General Chat

Cool, thanks for the heads-up.

It was an interesting watch :)

I couldn't watch it because my stupid TV doesn't pick up channel 2. I just found the full transcript of the show as well as the streaming version to watch online, so I'm off to view it now

I like it. I like it a lot. I think I will have to upgrade my computer to play it though.

wow, a pretty decent looking living city, imagine if they put all that effort into something that wasn't just a boring shoot em up....

Seriously though, I've never liked the games, not because I'm a morale elitist or don't like the odd drive by. I'm as taken by guns and boobs as the next guy.
Its just I've always felt the games have sold themselves short.

I know they sold bazillions and all the GTA fan boys will love this but man I'd love to see them add a decent story and some depth to the gameplay and characters for a change.
They are the only developers close to a realizing a fully 3D interactive city/world with some decent human interaction and it always comes down to you becoming a glorified gun totting delivery boy with a sordid past....yawn.

Fingers crossed.

I know what you mean Malus, the stories could be more compelling. I admit that the story lines have never been motivational enough for me to actually finished a GTA (I assume there is a finish?) but it really is an awesome game for city hooning action.

[QUOTE=Malus] wow, a pretty decent looking living city, imagine if they put all that effort into something that wasn't just a boring shoot em up....

They are the only developers close to a realizing a fully 3D interactive city/world with some decent human interaction and it always comes down to you becoming a glorified gun totting delivery boy with a sordid past....yawn.
[/QUOTE]

I agree with you that the story isn't as engaging as other games, but, i think that can be a positive aspect to the game too. When i come home from work and i just want some fun fast action without too much thinking involved, there isn't too many games out there that could beat the GTA series as just pure damn simplistic fun.

My hope is that they learn from MTA (Multi Theft Auto) and that other online mod for GTASA which actually kept stats and you could bank your money and log in the next day with all your cash.

Yeh, I'm hoping they'll do something to spruce up the gameplay a lot more, and make the experience a bit deeper. I think a lot of people are well accustomed to the GTA gameplay formula, and the open sandbox idea has been copied and improved a lot upon in many various ways since San Andreas, so it's a bit hard to get excited about that kind of gameplay. No developer really has made the next huge break through, I think.

San Andreas had a tonne of stuff to do, and the map was unbelievably huge. But I think what's needed isn't more content with better graphics. I'd be hugely disappointed if all you could do in IV is the standard escort / deliver, assassinate, chase / escape, race etc plus side missions missions that we've come to expect. To me, GTA has become a sort of quick brainless mini-game experience and I want something more cerebrally challenging and deeper in that huge world. What Team Bondi have mentioned about L.A Noire and the detective nature of the game and all that entails (communicating with npc's, puzzle elements) etc sounds highly interesting.

There are some new details at this naughty site which has put up some magazine scans of a feature on GTA IV...

I guess what i really want to see is the implementation of a deformable environment. Red Faction 2 on PS2 proved that this offers a lot of good fun and some interesting possibilities.

I think it would be really cool to have missions where you have to rob a bank or something along those lines, although you go in rob it, you come out to realise the police are out the front waiting for you, what do you do?
You blow a hole in the wall and escape via the freshly made tunnel.
I think another idea based on the deformable terrain could be that sure, you can blow ANYTHING up, but you come back in 2 - 3 game days and you see workmen fixing the hole. Perhaps they could include some sort of weakpoints on building in which instead of having to run in and destroy a platoon of enemies, you could investigate where the structural weakpoint of the building is and level it that way (obviously it would be more of a challenge that i would care to explain) but i think it's little things like that which keep me playing these games for so long.

I think stuff like that, would add to the complexity of the game, without destroying it's core appeal and fun.

That's my two cents anyway.junkers2007-05-03 16:15:08

Small Update :

Adrian and some of the crew from http://www.notrees.org will be joining us at The Moon for drinks.

They do art stuff so will probably be wearing berets or drinking french wine. For those of you into interactive media etc I recommend checking out their site and/or their G03 setup.

If your artistic you can also enter some of the competitions they have going there for demos, art and music and win money, which you could then use to buy Matt, Brett and I drinks.

In other news, Brett says he's not getting enough prank calls or dodgy text messages, and encourages everyone to call him at strange hours and sing me the Pina Colada Song.

I saw the article! You must be chuffed at getting some media exposure.

I really like the idea of the gaming devices that use accessible platforms, although I was under the impression that none are sold in Australia :(

I believe the official Australian distributor is at http://gp2x.net.au/

Ok, I spoke too soon.. The link to the Sony presentation is at this link:
http://au.gamespot.com/pages/features/onthespot/index.php?om_act=conver…

If you're lucky, you might get though.
Souri2007-03-07 23:32:45

That is Champagne Comedy.

*head asplodes*

Was waiting for this game for a while now, might pick it up when it comes out.

Hey, found this on Bondi Beach.. not bad

Street performer at Circular Quay. The detail you can see is truly nuts.Souri2007-03-01 20:05:02

And to bring the tone down to depressing check out this link and zoom in:

Amazon rainforest clearing

If you zoom out until the whole of south America is on screen its still noticeable, a man made scar visible from space .... we don't deserve this planet.Malus2007-03-02 05:14:05

those are awesome ( except the rainforest one :( )

There's Kao the Kangaroo.

Taz, the Tasmanian Tiger? Did you mean Ty, the Tasmanian Tiger? o_O

As for a game that represented Australian culture, you have to list Aussie Games by Melbourne House!

Ah, I meant Taz the Tasmanian Devil games. But Kao the Kangaroo is good too.

"Aussie Games" is a perfect example. Very interesting I think.

I should also add the various AFL, cricket and rugby games from EA, as well as that cricket statistic "game" (man that's dredging up my memory from a while ago).

Thanks and keep 'em coming.

Well, this is probably not quite what you're looking for, but Escape from Monkey Island (the fourth and most recent installment of Monkey Island) featured a villain named Ozzie Mandrill, an Australian entrepreneur who had arrived in the Caribbean to buy out the local businesses. He's presented as a parody of Australians (and probably a reference to Rupert Murdoch) hurling around insults that no-one can comprehend, like "You've got kangaroos in your back paddock!".

This may be worth looking into, as Monkey Island is a huge franchise and Escape from Monkey Island is full of Australian-themed jokes (albeit, directed at an American audience).

That's exactly the sort of stuff I'm looking for ... representations of Australians (and our culture) in computer games, preferably Australian-made but also from overseas.

The Aussie entrepreneur character is interesting because I reckon you're right that it's almost entirely due to Rupert Murdoch - it must be weird to be the template for a stereotype.

Thanks!

I am shocked that you didn't mean Ty, the Tasmanian Tiger

You need him on that list, pronto.

Apols to Krome Studios!

Victoria by Paradox Interactive has some early Aussie politics in the form of events which go through our Federation.

Hearts of Iron and the sequel from the same studio contains a lot of information on Aussie World War 2 leaders, and how our political situation was stuck between US and UK.

Happy to be of help. Here's a couple more that came to mind.

Firstly, Brisbane-based developer Dimsdale & Kreozot (you'll find them in the Sumea Developer listing) released Tito: Brisbane City Hijinks, apparently set in Brisbane during the late nineteenth century.

I'm pretty sure Crash Bandicoot was supposed to be an Australian character, although it's been a while since I've played one, so I can't remember if the accent made this obvious.

Aha! While writing this, I found this Wikipedia category, which I believe will be of use to you.

Heya, I tried to email you but I am not privelidged,
I read your post on the sumea forum. We are in Chch NZ and are making a galiopoli game at school. Any chance of having a look at what you made?

Cool.Thanks.Best you email me if your into letting me have a look..
AC
remedydub@gmail.com

There was a few Aussie content games dveloped by Torus... An HRT Bathurst game, Dick Johnson racing game and another (can't remember the name) that was a PC version of an Aussie sheep farming (board) game.

[QUOTE=dodgyville] That's exactly the sort of stuff I'm looking for ... representations of Australians (and our culture) in computer games, preferably Australian-made but also from overseas.[/QUOTE]

In that case, Rugby League for PS2/Xbox/PC, Rugby League 2 for PS2/Xbox/PC, and Melbourne Cup Challenge for PS2/Xbox/PC by Sidhe Interactive :)

On a somewhat related note, you might be interested in reading Kipper's blog entries on Australian Games Are UnAustralian. Why That Sucks.

It's a seven part essay, and you can see the other parts linked on the column on the right..

Need backwards compatibility for me to buy.

The Playstation is for the kids and I'm not having two consoles hanging around the TV (they don't clean up the one they have anyway!)

BC is now being done via software emulation rather than hardware (as they removed the chip). This is the same as how the Xbox 360 is doing it.

No word yet on how many games will be BC at launch, and no doubt updates to the software will come in the future. So all this kafuffle that some people are making of this may be for nothing. I say wait until Sony releases a list to compare to the hardware version then worry.LiveWire2007-02-28 23:05:04

Bloody_footy, you're getting a Playstation 3 for the kids? Damn, they're very lucky

BC hasn't really been a huge selling point for me when it comes to consoles, but I do realize that it is of a major convenience to a lot of people. I know a lot of people are a bit miffed that we, as well as the Europeans, are getting a pretty raw end of the deal where we're paying more for the console than the Japanese/US, but we're getting it months later and minus the hardware for PS2 backwards compatibility.

"Bloody_footy, you're getting a Playstation 3 for the kids? Damn, they're very lucky"
At home we have 2 PC's (and a server but that's not to be touched) and there are 4 of us that want to use them.
We got the youngest one a Nintendo DS and that keeps her off the PC but that still makes 3 of us fighting over 2 PC's so the PS3 will help :)bloody_footy2007-03-01 13:29:51

Sony has settled with Immersion concerning the lawsuit over the rumble technology in the Playstation Dualshock controllers, and both companies sorta dart around any info about a PS3 Dualshock controller but say they both look foward to the "potential" of new products.

http://biz.gamedaily.com/industry/feature/?id=15399

Geez, there certainly been some interesting PS3 news lately. It seems Kotaku has caused a bit of a ruckus by posting a rumour about Sony's online "Mii" like avatars and achievement features. Well, Sony warned them not to post it and now they've cut all PR ties with Kotaku. From Slashdot.

Kotaku posts Sony Rumour
Kotaku gets blackballed (I've never heard of that term before o_O)

and before you know it...

Sony and Kotaku make upSouri2007-03-01 18:43:19

110 hours total clocked for a week is pretty bad, but thankfully he only experienced that once. Not to say that his experience during crunch time was bad, but I've heard of much, much worse than this. Consider seven days a week, for three months straight!

he could change to be a developer and get to experence those sorts of conditions more regularly. can be a bit scarry seening the degredation in the quality of code programmers write with lack of sleep though.

Theres no excuse for these type of hours, its 1 of 2 things, greed or mismanagement.

I've been very lucky that all the projects I have worked on have had very little crunch overtime, no more than is reasonable considering the nature of games.

Doh! wheres the Melbourne gamers meetup :(

I moved out of Canberra cause it was always being left out :P

A Melbourne one will be happening early-mid march, will post details as soon as its confirmed :)

so when's the canberra one? :) Surely we have as many guys as Sydney..... maybe....GuyBrave2007-02-12 00:56:52

damn. ive got an engagement party that night (not mine), but if i could go, i would TOTALLY win Wii tennis.

Well it's pretty much all setup and ready to go. Yes we have a BBQ, if you want food then BYO meat for it of course.

Here's a few pics of the setup as it is now, just for anyone who is still pondering whether to go or not:

Yes, we have a ball pit

Singstar - oh cmon, you know you love it

The balcony - ready to rock

The view from the balcony - thats the Sunbar and Sun Apartments on the corner there by the way.

We have my trusty dance lights and smoke machine for when the sun goes down.

And the digital projector on the balcony, which will be hooked up to the Wii with 4 wiimotes and an Xbox 360.

Directions, for anyone who still can't find the place.

That's it from me, hope to see you all here soon!!

BALL POOL!!

oh THATS where it is. i nearly moved into the penthouse in the sun apartments when i was looking for apartments in the area, but chose to squat over at Spring Hill. locals ftw!

Well, what an awesome event! For a full writeup of the night, go here:

http://www.australiangamer.com/feature/191...ers_meetup.html

To check out all the photos go here:

http://www.australiangamer.com/screenshots.php?id=191

And to view the videos go here:

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=B73B145C5686AE7A

Here's a few photos from the night as well for those who are too lazy:

Yug2007-02-25 20:40:15

while that looks like it was a sweet party, it appears to lack Guitar Hero.

I had Guitar Hero 2, but lacked the guitars I'm afraid. It wasn't that big a problem, as Singstar was on the entire night.

It looks like an awesome time was had by all

How did this go? Unfortunately I couldn't make it as I was working that night.

Welcome! Don't be shy :)

- Doble

I'm not sure why it's intimidating for new members to post! The posters are a friendly and helpful bunch here (well, in the forums, anyway )

Thanks for the suggestion, I've made this thread the hello / introduction thread for everyone to post in, regular members included!

I guess should lead by example. I'm Souri, tireless administrator and owner of Sumea. Been at this gig for almost five years now, and have seen the industry grow in leaps and bounds since the site first popped up in 2002. I've actually been keen to learn about the local industry long before that (which explains why I had saved some of Beams website from around '99 or why I remember visiting Tantalus's website where they had a comic adventures of some Greek god, and the requirement for modellers to send in for a job was a 200 polygon car!). To pinpoint exactly when the local games industry fascinated me was when I first found out that "The Way of the Exploding Fist" on the C64 was developed in Australia, and after that a bunch of Queenslanders made a point 'n click adventure Amiga game called "Flight of the Amazon Queen".

Hi my name is Neffy i am the commander of green aliens !

I'm working full time as a level designer at Redtribe on there recently announced game Looney tunes, which is uber cool. I studied for 2 years at AIE Canberra where I designed and was lead artist for the bestest game in the world Jungle Escape which is about a green alien.

I?m currently craving Dim Sims and home time. Neffy2007-02-04 22:52:07

MMM, dim sims! Hi, I'm killa and I like 3dsmax, daft punk, unreal ed, uTa clan and this thread. I dislike Mondays, traffic lights and pod noobz.   

Hi all. :)

I'm Dale, been around for a while but more as a reader. Should really post more eh? ;)

Anyways, for the last two years I've been working with Firaxis Games on Civilization VI, Warlords, CivCity and an as yet un-announced product. I also worked on Arabian Lords by Breakaway Games. My involvement has been on the scenario design side, which has resulted in Firaxis letting me do something HUGE which I'll be able to tell you more details about later. :)

But unfortunately it doesn't pay the bills (part-time no-pay high-exposure gig) so I'm doing senior sys admin stuff as well whilst looking for a full-time games job in Melbourne. Just hoping the Firaxis stuff pays off sometime soon. :)

Dale

Greetings and salutations, my name is Kane.

I have been floating around Sumea for quite some time, but of late I have not been quite as active as I have been in the past.

For the passed few years I have been studying a Bachelor of Computing at the University of Tasmania in Launceston, and with any luck I will complete it this year.

I am also the winner of one of the Sumea Programming Challenges from a few years back, where I won by default because no one else entered.

I am currently craving Alicia Silverstone, and always craving home time.

Y helo thar!

I am Doble, I just recently finished a course in 3D and I'm now looking for work while tutoring part time at my college.

I like long walks on the beach, evenings by the fire, and pwning noobs.

I'm a gamer by heart, and as such I'm looking for work in the games industry, im currently working on improving my showreel to increase my chances of getting work.

I'm craving caffiene, and chocolate.

- Doble

Hello, I'm David.
I'm a 2006 AIE grad (same class as Neffy and Guybrave) currently working at Eye Candy, doing stuff n things.

I dig cats and game art.

Hadoken

wow..... I _swear_ I already posted to this thread.... but there it is, not there with all the others.......

oh well....

My name is Shane and I studied at the AIE last year with Neffy and Shika (dont think any of the other lazy bums post here)....

I am currently working as a level designer at Micro Forte in Canberra on something or other..... probably some sort of game.....

I like good things, and Im not a big fan of most bad things.... purple monkey dishwasher

Well I guess I'd better introduce myself now ;)

Hi, I'm Laura.
I was born in little old Adelaide but I moved to Melbourne to study a BA in games graphics design at RMIT. I'm in my second year and absolutely loving it! Video games are my life and I'm also a self confessed geek. I hope I can get a job in Melbourne after I finish my course, or else I'll bugger off to the UK or something.

I started playing games with the Commodore Vic-20; playing Space Invaders and Pacman. The DOS era was my biggest influence. My all time old favourite game is still Jazz Jackrabbit.

Right now I'm enjoying picking noses and shaking champagne bottles on Wario Ware: Smooth Moves on the Wii.

Nice to meet you all, and dims sims rule!

:O i remember playing jazz jackrabbit

... and jill of the jungle XD

keep going in warioware till you end up slappin your own ass with the wiimote. its then you realise how magical it is.

Haha, yeah that but-slapping boss is awesome. Made me think of Para Para. I think they're bringing DDR to the Wii with motions now, I'm looking forward to that.

Im Ben/MoonUnit and i havent been here for so long and for that i am sorry. Ive been wrapped in uni amongst other things. My aspirations to work in the game industry are being tested by my aspirations to work in games journalism amongst other things. Im currently at work on a video journalism project of sorts that i may end up posting here if we get things going.

Hey gang, sorry its been so long. What happened to this place though. There used to be so much more life

(better start my post on topic) -- Hi Skyla. I'm John, I have only been an occasional visitor of recent months, but been more or less a regular visitor and contributor for a few years with some 2d art (I'm a wanna-be concept artist).

(getting off topic) -- Moonie, it has been quite here this year hasn't it! I'm hoping the quick activity, nude man with wings, might get a few people back into the habit of regular posting (myself included).

Well don't worry John you can rest easy.... because I'm back...

I'm Daniel

I've been a Sumean for quite some time now though have sporadic blurts of posting then large periods off.

Been in the bizz about 4 years now, started in Concept Art in Brisbane for Fuzzyeyes though went to Design after about 6 months, then Design in Melbourne for Red Tribe (Hey Neff) and now in Perth doing the same for Interzone which I'm really starting to like.

I've always done stuff in an unorthodox way, I failed highschool (or should've anyway) I didn't do uni, failed tafe, failed qantm, though managed to land one of the hardest gigs in the industry. At first I thought it was a fluke (and maybe it was) I could barely get an interview without the creds and most would judge me before they met me, but now that I've been working alongside some very top end people from the largest companies in the world and they're saying I've got it right, I'm starting to realise unorthodox sometimes works.

I'm still just starting, but I'm definitely now on a roll, so go your own way kiddies :)

http://www.myspace.com/benkei_bee

(Yes I am on myspace as tragic as that is, if you are too then add me) Thats got some of my drawings and a sample from one of my novels on it. I love to write, I have about 6 or so novels on the go but I just have to get off my ass and wrap them up.

I'm loving my job, though I don't know many people in Perth so if you're here, give me a bell.

Hello all I'm Derek. I'm a programmer living in Adelaide. I joined this forum a few years ago but haven't really been too active in this forum. Some people may know me from working with me at Ratbag and Krome.

My personal website is www.megaderek.com
There are some demos from my personal projects there, most notably the PC racing game. Yeah I have myspace too http://www.myspace.com/megaderek set to private but feel free to send me a friend request.

Hey Derek, good to see you here mate :)

I guess I should formally indroduce myself while I'm here.

My name is Chris, and I operate a Sunshine Coast based company called Virtual Mechanix.

We're quite a niche company, specialising in supplying vehicle models for games. Over the past year we've been busy creating vehicles for the upcoming Xbox 360 title PGR4 - and a couple of other (as yet unannounced) titles

We've also been busy developing our own IP in the form of a racing simulator for an F1 team... I've been a huge fan of the sport for many years so having the opportunity to work closely with a team is extremely exciting and also a great learning experience for us.

Heys all

I'm Tim, and I literally just joined because I'm looking for a career change, and want to see what I'm (potentially) getting myself into. I recently tried applying for the QA Analyst role at Team Bondi...seems that industry contacts are key.

From what I've seen on the forums it looks to be a good place to read up...I'll add my 2 cents where I can.

Adam Mckern from Nigredo Studios.

I have had a fair amount of experience in dev work (levels, code, and of late crazy bump).

I enjoy playing Natural Selection, where i help run CustomFactor, and meeting up with mates from AtomicMPC at the annual m33t.

I don't have much of a life outside of work, and being a Internet hermit, but do have a partner i try and spend time with.

Hi everyone,

I've been here before, always wanted to work on some independent games but I am currently working part time to earn money as well as studying full time. I currently put in a small number of hours a week into games development but not enough to make any significant progress.

good things come to those who wait!

Just about finished off my undergrad degree in Computer and Mathematical Science (Major in Applied Mathematics) after which I will stay on at University to do Honours.

I have a myspace too, sadly

http://www.myspace.com/plain_steve

Feel free to add me ...

Email me at maitrek_bw@hotmail.com if you ever have any maths troubles although I do realise that it's no longer as big an issue in computer games production. However - you never know when you might want to know more details about complex analysis and sets, harmonic functions, fluid flows (my future area of speciality), stochastic modelling, statistical models, traffic data and other such little nasties! If I don't know straight away I'm always happy to do some hard yards and research for ya anyway!

Also, I do tutor high school and first year uni level and am always happy to help out with any little questions that some of us poor students get thrown at us under the guise of being 'educated' :)

Sorry, missed this thread :)



Hiyas, my name is Boon. I'm currently working on a 3D animated children's television series, due out... soonish! I began my contract on the character development team (rigging, skinning, tools development, pipeline, etc.) but due to the short term of the contract, moved into lighting and rendering when it expired.



I completed a BFA - Honors at QUT a few years ago. My main interest is in storytelling. Fun, fun! What began as a hobby, became my career, so it was time to find a new hobby. I took up photography.



I've worked as a web developer, flash designer/programmer, some volunteer work on a number of UT2004 mods, a sales assistant, a store manager, and a child care worker. Really.



I can't draw a straight line. I can dislocate my jaw on demand.



I like pancakes and ice cream. Russel Crowe makes me instantly rage at the sight of him. George RR Martin is an exceptional author (his prolific use of the "c" word continues to astound me). I love too many games to list, though I'll say Silent Hill, Resident Evil, ICO, Shadow of the Colossus, almost any FPS, World of Warcrack: The Burning Cocaine, and twitch shooters. System Shock 2 was the best game ever made.



I do believe in global warming.



I don't believe in Uwe Bole. No one could possibly be that bad.



<3 boon

Hey guys, I'm Michael. I'm a high school kid in year 11, I like making 3D models for fun, drawing etc etc. 

Hi everyone, it has been 3 months since my last post. yeat another redtribe monkey. my life is mostly code, and when eyes get too tired to code at home or work, go out dancing :)



i should get back into post more regularraly but no longer have excessive amounts of artwork to pimp (hard to pimp code when there is not visible feedback)

Hii My Names Aaron Cross, in Christchurch( How religious is that!?!)

New Zealand. Studying Maya, Working from home with Cheetah4.2, Unity1.6.2...



Nice forum you have here Souri...

Thanks

AC

[QUOTE=Targos] Hii My Names Aaron Cross, in Christchurch( How religious is that!?!)

New Zealand. Studying Maya, Working from home with Cheetah4.2, Unity1.6.2...



Nice forum you have here Souri...

Thanks

AC[/QUOTE]



He knows his unity, from the 4 packages he sent me (and others), i can see his skill!

Hey everyone,

My name is Tim, I'm currently an undergraduate at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) studying Engineering with a major in software. I am a final year student, and the main focus of my studies has been on game programming, but more specifically the technical graphics based side.

At the moment I am working on my honours project, which is a study of the current real time rendering techniques and how they contribute to realism in rendered scenes, and which effects are 'better' with regards to quality and performance.

In addition to the thesis work I currently tutor 'Game Programming' and 'Game Design' and work part time as a Junior Engineer at a software company in the city, unfortunately the gaming landscape is quite barren here. After I graduate I hope to move interstate and into games as it is the main reason I went into software in the first place.

I love programming shaders, and making nice effects, and looking at the programming forum it seems like there is room to have a few shader programming mini competitions which I think would be a pretty fun thing to play around with.

Nice to meet you all!

G'day all,
 
I'm Pete from over at BrownBot, I've been hanging around here keeping an eye on things for a while, I find the interface a little wacky so I haven't been real active on the forum or the site, I figured it's time to start getting involved.
 
I'm a Senior Analyst Programmer by day and bedroom game dev by night.  Recently I've been getting into Microsofts XNA, we use .NET/c# at work and I've learnt OpenGL and some DirectX over the years so I've been getting some great results pretty easily.
 
Eraser was my first complete XNA project, I knocked it up over a couple of months for the SHMUP-DEV forum competition, it placed mid field, I was away for 6 weeks half way through the comp and the sketch graphic styling wasn't fully realised.
 
I'm currently working on Ride the Fury, the gameplay style is evolving as I write it, my orginal "one punch" fighting game idea wasn't all that much fun as it turned out... the basic idea is a 4 player competative co-op game to play on the xbox 360 with my drunk mates (who aren't nessisarily hard core game players)
 
All my current stuff is non-commercial, it's really just a creative outlet, maybe one day the code base could be used otherwise (I've got a couple of ideas on the back burner), So I'm completely open for suggestions or some collaboration, it's tough getting everything done on your own, drop me a line if you'd like to contribute.
 
Check my code blog to see how I've been progressing with "Ride the Fury".
 
Check my life blog if you'd like to know a bit more about me.
 

Hi Guys

I'm Owen, im aspiring to be a game developer and thought it would be a good idea signing up to this forum. look forward to hearing from all of you in the future! :)

Hi Everyone,

 
My name's Anthony and I'm currently residing in Brisbane.  I've been reading some posts here and thinking about joining for quite some time now and I finally took the step to sign up.

I'm currently studying a double bachelor of Information Technology/Multimedia at Griffith Nathan (3rd Year), majoring in Interactive Entertainment and Software Engineering.  This semester I'm also co-lecturing Interactive Entertainment Programming (2nd year course).

I've dabbled in games programming and 3D modelling and animation for a while now but I'm yet to do anything... notable I guess. 

I joined Sumea to share my project ideas and progress and get feedback from the community as to how I'm going.  I also intend to do the same for others, cheers and hopefully I'll be a regular poster.

Anthony

you better still talk to me >_> or else green aliens will hunt you down and eat you !

They faked the moonlanding apparently..... I heard that....

So which position did u get at Interzone?

Hillarys marina, just north of Perth on Australia day

I'm working game design again, but this time I'll be taking more of a creative role from the very beginning of a project so I wont be just working in response to the design of others, so I'm happy with that. A little pissed that I have to move again after being here only like 10 months, and Im starting to really appreciate Melbourne but watcanyado, sometimes you have to be willing to jump when needed. I might come back in a couple of years

Good animators are always in demand. Also if you get sick of the industry then it'll give you a wider scope for film/TV etc....

my advice is to specialise rather than generalise. If you are sort of an animator.. a bit game designer.. a bit of a modeller then your chances are slim of getting a chance. Be focused on the type of game you want to be a part of.. creating and put all your effort into that. If you are an expert Character Rigger and have great skill in that department devote time to perfecting the craft of it whilst working on your animation and modeling skills as well. This is a better approach to being generally okay at all three. Decide what you are interested in the most and have the most talent.. i'm sure most companies will have openings for either a game designer, animator, modeller etc.. Personally I feel that a game designer path is good in that it is less portfolio dependent when you are looking for work...once you have the experience on various games I doubt you will need lots of examples to show off your game design ability.. i may be wrong with this.. Animation, modelling and any Art based roles require you to provide an up to date portfolio which even for an experienced veteran is hard to keep updated and looking good.

Thanks for that...Im tempted to start my own studio, but the costs are pretty daunting when it comes to matching what the big studios do in terms of quality...
AC

Well I've worked in both Brisbane and Melbourne and I'd have to say in terms of Industry strength Brisbane wins by quite a long shot, it just seems a lot more mature up there. As for jobs, for thoes with little industry experience I'd say Melbourne however, as most places in Brisbane seem to only go for people with a fair amount of exp.

You'd just have to gauge your own level of experience I guess, if you have 5+ years then go to Brisbane, under that Melbourne. Now obviously there are good places in Melbourne as well, there are heaps, and you never know when entry level positions will open up in Bris, so by all means I reckon just send your applications to everywhere and go to wherever the bites are. Not too sure of Sydney, there are not so many companies there but what is there could be great so once again, hunt around.

There's also one starting up in Perth as well, though I think it's the only one at the mo.

Hope that helped.

if you are senior staff, brisbane. theres quite a lot of jobs here for senior staff.

All good man, I've been in goin on 4 years now and I still know sweet FA.

Primary advice for getting into art in games is learn the difference between screen assets, and game assets. Modelling works differently, Texturing works differently, Animation work's differently, and a lot more is done in code these days than you'd expect. Learn from game specific tutorials rather than movie based ones, learn that difference and you're golden. Any info you need in that respect I'd imagine people here would be happy to help with or refer you to, good luck with it, getting into games is not an easy task but having both balls and tenacity does pay in the long run.

meh. key to a career in gaming? (or any career, i suppose) keep learning. Any career involving computers and technology, if you dont keep teaching yourself, or work in an environment you learn from, you are going to fall behind.

It might also be a good idea to decide what area you are going to try and get in to as well, there is a lot of specialisation these days.... and people wat to see talent in specific areas.

also, at least as important as doing a course is demonstrable skill and interest..... starting a mod or working on a demo is a must

I've never been much of a mobile phone buff - I managed to hang on to my old phone for years (monochrome display, no pictures / music / camera / calendar or any of that fancy schmancy stuff) which I finally retired last year. Just for your information, it broke . My friends are always updating their mobile phones to get the latest and greatest models, and I've never quite understood why they wouldn't just stick with what they already had.

But when I saw what Apply did with the iphone - I was amazed. Having heard nothing of Apple's plans for a mobile phone, I thought they'd just bring out some typical phone model, brand it with the Apple logo, and enable it to use iTunes. What they've revealed however went way beyond my expectations, and for the first time, I'm now interested in mobile phones. Well, the iPhone in particular, anyway. I'm sure all the big mobile phone companies out there are wondering why they didn't come up with some of the new features the iPhone has. And it's funny that you mentioned it being a PDA device, because it certainly offers so much more than what your typical phone would.

As for games, well the Nintendo DS has shown that there are some great possibilities for really quick and fun touchscreen games akin to Nintendogs, Brain age etc. I'm certain the iPhone has the potential to be a considerable handheld game platform.

it does, but at the same price as a playstation 3? the people buying the iPhone arent buying it for games.

Im developing on the Unity engine which is apple native. We're quietly crossing our fingers that we can get in on the action but the developers are a bit hush hush. The good news for us is that Nintendo have opened the door to us for dev on the Wii. Theres a programming job at unity3d.com if anyone has nintendo programming experience...We at the Unity forum are stoked, as you can imagine...
AC

Hey, that's pretty damn awesome. I know that everyone over at Firemint got a DS Lite with Nintendogs for Christmas. Any other employees scoring it big?

What do I get, Souri?

That's an impressive Christmas gift! Congrats to those folks at Big Ant. May your holidays be Wiiful. ;)

I am happy to announce that the Sumea news team will receive one of these...
Your wildest dreams have come trueeee!

This is the happiest day of my life!

"YOU GET VASELINE!"

*screams and begins to spaz out on the floor*

OMG that was hella funny.

Wow that is awesome of them. Have fun with your Wii. :)

Oh and wtf was with that Tyra Banks video. :|

Hahaha love it...but hey if I could look as sexy as Tyra Banks with Vaseline, I'd be convulsing with joy as well...yeah you go girlfriend.

Woo hoo go Big Ant!! I'm waving my Wiimote around and I don't even have a TV! All the very best for 2007 everybody! Ho ho ho.

damn. lucky guys at big ant. sounds like a place to stick around at. but ive already got a wii (no way was i waiting for Xmas ;P) and loving it!

We had secret Santa at my work.

$5 cap. = Gay. Basically everyone bought people a bottle of some kind of booze.

Me, I was given hair gel.

lolz, gratz to you neffy!

Damm you. Damm your dammy damm damm ass to dammy damm helly damm damm hell.

In other words..

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!

I'm very happy for you actually. You have the initiative and talent and you in turn got a job. Personally I couldn't think of a better 20 year old to give it to.

Rock on Neffy, Have a Twinkie.

*gives twinkie*

Hey, congratulations on the GCAP entry, as well as the job at Red Tribe!

We have some footage of Jungle Escape up on Sumea and it looks very cool! Some very nice gfx and ideas happening there!

I really thought that all the Unsigned Games (indie) entries were terrific! It definitely must've been pretty tough to judge this year. Final Justice by Qantm was great, Frequency by the Southbank Institute looked extremely fun to play (resembling a Micro Machines racing game - you can't go wrong there), and Chiko the Accidental Alien was beautiful and fun too! (although I thought this probably deserved to be in the Unsigned Games (professional) category!)

Anyway, glad to hear you had fun at GCAP

i hope im not in that video =/ i made an ass of my self to these one lot people that came by filming

Unfortunately, you're not on there, but if anyone has a link to said video, please do post it here

Usually when a forum poster on Sumea mentions they got a job in the industry, that's pretty much the last we hear from them again . It's happened a fair few times actually, so please don't disappear! Try to part some of your knowledge on Sumea now and again, please!!

I swear its not true..... Im posting after getting a job.... see :)

I have to agrre that the conference rocked...... wish I could remember a bit more of the sony party..... but Ive been told I had a good time :)

thats actually not a bad vid of the game..... and its even got a running comentary by richard.......

'tis a pity we only came second, but it was a blast anyway.....

already looking forward to next years conference :)

PS, hope you are enjoying the new job Neffy :)

you know they even made us scream out the name of there website it was 2 words and i cant for the life of me remember them. Ill try and hunt it down because you asked but they had one dude up front talking about the game and the rest of us in the back doing "background noise" and yea i was dancing and getting our mascot to beat up people and stuff -_-

Awwwww of course i will try i wont ditch yah! I think I read something about a new art project YAY !!!!
I could only post up my silly little anime fanarts that i did in my hotel because Ive been so Internet deprived lately. When I'm settled ill make a return i have this habit of always wanting to increase my post counts on whatever forums i join up with :D

i was the one filming the one with the commentary. i figured i could play it myself, or get a team member who knew what he was doing to do it while explaining it.

well, that is less than rosey news to be reading first thing Tuesday morning. Hope 2007 brings better opportunities for you and the Kalescent team.

:) You're pretty much nailing it on the head with the deadline thing. I've found a few companies to just be all talk in the initial stages "Nah we wont need outsourcing with proper management, it's other companies that have to do that"

They feature creep to hell fuelled by their blind confidence in their abilities till one day they hit a time where they see what still needs to be done and go "sh*t... how about outsourcing? Yeah outsourcing, they can get whatever we need done instantly because they've got hundreds of experienced artistic prodigies that they've somehow managed to chain to their desks and pay nothing, In fact, lets just get them to do the whole game and we can keep starting our sentances with 'Wouldn't it be cool if...'"

Then they give them no time, no info, very little feedback and demand sh*tloads, delay pay, then get it back and wonder why the work looks somewhat.. 'rushed' They wonder what ever happened to their shiney polished crown jewel, their secret weapon that no one else knows of, and work out it must've been the outsourcer's fault.

What gets me more is the blind faith of sending work overseas to places like China and not have someone on the ground overseeing. I mean yeah sure its cheap, but how more dodgy could it be? They have this massive language barrier which is a huuuuge issue, and the Chinese companies hire on mass so how could you possibly expect there to be the experience needed. They're mostly just kids who don't know the difference between games and movies and just model whatever, however.

Then companies get the work back and what do you know, it's crap, way too high poly, poor quality, no time left to send back, and what happens? The poor inhouse artists have to spend the next however many nights cleaning it up, unpaid, because all that money has gone to China.

Companies seriously have to start thinking a bit broader when it comes to this kind of thing. Logic? Common Sense? ... oh hang on, it's the Games Industry...

Man, that's a bummer. I am hoping on Kalescent pulling through and making it eventually. Evelyn Richardson said she was happy to see small devs like Halfbrick and Firemint grow from a few people into full studios, and it would be great to see some success come Kalescent's way so you can join that list!

Hey guys,

I might have made it sound like all alarm bells are ringing and we are abandoning ship, luckily thats 100% not the case.

Were still alive, but needed to shrink a bit, cut back and avoid what would be about 75% of all jobs due to the simple fact that we refuse to be called upon to work 18 hour days 7 days a week for 6 - 8 weeks at a time.

Those days are gone

Kalescent will join that list Souri, just give us another year or 2

Sorry to hear about the bad run so far. I wish you luck over at FuzzyEyes and look forward to reading a much more positive forum post not too far down the track.

Hi Troy, I'm sorry to hear about this but I know you'll spring back eventually... you seem like one of those people who has a burning desire to succeed, so I'm sure you will :)

I've found that in the the line of business we both share, you have to rely on your gut instinct above all else... if you have any doubts whatsoever about a company or the project they're offering, it's best not to take it on... it's sad that one sour contract can ruin a company.

Anyway, I hope you're enjoying your job at FuzzyEyes and all the best for Christmas and the new year :)

Hey Troy, yeah sucks to hear some of the bad news. I am sure you will pull through it though :)

"we refuse to be called upon to work 18 hour days 7 days a week for 6 - 8 weeks at a time."   /cheer!

Red 5: Thanks mate Thats probably the biggest thing I've learnt over the past couple of years, I need to trust my gut instinct alot more than I do - its a damn good piece of advice for anyone.

Some good news, I'd like to add - I've been promoted to Lead Character Artist @ Fuzzyeyes

And as a side, are working our way through a bunch of new (actually 12 - 18 month old) work that we can only just now release publicly anyhoo - back to it.

Will keep posted.

Cheers!   

That is.. the coolest thing.. I have ever seen.

I want one.

Not exactly Michael Jackson but holly crap that thing kicks ass

Sweet jesus I'm in love.

marry her.