The Ballarat GIG kicked off this morning at 10:00AM with an introduction by Martin Wilkes, who co-ordinated the event. Set up at the event was a stage, which hosted a series of different speakers. First up was the Game Developer of Australia presentation, followed by a Ballarat Uni Tafe Presentation and a presentation by the Ballarat Uni Higher Education co-ordinators.
Then came the presentations from the developers. Steve Fawkner of Infinite Interactive stepped up to the stage and spoke about how to get into the industry. Infinite Interactive is behind the Australian developed game of the year, Puzzle Quest. While we're aware the Puzzle Quest franchise will be continuing, Steve's slideshow presentation simply showed that Puzzle Quest would be around from 2007 - ?, which left us giddy at the thought of even more Puzzle Quest titles in the future.
Sure Infinite Interactive developed PQ, but they also love their cats.
After Steve hopped off the stage it was time for Third Wave Games CEO Morten Brodersen to present War World, which should be making it's way to the Xbox Live Arcade sometime this year. Third Wave Games is an Australian developer based in Melbourne, with only a very small amount of staff, so it was rather interesting listening to Morten. We managed to catch up with Morten after his talk, to try and gauge when War World would actually make its way to the Live Arcade, but he unfortunately wasn't sure of the date when the game would launch. We also asked Morten whether War World would eventually make its way to the PlayStation Network, but he commented that the company would be waiting to see the sales figures for the game on the Xbox Live Arcade before making any decisions, so our fingers are crossed.
After a short break it was time for Transmission Games (IR Gurus) to make a presentation. Ben Palmer commented that the studio was currently working on five titles, which we think means Transmission Games is one of the most active development studios in Australia. We did try and get a little more information out of Ben on what titles Transmission Games is currently working on, but unfortunately not all of the titles have been revealed just yet. He was able to confirm for us that the company is finished with the AFL Premiership series, which is a bit of a bummer.
The Ballarat GIG is a great way to get the word out about game's development.
There was plenty of things for people to check out at the event if they weren't interested in the on stage presentations. Pacemaker showed off their portable DJ kit and there were plenty of games on hand to play, including the recently released Grand Theft Auto IV and Mario Kart. Alienware also provided several PCs for the event, which were running Crysis perfectly. EA also provided their latest games for the event, including UEFA EURO 2008, FIFA Street 3 and Need for Speed: ProStreet.
Overall it was hard not to be impressed by the Ballarat GIG. There were plenty of students in attendance and the presence of local developers and local universities meant that all aspiring game developers were able to ask as many questions as they'd like. Today was of course, only the first day. Tomorrow the World Cyber Games qualifiers are on and their will be just as many games on show, so if you're in the area we strongly recommend you check it out. More information on the GIG can be found at the official website.
Loading...
