent from sumea, jacanas friends who assure me theyll be popping up on sumea any day now :P
you can see the kind of fine dining we got up to, pubs and fast food :P, ah nothing like a 10 dollar budget. and i just gotta say that now that i have something of an arial view in rahnems photo, your right david... our table set-up really does look.... odd ;)
didnt someone take another photo of us in that pub where were all near where andrews sitting in that photo, was that you rahnem? (or atleast your camera, you dont get away with not having your mug put up)
Since this is a new page on the thread, I think I'll post some more pics..
[img]http://www.sumea.com.au/simagesmisc/igdc1.jpg[/img]
Room 1 - Virsual : Rocking Horse presentation
[img]http://www.sumea.com.au/simagesmisc/igdc2.jpg[/img]
Room 1 - Multimedia Victoria / Film Victoria presentation
[img]http://www.sumea.com.au/simagesmisc/igdc3.jpg[/img]
Room 1 - Harvey Smith, just about to sit down for his talk
[img]http://www.sumea.com.au/simagesmisc/igdc4.jpg[/img]
Room 1 - Friday night - AIE/Torus drinks. I saw Jacana coming so I hid behind the pillar and took a photo just as she walked through
[img]http://www.sumea.com.au/simagesmisc/igdc5.jpg[/img]
The infamous unhappy stickman "do not use lift" sign. This was at the bottom of the exhausting hike upstairs to the conference
[img]http://www.sumea.com.au/simagesmisc/igdc6.jpg[/img]
The AIE guys in the Lan room playing Urban Terror
[img]http://www.sumea.com.au/simagesmisc/igdc7.jpg[/img]
The chalk shows the way towards room 3
[img]http://www.sumea.com.au/simagesmisc/igdc8.jpg[/img]
Can't remember which talk this was (the room was full so I left), but that's Harvey Smith in room 3
[img]http://www.sumea.com.au/simagesmisc/igdc9.jpg[/img]
International Space Monkey Patrol made the men's toilets that much safer
Hey I don't have a "personal vendetta against the AIE"! I don't know how many times I've said it now. AFAIK this phrase comes from the AIE. I don't see anyone saying DK has a "personal vendetta against universities"...
And as for Doord's comments: thanks dude. You're a real pal too you know. Perhaps it was mellow for you: I remember some of the artists having liquid lunches, and plenty could be relied on to put in a good hour of work a day, two and a half days a week.
The Hail programmers have a very different perspective than the artists. Perhaps ask one. I asked everyone except H.
Just for the record: I don't think I missed a single day, I worked on Hail 7 days a week, I worked on Hail at home til late, and I worked on Hail *after* it was "finished": who was it who fixed most of the remaining bugs and prepared the download edition? I was publicly thanked on the Hail website for my efforts.
I thought Doord was an arrogant little shit while I was there and my opinion hasn't changed.
BTW Jacana and I didn't fight (even though I managed to spill beer all over her on the first night), we hugged. I quite like her and I think she quite likes me. No war there. Sorry for those who wanted blood.
As for the conference IMHO it was fantastic, interesting, informative, controversial and fun. I really hope it happens again. I found Ian Bell's comments on violence in games to be one of the highlights, as was the "women in games" panel (I'm a "he" btw).
quote:Originally posted by lorien
I found Ian Bell's comments on violence in games to be one of the highlights
Damn, I missed that bit - didn't realise Ian Bell was at the conference even... (Co-creator of elite for those who don't know the name)
Ah well, perhaps next year :)
Was cool to see at least one game exploring non-violence (Escape from Woomera). Well it forces non-violence by the sounds, but anything else and they would have got lynched by OFLC and the media, I guess...
Hmm perhaps there's a topic for a future Free-Play.
quote:Originally posted by lorien
I remember some of the artists having liquid lunches, and plenty could be relied on to put in a good hour of work a day, two and a half days a week.The Hail programmers have a very different perspective than the artists. Perhaps ask one. I asked everyone except H.
I thought Doord was an arrogant little shit while I was there and my opinion hasn't changed.
I know the programmers worked hard never said they didn't (a game engine in 4-5 month amazing.) And maybe the little amount of work these artist done is the reason they are not working in the industry now.
quote:Originally posted by lorien
He was on the "Politics of Games, Political Games and Political Art Mods" panel.
Ah yeah I really wanted to go to that one. Alas, I don't have anti-gravity mods on my wheelchair :-) The AIE canberra crowd were suggesting lots of mods that I could put on the chair tho (I think the fore-mounted cattle prod was probably the best tho :)
quote:Originally posted by lorienAnd EFW *did* get lynched by the a lot of the media and government :)
Well, I mean, can you imagine what the response would have been if you could attack the guards? [:0]
quote:Originally posted by Rahnem
[img]http://www.planetunreal.com/rahnem/images/Dsc00260.jpg[/img]
From Left to Right (around the table)
Andrew (from AIE - non Sumea)
Ed (brother of Rahnem - non Sumea)
Daniel (Fred on chat)
Anthony (from AIE - non Sumea - in the back)
Dave (kingofdaveness? on Sumea)
Me!
Derick (from AIE - non Sumea)
Moonunit
Rahnem is behind the camera - which I notice you didn't post one of yourself!!! *poke*
I think it was a great oppurtunity, much like the AGDC only affordable, to meet up with other people in the game development industry either independent, commercial or otherwise. Also I think that everyone was quite happy to talk candidly about the state of anything, the talks were very informal and the social gatherings (both of which I missed cause I was feeling sick, damnit!) and the expo were great for just chatting to other people in the 'community' (a word I wouldn't usually associate with game developers).
As much as we all say that we can just email each other if we want to work together, it is nice to meet up face to face and not act like we are all against each other.
Now if we could just tone down the cynical factor a little it would've been perfect :)
As far as the talks go, Harvey Smith's talk was very intrigueing (sp?), I had a chance to chat with him at the expo which was excellent. Also the Game Dev Grads tell all was partly entertainment, partly informative - pity no one could really say whether it was worth the $6000-$7000 per year! We definitely need to have a forum based on building this independent community.
Unfortunately I can't remember too many of the talks as I was so tired over the whole weekend.
And Souri - you missed the massive 'Souri-Love-Festival' during the Building the Independent Game Development Community talk on the Sunday...hahaha!