We had a fantastic evening on June 12 with some amazing speakers and talks from the Interactive Digital Media Industry. The showcase floor was active with original game products, live art demos, a marine simulator, and lots of industry information. We captured much of our speakers’ talks on film and would like to share them. Unfortunately, due to some early technical difficulties, we don’t have video of James Cann’s talk about Initus Interactive and the Independent Game Development of Xengris, but we will see James and Xengris in an episode of Devs on the ROCK later this Fall. https://xengris.manakeep.com/
Randy Billard of Virtual Marine – Using Serious Game Design to Build Marine Simulators – https://www.virtualmarine.ca/
Thanks to the GDNL Team for helping pull off the event, along with our sponsors and partners: College of the North Atlantic, NATI, Genesis, and Business & Arts NL, and thanks to Tyler Dunne of CNA Journalism for assisting with filming.
On the evening of June 12, our GDNL community, as well as other interested visionaries, braved a torrential downpour to fill the Emera Innovation Exchange Conference Centre with inspiration, imagination, and possibility.
We had a fantastic turnout, and at one point had a physical head count of 134 attendees from all different areas of our cool interactive digital media sector. Our speakers were phenomenal, our partners exceptional, the venue and catering exquisite, and the GDNL team and volunteers helped make the evening a night to remember. Thank you to all, but most importantly, thank you to our attendees. This community starts with you!
While GDNL has been around for about a decade (perhaps under different names), this caliber of an event was a first for us. As you all know, we are a volunteer organization with a free membership and, as such, we don’t have a budget to spend and time is hard to come by to dedicate to such an evening. However, CNA’s sponsorship and partnership significantly reduced the financial concern, as well as the support from TCII and their Community Capacity Building initiatives. The team from both institutions were not just supportive, they were actively excited and interested in our event and the journey that can begin from its success.
NATI, Genesis, and Business and Arts NL helped to get out the word, provide their advice and expertise, and work out the details of how an event like this works. Without their support, it would have been difficult for GDNL to connect all the important dots, manage the funding, and deliver the type of event that unfolded that amazing night.
Special thanks to Curtis Rioux of Stellar Boar Productions, James Cann of Initus Interactive, Randy Billard of Virtual Marine, and David Churchill of Memorial University’s Computer Science for their captivating talks that spanned the gamut of serious games, to art pipelines, to artificial intelligence, and independent game development. There was certainly something for everyone with entertaining and inspirational talks.
We also had a great showcase floor with playable demos of Initus Interactive’s game, Xengris; a VR boat safety simulator presented by Virtual Marine; Live art creation demonstrations by Curtis Rioux; and original student games presented by CNA’s Video Game Art & Design program including 2D and 3D games, and a VR experience, adding to a cool evening with interactive enjoyment. The social element saw a lot of folks mingling and realizing the depth of our community and industry here in NL.
What is the most important takeaway from this event?
That’s right folks! We have a fantastic evening event coming up on June 12 with amazing speakers, partners, venue, and a cool mixer. It will be at the Emera Innovation Exchange in St. John’s from 6pm to 10pm. We will gather, network, learn, and demonstrate the heart and soul of this game and interactive digital media development industry and community! We are proud to be partnering with our friends at College of the North Atlantic, Genesis Centre, and NATI, and in association with Business and Arts NL.
Our Featured Speakers:
Dave Churchill: Assistant Professor of MUN Computer Science. Presenting his research and development of artificial intelligence technologies, and applications in game development. https://www.cs.mun.ca/~dchurchill/
Randy Billard: Executive Vice President / CTO of Virtual Marine. Speaking about simulation technology and using game design practices to build simulators for improving marine safety. https://virtualmarine.ca/
Curtis Rioux: Founder / Director at Stellar Boar Productions. Speaking about, and demonstrating 2D art and animation processes from script to screen and how it applies to game development. https://stellarboar.com/
James Cann: Owner / Developer at Initus Interactive. James will speak about the experience of pursuing independent game development and the creating the upcoming sci-fi game, Xengris. https://xengris.manakeep.com/
We’ll also have a Showcase area where our main speakers may have demonstrations of their products and/or practices. CNA’s Video Game Art & Design program will have a student game showcase, and there will be entertainment provided by CNA’s Music: Performance, Business & Technology and Sound Recording & Production programs. You’ll also find fantastic representation and information for CNA’s School of Academics, Applied Arts, & Tourism; and the School of Business and IT as there are programs that specifically relate and contribute to this growing industry.
This is a great learning and networking experience for students and graduates, and an opportunity to introduce how the different disciplines of art, programming, sound and music, writing, film making, business, design and all areas of development, contribute to this interactive digital media sector.
Hello folks of GameDev NL and beyond. We would like to formally announce that we will now be using the acronym of GDNL to represent our community group, Game Developers of Newfoundland and Labrador. Our website address has also been updated to GDNL.ca
The group’s executive have concluded that this acronym is more representative of the many other related organizations in our province, but can also feel more inclusive to other forms of interactive digital media. We get it … sometimes when people here “game” in a title, they may simply think we’re a group for gaming fandom, or they may not recognize the extent to which our talents, technologies, and innovation span. However, we still feel that the important practices of game development help make up the foundations of interactive media development as a whole, and want to maintain familiarity with our past. Basically, if you still call us Game Dev NL, you’d still be right. This may not seem like a big change, but we feel it is impactful for our initiative and our messaging to support our great community and industry. The full change may take some time to be seen across our various platforms of social media.
We are also very fortunate to have expanded the GDNL Team with a new division of Committee Members to include further expertise in our multidisciplinary fields. Please welcome:
Randy Billard, representing simulation technology, training, and related fields.
Wade Pinhorn representing the music production and performance industries.
Scott Hammond, representing audio engineering, mixing, and production.
Each are incredible talents and liaisons to these fields and communities, and we look forward to the expanded communication, inclusion, and growth of GDNL.