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The next meeting of the IGDA Madison chapter will be April 1, 2008, at Herzing College (5218 East Terrace Drive), starting at 7 PM. Despite being one of the board members, I’ve not been able to attend the last couple meetings, but I’m planning on making this one.
We have three speakers scheduled for the event: Ben Geisler of Frozen Codebase, Tim Gerritsen of Big Rooster, and Chris Rhinehart of Human Head Studios. After that, we’ll walk over to Erins Snug Irish Pub (4601 American Parkway), just around the corner from the school, to continue the conversation.
If you’re interested in computer game design and how developers work, this should be worth your while.

When I decided to start writing for video games a couple years ago, one of the first things I did was join the IGDA. I’d been a member through Human Head when I worked there, but I ponied up on my own after I left. I’m part of the board of directors of the Madison chapter, and I’ve helped out with the Writers SIG too.

The Writers SIG has a new book about to come out, edited by Wendy Despain: Professional Techniques for Video Game Writing. I’m not listed as one of the writers, although I did answer interview questions for the “How to Break In and Stay In” chapter.

I’ve not had a chance to read any of the book yet, as it won’t hit shelves until April. If the book’s anywhere near as the group’s first effort—Game Writing: Narrative Skills for Videogames—it should be well worth the money for anyone interested in this sort of work.

While I won’t be able to make it out to the Game Developer’s Conference later this month, I’ll be there in spirit. As a card-carrying member of the IGDA, I pitched in to help the Game Writers SIG with part of the writing for a party game for the IGDA Members-Only Party.

If you make it to the party, the black Villain cards are my fault. I’m looking forward to hearing the live-action results.

The August meeting of the Madison chapter of the IGDA is set for Tuesday, August 13. With luck, I’ll be there, but either way those who attend will get the chance to listen to the talented artist Mark Nelson talk about art in both paper and computer games. I hope to see you there!

I had a great time at the IGDA meeting in Madison on Wednesday night. The speaker, James Gee, did a fantastic job, with much of his hypotheses about gaming and learning dovetailing nicely with Raph Koster’s A Theory of Fun for Game Design and another project I’m working on. Tim Gerritsen and I sat on a panel with James at an academic seminar a couple years ago, but I left thinking he’d only scratched the surface of what his work is about. At the meeting, I got the full-bore version of it, and loved it.

I also won a new graphics card, courtesy of ATI. Now I can upgrade the old X600 I have to a shiny new Radeon X1300 PRO. To offset my good fortune, though, I got nicked for speeding on the way home.

This evening, I’ll be at the meeting of the Madison chapter of the IGDA. Our speaker is James Gee, a professor at the University of Wisconsin—Madison. If you’re a local member, I hope to see you at the Casbah tonight.