The New Zealand Game Developers Association is running a free two day event in Auckland from Friday 13-Saturday 14th July to help inform and encourage young women about careers in interactive media in a non threatening environment.
The last event run a couple of years ago was very successful, drawing in 150 attendees. This year there is a great speaker lineup which includes a number of strong male and female role models. Although the event is skewed slightly towards females, it is completely open for males and all age groups to attend (the last event had a 50/50 mix).
The event is free of charge and registration is essential. To view the programme and register your interest see the online registration and programme.
Thanks for the heads up on the G3, sounds like a good event to go to.
ReplyDeleteThis was an excellent event held in the town hall. It held a mix of all the game developers in New Zealand and outlined the history and what the companies have completed in the last 10 years. Andrew Flavell from Microsoft delivered an excellent presentation on what Microsoft are doing with there xbox 360 and the games that are being released this year. Blue Lagoon a RPG (Role Playing Game) and Lost Odyssey, also another Role Playing Game. He also presented what his development team and studio are in need of in the way of programmers. Above Average levels of Maths and Physics are required to be a good game programmer, the computer language used to code is c++.
ReplyDeleteGames, there was plenty of, some New Zealand developed games were on show, Goliath developed by some of the post graduate students at New Zealand only gamed development course through Media Design School in Auckland, Cube, developed by Metia Interactive and a prototype by a collective group in Auckland.
Girls, it was discussed how to get more girls interested in the industry, the geeky male domination of the IT industry has to be looked at, how do we make IT interesting. It goes back to secondary schools and what they do there, is it still information management and developing skills so females can go to work in an office. How can we improve this.
Graphics, concept graphics and technical graphic artists are required in the New Zealand industry to be able to develop high graphical and interesting games that put what the game designer wanted in a way that the imagination can run wild. Also how the Media Design School in Auckland can help with this.
Are games just for entertainment, or can you get something else from them. We had a presentation by a crowd that developed the air force training games that we saw on TV, find the parachutist, and they described the issues that they faced when developing an episodic game that was released in parts. When you say that it will be released at midnight and you release it at 10 minutes past, be prepared for an assault on the website on the forums and email systems.
Also some educational ones were looked at, one was a kureru discovery project, and how to teach students what they needed to do or the community to do to help one of New Zealand endangered birds to survive.
Awesome, can't wait for next years G3 conference.
Interesting to know.
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