NC Game Jobs – May 2011

It’s time for this months roundup of the local video game positions!

Epic Games 

Various Art Positions, Various Programming Positions and Various Production Positions 

Icarus Studios

Flash/Actionscript Developer, PHP Developer and Corporate Controller  (NEW!)

Insomniac Games

Senior Designer

Lab Rats Studio

Beta Testers, Programmer Interns and Rigger/Animation Interns

Playdom

Intl Marketing Associate, Associate Software Engineer and Software Engineer

NVIDIA

Various Engineering Positions

Threshold Games

General Serious Game and Designer Positions

Vicious Cycle

Animator and Graphics Programmer

Virtual Heroes

Gameplay Programmer and Senior Game Designer (NEW!)

Premier Internship Mentions

Villain (http://www.villainhq.com/) is a mobile games developer and publisher based in Cary, NC. Our iPhone multiplayer shooter Archetype was inducted into the App Store Hall of Fame.

Villain is seeking students and recent graduates for an exciting Summer 2011 game programming internship. Two positions are available for the program, which will involve a full mobile game production cycle culminating with App Store release.

The Villain game programming internship provides:

• Gameplay coding positions for 10-12 weeks with stipend
• A game design with opportunities for creative gameplay iteration
• Existing tech of a shipped title to build on
• Production support, oversight, and mentoring from Villain staff
• Development hardware and tools

Qualified applicants will demonstrate:

• A passion for programming mobile game software
• Excellent time management and communication skills
• Experience with C, C++, and/or Objective-C
• Relevant coursework or personal projects

Applicants should be local to the Raleigh-Durham area from mid-May through mid-August to participate in weekly on-sites at the Villain offices. Preference will be given to applicants with iOS development experience.

Please send resumes to internships@villainhq.com for immediate consideration

ECGC 2011 Kickoff Social!

We are pleased to announce that our chapter will kickoff this years East Coast Gaming Conference with a social event at Kings Barcade on April 12th, 2011. The social starts at 7 / 8pm and has been sponsored by the East Coast Gaming Conference and Funcom. Registration for the ECGC 2011 conference will be available at the social and everyone is welcome to attend!

Plans for the night include a brief introduction of the East Coast Gaming Conference followed by a short introduction trailer of the conference. Funcom will then have a brief introduction of their studio followed by a short trailer of their latest published game developed by Swedish developer Stunlock Studios entitled, “Bloodline Champions“.

Directions

Directions to 14 W. Martin St, Raleigh

Coming from the East (Rocky Mount, Greenville), West (Chapel Hill, Durham, Greensboro) or South (Wilmington):

• Take I-40 to Exit 298 B–South Saunders Street
• This will take you into downtown—the buildings will be plainly visible
• South Saunders Street turns into McDowell Street as you enter downtown and go under the train track bridge
• Martin Street is the 4th cross street after the bridge
• Turn right on Martin Street
• Kings is 1.5 blocks down on the left

Coming from the North via I85/US 1 / Capital Blvd: (If you come from the North via 95- US 64 to I440 to I40 and follow above directions)

• US 1 turns into Capital Blvd. several miles before you reach downtown
• As you enter downtown and pass the Peace Street Exit, Capital Blvd. becomes Dawson Street
• After crossing Hargett Street the next street is Martin Street
• Turn Left onto Martin Street
• Kings is 2.5 blocks down on the left

Parking Information

There is a great deal of street parking that is free at night all through downtown. If it is difficult to park very near the club, we suggest McDowell Street. It’s less than two blocks west and usually there are spaces available. There are several parking decks as well. Two of which are two blocks east on Wilmington Street.

East Coast Game Conference 2011!

Poised to grow its attendance again this year to approximately 1,200+ , the 2011 East Coast Game Conference (ECGC, formerly the Triangle Game Conference) will be the nation’s main forum for sharing game industry expertise, networking and career building when it runs Wednesday, April 13 through Thursday, April 14 at the Raleigh Convention Center in Raleigh, N.C.

“We’ve renamed the event due to the breadth of presenters and participants we attracted in our first two editions, and we’re excited to offer more this year,” says Troy Knight, conference operations director for ECGC and managing director of the design & gaming division for Vaco Raleigh. “To fulfill this year’s theme of ‘Engage and Connect,’ we are offering attendees seven extensive tracks comprised of panels, lectures and discussions with industry talent from around the world. Also exclusive to the East Coast Game Conference, Epic Games is hosting special Unreal University sessions on working with Epic Games’ Unreal Development Kit (UDK), the free version of the award-winning Unreal Engine 3 toolset.”

Those tracks are:

• Business of Gaming (industry trends, emerging business models, international business opportunities, impact of the recession and other topics relevant to executives and studio owners)
• Advanced Learning (immersive technology that inspire, educate and train the “next-gen” workforce, as well as game technologies and applications used for simulation and training in government, military and health care)
• Programming (algorithms, engines, technology, techniques and best practices that game companies must cultivate to create immersive, engaging entertainment product)
• Visual Arts
• Game Design (new game mechanics and ways to push the boundaries of game play)
• Social and Mobile (the revolution happening in social networks, handheld and independent development, and how to best take advantage of these trends)
• Game Fundamentals (basic rules of engagement for those interested in getting into game development)

Participants in every track will enjoy two morning sessions with speakers each day, followed by a lunch break and a keynote address before the two afternoon sessions. Industry veteran Mark Cerny, former president of Universal Studios’ game division and founder of Cerny Games, will provide the April 13 address on “The Long View,” and NVIDIA’s Tony Tamasi, senior vice president of content and technology, will discuss “The Future of Graphics Processing” on April 14. Each day will end with a social hour and VIP party.

Other activities will include:

• The all-new, exclusive “Unreal University,” a free version of the award-winning Unreal Engine 3 toolset provided by Epic Games, with instructors providing demonstrations and answering questions
• A Career Lounge for roundtable discussions with local professionals
• Portfolio Critiques for one-on-one meetings to obtain feedback and advice from top art, design and programming professionals that are usually hard to get access too
• “Art of the Game,” an inaugural exhibit featuring a curated collection of video game artwork, from concept illustrations to 3D environments

“If you are a gaming enthusiast, looking or just curious about how to use gaming technologies in your organizations, or just networking with top tier industry professional, this conference is a must-attend,” Knight says.

For more information including speakers and agenda and to register, visit the ECGC website. Look for ECGC on Facebook at East Coast Game Conference, on Twitter at @ECGameCon and on the ECGC YouTube channel for updates and conversations with other participants.

ECGC 2011: Art of the Game Exhibit!

The East Coast Gaming Conference is right around the corner and we have an exciting new addition this year! We are pleased to announce the 1st Annual “Art of the Game” art exhibit. We are looking for professional artists and students to showcase their art and share with the local community. Please spread the word to all your fellow artists!!! We are looking for all mediums from concept art to completed “beauty” shots from game titles. You may enter one piece of your strongest work of personal or commercial work. Your work will be displayed in the main lobby of the Convention Center April 13th-14th.

On April 13th, we will have a panel of judges/artists from local game studios review all the work and the winners will be announced at 5pm in the main lobby in front of the exhibit. There will be 2 categories, 1 overall winner and 1 honorable mention for professionals and students. The winners will be awarded 2 VIP party passes for April 13th’s party and a Best Buy gift card. Plus recognition for outstanding talent!

This is not an event you will want to miss! Please join us in this explosion of talent!

Speed Networking Event Idea

Every Thursday, the IGDA leadership has a phone/Skype meeting that’s open to every chapter in the world. Since taking over the local chapter, I’ve been attending these meetings in order to report what’s going on in our local chapter as well having talks with other chapter leaders for assistance or ideas. Recently, someone brought up a cool event idea that had some success in a previous chapter. The event more specifically was a spinoff of what many consider speed dating, but instead of seeking a hot date, you seek local game development contacts in your area.

This was very interesting to me because we do have a lot of students who attend the meetings. I know a good bulk of them are trying to build their portfolios or possibly trying to get their own studios off the ground. We also have a few hobbyists who just simply love game development, or want to get more involved in game development. So it makes since to host this type of event in order to give you the opportunity to meet other developers in your local area who may share similar interests that you do.

I suspect a good name for this event would be something along the lines of speed networking. We may see our first speed networking event hosted sometime in the spring or summer of this year. From there, we will tailor the event around other upcoming game developers or hobbyist who are looking to form a team, or find other locals who want to get something pulled together. That way the local chapter can assist on pulling teams together in order to help build a better future for tomorrow.

Chapter Meeting – March 23 2011!

The North Carolina Triangle Chapter of the International Game Developers Association will host its next chapter meeting at 7pm on Wednesday, March 23^rd 2011 at Joystick Labs! Joystick recently opened applications for their 2011 Summer Underground program and will make a brief presentation about the program.  Three teams from The 2010 Joystick program will speak briefly about their companies and games, and teams that participated in the recent Global Game Jam will speak briefly about their games.

The meeting is free and open to the public. Meeting begins at 7 PM at Joystick Labs studio in Durham, NC.

• Address: 334 Blackwell Street, Suite B001 Durham, NC 27701 (Map)
• Sponsors: Joystick Labs (Venue & Refreshments)

Please feel free to  RSVP on our Facebook page in order to ensure that you have a seat!

March 2011 Meeting with Joystick Labs!

March 12^th, 2011 – The North Carolina Triangle Chapter of the International Game Developers Association will host its next chapter meeting at 7pm on Wednesday, March 23^rd 2011 at Joystick Labs! Joystick recently opened applications for their 2011 Summer Underground program and will make a brief presentation about the program.  Three teams from The 2010 Joystick program will speak briefly about their companies and games, and teams that participated in the recent Global Game Jam will speak briefly about their games.

The next chapter meeting will be another informative gathering for Entrepreneurs and students are interested in video game development, or in process of starting their own independent video game studio in North Carolina. Joystick Labs coupled with the Global Game Jam postmortem will be a great opportunity to meet and greet other video game enthusiasts as they discuss the process of how they took their concepts and made them a reality!

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About Joystick Labs

Joystick Labs is a seed-stage accelerator program focused exclusively on identifying and launching the next generation of digitally distributed video game companies.  Joystick Labs is led by Managing Director John Austin and was founded in 2010 by Glen Caplan, Justyn Kasierski, Larry Steffann, and Juan Benito.  The company held its inaugural program in Fall 2010 and launched five studios: Gale Force Logic, Inari, Lab Rats Studio, Mighty Rabbit Studios, and Nix Hydra Games.  It is located at the entrepreneurial hub of North Carolina, Durham’s American Underground.  To learn more, visit the company website www.joysticklabs.com.

About Global Game Jam

The Global Game Jam (GGJ) is the world’s largest game jam event occurring annually in late January. GGJ brings together thousands of game enthusiasts participating through many local jams around the world. GGJ is a project of the International Game Developers Association (IGDA).

About North Carolina Triangle Chapter

The North Carolina Triangle Chapter of the International Game Developers Association is a chapter that is a part of the non-profit organization International Game Developers Association (IGDA) for video and computer game developers within the area of Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill in the state of North Carolina. Anyone is free to become a member of the chapter and attend meetings held in the Raleigh-Durham (Triangle) area. The chapter encourages students and game industry professionals to get involved as much as possible to help the NC Triangle chapter GROW

Names of companies and or products listed are trademarks of their respective owners.