Global Nerdy

And now, more pictures from TechDays Ottawa, the fifth in our series of eight cross-Canada conference for developers and IT pros building on the Microsoft platform.

Here’s an overhead view of the Rogers booth, where they were running a handy phone recharging service, talking about their Catalyst API for mobile developers and showing off the very lovely Samsung Focus running Windows Phone 7. I’m looking forward to getting mine…

One of the popular diversions at TechDays was the Kinect. Here are Stewart Cawthray and Rick Claus getting in a little exercise during the lull that happens when attendees catching presentations:

TechDays wouldn’t run anywhere nearly as smoothly without the help of its track hosts. I’d like to thank the two gentlemen pictured below, Peter Henry and Colin Melia, who were the track hosts for the developer tracks. Colin hosted the “Developing for Three Screens and the Cloud” track, while Peter hosted the “Optimizing the Development Process” track. Thanks, guys!

Also helping ensure that the conference ran smoothly were these two – William Hoang, the Academic Developer Evangelist Associate (a.k.a. “The Intern”) and Jenna Prada from Starshot, our event planning group. Thanks, you two!

Meanwhile, the sessions were in full swing:

There are a select few who deserve some kind of endurance prize for presenting at all eight TechDays cities, and Imaginet’s Aaron Kowall is one of them. He’s been doing a number of presentations on getting the most out of Visual Studio 2010 for building and deployment.

Another eight-city trooper is Redbit Development’s Mark Arteaga, who’s delivering the Windows Phone 7 development sessions:

Here’s a crowd that’s sitting up and attentive, even though they’ve just come from a big lunch:

The reason they’re so attentive? Because it’s a lively presentation by Mario Cardinal on the top 10 unit testing mistakes. Mario’s presentations are always fun to watch:

Conference internet access is a pricey thing, so we’re grateful to our sponsor OnX for providing the internet access stations so people can check their mail and Facebook:

The end of TechDays’ Day 1 is not the end of our day! Day 1 also has a students-only evening event called Go DevMental, where students can learn more about web and mobile development. Here’s the registration booth for the event, where each student gets a free copy of Visual Studio 2010 Professional and the full version of Expression Studio. Where were the goodies like this when I was a student?

Here are the students taking the Kinect for a spin before the start of the sessions:

And here’s Mark Arteaga presenting Windows Phone 7 development in Silverlight to a packed room of students:

This article also appears in Canadian Developer Connection.

Earlier this week, I made my way to TechDays Ottawa by train. With the conference wrapped up, I’ve joined my coworker Damir Bersinic in a rented Ford Escape Limited on the trip back to Toronto. As I write this, we’re in Brockville (a.k.a. “Brock Vegas”), fresh from a classic diner dinner (pictured above), and acquiring some much-needed caffeine at a Starbucks drive-thru.

Going on the road’s a little different these days thanks to mobile computing and communications technology. Damir’s at the wheel, enjoying stand-up comedy on satellite radio, while I’m riding shotgun, with my laptop linked to the internet via a Rogers HSPA+ “Rocket Stick” and my Windows Phone 7 displaying our current position on Highway 401.

All this time on the road got me thinking: if you’re planning on writing Windows Phone 7 apps but are stuck for app ideas, give some thought to the needs of truckers, fleet drivers and other people whose jobs keep them on the highway for hours at a time. What sort of apps would they need? What can an app do to simplify their lives or remove drudgery? What sort of problems would they encounter in their job that could be solved by having an always-there, sensor-equipped, location-aware networked computing device?

This article also appears in Canadian Developer Connection.

Gamercamp, the gathering for people who love to eat, sleep, breathe and make videogames, takes place in Toronto this weekend:

• Saturday, November 13th at Toronto Underground Cinema (186 Spadina, a little bit north of Queen)
• Sunday, November 14th at George Brown College School of Design (230 Richmond Street East)

I wrote about Gamercamp a couple of days ago, and if you’d like the full skinny on it, check out my article and Gamercamp’s official site. I’m going to be there to absorb info, talk games and show off a couple of Microsoft goodies, including Kodu, Kinect and Windows Phone 7 games. If you’re coming to Gamercamp, please say hi!

$30 will get you a ticket good for both days at Gamercamp, but I’ve just gotten my hands on 4 free passes. The first people to email me at joey.devilla@microsoft.com and ask will get one.

This article also appears in Canadian Developer Connection.

We’re holding an Ottawa Coffee and Code today – Thursday, November 11th – from 11 a.m. to about 4 p.m. at the Bridgehead Coffee in Byward Market (224 Dalhousie)! Drop by and talk Windows Phone 7 and other Microsoft tech with us!

This article also appears in Canadian Developer Connection.

Click the photo to see it at full size.

The “Ask the Experts” (or in French, “Demander aux experts”) area of TechDays Ottawa sports whiteboards that were looking a little too blank for this recovering cartoonist’s tastes. Taking matters into my own hands, I started working on a whiteboard “tapestry”, adding to it during lulls that happened in the conference centre as sessions took place. By 2:45 p.m., the whiteboard was full and the result appears in the photo above – click on it to see it at a larger size.

This article also appears in Canadian Developer Connection.

The day started with Rick Claus’s introductory announcements in the breakfast/lunch room…

As attendees lined up to register and get their bags o’ swag:

“And don’t forget to get a look at the new Windows Phone,” said Rick, “except for that one phone I broke.”

“You’ve got ten minutes of breakfast left, and then the session start. Go get those muffins!”

Down the hall, Rob Burke of Infusion locks and loads for his session on Real-World Patterns for Cloud Computing in the “Optimizing the Development Process” track:

And we’re off! Here’s Rob getting off to a good start with his session…

…as the Ottawa crowd settles in to have “some serious cloud science dropped on ‘em”.

Meanwhile, in the “Developing for Three Screens and the Cloud” track, Colin Melia, Silverlight MVP and the guy behind Ace of Clouds, gives his audience the skinny of getting effective with Silverlight in short order…

…but he’s never to busy to mug for the camera. Nice smile, Colin!

This article also appears in Canadian Developer Connection.

Gamercamp: Toronto, Saturday November 13 and Sunday, November 14

Gamercamp is the creation of Jaime Woo and Mark Rabo and it’s Toronto’s celebration of videogames and all that they bring with them – not just the fun of gameplay, but also the creativity and art expressed within them, and the people games bring together. Last year brought us Gamercamp 1.0, featuring talks by great game designers and deep thinkers in the field of ludology (that’s a fancy-schmancy word meaning “the study of games and play”) as well as a showcase of the great games that local indie game developers are making. This year’s promises to bring us even more of what we love about videogames.

I’ll be at Gamercamp to talk about game development for Windows, Windows Phone 7 and Xbox 360, and I’m bringing PCs, Windows Phones and Xboxes (possibly event with a Kinect) for you to try. If you’d like to take Windows, Windows Phone or an Xbox for a spin, please say hi! Better still, if you’d like to develop games for Windows, Windows Phone or the Xbox 360, come talk to me! I’d love to help you get started.

What’s Happening at Gamercamp

Gamercamp is packing a full schedule, not just during the day, but with Saturday evening events as well! For the full story, be sure to take a look at the Gamercamp site.

Here’s the day schedule for Gamercamp, with as many details as I could get:

Day 1 @ Toronto Underground Cinema

When	What
10:30 a.m.	Doors open
11:00 – 11:15	Opening remarks
11:15 – 11:45	In the Studio for Sword and Sorcery EP (The Sword and Sorcery Team) The creative forces behind the highly-anticipated iPhone/iPad release share the inside stories and philosophies that bring together the artistry, music, and gameplay of Sword & Sorcery.
11:45 – 12:15 p.m.	The Depth to Which We Sink (Demo)
12:15 – 12:30	Break
12:30 – 1:00	Zombiedots (Demo)
1:00 – 1:30	Pixelating Scott Pilgrim’s Toronto (Stéphane Boutin, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game) Stéphane Boutin, a lead 2D artist of the Scott Pilgrim game, shares the experience of transforming Toronto into an 8-bit masterpiece.
1:30 – 2:15	Lunch break
2:15 – 2:45	UDON 10: A Decade of Art, Games and Comics (Jim Zubkavich, UDON, Legends of Zork) UDON co-founder and project manager Jim Zubkavich reflects on the last decade for the local studio and its unique position creating anime-style art for the Japanese market with companies like Capcom, Konami, and Hasbro.
2:45 – 3:15	CityState (Demo)
3:15 – 3:30	Break
3:30 – 4:00	Dyad (Demo)
4:00 – 4:30	We Are Trapped in the Belly of this Horrible Machine, and the Machine is Bleeding to Death (Matthew Kumar, Edge, Gamasutra, Exp) The games press is sick and we are all drowning in its churning guts as it sprays infected effluent across the Internet. Join obscure dissident Mathew Kumar as he rallies the crowd into working out if we can construct a blade either sharp enough that we can cut the disease out or at least blunt enough that we can hack our way out into the painful glare of day.
4:30 – 4:45	Closing remarks
5:30	Doors close

Day 2 @ George Brown College School of Design

When	What
10:30 a.m.	Doors open
11:00 – 11:15	Opening statement
11:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.	8-bit retro cereal breakfast
11:30 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.	Sessions: Stop Writing Adventure Games as Sitcoms Daniel Steger, behind Baby Maker Extreme, looks at the use of humor in games and explores the unique ways games can contribute to joke construction. Riding the Creativity Choo-Choo to the Imagination Station Michael Todd talks about gameplay, learning, losing, challenge, chaos, control, neural patterns, getting bored, humor, coolness, worlds, speed, love, PR, fans, contests and finishing your game. Set the Fight to Music Addresses how music sets the mood for games and also go through my approach to the creative and songwriting process. In short, one can never know what the finished song will sound like because of the variety of random factors in composing. A song may be composed on the spot. Play’s the Thing What is play? Why do we need it? From human social development and learning to business, play is more than fun and games. This panel draws on gaming history, culture and design to explore the importance of play as a source of motivation, inspiration and engagement.
12:30 – 1:15	Sessions: How to Make Babies Ryan Taylor will explore the phenomenon of fan art, swag, collectables & the tools available for small shops to seed and develop their own products based on games and characters. Trials and Tribulations Developing for the iPhone There are an innumerable number of challenges developing games for the iPhone platform including… – How do you market your game? – Pricing: What should I be charging? Do you charge 0.99 cents, $1.99, $2.99 or sell it for free? – Support: How do you engage/support your users? – Retention: How to keep your users consistently coming back to play your game. Developing Narrative in Comics and Gaming Comic books and video games—these two relatively young media have grown out of their infancy and are taking on complex issues, emotions, and ideas. Join us as we discuss the intersection of these media and what they can learn from each other. We’ll also be showcasing a range of interesting mutations that cross the barrier between media. SCUMM-Sucking: Adventures in Educational Gaming What do you do when you LOVE building LucasArts and Sierra-style graphic adventure games, but you have to take boring educational service work to pay the bills? >Get MONEY. >Use MONEY on GAME. >Give PRESENTATION to GAMERCAMP
1:15 – 2:45	Lunch break
1:45 – 2:15	Pwnage Presentations
2:45 – 3:30	Sessions: Rebooting IGDA Toronto In its more glorious past, Toronto’s chapter of the International Game Developers Association had all corners of the local dev community regularly meet-up, learn together, and even start new partnerships and projects with one another. Today’s chapter still glimmers with some of its former shine, but it’s time for a fresh coat of paint. Join Lesley and members of the chapter committee to discuss the future of the chapter, and give your feedback on how to renew and re-energize the IGDA Toronto for a successful 2011! Designing Puzzles for Goats  Miguel Sternberg discusses a psychological approach to puzzle design using examples from popular games, Spooky Squid’s own Guerilla Gardening, and a simple thought experiment involving pet goats. Torontron: Legacy  Jph Wacheski will be providing information and details of the process of finding and retrofitting old arcade machines to play new indie games. From hacking the hardware to house the electronics, to wiring up the controls, and modifying software, all question answered. Demand More Design from Your Games Shawn McGrath takes a look at design in videogames, board games and other forms of play.
3:45 – 4:30	Sessions: OMDC Indie Free-Flow Chasing the Dragon Every game development studio has its challenges, triumphs and failures. As a young industry with few guidelines, it is easy to fall into common trappings. In this talk Nitai Bessette will explore the creative process and the risks and rewards of working in the games industry from one type of studio to the next. Social Gaming Has Nothing to Do with Facebook Multiplayer games increasingly exist via the internet and services such as Xbox Live. In this 45-minute-long talk, Toronto indie game designer Benjamin Rivers discusses the importance of “social” games—not Farmville, not Mafia Wars, but games you play in a room with other people. What has changed as these games have moved from shared-space to remote experiences? What can we learn from this, and how can we rediscover real social gaming?
5:00 – 5:15	Closing remarks

Gamercamp will take place on:

• Saturday, November 13th at Toronto Underground Cinema (186 Spadina, a little bit north of Queen)
• Sunday, November 14th at George Brown College School of Design (230 Richmond Street East)

Here’s how much it costs to attend:

• The Gamercamp Festival Pass goes for $30.00 and gets you into the main sessions for Saturday and Sunday.
• If you’re attending Gamercamp and want a ticket to the 1UP Party (featuring musical acts Anamanaguchi and Starscream), tickets for 1UP are $12.00.
• If you just want to attend 1UP and not Gamercamp, tickets are $15.00.

To register for Gamercamp, visit the Gamercamp registration page.

This article also appears in Canadian Developer Connection.