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feature :: supanova brisbane 08 - day 2

SupaNova Brisbane 08 - Day 2

Yug gives his thoughts on day 2 of SupaNova in Brisbane

Day 1 (Phil) | Afterparty | Day 2 (Yug)

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Considering the party the night before, I woke up Sunday morning in a much better state than I did on Saturday morning. See, Saturday morning we had a fire alarm go off in our building, waking me up at 5am in the morning and forcing me to stand on the street outside while freezing my ass off, only to be let back in half an hour later to find there was no hot water for a shower. By comparison, Sunday morning Matt and I managed to make it to SupaNova bang on time to host the 'How to get into the Games industry' panel.

Phil's already talked enough about SupaNova as an event, and while I don't share his view (I think it's a great event for serious fans of the products and shows featured), I'm going to focus more on the gaming contingency.


Some of the concept at from Krome Studios posted on the Queensland Games wall


Queensland games has always had a strong presence at SupaNova in Brisbane, representing the local game developers. This year was no exception, although the focus this year was on 'artwork', with each studio displaying a range of concept art from their upcoming and existing games. On show were:
There was also the universities there to promote their gaming courses - Qantm, Bond, QUT and Griffith, as well as a big EB Games booth including a PS3 Singstar stage. IGN also had a booth there, although god knows why considering it didn't actually have anything in it. The local IGDA also ran the drawing competition area, where the winners got to spend a small amount of time learning skills and techniques from actual game artists.

There were playable versions of the developer games on hand, as well as videos featuring studio tours as well as trailers for their games. Perhaps the most interesting feature was the Fuzzyeyes setup, comprising of a small desk, chair, laptop, drawing tablet and projector, their talented artist Alti sketched concept art all weekend while people could watch him do it. Have a look at some of the awesome stuff he drew and posted on our forums here.


Yug talks to Augustine from Fuzzyeyes while they inspect some of Alti's sketches


The panels that I'd briefly touched on (and Phil got too distracted to talk about) were both about 'How to get into the games industry'. Saturday's panel featured William Docherty and Don Kirkland from THQ Studio Australia, Theron Miles from Krome Studios, and Adrian Cook from Wildfire Studios. All very experienced developers, with the exception of Theron - who has only recently started working at Krome, and gave a very positive spiel about how he managed to get into the industry and how much he enjoys working at Krome. The main consensus was that in this day and age you NEEDED to have some sort of tertiary education and that there were plenty of opportunities available for the passionate people.

Sundays session featured local developer legend Steve Stamatiadis from Krome Studios, industry veteran Jon Cartwright from THQ Studio Australia, our favourite man of funk Pras Moorthy from Sega Creative Assembly, Senior lecturer Keiran Bartlett from Qantm, and the man with all the stats Jeff Brand from Bond University.


Steve Stamatidis (Krome Studios), Jon Cartwright (THQ Studio Australia), Pras Moorthy (Sega Creative Assembly), Keiran Bartlett (Qantm) and Jeff Brand (Bond)


The guys really pushed the fact that a portfolio is one of the most important things you can have and should work on in order to get your foot in the door and stand out from the crowd. Jeff quoted some amazing stats that I'll have to chase up about the local industry, how much it's worth, how many people work in it, etc etc. Really informative and a great opportunity for future game developers to hear from and speak to the people that really know what they're talking about.

So there ends SupaNova in Brisbane for another year! If you're in Sydney or Perth, keep your eyes peeled as the event is headed your way soon. Check the SupaNova website for more details, and also be sure to check out the Queensland games website for more information on the local Brisbane game developers featured at SupaNova.




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