Free Play: The Next Wave Independent Game Developers Conference
15 - 17 July 2005
Presented by the Next Wave Festival and the Australian Centre Moving Image with support from Multimedia Victoria and the Australian Film Television and Radio School
Free Play is not far away so here are a few little updates before the weekend.
INTERNATIONAL GUESTS
We are proud to announce our 3 international speakers, who will be delivering keynote speeches as well as participating in a range of panels and discussions over the conference. They are:
Greg Costikyan www.costik.com/weblog
Inducted into the Adventure Gaming Hall of Fame for a lifetime of accomplishment in the field, Greg Costikyan has designed more than 30 commercially published board, roleplaying, computer, online, and mobile games over a 30 year career. He has won five Origins Awards and his games have been selected on more than a dozen occasions for the Games 100, Games magazine's annual roundup of the best 100 games in print.
A prolific writer on games, game design, and game industry business issues for publications including Wall Street Journal Interactive, the New York Times, Salon, and Game Developer magazine, Costikyan is the author of two analyst's reports on online games. Currently, he is a games researcher for Nokia Research Center, Nokia's research arm.
Kieron Gillen www.kierongillen.com
Inspired equally by the irreverent anarchism of Amiga Power and prime-cut Melody Maker, Kiron wrote Hatezine Darcy?s On The Pull. As part of the International Pop Underground his work resulted in him being slapped around the chops by some of the leading figures in post-Bis Glitterpop. He soon found gainful employ in Britain?s leading PC videogame magazine, PC Gamer. Eventually he went freelance, a situation where he finds himself today. Let?s just say his writings have appeared in every respectable videogame magazine in the land and most of the disrespectable ones too.
Null Pointer
Check out his work at www.nullpointer.co.uk
SESSIONS TO GET EXCITED ABOUT
We know you?re all waiting for the full conference schedule, so just to tease you, here are the titles of four of the sessions:
Back to the 80s: What we can learn from the halcyon days of indie game development
Making a Living from Modding ? the new Valve and Unreal licencing rules
Is my game degree worth the paper its printed on? Students evaluate and compare game dev courses
PSP Hacking Workshop
The full program will be on the Free Play website next week, and we promise its jam packed full of great panels, debates, workshops, and more, not to mention the social functions!
CONFERENCE DETAILS
Tickets are selling fast, and last year Free Play sold out, so don?t forget to book your tickets in advance.
If you?re interested in being part of the conference or if the tickets are just too expensive we?re also still looking for volunteers. Email alex@nextwave.org.au to sign up for a shift and you?ll get a complementary Free Play pass.
Please pass this information on to any indy gamer pals and ask them to subscribe by emailing gamers@nextwave.org.au
More news soon, have a great weekend,
From the Free Play team
Free Play: The Next Wave Independent Game Developers Conference
15 - 17 July 2005
Presented by the Next Wave Festival and the Australian Centre Moving Image with support from Multimedia Victoria and the Australian Film Television and Radio School
What: Free Play: The Next Wave Independent Game Developers? Conference
Where: ACMI , Federation Square, Flinders Street, Melbourne.
When: 15 ? 17 July, 10am ? 7pm
Admission: 3-day passes: $50 full, $35 concession
1-day pass $20 full, $15 concession
Bookings: Ph: (03) 8663 2583, http://www.acmi.net.au/ticketing.htm
For more information on Free Play contact Jane Hindson on 03 9662 1099, gamers@nextwave.org.au or visit www.free-play.org
I don?t have a problem with booking the full-day pass as it is only $50 ? I have already done so. What I have a problem with, and why I am more than a little annoyed at there not being even a rough program up yet and speaker list, is booking the plane down and then back up and the hotel room I?ll be staying in.
I have no problems losing out on $50 if I decide that the event is not worth going to, but, I?d have a problem with spending all up $450-500 and then realizing that the event is not worth the trouble of attending, as it just has nothing interesting for me to do so ? which is why I have decided on a flight up and down and which hotel, but haven?t booked yet.
The longer or closer to the event you put off displaying a program for, the more likelihood that I will have to pay more in the way of a plane ticket and hotel room, due to losing out on special early-bird rates, or having to go with more expensive providers as my first choices are booked out ? due to being unsure whether to attend or not as there is no program and speaker list yet.
And I think you guys have done this on purpose, reasoning that the bulk of your attendees will be from Melbourne anyway, and will decide to attend a day or two before the event starts. So there is no reason for you to make the effort for those that attend interstate, as those that will are the hardcore type anyway, and are bound to come.
Don?t bother to deny it, I won?t believe you anyway. And I don?t think this is a conscious thing for you guys, more of a subconscious action.
I am skeptical that you guys will put on a better event than last year?s ? perhaps not even as good as last years, and a bit too art-house in nature ? it all seems a little last moment and half-arsed to me.
I?m hoping that I am wrong though.
Also, even if I am one of those hardcore types that will attend anyway, I still need to have a rough idea as to what the program is, that way I can figure out whether I am going to attend one day, two days or all three days. As this will affect which flights (or train and bus) that I am going to take down and up ? meaning day and time ? and which dates I will need to book my hotel room for.
Until the program is up, I won?t know what this will finally be.
Well what do you know, it doesn?t look too shabby based on the program that is up at the moment. I think I?ll be attending this shindig after all [8D]. Now I can get all my bookings out of the way.
Anyone who is attending and is looking to establish a project should attend the session on Sunday the 17th of July called: Getting Publisher attention. I?m not sure about Mike Fegan but Antony Reed is someone you will want to have a chat with and pinch a business card from ;).
looks like there will be some great content but personally id still like to see a program before booking.