Boston Post Mortem

Boston AAUGA June Meeting

Dan Salsberg — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 13:57:03 +0000

AAUGA Meeting FRIDAY, June 21st, 2013, 6:30 – 8:30 PM

Location: Neoscape, 23 Drydock Avenue, 5th Floor, Boston MA (Easy access via the Silver Line! Take the SL2 Silver Line to the “21 Dry Dock Ave” stop. Garage and metered street parking also available.)

Agenda:

6:30: Meet and greet, pizza

7:00: Caustic Graphics (part of Imagination Technologies) is an Autodesk Developer Partner will be here and they have developed a plug-in that provides real-time ray tracing within the viewport for Design Professionals. https://caustic.com/ They will be here to discuss how and when to use viewport caustics, demo their software and GIVE AWAY a R2100 card! We have TONS MORE awesome books and prizes for you to win! This will be a meeting you will NOT want to miss!

8:30: Formal User Group Ends

June Meeting – Seth Sivak – Building an Indie Studio: the Transition from Zynga to Proletariat

Dan Salsberg — Tue, 04 Jun 2013 14:06:48 +0000

Hi everyone,

This month’s Boston Post Mortem is Tuesday, June 11th at 7pm at The Skellig in Waltham.

Our presentation this month will be by Seth Sivak of Proletariat Inc., who will be giving a post mortem on ‘Building an Indie Studio: the Transition from Zynga to Proletariat’.

Most developers have thought about going indie. Some even save their pennies, pay their dues and crunch like crazy for the hope of one day doing it on their own. I had that dream, then one unsuspecting day I got laid off, my studio was closed, and the rest of the team was out of work. A group of us woke up the next day and decided to start a new studio, run it our way and work our asses off chasing the dream.

This is a post mortem on our experience being laid off from Zynga, founding Proletariat Inc. and building a new studio over the last six months. All the lessons we have learned, and all the things we would do again, along with a few cute pictures of sloths.

Additionally, beverages are being sponsored for this meeting by BlueSnap!

BlueSnap™ is a comprehensive global buying platform that fuels growth for companies serving digital, physical and mobile markets. A single dynamic platform, BlueSnap helps businesses grow faster through a configurable and flexible approach to eCommerce, Payment Processing, eMarketing and Subscription billing. Businesses can simply integrate BlueSnap’s innovative and powerful BuyNow capability solutions anywhere onto their web sites supporting any merchant buying model. BlueSnap’s global network securely supports over 5,000 online businesses in 180 countries in multiple languages, currencies, payment methods and devices.

Logistics:
Tuesday, June 11th
7pm @ The Skellig, Waltham
Directions: http://www.bostonpostmortem.org/directions/

See you on Tuesday!

May Meeting – DB Cooper – Directing Dialogue and Performing Exertion Sounds

Dan Salsberg — Tue, 14 May 2013 15:45:50 +0000

This month’s Boston Post Mortem is THIS WEEK, WEDNESDAY, May 15th at 7pm at The Skellig in Waltham.

Our presentation this month will be by D.B. Cooper, who will be giving two audio talks, one on directing dialogue and another on performing exertion sounds:

The Slick Tricks for Dialogue Directing:

We will examine the 8 means of emphasis, and some novel approaches to the “set of 3″ line reads.

The 15 minute Fight Club:

In this interactive session, attendees will learn how to take bullets, howl in agony, and die.

DB Cooper: Voice Actor/Dialogue Consultant/Voice Caster/Director. With a pedigree in musical and dramatic theater, DB has been acting and directing for more than 28 years. Her work includes voice characterizations for player characters in Bioshock 2, Syndicate, Firefall, and most recently Firehose Games’ GO HOME DINOSAURS. DB was dialogue and character voice consultant for 38 Studio’s Copernicus project, and she cast, directed, and helped facilitate the language application & recordings for Zynga’s “The Ville”. She’s been a speaker at the Game Developers Conferences in Austin and San Francisco since 2006.

Logistics:

Wednesday, May 15th

7pm @ The Skellig, Waltham

Directions: http://www.bostonpostmortem.org/directions/

April Meeting – Disruptor Beam – Game of Thrones Ascent

Dan Salsberg — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 18:40:37 +0000

This month’s Boston Post Mortem is next week, TUESDAY, April 16th at 7pm at The Skellig in Waltham.

Our presentation this month will be by Jon Radoff, Tim Crosby, and Rich Gallup from Disruptor Beam, who will be taking the stage to deliver a postmortem on Game of Thrones Ascent:

Disruptor Beam will present a post mortem on the development and on-going support of the new Facebook game, Game of Thrones Ascent. They will discuss the challenges of building an online social game for a market as demanding as Game of thrones fans. Additionally they will break down what they’ve learned while shifting from developing a product to operating a live service that features weekly content updates that have been released in tandem with the television series.

Speakers: Jon Radoff, CEO. Tim Crosby, Lead Game Designer. Rich Gallup, Live Producer.

Logistics:

Tuesday, April 16th
7pm @ The Skellig, Waltham
Directions: http://www.bostonpostmortem.org/directions/

April 2013 Boston Unity Group Meeting

Dan Salsberg — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 05:00:43 +0000

The next Boston Unity Group meeting is happening Tuesday, April 16th.

Hey Boston Area Game Developers!

Announcing our April 2013 BUG Meeting! Come by, grab some food and drink, and meet other Unity devs, designers, artists, and Boston game industry folk.

Mickey from Applifier will be giving us a rundown of EveryPlay, the mobile replay solution used by a growing number of devs. Applifier is kind enough to be sponsoring food and drink for the meeting, so stop by and check it out. More about Everyplay: Everyplay lets your players easily share their best gaming moments as video replays with their friends on Facebook, Twitter and Youtube. Everyplay is free and available now for Unity3D, Cocos2D and custom engines. NimbleBit’s NimbleQuest is seeing over 1000 videos shared a day. Owlchemy Labs, Strange Flavour, Secret Exit, and Netquest (Slenderman) are all getting great results from Everyplay.

See you there!

Elliott Mitchell & Alex Schwartz Co-founders Boston Unity Group

When: April 16th, 7pm – 9pm

Where: Meadhall, Kendall Square!

Register ahead of time here: http://www.meetup.com/B-U-G-Boston-Unity-Group/events/112470942/

February Meeting – Jonathon Myers – Narrative in Games

Dan Salsberg — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 20:00:02 +0000

This month’s Boston Post Mortem is next week, Wednesday, February 13th at 7pm at The Skellig in Waltham.

Our presentation this month will be by Jonathon Myers, who will be taking the stage to deliver a talk on narrative in games:

An Ounce of Prevention – Narrative and Process

If implemented well, the narrative elements of a game can increase player engagement. Unfortunately, a “just add story and words” attitude is commonly adopted as an approach to narrative in games when the reality is that the process is neither simple nor easy. And yet, investing in narrative can still pay off. So, what should a team consider before investing time and resources on story? What does it mean to commit to the development of narrative elements alongside gameplay features? Jonathon will discuss ideas on how to integrate narrative design into a game development process. He’ll provide examples of good practices, identify common obstacles to an efficient narrative process, and warn against costly mistakes that projects should avoid. Throughout the presentation, he will compare successful and unsuccessful implementations of narrative elements in games.

Most concepts and examples will be drawn from the development of casual/social/mobile titles and smaller project teams. However, many of the takeaways will be applicable and scalable for any team working on game narrative, including those working on AAA or large-scale MMO titles.

Bio: Jonathon Myers is a Boston-based narrative designer and writer. Most recently, he planned and implemented narrative content for the launch of Game of Thrones Ascent by Disruptor Beam, where he managed the narrative pipeline and a content team of six writers who hailed from companies such as BioWare. He was previously the narrative designer and writer of the successful iOS title Jack Lumber by Owlchemy Labs, published by SEGA. After contributing as a full-time Game Writer and narrative consultant for Zynga Boston, he co-presented with Senior Game Designer Steve Williams at GDC Online on “Indiana Jones Adventure World: Narrative for Social Games.” Jonathon is scheduled for the Game Narrative Summit roundtable session “It’s Not in the Writer’s Manual: A Q&A Session for New Writers” at GDC in March.

Logistics:

Wednesday, February 13th
7pm @ The Skellig, Waltham
Directions: http://www.bostonpostmortem.org/directions/

January Meeting – Tom Lin – Shoot Many Robots

Dan Salsberg — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 18:15:05 +0000

This month’s Boston Post Mortem is next week, TUESDAY, January 8th at 7pm at The Skellig in Waltham.

Our presentation this month will be by Tom Lin from Demiurge Studios, who will be taking the stage to deliver a postmortem on Shoot Many Robots:

Demiurge Studios has been in business for over ten years, mostly working on AAA franchises like Mass Effect, Borderlands, Bioshock, and Rock Band. But those weren’t OUR franchises! We fixed this by shipping Shoot Many Robots, our indie labor of love that got picked up by Ubisoft and shipped on XBLA, PSN, and PC. The development process went swimmingly, and we have the scars to prove it! Listen to Tom Lin, Demiurge’s Creative Director, talk about our top 5 good & bad development decisions and why Wrestle Many Robots could be the next big thing.

Logistics:

Tuesday, January 8th
7pm @ The Skellig, Waltham
Directions: http://www.bostonpostmortem.org/directions/

December 2012 Boston Unity Group Meeting

Dan Salsberg — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 20:48:20 +0000

The next Boston Unity Group meeting is happening Tuesday, December 18th.

We are pleased to announce the next Boston Unity Group meetup will be held on Tuesday, December 18, 2012 hosted by the Mircosoft New England Research Center (NERD Center) in Cambridge, MA.

Featuring Robot Rising:

Robot Rising is an visually stunning 3D Facebook game created by Stomp Games and made with unity! Come and watch Chris Winters, Art Director at Stomp Games, and members of his creative team present on the artistic evolution and technical challenges involved in the making of Robot Rising.

This is an event not to miss! Check out Robot Rising at https://www.facebook.com/RobotRising

After some initial networking and the speaker’s presentation, a contingency of us will head to Cambridge Brewing Company (CBC) for some libations, possibly food and more networking!

Please register if your planning on attending.

Where: Microsoft NERD Center
When: Tuesday Dec 18, 6:30-10pm

December Meeting – John Lanza and Daniel Rose – Legal Issues For Game Dev

Dan Salsberg — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 15:47:09 +0000

This month’s Boston Post Mortem is next week, WEDNESDAY, December 12th at 7pm at The Skellig in Waltham.

Our presentation this month will be by John Lanza and Daniel Rose from Foley & Lardner LLP, who will be taking the stage to deliver a talk on legal issues impacting game developers.

John and Daniel will present a split topic presentation of interest to both indie developers and developers at more established studios. First, they will talk about crowd sourced fundraising systems, what the primary differences are, and what potential liabilities and pitfalls to watch out for. Second, they are going to talk about recent copyright cases involving design elements in video games, such as the use of Bell Helicopters in Battlefield 3, individuals’ likenesses in sports or music games, and others.

Bio: John Lanza and Daniel Rose are patent attorneys with the electronics practice group of Foley & Lardner LLP, and have represented several video game developers and manufacturers of artificial intelligence and level design middleware. Their current projects include a subscription-based comprehensive legal service product geared towards small game studios. Both are avid gamers, currently wrapped up in Assassin’s Creed III and Borderlands 2.

Foley & Lardner LLP will also be providing some FREE FOOD for our meeting!

Logistics:

Wednesday, December 12th
7pm @ The Skellig, Waltham
Directions: http://www.bostonpostmortem.org/directions/

November Meeting – Owlchemy Labs – Jack Lumber Postmortem

Dan Salsberg — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 20:10:02 +0000

This month’s Boston Post Mortem will be held on WEDNESDAY, November 14th at 7pm at The Skellig in Waltham.

Our presentation this month will be by Alex Schwartz and Kate Mann of Owlchemy Labs, who will be taking the stage to deliver a post mortem of their latest title, Jack Lumber.

How do you maintain your voice as an indie while working with one of the most recognizable AAA publishers in the games industry?

How do you market a low budget indie game in a way that grabs people’s attention, makes them laugh out loud, and implants your brand into their brain juices?

How does one fund, design, prototype, build, market, sell, and maintain an original IP with a small team and small budget?

How is babby formed?

In answering these questions, Owlchemy aims to give a peek behind the curtain and reveal the inner workings of the development and marketing of a short form mobile indie game.

Logistics:

Wednesday, November 14th
7pm @ The Skellig, Waltham
Directions: http://www.bostonpostmortem.org/directions/