Game Retreat

The Game Development retreat is on Friday Nov 7 to Sunday Nov 9. A couple spots still remain.

The retreat is at the Frogmore House. Students will pay about $75.

Some interesting attendees are at this retreat (I'll keep adding to the list):

Julie Haehn has several years of experience (and stories) in both electronic and analog games, from her time spent at Sandlot Games, WizKids, CheapAss games, and now Microsoft.

Andy Megowan of iWin Games will give some tips for developing a better game. He will also talk about his transition from game programmer to producer to entrepreneur.

Andy has written such articles as:

Stories That Write Themselves: Letting your games build their own worlds
Down to the Bone: Better Games through Deeper Themes

Andy is currently the Creative Director of iWin Games. Before iWin Games, he was the creative director at Sandlot Games from 2002 to 2007. Before that, he worked at Monolith Productions in Bellevue, Ion Storm in Austin, and Interplay Entertainment (1994 - 1997). Before entering the digital games industry, Andy worked at theme parks and location based entertainment (e.g. GameWorks).

Michelle Gamboa has spent most of this decade as a game tester for Microsoft.

Rob Stevens is an alum of the UWB business program. He is a game industry veteran, having spent the past 7 years as an independent consultant and freelance journalist. He will be staying at the Frogmore house and is available for help on assignments and your game project.

We're still hoping that Peter Becker, a former IP attorney on Xbox will also be at the retreat.

Final Presentation Schedule and Final Deliverables

You have 30 minutes for your final presentation including Q&A. You should really plan for an 18 min presentation.

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

1. Sorority Life
2. Tammy Brokaw's Group (Andrew, Alex)
3. Tiffany Brokaw's Group
4. Panagea Studios
5. Dual Genesis (Brian, Joe, Kylea, Kenji, Jeff, Kyran)
6. Jamison, Kate, Ritesh, Matt, Josh

Thursday, December 4, 2008
(Meet for breakfast & class in UW2-131)

1. Jon Barber's Group
2. Nathan's Group
3. Blue Line Studios (Walker, Jeremy, Niel, Mike)
4. Easeo Studios (Owen, Ellen, Aaron, Ethan, Sara)

The team projects and peer evals are due at my office on Tuesday, Dec 9, 2008. The deadline time is noon. If you don't submit peer evals, then points are lost.

The prototype peer evals can be found here: Sample Peer Review

Tomorrow's Speaker - Joe Hauck

Joe Hauck, former SVP of Wizkids and VP of Wizards of the Coast and Magic (TCG and MOL) will be stopping by tomorrow to talk about marketing and branding of properties. Will be fun! See you tomorrow.

Class Tomorrow - Greg Leeds CEO Wizards of the Coast

Reminder that for the first hour of class tomorrow we will have Greg Leeds, President/CEO of Wizards of the Coast coming in to talk and take your questions. Little info on Greg. Before joining Wizards earlier this year, Greg spent seven years at Hasbro where he headed up International Marketing and helped to develop Hasbro’s global brand management methodology. Prior to that he led Hasbro’s Boys group and had extensive experience in marketing, operations, and sales at both Samsonite and Procter & Gamble.

For the remainder of the class, we will have each group briefly discuss their projects and take questions/suggestions/feedback from the rest of the class.

See you tomorrow!

Whirled Flash Game Challenge

Noticed this in the Whirled Newsletter. If you are interested, you might want to consider submitting a game to this contest. You can also check out their site along with an interview with the creator and CEO of Three Rings.

Winter 2009: BIS 493 / CSS 490c: THE STATE OF PLAY

This course is focused on virtual worlds and is taught by Wanda Gregory. It's taught at T/Th at 1:15 - 3:20pm. Even though it's upper division, you may feel free to approach the instructor for permission to register. It builds upon what was learned in the Discovery I class.

The title of the class is: THE STATE OF PLAY: THE STATE OF PLAY: DIGITAL CULTURE, PLAY, IDENTITY AND VIRTUAL WORLDS

Megatrends of Game Design Part 1 & 2

Two articles you might find interesting discussing trends in game design today.

The Megatrends of Game Design, Part 1

The Megatrends of Game Design, Part 2

For your next paper, you might consider writing about one of these trends.