International Game Developers Association (my rise to geekdom)

In November 2004, when I started thinking about designing my virtual reality environments for my PhD, I figured that I'd probably need the help and expertise of a/some game designers. I remember that the IGDA was one of the first Google results so I had a quick look on the site, noticed it was free to join, joined, and then completely forgot about it until January 2005. I had a look at the London site and noticed that they were holding a social event in the next couple of weeks so left a post on their forums to ask if anyone could go. I got a lovely reply from Dean Butcher (Mathematix) welcoming me along, plus a nice email from Phil who was and still is a member (and now head honcho of) the IGDA Guildford Chapter.

The social was held in The Golden Lion on Dean Street in Soho and I was so nervous meeting lots of people I didn't know. The one thing that Steev just reminded me of is when he gave everyone a very simple way of finding porn on the internet - Google 01.jpg. Try it! On the night I met Dean, Phil, Mickey, and Steev. I remember me and Mickey chatting about how much we loved our pets, and making arrangements with Dean to attend Phil and Steev's next Guildford social the following week. The social was great and, my memory fails me, I think it was the night that we got to play with PSPs, months before they were on the market. I also remember almost not being allowed booze from the bar that night. IGDA socials are normally sponsored (i.e. free beer). I was the only girly at the event. I went to get myself and Dean a drink and the barman said, "Are you supposed to be up here"? I had no idea what he was talking about until it occurred to me. I said, "Are you saying that because I'm a girl"? He looked very embarrassed. Retardo.

And so it went on. IGDA socials with my new friends. I noticed on the London Forum that they had a lot of organising to do for the next event but were very busy. I stuck another post on the Forum offering to help. Next thing I know, two nights later I've been voted on to the committee. Hurray! I was really chuffed. One of the co-ordinators had left at that point so we had Dan Marchant (Obscure Game Consultancy) as our "who's your daddy?" Dan had a break from the IGDA as he was really busy at work so Jim Verhaeghe (Cyclops Games) took over for a while, until he was busy(er) at work, so I was voted in as Joint Chapter Co-ordinator with Dean Butcher earlier on this year. Hurray! As a team, we've organised loads of socials and we've managed to get sponsorship (i.e. free beer) for the last few events. We also ran a very successful IGDA Xmas Quiz night, and in February we had a successful evening with George Bain from SCEE (Sony Computer Entertainment Europe) giving us a presentation on the hardware architecture of the PS3. There's lots of others on our committee as well. There's Ceri Lllewelyn, Mike Lloyd Lee (self-confessed web monkey), Kenric, and James Botterill (game design undergraduate).

We're currently organising our event for the end of April so keep your eyes peeled on the site and here for the exact date. I'll also be including photos of the IGDA events but I'm too damn cold to do it atm. We had our committee meeting last night, now held at O'Neill's in Kings Cross. Dan Marchant informed us he was going to the Game Developers Conference on Sunday in the US. I insisted that he'd need a manicurist, personal assistant, anything I could think of, but he wasn't having any of it :(

I'm doing some game testing for Jim Verhaeghe at Ideaworks3D on Monday. Which game I hear you ask? I'm not telling. It's a secret :) However, you can download the game I helped test for Ideaworks3D last year - it's brilliant! Get it here Sims 2 Mobile