nzgda.com

[Simon]

We were hoping to organise a Game Developers Conference down here at Otago next year. I was thinking July some time either side of Graphite, but before Siggraph.

I am interested in gauging peoples level of interest. The plan would be to have a mix of Academics and Industry people and some reps from Trade and Enterprise NZ to talk about government funding.

Get a couple of keynotes in from NZ and overseas and see if we can bring together some of NZ game dev talent.

I have mentioned this briefly to Clare O'leary at T&E NZ, and I think she forwarded it to several people.

The key facilitator is Jayson Mackie jayson@cs.otago.ac.nz one of our PhD students.

The main plan is to work out how we can grow the industry in NZ.

If you have any comments or are interested please email Jayson or Myself.

Simon
_________________
Simon McCallum
Computer Science Department
University of Otago
simon@cs.otago.ac.nz, (03) 479 5740

[Tone]

I think that is a brilliant idea. Especially if you hate flying as much as i do, anything close to home is great!

Tone

[Syphoon!!]

Sounds fun. Attendance fee would play a deciding factor still for the poorer amongst us.

[jays]

Likely to change at this stage, this conference is not for our own glory(damn it). We are open to suggestions on the format, we want it to be useful.

Initial thinking is two days of presentations in the mornings, 3-4 hours worth on assorted topics with a keynote speaker each day and an open discussion in the afternoons. To design our course we are working with a couple of European Game Dev Teachers who each have 10+ years in games before starting to teach, they are both keen to come out and give talks.

Afternoon on day one a talk between Industry and Academia finding out exactly what we need to teach and what we can teach properly given various student backgrounds. I came back from industry to Uni recently, I know there is plenty learnt in the first few months that is not easily taught in class. We don't want to see time wasted, ours or you guys out in Industry, with less than useful graduates.

On the second day talks between everybody and the Government bodies. To find out what the industry needs(money/support) and what the Government needs to see from us to make them hand it over. Find the best way we can grow the industry.

There may be a third day consisting of presentations from each of the guest speakers we use during our Game course. We are having lecturers from other departments come it and present ideas on music, storytelling, scripting, marketing of games, working with body actors, things to prod the students a little and make them think about things other than programming.


Rough timeline
Call for papers late Decmeber/Early January, after Simon has been to AGDC and talked us up
Abstracts by the end of Febuary, to get a program sorted out
Selected papers (if we get flooded by submissions), by sometime in May

Talks on anything game related are all good. Even just a history chat about how you got your company started, or some of the gotchas you encountered. We hope to have a lot of students turning up so any information is good information.


It will be fairly informal first time up. It is about everybody getting face to face, sharing a bit of knowledge and starting to form a bit of a Gamedev community and a unified face to government to make sure we all get the best
deal.

We will certainly be looking to keep it as cheap as we can. It will happen out of term time so we will hold the thing in the Uni buildings. We will be chasing those with the money to sponsor it. There has been enough TV and print media interest in the Game Dev course alone to think we can get enough of a profile for a whole Game Conference to make it worth a sponsors while.


cheers
jays

[Nahum Wild]

Is there any way I can officially register interest so that I get remined closer to the time? I'll probably forget otherwise.

Cheers,
Nahum.

[Mario]

I'd think it would be better attended (in terms of wide company/group representation) if it was held in Auckland.

What are the thoughts of those north of Wellington on making a trip down? Would you be happy to spend the time and/or cash to make the trip?

[Lerc]

[Tone]

Personaly id like to see it in Auckland, but i live here. Anywhere is fine by me (except Queenstown, flown in there once... NEVER AGAIN! ).

I think the important thing is to get everyone in one place and talking, with some good outcomes for the industry here as a whole.

Tone

[Himiona]

Why not have it in Wellington?
It's 'half-way'.

All comes down to cost, if I can book a flight far enough ahead and get a good enough price then I'll be there.

And my worst ever landing has to have been in Wellington Boy we were going sideways by the time we touched down.

S.
_________________
Castles Music Productions
http://www.castlesmusic.com/

[Stingray]

I'm in Whangarei so I'm about as far away as you get without leaving the country... If I can plan ahead with plenty of notice I'm sure I could make it down, if there was enough going on down there to make the trip worthwhile.

[Bruce]

[Syphoon!!]

I say Christchurch. I think that would be best for all of us. That's where the biggest chance for sponsorship lies.

*Covers over his location*

[Simon]

I note people have been suggesting that we hold the conference in some other city rather than Dunedin. I think that is an admirable idea, but it would require that someone else is willing to put the effort in to organise the event. As a lecturer it is part of my job to disseminate knowledge and create a learning environment. Thus this conference is part of that function. If other people feel that they have the time required to organise something elsewhere, great. It can only be good for all of us to have energetic people. I think the e-vision stuff is great. Basically I am happy to go wherever to be involved and make thinks happen. I just happen to be down in Dunedin and willing to put the effort in.

In terms of cost I just checked Air NZ prices
Auck-Well July '04 $150,
Auck-Dun July '04 $188
$38 extra return will easily be compensated by cheaper accommodation and seminar room charges. Also the environment is relatively nice down here and if the conference goes well then the second year could be in Auckland or Wellington, and with the lessons learnt from the first could be much better suited to a larger public involvement. (ie keep it small in the beginning)

I am writing up a proposal, if other people are interested in organising an event in their area please email me so that we can co-ordinate our efforts.
_________________
Simon McCallum
Computer Science Department
University of Otago
simon@cs.otago.ac.nz, (03) 479 5740

[Mario]

You are correct, Simon, someone else would have to do a lot of work should it be outside of Dunedin. And to be honest I think everyone has their heads down working.

I am just keen to make sure if you put the effort in that we get as many people there as possible

[tyrone m]

The event sounds like a fantastic idea.

Dunedin does certainly make sense in temrs of keeping overall cost down and if there are more people down there willing to organise then that is great. I'd certainly like to help out where I can, we're likely to be very busy at Sidhe over the next few months though,

Tyrone.

[Maru]

Personally I'd like to see the NZGDC held in Auckland (wide company/group representation). I am willing and able to organise it with the help of others. Being at the ADGC and seeing the international speakers there was great and I believe we can attract a few of those speakers here to NZ. Let me know your thoughts or perhaps if you'd like to form some sort of organising team.

[Bruce]

Has this idea been suggested to Clare O'Leary? I'm sure she would be able to get some sort of Government assistance for this.
_________________
I'm too dumb to do anything stupid.

[Mario]

[Maru]

Yes I agree and we all know about govt funding but I'm sure we attract some funding from govt. However the NZGDC wouldn't be on the same scale as the ADGC but big enough to promote our industry, promote NZ game developers and attract some international attention whether they come as delegates or speakers.

I know most wouldn't want to pay high registration fees but by keeping costs down this would reflect in a lower fee. There are other avenues such as sponsorship, expo stands etc. There's the NZ Industrial Relations Fund with a recent focus on sponsoring overseas speakers or lecturers to New Zealand to speak on industrial relations issues. Someone correct me if I'm wrong. If the NZGDC is able to access this type of funding then its a good start.

[Simon]

Why Dunedin? The primary reasons are cost and motivation.

We can actually run the event at a much lower cost here in Dunedin than the equivalent event in Auckland. Condsider accommodation for Keynote speakers, local travel, venue hire, catering, and organisational staff.

The only additional cost is airline transportation and we will try to do a deal with an airline to sort that out.

In terms of organisation, we are already a fair distance down the track and have organised venues, accommodation and several international speakers. The thing we need now is to confirm sponsorship, government funding, both local and national, and participation from local industry.

The main reason for the original post was to see if people were interested. We expect to move quickly in the next few days, now that I have some helpers with time on our hands.

Watch this space for the call for papers and the website launch.

What level of fee would companies be able to part with. Looking at the AGDC the cost was rather high for the event, and $143 for the Conference Dinner was a bit of a turn off.

We would like to keep the cost to participants as low as possible. We do not want to make any money and will be willing to take a small loss so long as the event is a success. That is the advantage of working at a University who's role is to create these sort of events, rather than to make money. It is a freedom that I know most working in companies can not afford. If we can get enough sponsorship we would like to keep the cost around the $150-$200 mark for the three days. Any sponsorship above the level that we are aiming at will be used to lower the fee rather than make a profit.

If anyone would like to help organise parts of the event then we would love to have the assistance. I believe that NZ is not large enough to compete against each other. We have to cooperate to make the most of what we have.

We will announce our progress early next week.


Simon
_________________
Simon McCallum
Computer Science Department
University of Otago
simon@cs.otago.ac.nz, (03) 479 5740

[Maru]

[PK]

Look forward to seeing the "call for papers". I hope you have an academic section so we can add some research content.

Maybe Auckland can be the next venue. I am sure that UNITEC would sponsor it and provide the venue.

PK.
_________________
Paul Kearney
Lecturer - Game Development and Multimedia
unicave.unitec.ac.nz

[PK]

[Simon]

Well we have a web site and I am just sorting out the publishing of the conference proceedings.

The information so far:

Date: 28 June - 2 July 2004

Venue: St David St Complex,
University of Otago,
Dunedin, New Zealand

Website: www.nzgdc.org.nz

Who:
Keynotes:
Mario Wynards, Jon Labrie, Sheri Graner Ray, Daniel Sanchez-Crespo, two more to be confirmed

These people have shown an interest in coming:
Academics: Media Design School, University of Otago, Wanganui Design School, Waikato University, Hit lab.
Industry: Sidhe, instinct, Blister, hopefully more to come

COST: unknown - I need to convince sponsors, so the more people interested in coming the lower the cost will be as I will be able to attract more sponsors. Max $550 Min $200, plus discounts and student rates

Papers and Presentations: probably around March with acceptance as quickly as possible. A mix of papers and presentation from industry
_________________
Simon McCallum
Computer Science Department
University of Otago
simon@cs.otago.ac.nz, (03) 479 5740

[PK]

Thats excellent Simon, well done.

I am sure you can add Unitec's interest as well. And my Company "Twin Developments" will also have someone there. It may not be me, as I am presenting a paper on using Game Development to Teach at Edmedia in Lugano, Switzerland, the week prior. However, if Unitec's Budgets change before then, I am sure Dunedin would be a close second on my list

Maru's company "Metia Interactive" also will probably be there. Is there a way to officially add our interest? I have entered my email on the web site.

Look forward to more on this. Thanks.
_________________
Paul Kearney
Lecturer - Game Development and Multimedia
unicave.unitec.ac.nz

[Wiremu]

We are not in the big league as far as programmers and content artist go but we at IAT, Wellington, are certainly interested in supporting any event directed towards Games Dev, via attendance.
Good on you guys for taking the initiative and sussing out interest.
Cheers.
_________________
http://nvisions.orcon.net.nz

[PK]

We got a mention in Gamasutra newstletter:

New Zealand Game Developer Conference Announced [12.18.03]
http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=3245

Well Done whoever posted it.

_________________
Paul Kearney
Lecturer - Game Development and Multimedia
unicave.unitec.ac.nz

[Simon]

To try to keep the cost down to all you hard working developers, I am approaching several government agencies to try to convince them that funding the conference is a good idea.

In particular the Tertiary Education Commission has just released a plan to provide funding to help fund three specialist areas, Biotech, Design and ICT. We think that this conference particularly matches the call for applications under this new "GIF sector" fund.

[Syphoon!!]

Argh, Canterbury midterms conflict with the dates!

[Joerae]

This thread was looking a little old, so I thought I'd update it.

Ernest Adams as a keynote? Anyone who's vaguely intested in gaming must attend. No, he's not a cook, but widely recognised as the guru of game design.

Not only does the lineup of speakers look excellent, but it will be a great networking opportunity for anyone looking for jobs.

From the looks of it, Simon's been putting in a lot of effort, so don't let the fact that it's down in Otago put you off.

The only worrying sign for me is that the home page talks about the "Computer Games" industry. The industry has enough of an image crisis - please don't add to it.

Computer games = pasty white guys sitting 2cm from monitor, who's only girlfriends are on said monitor

Video games = Playstation cool, clubbing, active people of both genders, who enjoy consuming a dynamic entertainment form.

A little bit of an exageration, but you get the idea.

See you all there!
_________________
...Fear is the mindkiller