CTFF - Interactive

ROOM CHANGE for all Billy Baloney's Presentations!!!

2009-06-04T23:16:00.000-07:00

Folks,

Nobody hates a last minute schedule change more than me. But in the interest of public health and the welfare of all Interactive presenters, especially those from out of town, the presentations and panels scheduled today and Saturday for Billy Baloney's will now be in ROOM 203 of the Danbury Arena. It's a bit smaller, but it's the only room left at this point on short notice. The bonus is that we'll all be a little closer together!

Want to know the reason? Well, the old venue is a rock club, yet we thought it was cleaned once in a while. It needed a mopping, and we had to go in today and clean up all the beer bottles and the smoke is so bad, all the lysol in the world couldn't extinguish it. It's not fair to the presenters or to our paying customers. Their name comes off our banner. I'll leave it up to you to come up with a great fill-in.

CTFF Interactive Featured on Fox 61 TV

2009-05-30T18:43:00.000-07:00

CTFF Interactive was featured in prime time on Friday, May 29 at 10:55pm on CT's Fox 61.

Skip the lead-in of 90 seconds, it's a waste. http://tinyurl.com/kosy74

The tech reporter, Rick Hancock reported on the story and has been a geek since the early 80s. He was enjoyable to talk to because he knew all the events we were doing and spoke our language, which is rare (I'm a journalist). Turns out, two of our panel moderators; Profs Hanley and Gillespie of Quinnipiac University were his teachers and mentors.

Rick and his cameraman hung out for 45 minutes at Torrington-based, Left Brain Games' office and chatted with President Andrew Keplinger, one of our panelists. Then they came to interview me at the Danbury Arena in the post-industrialist raw space of what was to become this week.

The story started out with a preview before going to Left Brain and they focused on various aspects and angles of our webpage, zooming in and out and showcasing Eric Zimmerman and Burnkit 2600. They also focused on the other 2 CT video game companies, so while having Venan's webpage onscreen, they had in white block letters at the bottom, "Stamford-based Softasoft and Torrington's Left Brain Games." All in one. Then they zoomed into the latter two's webpages and looked at their games.

Unfortunately, there is no link on their webpage, which has too much on the site and takes forever to download the main page, no matter what type of computer you use.

We were also mentioned in the NY Times CT Section last week and the Fairfield County Weekly.

CTFF Interactive Free Video Gaming Information

2009-05-30T18:09:00.001-07:00

Greetings everyone. This is a rarity, me posting on a blog, but finally, it's a little quiet and I can finally let you all know what games we will be providing, who made them and what the makers can win for their creations. There will be games on 10 Macs and 10 PCs, with no internet access for your protection. There will be a big screen with a wireless keyboard and another big screen to watch our interactive video compilation.

Our video game room will be open for biz on Thursday, June 4 at 11am and will close on Saturday evening at 6:30pm, as the Keynote, Eric Zimmerman will be at the Polish American Club across the street for a mere $10 at 6:45pm.

CTFF Interactive
List of Independent Games

Donated by:

Sortasoft
Josh DeBonis, President and Founder

89 Clovelly Drive Stamford, CT 06902

203.470.7264

josh@sortasoft.com

www.sortasoft.com

Games:

Funky Farm 2: Farm Fresh
Retro Records

Donated by:

Left Brain Games

Andrew Keplinger, President

24 Church Street, 2^nd floor, Torrington, CT 06790

860.921.5611

andrew@leftbraingames.com

www.leftbraingames.com

Donated Games:

Fastfood

Buzz Off

Holiday Grab Bag

Udder Nonsense

Splatris

Tricky Treats

They Coming to Get You!

Garden Defense

CT Student Video Games

Produced by High School Students in CT Career Choices Program

www.ctcareerchoices.org

A project coordinated with the Center for 21^st Century Skills / Education Connection

http://innovation.skills21.org

Center for 21^st Century Skills

Litchfield Office:

P.O. Box 909
355 Goshen Road
Litchfield, CT 06759
860.567-0863

Danbury Office

345 Main Street
Danbury, CT 06810
203.791-1904

Education Connection

www.educationconnection.org

info@educationconnection.org

Bethel High School, - www.offthegridaming.com

Brookfield High School, www.banana-games.com

Fairfield Warde High School, www.ecowarde.com

Hill Regional Career High School, www.eihgaming.com

Joel Barlow High School, http://cregion9.skills21.org/index

Kennedy High School, www.fate-inc.net

New Britain High School, www.sandboxcrew.com

New Fairfield High School, www.manaworx.com

Newtown High School, www.twitchinteractive.info

Pathways to Technology Magnet School, www.3ganimation.net

Platt High School, http://eliteace.org

Pomperaug High School, http://knowledge-flows.com

Simsbury High School, http://www.greeneyegames.com

Terryville High School, http://www.envirogygames.com

Woodstock Academy, http://oddsquadgames.org

Game Competition Award Categories

Most Captivating

Most Fun

Indie Inspiration Award

Most Artistic

More Innovative

Most Buggy

Best Sound with Eyes Open (sounds and images)

Sound with Eyes Closed, Ears Open (pure sound)

Cleverest Code

Best Student Project

Best CT Made Game

Venan Entertainment of Cromwell, CT has donated a prize of two (2) Nintendo DS games; Ninjatown. One of the producers, Katy Smith will be presenting at the Danbury Arena on June 5, at 12:4opm in Room 202.

CTFF Interactive Game Judges

Shay Casey, H Grenade Games

Shay Casey is the owner, artist, graphic designer, game designer and programmer for indy studio SE7EN / h.grenade games. A freelance graphic designer by trade with 20+ years of experience, Shay has had the privilege of producing cutting edge creative for Good Charlotte (Epic Records), Silent Hill V (Konami/The Collective), Rock Band (MTV Games/Harmonix), ESPN, 2K Games, MLB, Lightning Audio, Rockford Fosgate, Budweiser, Heineken, Dos Equis, Hot Tamales, Volkswagen, GMC and more.

- 2 time HOW Magazine award winner, (studio self promotion, ESPN, The Magazine.) - lead user interface/identity designer for Nuclear Dawn, a full conversion Half Life 2 Mod; Silent Hill V - Xbox 360.

With a visual style that could be best described as organized chaos, Shay's vision is often called upon for youth culture consumer projects by companies that are looking to challenge expectations and blur the lines between art and commerce.

William J. Joel, PhD, WCSU, Center for Graphics Research

Dr. Joel received his doctorate in Computer and Information Sciences from Syracuse University in 1995. His thesis focused on a conceptual model that showed how computer animation is a direct outgrowth of more traditional techniques, and how the two can be represented by the same mathematical model. Currently, he is both Chair of the Computer Science Department, and Director of the Center for Graphics Research, both at Western Connecticut State University. His current interests lie in creating animations that have the look and feel of traditional 2D media such as woodcuts and stained glass.

Prof. Thomas K. Gillespie, Quinnipiac University

Thom has his Ph.D. from UC Berkeley in Information Studies, taught at Indiana University in Telecommunications from 1997 until 2009. Thom created and was the director of the MIME program (www.mime.indiana.edu). Thom teaches classes in interactive storytelling, computer game design, 3D modeling, computer animation, citizen media for social change, memory projects and web design. Thom has consulted with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Agency in many parts of Asia, taught at the Canadian Film Center's new Media Habitat in Toronto and is on the board of the Museum of the Person in Brazil (www.museudapessoa.net). Currently he is particularly interested in what he calls 'public interest entertainment' and interactive conversational interfaces (ICIs). Thom's personal webpage is at: www.mediajazz.com

CTFF Interactive List of Exhibitors June 4-6, 2009

2009-05-28T10:37:00.000-07:00

Game Audio Network Guild (GANG), www.audiogang.org, June 4, 5
Entertainment Consumers Association (ECA), www.theeca.com, June 4, 5
Danbury Area Computer Society (DACS), www.dacs.org, June 4, 5, 6
Digital Overload, June 4, 5, 6
Fractured Atlas, www.fracturedatlas.org, June 6
Center for 21st Century Skills/Education Connection, www.skills21.org, www.educationconnection.org, June 4, 5, 6
Ill Clan Animation Studios, www.illclan.com June 5 and June 6,
Free Software Foundation, www.fsf.org June 4, 5, 6
CT Digital Media Business Network, www.ctdigitalmedia.com, June 4, 5, 6

Eric Zimmerman - Keynote Sat June 6

2009-05-22T02:55:00.000-07:00

Eric Zimmerman will be the keynote speaker for the CTFF Interactive events on Saturday, June 6 at the Polish American Club at 8 Ives Street in downtown Danbury. Check out what this guy has accomplished Eric Zimmerman is a game designer, entrepreneur, author, and academic who has been working in the game industry for 15 years. Eric's diverse activities have made him one of the New York Observer's "Power Punks," one of Interview Magazine's "30 To Watch," one of International Design Magazine's “ID 40” influential designers and one of The Hollywood Reporter’s “Digital 50” along with Stephen Spielberg and Will Wright. Eric recently was honored with a “VIP Award” by the International Game Developers Association for his years of work in the game creation community. Eric has been called “The Lou Reed of Games” by author Stephen Johnson in Emergence and leading games scholar Dr. James Paul Gee has written that Eric “is surely one of the smartest and most creative humans I have ever met.” For nine years, Eric has been the Co-Founder and Chief Design Officer of Gamelab, a game development company based in New York City that was named one of 5 "Rising Star" design firms by HOW Magazine. Gamelab's games, which include the casual game blockbuster hit Diner Dash, have won awards from the Independent Games Festival, Games for Change, ID Magazine, Art Directors Club, ARS Electronica, as well as finalist nominations in the Webby Awards, the IGDA Developers Choice Awards, and the Zeebys casual game awards. Founded in 2000, Gamelab created innovative games for broad audiences, including singleplayer and multiplayer online games, as well as games in other media both on and off the computer. Gamelab worked with partners including LEGO, HBO, VH-1, Nickelodeon, Yahoo!, Microsoft, Disney, Mattel, PlayFirst, PBS, Fisher-Price, Leapfrog, and many, many others. Gamelab spun off two successful companies, including Gamestar Mechanic, an online site that was funded by the MacArthur Foundation that lets kids create games. Gamelab also helped create the Institute of Play, a nonprofit that looks at the intersection of games and learning and is currently launching a school in New York City based on play as the model for learning. Eric's game design work prior to Gamelab includes the critically acclaimed SiSSYFiGHT 2000 as well as the PC games Gearheads and The Robot Club. He sits on the boards of Games for Change and The Institute of Play and the Advisory for Digital Media for Global Kids. Eric lectures and publishes extensively on games, including keynotes at major industry events. He is the co-author with Katie Salen of Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals, the definitive textbook on game design (MIT Press, 2004). He is also the co-editor with Katie Salen of The Game Design Reader (MIT Press, 2006) and co-editor with Amy Scholder of RE:PLAY - Game Design and Game Culture (Peter Lang Press, 2003). Eric has taught courses at MIT's Comparative Media Studies Program, New York University's Interactive Telecommunications Program, Parsons School of Design's MFA in Digital Technologies Program, and School of Visual Arts' Design as Author MFA Program. He has exhibited game artworks at museums and galleries in the US and abroad. Eric studies Shaolin KungFu at the USA Shaolin Temple under Sifu Shi Yan Ming. Eric is an internationally recognized creative force, design scholar, and gadfly pundit on game design and game culture. He hopes to meet you soon. Be playful. For more info visit: www.ctfilmfest.com