June Drinkup & ReVersed Game Jam!

The IGDA Drinkup is back in town! Join the local gamedev community for a free drink at the VR-Bar VREI, sponsored by the always fun Apprien! This friday, on the 8th of June, 2018, 19h at VREI.

There’s apparently some collision with Play:Austria there, no worries, we will keep the party going long enough!

The ReVersed Game Jam is back! Find out more here.

Pathfinding Workshop & GGJ18

It’s back! 15h on the 26.1. @ RaumD, Vienna, our favourite games tax adviser Florian Kalchmair (HFP) will be talking about the Austrian tax system, founding a company, the most important things to keep in mind when employing or doing cooperative projects with someone, and wage dumping (and how dangerous it is). This will be in German only, though if there is enough interest, we will do an English version again!

The Global Game Jam is around the corner, so head over here to find out more!

Busy end of 2017!

GDC 2018 Applications OPEN

The scholarships include two opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students, IGDA Scholars and Women in Games Ambassadors, and Next Gen Leaders, a retention program for under-represented minority game developers with 3-10 years of experience.  The programs include an All-Access pass to GDC, a travel stipend, an individually-selected mentor, and great personal and professional development opportunities too. More here!

IGDA Austria in Graz!
Come and listen to the latest the IGDA is doing in Austria, all the things that went down at Game Connection Europe, as well as details on next years ReVersed. First round of beers courtesy of metalcat.at! Find out more here.

PONGJam Results & IGDA Drinkup in Vienna!
Stay up to date and play a million pongs, this is our last Drinkup before the year ends. Drinks courtesy of metalcat.at! Find out more here.

GGJ registrations open!

From the 26th to the 28th of January the Global Game Jam will take place again! This time, with no extreme Game Jamming at -10°C, at RaumD in Vienna. If you have time and want to help out, please get in touch!

If you want to sign up, head here.

Memberships! Another workshop! Whee!

It’s been a bit silent around these parts, mostly due to HQ’s WordPress not really working as it should, and our inability to sort it out ourselves, but now we have regained our old login credentials, and we’re back on track! First up: Local Memberships!

Come and join the Austrian community of developers, with partner events such as Gamedev Days Graz and ReVersed in Vienna, with more on the way!

Stay informed on the latest happenings and always up for having a drink with your fellow developers, or come and see talks by leading members of the community.

Last but not least, enjoy several discounts & offers by partners of IGDA Austria, always working on getting more!

Find out more here!

 

One good example of those partnerships: with Tom’s verse publications of course! If you are a member of IGDA Austria, you get an exclusive discount on all of their workshops, including the upcoming one with Tramell Isaac!

Working in a team in the games industry can be a challenge: either finding a spot to call your own in a large established company or making sure that startup culture doesn’t automatically mean you should give up on ever seeing daylight again from all the crunching or low wages.

In this edition of the “X For Games” workshop series, Tramell Ray Isaac is going to talk about game company office culture, management issues & how to be a better employee/manager specific to the games industry; as well as share his experience in art direction on a more practical level, in this two day workshop.

 

Last but not least, here are some impressions of our latest DrinkUp, kindly sponsored by LemonPi!

Chris Avellone: Writing for Games Workshop

The verse publications team is getting ready to welcome Chris Avellone! On the 13th and 14th of May 2017, Chris will be leading a workshop on Writing for Games! We still have some tickets available, so don’t hesitate to grab them while we still got em’.
Click here to get your ticket.

About Chris: Chris Avellone is best known for his work on a number of role-playing games, including Planescape: Torment, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords, Fallout (2 and New Vegas), Wasteland 2, and Prey. He is currently working on Divinity: Original Sin II with Larian Studios, and is part of the successful Kickstarter reboot of System Shock with Night Dive Studios.

About the workshop: Writing for games is a game all in itself – and words are only a part of it. Game writing involves teamwork, knowing your gameplay pillars and how to support them, and also knowing not only what story you want to tell, but how to tell that story… sometimes using everything but words.

Our focus will be on:

  • Writing with a Team
  • Speaking the Language
  • Structuring the Hierarchy within a team…
  • …and within a writing team
  • Knowing the Writer’s Role and the Story’s Role
  • Layout and Importance of Style Guides
  • Knowing your Boundaries, Technical and Aesthetic, including matching other writer and franchise tones

If you can’t make it to the workshop, how about getting a drink with Chris at the IGDA Drinkup?

IGDA Drink Up with Chris Avellone & Kate Edwards


The IGDA Drink up is one of our favorite bi-monthly events!

For the upcoming gathering of minds and drinks, we’ll be joined by comic book writer, game and narrative designer Chris Avellone as well as the fabulous executive director of the International Game Developers Association Kate Edwards.

Chris is in town for the Writing for Games: The Game™ workshop while Kate is here to give a talk for Subotron on Game Culturalisation & the Art Of Building Inclusive Worlds.

Even if you’re not thirsty, this is the perfect occasion to meet with these talented and highly experienced members of the game dev community.
We’re looking forward to seeing you @Vrei on the 13th of May 2017 around 19:00, for some brain picking and beverage drinking!

 

Website troubles, Drinkup tomorrow, Des Gayle Talk & Workshop slides!

Hey everyone! We’ve been having some server problems, making it unable for us to post anything to the website D:

However, now that’s all sorted (fingers crossed) and we can start putting up the good stuff again!

IGDA Drinkup February

Tomorrow, the 15th of February, is going to be our February drinkup! This time, we are sponsored by the lovely people of LemonPI, be sure to drop by 19h at WerkzeugH.

Check out the Facebook event, and see who else is coming!

Workshop Slides

As promised, here are finally the workshop slides that accompanied the Pathfinding Workshop! Many thanks to Florian Kalchmair of the HFP Tax Consultancy!

Des Gayle Talk @ GGJ17 in Vienna

Last but not least, here is Des Gayle’s talk on being a producer at a game jam, working for Square Enix Collective and using game jams to find the next game to work on!

Austrian Game Jam Registrations

It’s time for the annual Global Game Jam!
Interested in participating? Here’s what you need to know:
Sign up here: http://globalgamejam.org/2017/jam-sites/austrian-game-jam
Where: Mobile Citylab OpenMarx in Vienna
When: from 5pm on January 20th through to January 22nd, 2017

Participants will be given a theme with which they will have 48 hours to create a game, after which they can be judged by our panel and given the Austrian Game Jam Prize!

Before the game jam officially kicks off, we have invited our good friend and indie developer/producer Des Gayle (Square Enix Collective, Digital Legends Entertainment, Exient Ltd) to hold a keynote speech at 2pm on Friday, open to all. During this opening ceremony, you will get to see some new Austrian projects, as well as try out the latest EIZO & Wacom have to offer, courtesy of our partner, CGShop!

FAQ GGJ

Sign up here: http://globalgamejam.org/2017/jam-sites/austrian-game-jam

Where: Mobile Citylab OpenMarx in Vienna

When: from 5pm on January 20th through to January 22nd, 2017

FRIDAY      
 14:00:00    Des Gayle Speech      

14:30:00    Improv & Networking preparation      

17:00:00    Global Game Jam Keynote      

Sunday    

17:00   End Of Game Jam      

18:00   Revealing the winners; showing the winning project!      

How do I get there? 
The closest tram/S-Bahn station is Wien St.Marx 
The closest Ubahn station is the U3 Schlachthausgasse

Can I sleep there?
No, go home. And no tenting either unless you’re super secretive.

Where I can buy stuff? 
Around the corner you’ll find a Billa and a Hofer.

Is there a place of the premises where I can have alone time? 
There is, but we’ll only point it out to you if it’s not for “special” alone time.

What will be made available to us on location?
Tables, chairs and power strips

Can my friends and family come and observe my awesomeness? 
Yes of course, the more the merrier. Even those that don’t compete are allowed to be present. 

Food? 
You’re allowed to eat on location. Also, there are restaurants and a bakery closeby. 

Smoking?
You can smoke outside. 

The GGJ is a free attendance event for all participants and audience.
Come a plenty, come all!