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Archive for the 'Interview' Category

Interview: Anchel, a NGJ2011 participant

Published on January 26, 2012 in Interview. 0 Comments

Anchel Labena

It’s the eve of the 2012 version of the Nordic Game Jam, and we’ve managed to contact Anchel Labena, a previous participant of the Nordic Game Jam who can’t wait to see what we have in store this year.

What is your personal background?

Anchel: Before starting ITU’s Master in Game Design I studied a Bachelor’s in Radio, TV and Film production at the University of Navarra in Spain.

Tools of your trade?

Anchel: My number one tool is my camera. Be it video or photo, it’s what I use to capture my source material. Then after that it’s the computer: be it Word, Photoshop or Premiere. And, of course, the web. That endless source of inspiration.

Describe your experience attending last year’s NGJ.

Anchel: Last year was an amazing experience for me. It was my first time at an event of this type and also the first time I was doing a videogame outside of any courses. At first I was pretty nervous, thinking that I wouldn’t be able to do much, not being a programmer.

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Interview: The Nordic Game Jam Experience

Published on January 14, 2012 in Interview. 0 Comments

At last year’s Nordic Game Jam a team of seven made the game Cubiclysm. We managed to interview four of them them back in February to hear about their experiences while they were still fresh in their minds. Here’s the experiences of Oliver Due Billing, Kristian Hedeholm, Sebastian Jørgensen, and Nikolaj Wendt.

 

Tell us a bit about yourself. Who are you? What kind of work do you normally do?

Nikolaj: I am 35 and I work as a producer for watAgame ApS in Copenhagen. We run a social networking site with social activities, games and creative content for teenage girls. Games, both digital and non-digital, has always been a big passion of mine.

Oliver: I work as a programmer at watAgame developing everything from games to backend systems. We work on an online game called goSupermodel and the challenges there are very versatile.

Sebastian: I’m a 28 year old computer scientist. I am very competition-minded when it comes to games – I used to be part of a Quake 3 clan which became the european master in Capture the Flag, and has since that played all kinds of fast-paced competitive strategic games. I work at watAgame as a programmer too.

Kristian: Normally I study computer science at Aarhus University. Besides this, I am a member of the an association called Unge Spiludviklere (Young Game Developers), where I write and holds workshops about game development. Furthermore, I am also a member of the Danish Game Council (Dansk Spilråd) which aims to promote game media in Denmark.

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Interview: 8bitklubben & la belle indifference

Published on January 11, 2012 in Announcement and Interview. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Hi Game Jammers!

This year, we are lucky to have a small concert with la belle indifference at the pre-party on the 26th January. Here is a little interview with our 8bit-friends:

- What is 8bitklubben?
Jacob: I started 8bit klubben. It used to be a Copenhagen hackerspace, before hackerspaces were called “hackerspaces”. 8bit klubben is now mainly a webpage and maillinglist promoting 8bit events in the Copenhagen region. People interested in taking 8bit klubben and culture further are most welcome to join.

- What is la belle indifference?
Jacob:   We are a Gameboy band – we make funky chip tunes. Sometimes we build our own instruments and do sound installations. At the 8 bit klubben we had workshops in making music on Gameboys, where Thorbjørn attended and then we started making music as the band la belle indifference.

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Pre-Interview with Keynote Speaker Manveer Heir

Published on December 29, 2011 in Interview. 0 Comments

Manveer Heir, Senior Designer at BioWare, will be giving the keynote at Nordic Game Jam 2012. As a warm-up, we managed to get an interview with him here.

Hi Manveer! Can you briefly tell us a bit about your background and how you got into design?

Manveer Heir: I always wanted to work on the creative side of things, since I was a teenager. I decided to learn how to program from books and then went to Virginia Tech to get a Bachelor’s in Computer Science. From there, I worked as a gameplay programmer at Raven Software on Wolfenstein.

Somewhere along the way, we were having a lot of troubles getting that game done, and I found myself regularly going to the creative director and saying “Let’s try this instead” and offering solutions and ways to fix some of the problems we had in the game. Over time, those visits became frequent enough and the ideas, apparently, viable enough that I was asked if I wanted to be a full-time game designer, a role Raven didn’t have at that point. I completed the last year and a half of development on Wolfenstein as a game designer, then became the lead designer on an unannounced game before I left to join BioWare Montréal as a senior designer on Mass Effect 3.

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NGJ 2012: Want to experiment and get inspiration?

Published on December 20, 2011 in Interview. 0 Comments

Listen to Jesper Taxbøl talk about why it is inspiring to participate in Nordic Game Jam!

NGJ 2012: Cool advice from an industry veteran!

Published on December 19, 2011 in Interview. 0 Comments

Listen to Jasmin Kassner who was a jury at Nordic Game Jam 2011 – Cool advice from a cool person!

NGJ 2012: Want to drink coffee and meet people?

Published on December 16, 2011 in Interview. 0 Comments

Listen to Tim Garbos talk about why participating in Nordic Game Jam is an awesome experience!

My mysterious meeting with Greg Costikyan

Published on January 18, 2011 in Interview. 0 Comments
I met Greg on a rainfull day in a land far far away. We sat down and had coffee. The chat started like this…
Me: So Greg, Is it okay I just call you Greg? I Hope it’s OK… I don’t like the formalities much… Well anyway I’ve heard that you’re quit the traveler. Have you ever been to Denmark?
Greg CostikyanGreg: Yes, I was a guest of honor at Fastaval a few years ago (I’ve designed a number of well-regarded tabletop RPGs, most notably including Paranoia), and have lectured at the Copenhagen ITU on game design. Keep in mind that I worked for Nokia for a couple of years, so I’ve been to the Nordic countries a fair bit.
Me: Ah well… We’re glad to welcome you back to ITU. When did you first venture into the world of game design as a living, and what did you work on?

Greg: The first commercially published game I worked on, at least as more than a playtester, was Supercharge, a board wargame published in 1976 by SPI, as part of the North Africa Quad, a boxed set of four games about battles in North Africa during WWII that shared a common rule set, but each with its own counters, maps, and special rules. Supercharge dealt with the first and second battles of Alamein — the British attack at the second battle was called “Operation Supercharge.” As with all “quad” games, it had 34″x22″ game-map and 100 counters, and relatively simple (by wargame standards) rules. It is not, to my mind, a particularly good game; the base rules for the North Africa Quad were designed to support the sort of wide-ranging chaotic armored combat that characterized most action in North Africa, while Alamein was essentialy a set-piece assault, largely by infantry, over a narrow, fortified front — the basic game system did not work particularly well for the situation. Continue reading ‘My mysterious meeting with Greg Costikyan’

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