Thu Feb 25 – Malcolm Ryan on The Path

Date: Thu Feb 25, 6-8pm
Location: Level 1 Meeting Room, K17 Building, UNSW
Presenter: Malcolm Ryan

Abstract:

This month, Malcolm Ryan will be presenting on The Path, a short art game by Tale of Tales. Based on the story of Little Red Ridng Hood, this is a ‘horror’ game with no gore or blood, only profoundly unsettling outcomes. It has interesting things to teach us about the player-game contract and non-traditional kinds of fun.

Everyone is welcome. It is recommended that you play the game before coming to fully appreciate it before being spoiled.

Global Game Jam

In January next year we will be running a Sydney meet of the Global Game Jam at the Powerhouse Museum. Forty developers, designers and artists will be spending a weekend at the PHM working round the clock to create exciting new game ideas. There will also be speakers from the local and international games industry. It will be a very exciting event.

Details are still being arranged, but if you want to know more, watch the IGDA Sydney Facebook group or follow @GameJamSydney on Twitter. And tell your friends! This is going to be big!

Thu Oct 29 – Mikhail B. on Character Progess (Take 2)

Date: Thu Sep 24, 6-8pm
Location: Room 621, K17 Building, UNSW
Presenter: Mikhail Bonch-Osmolovskiy
Title: Character progress or progress bars?

Ding! You have leveled up.

What does that mean? What is character progress, why does it matter, and how is it represented? And why are progress bars so damn fascinating?

Seemingly every game nowadays has it, in some shape or form, so the talk won’t be focusing on any specific game, but will rather involve many different ones. I also hope for it to be more of an interactive discussion than a lecture, as I don’t have all the answers, and am interested in hearing what you think.

Thu Sep 24 – Mikhail B. on Character Progress

Date: Thu Sep 24, 6-8pm
Location: Room 621, K17 Building, UNSW
Presenter: Mikhail Bonch-Osmolovskiy
Title: Character progress or progress bars?

An overview of the hows and whys of character progress in games.

Thu Aug 27 – Marc Chee on World of Warcraft

Date: Aug 27, 6-8pm
Location: Room 621, K17 Building, UNSW

Abstract:

Marc takes you on a journey through the World of Warcraft.

In a largely autobiographical look at the world’s most popular massively multiplayer online game, we will be travelling through a landscape of an intensely social game; looking at virtual interactions between people and organisations of people wholly within virtual environments. We’ll look at psychological immersion into a completely non-realistic virtual world.

We’ll also be taking a look at what it means to maintain your population in a subscription based game. Game design based on holding players in a game for months rather than hours, and the obsessions that develop in a game of repetitive collection that does not end.

Thu July 30 – Dan Staines on Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines

Date: July 30, 6-8pm
Location: Room 621, K17 Building, UNSW

Abstract:

In this month’s GDG, we’ll be looking at the Ocean House Hotel from Troika’s cult classic, Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines. As well as being one of the scariest levels in any videogame ever, the Ocean House is a remarkable example of mise en scene: that is, telling a story using the environment rather than with more explicit forms of exposition such as cut-scenes, dialogue etc. In analysing the methods Troika used to design the Ocean House, we will hopefully develop a better understanding of the relationship between level design and narrative, particularly with regard to games in the horror genre.

VtMB is available from Steam (or if you ask Malcolm nicely, you can borrow his copy). The original game is fairly buggy. The Unofficial Patch is recommended.