Event Highlights: July 11 – July 17, 2011

Before we begin, a reminder dear reader. We have lots of email newsletters, including our weekly Event Highlights newsletter that gives you our top events every Monday at lunch time. Sign up for Event Highlights and other newsletters here.

There’s lots going on this week, but we hope you consider Philly Merge. We’re a media sponsor of the conference which combines hackers and business folk. Read more about it here.

In events this week Philly tech gets social. BBQ with gamers, hang with hackers (twice) and brush up on your Scala.

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Philadelphia Game Development meetup group hosts small May meetup, serves as ‘beginning’

Drexel student and aspiring game developer Tom Rodriguez discusses game development with other attendees of Mays meeting of the Philadelphia Game Development Meetup group.

The following is a report done in partnership with Temple University’s Philadelphia Neighborhoods Program, the capstone class for the Temple Journalism Department.

The Philadelphia Game Development meetup group held their monthly meeting Saturday at Cosi on 9^th and Chestnut streets.

The group, which was established in 2003, is an informal network of professional and amateur game developers from the Philadelphia region. The group has 200 members, according to its site, ranging from established developers to hobbyists.

There is no strict attendance policy, as members can RSVP for the meetups at the group’s website or just show up. The informality leads to fluctuating attendance numbers and topic discussions. Saturdays meeting covered topics ranging from 3D modeling applications to animation programs among only three attendees, though the group has had dozens at other events.

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GameLoop Philly: video game development convention draws 80 first year to UArts

The following is a report done in partnership with Temple University’s Philadelphia Neighborhoods Program, the capstone class for the Temple Journalism Department.

The number of groups, businesses, organizations and conversations around Philadelphia’s video game development scene is slowly growing. Add now: an annual showcase convention.

This Saturday, more than 80 game developers, designers and programmers gathered at the Corzo Center at the University of the Arts in Center City for GameLoop Philly. The convention, which organizers are aiming to make an annual event, is based on the success of GameLoop Boston, which began in 2008.

“Philly was the next natural choice. The founders in Boston knew a lot of people here and know the game development community here is starting to get some footing,” said Ray Merkler, an independent game developer in Philadelphia who was one of the events co-organizers.

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Penn’s new billionaires, @FakeAPStylebook from South Philly and more Links

DEFINITE READS

• Fake out: Twitter group writes the book on its grammar spoof [Inquirer] — South Philly resident RJ White is a contributor to the @FakeAPStylebook that is now publishing a book
• Study asks well-to-do Philadelphians how they’re investing [Philadelphia Business Journal]
• Penn’s new billionaires: FarmVille creator, Groupon backer [Inquirer] — Mark Pincus of Zynga and Russian investor Yuri Milner
• Philly’s Food in Jars a finalist in Saveur Magazine’s best food blog awards [Geekadelphia] Marisa McClellan

Below, see what Philly startup is moving into a church, big startup perks in Pittsburgh and more.

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IGDA connects gamers and developers during Philly Tech Week

Gamers play Jamestown at the IGDA Showcase | Photo credit: IGDA's Flickr Page

This wrap up of the IGDA Philly Game Showcase was written by IGDA Chapter Secretary, Allison Berman. The showcase was part of Philly Tech Week.

The IGDA Philly Game Showcase 2011 brought together designers and programmers from across every major media platform: from mobile video games to game consoles to mobile apps for smartpads and smartphones, to computer games.  One adventurous presenter even created a unique motion-sensitive joystick to go with his game.

While the event was organized by the IGDA Philadelphia Chapter, it was open to any local game makers, regardless of affiliation or membership. Some studios have been very involved with the chapter over the last few years, offering help to up-and-coming students and first time developers.

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VGI Philly takes matters into its own hands

Mike Worth says his deja vu moment came in March, at the Game Developers Conference in California.

“When you went down the opening flight of steps, there was a huge banner, 80 feet wide, that said ‘INVEST IN CANADA,” says Worth.

All Worth saw was what could have been for Philadelphia.

At the same conference in 2009, Worth and other Philadelphia developers had the idea to put Philadelphia on that giant banner. Along with a handful of other local video game developers and business owners, Worth help co-found the Video game Growth Initiative in 2009 to help Philadelphia leverage tax incentives and other benefits to help lore large video game studios to Philadelphia.

Back then, the motivation stemmed from attending GDC in 2009.

After all, Philadelphia is home to the only Ivy League graduate-level video game development program in the country at Penn, has a cheap cost of living compared to other video game industry cities like Boston and San Francisco and is sandwiched oh-so-perfectly between the European and West Coast time zones.

However, two years after VGI was first presented its ideas as a PowerPoint to state and city officials, the city’s video game community has decided to matters into their own hands.

“I was so focused on getting a studio to move here and hire me, then we thought: ‘why not build a studio and hire yourself?” says Worth.

Along with CEO Leo Tranchitella, Chief Creative Officer Brandon Van Slyke, and CTO Albert Vazquez, Worth has founded Play Eternal, Philadelphia’s first “AAA” studio designed to produce high-budget games for the Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and the PC. Currently the studio is beta-testing its first demo that it hopes leads to a publishing deal that would allow the company to hire more than 20 employees.

Along with Center City-based game studio Burst Online and a handful of smaller, independent shops, VGI Philly hopes that having studios grow organically is the best way to attract outside attention to Philadelphia.

And it’s already working. Armed with two announcements from Burst Online and Play Eternal at this year’s GDC, Worth says that he was constantly being approached by Philly expats asking how they can help put Philly on the map.

“We haven’t had that homerun of getting a [large studio like] Activision to move here,” he says, “so we’re focusing on getting us all on base.” he says.

Ohanarama: BrainRewards launches public beta of new family game network

Ohana means ‘family’ in Hawaiian. Ohanarama is the new family game network from a mother, serial entrepreneur and her team.

Ohanarama, which recently launched public beta, is the signature platform from BrainRewards, a co-educational gaming startup co-founded by Jane Hoffer (@janehoffer), the mother of three and president of the Alliance of Women Entrepreneurs.

“The old story is that, yes, adults are flocking to social networks like Facebook,” says Hoffer. “In doing our initial prototyping, we found two really interesting things: that children under 13 are very interested in playing with family online and that there are 70 million grandparents, 50 percent of whom live more than 200 miles from grand kids and there’s no real interactive way for an extended family to play from a distance, other than maybe Skype.”

“So we said, ‘Let’s bridge that.’ The family is the original social network. It’s how kids socialize,” Hoffer says. “So we are taking the best of gaming and the best of social networking and bringing it to the fore to the multi-generational family online.”

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Burst Entertainment’s “little game factory” in Center City

A screenshot from Warlord Battlegrounds

While Philly’s first AAA game studio launched yesterday, another video game shop has been in Center City for years, quietly working on its first title.

Based at 15th and Walnut, Burst Online Entertainment, founded by Damon Alberts and eCity Interactive is polishing off its first game and first gaming engine. The 14-person company has a few staffers in Mesa, Arizona, but most are located in its Center City office.

“We’re building our own little game factory up here,” says Alberts who was also one of the founding members of VGI Philly along with Play Eternal co-founder Mike Worth.

The company is catering to what Alberts calls the “core PC gamer”: the hardcore gamer that has an interest in strategy, card games and table games. Burst’s first title is Warlord Battlegrounds, a turn-based strategy game that plays much like chess if players could purchase different pieces and assemble complicated armies armed with items and spells (see Geekadelphia’s review here).

If everything goes to plan, Warlord Battlegrounds will launch in open beta this April and mark the start of a multi-million dollar game franchise.

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Play Eternal becomes Philly’s first high-budget video game studio

Nearly 18 months after a group of local video game developers made it their mission to put Philly on the video game map, the city finally has its first “AAA” video game studio.

In a press release today, Play Eternal announced it will be basing its operations out of Philadelphia at a location yet to be determined. The new studio will be led by Louis Tranchitella, Brandon Van Slyke, Albert Vazquez, and Michael Worth, veterans of Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 and a handful of other titles according to the press release.

“AAA” refers to a high-budget game studio that will publish titles for wide release. Currently, independent shops dominate Philadelphia’s game-making community.

The studio is a big win for the local grassroots effort to make Philadelphia attractive to video game development companies. Top video game talent is routinely poached from Drexel and Penn, home of the nation’s only Ivy-league video game development program.

The studio says that it will likely be located within city limits.

If you remember, Worth was among the leaders of VGI Philly, the effort to create favorable tax laws to incentivize video game companies. Worth presented his idea at Ignite Philly 4.

We’ll have more from the company later this week.

Ben Gilbert: NYC has “More events, more interview[s], more networking”

This is Exit Interview, a weekly interview series with someone who has left Philadelphia, perhaps for another country or region or even just out of city limits and often taking talent, business and jobs with them. If you or someone you know left Philly for whatever reason, we want to hear from you. Contact us.

In the great big rise of geek culture from subculture to full blown community, video gaming has been a primary player.

In spring 2009, Joystiq was continuing its reign as preeminent gaming blog and content jewel of Aol. It also managed to have quite a Philly pull, from its Wharton-educated founder to a Fishtown-based editor and a pair of major contributors living in the region.

This past summer, one of those contributors, Ben Gilbert, who was also part of the Geekadelphia crew, made the jump and moved to Brooklyn.

Originally from Connecticut, Gilbert, 26, came to Philly for Temple University. Now the writer, who says he ‘developed a bit of hopelessness for Philly,’ talks about leaving, coming back and the Dock Street Brewery.

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