NZ GDC 2013 programme announced
9 June 2013
The New Zealand Game Developers Conference will be held on Friday 28 June at AUT University in Auckland. It is a one-day action-packed conference for professional and indie game developers.
The conference features New Zealand and Australia’s leading game developers sharing real experiences and the knowledge that has made them global successes.
You can download the conference programme here.
Conference sessions cover technology, art, business and marketing streams and include:
- Keynote: Jason Harwood, Producer, Halfbrick (Fruit Ninja, Jetpack Joyride)
- Keynote:Alex St. John, ex-Microsoft GM Entertainment, Founder of WildTangent, ex-President and CTO of Hi5.com
- Best Practices in Mobile Customer Acquistion and Monetization, ChartBoost featuring PikPok, Majic Jungle and Runaway Play
- Evolve or Die: free2play is free2innovate, Fawzi Mesmar, Principal Designer, Gameloft New Zealand
- Bloons Monkey City – The Evolution of IP, Stephen Harris (Co-Founder and Chief Game Designer) and Lee Grey (Lead Engineer, Monkey City), NinjaKiwi
- MacGuffins’ Curse Post-Mortem, Ben Kosmina, Brawsome from Melbourne
- Jane Austen for Facebook Post-Mortem, Nadia Thorne, Cerebral Fix
- Major Mayhem Post-Mortem, Anthony Blackett, Rocket Jump Games
- Path of Exile Open Beta Post-Mortem, Chris Wilson, Managing Director, Grinding Gear Games
- Puzzle Design Tools, Sam Wong, Team Lead, The Voxel Agents from Melbourne
- It’s Alive! Creating a World Worth Caring About, Tim Nixon, Runaway Play
- Making Film & TV Games Work, Jeremy Taylor, ex-THQ, Disney and Electronic Arts
- Animate Technologies: Intelligent Agents and Neural Nets, Dr Mark Sagar, University of Auckland Bioengineering Institute, ex-Weta Digital
- Becoming an Agile Producer, Gustave Seymore, Producer, Gameloft New Zealand
- Gamified Beta Testing, Caswal Parker, Camshaft Software from Melbourne
- Month of Hell: Launching Path of Exile, Jonathan Rogers, Technical Director, Grinding Gear Games
- The Future of Flash, Panel featuring NinjaKiwi and Minimonos
- Going Android, Ben Britten, Tin Man Games from Melbourne
- Windows 8 and Windows Phone Game Development, Danu Abeysurika, Rush Digital
Additional sessions are still be announced with a full programme coming soon. Presentations are 20 minutes long with a short audience Q&A. Registration opens at 9am with the conference running from 10am-6pm including lunch and afternoon tea, and then the…
Serato After-Party: Friday Night
Conference attendees can pick up tickets to attend the Serato After-Party at Rakinos on High St. Auckland software-company Serato are the makers of the world’s best and most popular DJ software, Scratch Live, so they know how to bring up the right tunes. Drinks on arrival.
NZGDA AGM: Thursday Night
Are you passionate about the future of game development in New Zealand? The NZ Game Developers Association Annual General Meeting and committee elections will be held at 5pm, Thursday 27 June at Level 5, Media Design School, 92 Albert St. All NZGDA members are welcome to attend.
The deadline for nominations for the seven-person NZGDA committee is 5pm Thursday 20 June. Email NZGDA Secretary Jonathan Rogers at j.w.rogers@gmail.com to nominate yourself. 200-350 word long blurbs from each candidate are required and will be posted on Playmaker.org.nz prior to the AGM. Voting can be done in person or via email.
Tickets On Sale Now
Purchase your tickets online now. Anyone professionally involved in developing video games is welcome to join the NZGDA and receive the discounted $70+GST ticket price.