IGDA Baltimore: August 2009 Meeting Wrap-Up

The Baltimore IGDA chapter meeting opened up with videos from Microsoft’s Natal trailer, Nintendo’s Wii motion plus and finally Sony’s trailer on augmented reality. The meeting was held at Firaxis studios inside the impressive Executive plaza in Hunt Valley, MD. One of the best things about IGDA meetings is the fact that there is so much talent to learn from. Talking with freelance developers about projects and more programming geek-ness just adds to the laid back atmosphere that easily allows for a good time. After about thirty minutes of allowing everyone to mingle the beginning announcements began. Unfortunately with one announcement by Richard Boehme that the Baltimore Game Jam has been postponed until further notice due to the difficulty of finding a venue. The night was very different from previous meetings, as a round table style was used to handle the upcoming discussions.

Baltimore chapter head Tronster Hartley threw out a few questions to the floor and let the 55 plus attendees have in-depth, fueled and very passionate discussions on some key topics. The chatter started off with Tronster asking “Do you think the game development community is ready for the future of what seems to be next gen gaming.” There was a lot of debate over this, and the room could not seem to agree. One half of the room expressed concern that games may be jumping more into the mainstream of casual gamers and gimmick ideas that will only support certain genres of games. Another concern was if the software will actually fully utilize the capabilities they have to offer. The most debated topic, sparked by the Microsoft video of project natal “If you can ever take the controller out the players hand?” had back and forth conversation . This debate fell short because in a room full of developers of all kind the casual gamer had no voice. Is it the fact that hardcore gamers will not let go of the controller so easily? or the age gap between the new generation gamers make them more able to adapt?

No matter what was discussed you could see that everyone had something to say. If there was anything that i would change maybe a moderator next time . This may have moved it along so more topics could be covered and more people could get their thoughts in. The night could not end until the prizes were given away. Drawing from a hat the prizes included “Sid Meier’s Railroads” hats, a fresh copy of the Mastering Unreal Technology thanks to a sponsor Pearson Education, and Sid Meier’s Civilization 4 Collection pack jammed with just about every game. I was lucky to win myself a railroad hat!

Running out of time, the meeting ended with more mingling than the guys and girls hitting the bar after for more fun. The Philly chapter made an appearance, having a couple guys come down joining us for the night. Hopefully Baltimoregamer.com will be at the Philly chapter meeting at the end of this month.

Thank you again for another great night, IGDA Baltimore. We look forward to the next meeting.

See all photos taken by Tronster and crew! (Special thanks for use of photos by BaltimoreGamer)
http://picasaweb.google.com/tronster.hartley/BaltimoreIGDAAtFiraxis20090806#5367340204860946082

IGDA Baltimore, Join the forums!
http://www.igda.org/baltimore/

IGDA Philly Chapter:
http://www.igda.org/philly/