All posts by Thuan

Meeting Dec. 6th

This week’s meeting will be in BA1240 at 7pm.

We have a presentation from Jaques Waller about C++ template objects and C++ template programming.

We also have yummy winter break food, and will be exchanging names for the secret santa.

See you there!

– Mark

Tomorrow’s meeting cancelled

Hey all.

Because of the Ubisoft career info session and the CSSU Game Night Tournaments that are happening tomorrow, we’ve decided to cancel tomorrow’s meeting and let you guys enjoy the events. 🙂 Again, the Ubisoft info session will be from 5:30 pm to 7:30 pm in BA1220 and the CSSU Game Night will be happening in the Great Hall (3F) of Bahen Centre all night long.

edit:  Later tomorrow night, probably around 8:00 pm or so after the Ubisoft info session, a few of the top game demos that the teams are making in CSC490: Capstone Game Design will be showcasing on a project at the CSSU Game Night.  Feel free to come by and check out what we’ve been up to!

Volunteer for GDC 2008!

GDC08

For those who don’t know, the Game Developer’s Conference (GDC) is a huge annual event held where game developers around the world come together and share ideas and projects they are currently working on. GDC 2008 will be held on

February 18-22 2008 in San Francisco, CA. The full conference pass is pretty expensive (anywhere from $1500 to $2000 USD) BUT if you are a student, which I’m sure most of you are, you can apply to donate 20 hours of your time to be a Conference Associate (i.e. volunteer) at GDC. Once you get accepted, you’ll get the full access pass for free when not on duty! You can find more details here. Although they don’t explicitly specify a deadline by when to apply, it’s probably best to do it ASAP. Probably the best part of it is to have a chance to meet and network with other like-minded students and have a chance to meet people from industry. Note that you’ll still need to pay for your own airfare and hotel accommodations, which may run you up to about $800-$1000, but considering you’re getting a $1500-$2000 pass if accepted, it’s not a bad deal IMO. Not to mention all the swag that you’ll be getting. 😉

I haven’t been to GDC personally (yet), but I’ve volunteered at SIGGRAPH 2007 this summer and it was a blast. I would expect a similar experience at GDC as well. Hope to hear some of you aspiring game developers going there next year!

Ubisoft is coming to UT!

This is just in from Jim Clarke of CS:

Ubisoft (www.ubisoft.com ), leading international developer, publisher and distributor of interactive entertainment products, is holding an information session on Thursday, 22 November, from 5:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. in room BA1220.

You can register to attend on the UofT Career Centre website: www.careers.utoronto.ca .

Note that it’ll cut into the regular club meeting times on Thursday. I’m guessing everyone in the club will want to be there anyway, so *maybe* we’ll have the club meeting there instead, but don’t quote me on that just yet. 🙂 Register with the Career Centre ASAP to guarantee yourself a spot.

Coming soon: Game Making Deathmatch 200…8!

A message from your local GMD coordinator:

Typically around this time of the school year is when GMD competition starts and the competitors go at it for three full weeks before they have to submit a game. I am announcing today that there WILL be a GMD event happening this school year but just not this current term (fall 2007). Instead, the competition will take place in February 2008 for three weeks leading up to the end of reading week. Nothing is set in stone yet, but we are planning to have the competition to run from February 1st to the 22nd. The main reasons behind this change is because:

  • There will be a week where most people can devote all their time towards making a working game demo for GMD (“no time” excuses become less of an issue, in theory at least).
  • Most importantly, to give first years’ and new members of the club some time to learn the tools and theory behind making a game

Not only that, the competition rules will be significantly different than previous years, and hopefully for the better. Changes being planned include:

  • Voting for a theme topic to be used
  • Two rounds of judging for games: first round by other participants, second round by industry and faculty (a panel of at least three judges)
  • Judging based on categories
  • GMD “Office Hours” — executive members will hold Q&A help sessions throughout the competition to help beginners get their game working
  • NO anonymous rule — you are now free to discuss your game amongst your other competitors
  • Alumnis can participate in a special Alumni Deathmatch Challenge!

Details will follow and will be worked out. Stay tuned for the best GMD competition yet! If you have any comments or concerns, feel free to send me an email.

Schedule for Nov 8th 2007

Hi Everyone,

This week Daniel S. will be doing a presentation on the basics of how to use Blender. (http://www.blender.org/)

The meeting will be in BA 1240

We managed to get the same room for the next few weeks, so we’ll be in 1240 for a little while 🙂

See you there!

Agenda For November 1st

This Thursday, we’ll be having a presentation by Jean-Luc David, Developer Adviser for Microsoft. He’ll be presenting a bit about Imagine Cup and XNA, then answer anyone’s questions.

The room will be BA 3004.

See everyone there!

Agenda for Oct 18, 2007

For Oct 18, 2007, the meeting will be in BA 2135. Mark is going to kick it off with a second XNA tutorial on input and motion, and later Thuan will give an introduction to PyGame. Presentation notes have been already been posted – check them out. If you have a laptop, we highly recommend that you bring it so that you can have some hands-on time with XNA and/or PyGame and ask us any questions if you need help. If you do bring a laptop, be sure to install the software and have it ready along with your favorite IDE! See you then.