Planning to attend GDC, SXSW, or PAX East? Consider becoming a mentor to an IGDA Scholar!

We’re still seeking judges for our IGDA Scholars program applicants for both SXSW and PAX East, as well as mentors to advise and guide the deserving recipients. The program requires just an hour of your time at the event, and where you take your mentor/mentee relationship from there is up to you!

Please visit http://igda.org/mentor to register your interest for these events and others throughout the year, like IGDA Summit and China Joy. Thanks!

It’s the time you’ve all been waiting for: Boston Post Mortem / IGDA Boston is preparing to hold an election to fill 3 seats on its board of directors. These individuals will supervise the business, property and affairs of the chapter. Each of these individuals will give their time and energy to move the chapter forward in the direction that they feel most represents the will of the membership and is to the benefit of the chapter.

At this time we would like to invite nominations for seats on the Board. Please take advantage of our meeting next week on December 13th to talk to the current board members about the details and process, as well as ask any additional questions you may have.

There are three requirements to be on the Board: you must be a current paid member of the IGDA (join here), you must be nominated by a member of the IGDA in good standing, and you must able to commit to attending board meetings and Boston Post Mortem meetings with regularity (details will be discussed with board members after elections).

Nominations will be accepted until 11:59 PM eastern time on December 30th, 2011. After nominations close, we will be sending out additional information about the candidates and voting process.

Please send nominations to board@bostonpostmortem.org. When nominating someone else, please be sure to include complete contact information for that person so we can obtain a candidate statement from them.

Best Regards,
The Boston Post Mortem Board of Directors

This isn’t a Boston-area event, but we thought local game designers would want to know about a great game design conference happening in NYC at the end of October. Speakers include brilliant and prolific board game designer Reiner Knizia, and local designer Steve Gaynor from Irrational, as well as the national coordinator for officiating NCAA football, Rogers Redding.

PRACTICE: Game Design in Detail

What is the practice of game design?
Out of all the disciplines needed to make a game, game design is the most critical but least understood. PRACTICE is an unprecedented gathering of professional game designers that takes a rigorous look at the ideas and methods of game design.

Bringing together veteran designers across computer and videogames, paper games and sports, PRACTICE takes a close look at the nuts and bolts of game design. Through lectures and panels, workshops and discussion, we will explore the practice of game design, with a head focus on the concrete, day-to-day activity of designing games. And there will be plenty of time of gameplay and socializing too.

PRACTICE is not a conference about business, technology, or how to break into the industry. If balancing the variables in a virtual economy or theorizing about the effect of rule changes on a player’s emotional experience sounds like fun to you, this is the conference you’ve been waiting for.

This two day conference will be held at the Game Center on October 28th-30th, will a full schedule of events listed on the PRACTICE website.
Space is limited, so those interested in participating must purchase tickets.

For more information about the conference, follow this link.

General Admission – $500
To purchase at this price, please visit the online store here: https://web.ovationtix.com/trs/pe/9218275

Carol Ober is teaching a class this fall at Newton South High School called Game Design Studio, described as:

Game Design Studio is a course in which students learn the fundamentals of game design, focusing on 2D and 3D art, interactive stories, character creation, and what makes a good game. No programming experience is necessary. Students collaborate in a workshop environment to explore user-friendly 2D and 3D imaging and game design software.

She says:

I’m looking for game developers who would be willing to talk to high school students about the field – in the Fall or Spring semesters of next year. I’m also looking for game developers who would be willing to consult with me before September to help me get the program up and running.

I have a wide range of students in my classes (9th – 12th graders, all experience levels, etc.). Some of them will come in with no knowledge, others will have already done game design in summer programs or at home on their own. There are usually 16-20 students in a class.

Unfortunately, we have old G5 Macs (pre-Intel) which are on their last legs. I’m hoping to get a large grant for new equipment and software, but that probably won’t happen until the following year. I do have a few new Macs and will try to get one more for the fall. I have almost no budget for software.

If you can help, please email her at carol (underscore) ober (at) newton.k12.ma.us

This just in: we now have times and a location for the Jan 18th Ed Fries lecture (as part of a spring Creative Industries lecture series at Northeastern). It will begin at 2pm, with doors open at 1:30pm. The location  is the Raytheon Ampitheater in 240 Egan at Northeastern University. Full details and RSVP link at the original post.

In case you haven’t heard, Brian Wood, a Lead Designer at Relic Entertainment in Vancouver, died September 3rd heroically saving his wife and unborn child during a car cash. Information reposted below — if you want to donate to help Brian Wood’s surviving family, please visit the Brian Wood Memorial Trust.

Brian Wood spent his life thrilling millions of faceless gamers, but his last moment was spent saving the lives of those he loved most.

Wood, a 33 year-old lead designer at popular game developer Relic Entertainment, was on his way back to his Washington home when his wagon was struck by an oncoming Chevy Blazer being driven by a 21 year-old woman believed to be driving under the influence. With his pregnant wife Erin in the passenger seat, Wood swerved his car to put himself directly in the path of the oncoming SUV — a decision that ultimately cost him his life, but protected his wife and unborn child from harm. Two other passengers riding in the backseat of the Blazer were also killed.

“All the policeman say that if we had hit the car head-on all of us would be dead,” Erin Wood told The Province. “At the very last second (Brian) braked really hard and turned right so that he would be put in the path of the SUV and not me and the baby, and that is the only thing that saved us both.”

“He was always sacrificing himself for me and the baby,” she added.

But while Wood’s impossibly brave act left a permanent void in the life of Erin Wood, the same people who Brian strived to please with his work have returned the favor with a striking show of support for his bereaved widow.

A memorial trust was set up within days of the accident. Countless game developers, journalists and fans posted links on Twitter and Facebook, leading to literally thousands of supportive comments, messages and financial donations, prompting Wood to send an open letter to the gamingg community to popular game blog Kotaku.

“Brian always told me about how close-knit and wonderful the video game community was, but I had no idea until this tragedy just how special a group it really is,” she writes. “From all the articles and comments, to the emails and donations, I am simply stunned and so touched by the love, kindness, and generosity shown to me and my family.”

At the time of his death, Brian Wood was working on Company of Heroes Online, a free-to-play version of Relic’s award-winning strategy game. It’s currently in open beta-test.

To help Erin, please visit the Brian Wood Memorial Trust.

We received the following request from a Boston Post Mortem community member seeking folks who might be able to contribute to one of two Worldcon panels.

I’m a voiceover artist with enough speculative fiction (Fantasy, Science Fiction, Horror, …) experience to be a panelist at the World Science Fiction Convention in Melbourne, Australia in September (AussieCon 4). I am on the 2 panels described at the end of this email, relevant to game developers. Now the audience is pretty much hand-picked thought leaders in spec. fic. gaming and I was wondering if any of the Boston Post Mortem community have either things to say or examples about either of the panels below, or would like to send materials for me to hand out at either panel. If anyone is particularly interested, I’m happy to talk on the phone or meet in person to discuss the topics.

I can be contacted either via the contact form on my website, or email to bob@bkvoice.com.

Thank you!

Bob Kuhn

The descriptions of the 2 panels are:

Pop Culture Stream
“RPGs, STORYTELLING AND AUTHORSHIP”
We know Dungeons and Dragons is a game, but is it art? An examination of the storytelling process behind role-playing games – part creative writing, part performance, and almost entirely disregarded as an artistic work. If it is some kind of cross between the written and performing arts, what can GMs and players learn from those disciplines to make their games even stronger?

Young Adult Stream
Games in YA Spec Fic, their influence and importance.

Allan Wright helped us figure out how to subscribe to the Boston Post Mortem calendar in Google Calendar. In his words:

1) Click “Calendar settings” in the upper right corner
2) Click the “Calendars” tab at the top
3) Click “Browse interesting calendars” on the right side (not intuitive!)
4) Click “Add by URL” on the right side
5) Paste http://www.bostonpostmortem.org/?ec3_ical into the field and hit okay
6) Profit!

Enjoy!

We had great turnout at our April animation panel!  We counted about 150 people in attendance — here are some pictures and video of the event. Starting with some video from Darren Torpey:

Our moderator Dan and the panelists!

The crowd. It was huge.

Just in case you can't get enough crowd shots.

Scott Kirsner mentions the Boston Post Mortem in an article in today’s Boston Globe Business section about entrepreneurship in hard times.