board & card game cons
Ubercon (the ultimate gaming experience) – they have card games, board games, LAN games, console games, LARP, RPG, miniatures – URL: http://www.ubercon.com – sponsored by popcap games too, held in Edison, NJ - 4/25-27/08 – the conference hotel sold out
GameDays – URL: http://gamedays.gamesclubofmd.org/- open gameplay, game masters available to teach games, [...]
Games we should buy – variety of hardware, need old and new, different gameplay, rules, look and feel, story twists (based on various best of lists, games for available hardware so no old snes games)
Some we will need more than one copy to play in class/assign as homework; others just one because only a few [...]
Hardware - at least 1 of each - approx. $1200
(but could start with several DS and several PS2 - maybe 4 each, and multiple controllers for PS2)
(need monitors, stands/racks/carts, controllers, memory cards, batteries or charger - adds to the cost)
DS - $130
PSP - $200
XBOX360 - $250-$350
PS2 - $100 -$150
Wii - $300
Software - at least [...]
http://mindmeister.com
people can share mind maps so groups can work on them together
for free people can have 6 maps
can share, people can be shared as editors or as just viewers
can get a graphic and embed on webpages, word docs, blog
lay out notes from class readings, then we can compare maps from different groups
organize/brainstorm ideas for [...]
we sent out postcards with info about the new major to the accepted freshmen - and i’ve only heard from a couple of people. granted - we didn’t recruit like we will next year, but it’s kind of depressing. And the one kid i talked to is more likely a minor who won’t start till [...]
project management tools - so they’re used to the idea in the cs classes and the game design classes
ganttproject.biz - gantt & pert charts
lots of google tools - notebook, spreadsheets, docs - to share development of papers and presentations
mindmapping - mindmeister.com - easy to use, easy to share, embeddable (as static graphic, not live)
outline note [...]
ECAROcon speaker created utiliteam (tools for competitions and tournaments), company called zapdot.com
pro gaming leagues
cyberathletes Professional League (CPL) - PC based FPS competitions, money prozes with big sponsors, started in 1995, closed
major league gaming - console based competition, seems to be going strong
electronic Sports world cup - based in France
Cyber evolution - online gaming competition leagues, [...]
things I need to learn more about as we start to interview people for the program
modeling & animation, skin development
mo cap, 3D compositing (blue screen)
synthetic environments
digital skeletons (internal rigging used for animation)
deformable rigid bodies
digital doubles (this was cool - making digital characters that look like the real actor and substitute for them on screen, could [...]
written after i went to ecarocon in syracuse (good event - that we want to take students to next semester)
- having a variety of speakers was a good idea - art guys, design guys, been out a long time, just leaving school
- need to have water/soda/snacks - there has to be some budget for it [...]
The last speaker - who worked on gods of war (was the game director for gods of war 2) had good advice for soon to be job seekers
play the games of the company where you’re interviewing
play games, think of what you like and don’t like about them - and be ready to talk about how [...]
