Chapter Relaunch A Success

Thursday 19th May saw the relaunch of IGDA Scotland at a jam-packed meeting in Dundee. Massive thanks to everyone who joined us!

83 developers, students, journalists, academics and other supporters filled the venue, representing more than 15 companies and 4 universities. Tag Games kindly sponsored the event, buying everyone a first drink.

The informal event brought developers together from across Scotland, and following a brief introduction featured ten speakers:

• Elaine Russell, Dare to be Digital, spoke about the annual games development competition and the accompanying showcase Dare Protoplay which will take place in Dundee this August.
• Paul Farley, Tag Games, spoke about the company’s work and growth, as well as the state of Scottish and mobile games development in general.
• Grant Clarke, University of Abertay Dundee, gave an overview of their existing games degree courses and continuing changes to them.
• Stuart Gray, Whisky Biscuit, spoke about the recent formation of the company an release of first iPad title Warpath.
• Darran Jamieson, TPLD, discussed games for training and learning as well as announcing his new social site for UK game developers www.ukgamedev.com.
• Jessica Sage and David Morrison, Play2Improve, updated everyone about the development of FPSTrainer, as well as announcing the Dundee Game Jam taking part on the 28th May.
• Brian McNicoll, Dynamo Games, spoke about the company’s origins and growth, and social games development.
• Phil Harris, Square Go, explained the support and assistance that they, as games journalists, can offer to Scottish developers.
• Jon Sykes, Glasgow Caledonian University, focussed on “iOpiates” and how they relate to the research work carried out within the Emotionlab.
• Daniel Livingstone, University of The West of Scotland, spoke about the university, its games degree courses and its graduates.

Thanks go out to all of our speakers and to the volunteers who worked to make the event a success.

The next event will take place in roughly a month, in Glasgow. There are a number of ways to stay in touch and find out more about it:

• Follow @IGDA Scotland on Twitter
• Like us on Facebook
• Join the mailing list.

If you’d like to help organise future events or have any feedback about this one, please let us know through the mailing list. We’re also looking to form a steering committee to plan future events and help direct the chapter.

Thanks again to everyone who attended, I look forward to seeing you in Glasgow!

Relaunch Evening in Dundee, Thursday 19th May

Come and join Scotland’s shiny new IGDA chapter on the 19th May for introductions, drinks and chat at Braes in Dundee.

Attendance is free and everyone is welcome, so please register here and tell all your friends!

From 8pm we’ll be hosting a series of microtalks from Dundee studios, events and organisations. The rest of the evening will give you a chance to meet other developers and like-minded individuals from across the country.

Braes serves food until 7:30pm; we’ll be located downstairs in Braes Below from 7pm until closing.

This will be the first of our monthly meetings located in Dundee, Glasgow and Edinburgh. Follow us to keep up to date about this and future events:
http://www.facebook.com/IGDAScotland
http://twitter.com/igdascotland
http://groups.google.com/group/igdascotland

We’ll also be using these sites to help coordinate travel from Edinburgh and Glasgow, so stay tuned if you plan to make the trip.

Progress

What’s going on?

We’re well on our way to having the required number of IGDA members (just waiting on a couple of confirmations) and seeing a lot of support for the chapter.

What’s next?

The next immediate step is to decide what everyone wants to get out of chapter meetings, and agree on a format and location based on that.

After that, we need to work towards electing a steering committee (within the next 6 months) and eventually forming as a non-profit organisation. But all that is meaningless unless we’re having meetups worth attending.

How can I stay in touch?

In order to help organise the chapter, we have a mailing list. Please feel free to sign up, introduce yourself, and share any suggestions you have about what would make meetings worthwhile for you.

We’re also doing that Facebook thing and that Twitter thing.

Where did you get your beautiful logo?

The talented Mr Liam Wong made it.