Are you passionate about the future of game development in New Zealand? Consider nominating yourself for the NZGDA Board.

We'll be holding our Annual General Meeting and elections at 6pm, Friday 18 May at the Media Design School (followed by a social event and the NZGDA conference the next day).

To nominate yourself email NZGDA Secretary Jonathan Rodgers (j.w.rogers at gmail.com) before 5pm Friday 11 May. Candidates will write 350-word blurbs about themselves which will be posted on Playmaker.org.nz prior to voting (which can be done electronically).  You can stand for the positions of Chairperson, Secretary, or Committee member (6 positions).

All NZGDA members are welcome to the AGM, and it's free to join too.

Who said the games industry has a low profile in NZ?  Here's a list of recent media articles about local studios over the last few months:

Organizers of the 10th annual GDC Online have announced that the call for submissions for this October's show is now open through midnight PT on May 2. As in previous years, the show is looking to coordinate lectures, panels, tutorials, and roundtables that cover pressing topics relating to online game creation and beyond.

GDC Online, which will take place October 9-11, 2012 at the Austin Convention Center in Austin, TX, focuses on development of connected games, including social network titles, free-to-play web games, kid-friendly online titles, and large-scale MMOs.

Submissions should address the most pertinent development challenges for online and connected games with submissions related to the following tracks: Business & Marketing, Design, Customer Experience, Production and Programming.

The New Zealand Game Developers Association Conference is a one-day action-packed conference for professional and indie game developers. The conference pulls no punches, with experienced presenters telling it like it really is.

Featuring some of New Zealand and Australia's leading game developers from Sidhe/PikPok, Cerebral Fix, Smallworlds, Gameloft, Grinding Gear Games, NinjaKiwi, Runaway Play - plus maybe a few international surprise guests (details coming soon).

New Zealand's games industry grew 46% or 110 jobs last year and is on a roll. Digital distribution has led to a boom in online and smartphone game development, but are you ready to capitalise on it?

Conference sessions

The conference has introductory, expert and extreme talks on a range of game development subjects. The full programme is coming soon, and topics include:

The 8th Australasian Conference on Interactive Entertainment

21-22 July 2012, Auckland, New Zealand

          The Australasian Conference on Interactive Entertainment  is

          a  cross-disciplinary  conference   that   brings   together

          researchers from artificial intelligence,  audio,  cognitive

          science, cultural studies, drama,  HCI,  interactive  media,

          media studies, psychology, computer  graphics,  as  well  as

          researchers  from   other   disciplines   working   on   new

The Global Game Jam is a 48-hour event where artists, video game developers and programmers create a video game over just one weekend in January. Held in over 120 locations worldwide including New Zealand, it’s creative, cooperative, chaotic and huge fun.

New Zealand gamers will be the first in the world to kickoff, when the theme for the games is unveiled at 5pm on Friday 27 January 2012 and the teams work flat out until Sunday night.

Game Jams inspire upcoming generations of developers and enthusiasts to come up with new game ideas in small teams in an intense jam session.

Heaps has happened in the Kiwi games industry over the last few months, and the NZGDA has been very busy.

Here’s what’s been going on:

• See you at AnimFX, 15-17 November
• Kiwi Games Industry Grew 46% this year!
• NZ Gamers: Not Sweaty Teenage Boys
• Spreading the Word: Raising the Games Industry’s Profile
• Coming Soon: The New NZGDA.com Website
• Discussions with Government about Games Sector Support

See you at AnimFX, 15-17 November, Te Papa, Wellington
AnimFX is three days of gaming, vfx and animation with an impressive line-up of international speakers plus the chance to network with game developers from throughout New Zealand. The Games Masterclass which is limited to 40 places is nearly full, so book fast.

The Interactive Games & Entertainment Association represent game publishers and distributors in NZ and Australia, and are supporters of NZGDA and GDAA too. Each year they commission Bond University to do a survey of game playing in NZ and Aus, which well and truly dispels the stereotype of gamers being teenage boys.  The last survey in July 2011 interviewed 846 NZ households.

The report found that: