Date: January 19, 2008, 7:00

Location: Scooters, 108th and M

Attendees:

• Dave Mark - Intrinsic Algorithm
• Shane Farris
• Jared Mark - Eagle Eye Info. Sys.

Visiting Guest:

• Matt Shores - Empty Clip Studios

This was the second meeting of the Omaha Game Developers Association. Due to the holidays and varying schedules, we were unable to get together during November and December. The plan is to now try to meet once a month.

The meeting took place at a new venue that was suggested by Shane. The Scooters was far more conducive to the type of meeting that we wanted to have. The chairs and tables were perfect for sitting around and chatting and the free (and hassle-free) WiFi made jumping out the 'Net a nice bonus. It also didn't hurt that we pretty much had the place to ourselves. We are seriously considering making that location our permanent meeting place.

We all briefed each other on what sorts of progress we have made on our personal projects. Shane has moved forward on writing yet another rendering engine. He expressed his frustration at not having a handy graphics department to work with, however. Something lamented by Jared and Dave as well.

That led to a discussion on the interaction between designers, programmers and artisits. Various caveats and strategies were voiced - with the most important recurring theme being "good communication skills".

Still, the wish for everyone is to be able to meet graphic designers and modelers here locally. To that end, Shane and Dave once again discussed visiting the local colleges and universities and speaking to the relevant classes.

Jared (Eagle Eye Information Systems) talked more about his project, Vermund, and the work that he was doing. Specifically, he has been making good progress on the user interface and the networking code. As usual, there was banter about the pros and cons of using various game engines and even the great VB.Net vs. C++ debate.

Dave (Intrinsic Algorithm) hasn't been able to work on his company's project, Airline Traffic Manager too much. Instead, he has been preparing for his trip to the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. He talked about some of the networking and meeting people online that he has been doing in order to set up meetings during that week.

We were all very excited to have a timely visit from a special guest - Matt Shores, co-founder of Empty Clip Studios in San Diego, CA. Matt is a 7-year game industry veteran that has worked for Lucas Arts, EA and Stormfront. He has recently started Empty Clip and is looking forward to being able to say more about their upcoming project than he was allowed to tell us that night! (Much to everyone's dismay... including his!)

Matt is originally from Lincoln and was back in town visiting family. He happened to notice our group and contacted Dave Mark about the meeting. Despite the fact that he arrived at Eppley at 10PM, we accomodated him. Dave picked him up at the airport and drove him to the meeting (which had now relocated to Perkins on 72nd).

During the next couple of hours, Matt passed on a lot of wisdom about his work in the industry as well as his experiences surrounding creating a start-up studio... a topic which was important to the other members. Topics ranged from the technical to the conceptual, to the financial and even into the unique political issues in the game industry. In the end, it was a very pleasant and educational experience for everyone.