Entries tagged with perth - Channel 10

Gary Barber: Celtic druid of AWIA

nhodge — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 06:36:00 GMT

Gary Barber, the Man with no blog, is the celtic druid of the Australian Web Industry Association, previously known as Port 80.

Perth, being so remote from the rest of the known world, has a unique culture of involvement and inclusiveness; much to the chagrin of other Australian cities.

In this conversation with Gary in a previous excursion to Perth, we discuss this phenomenon and other web things.

Cameron Reilly on Napoleone di Buonaparte

nhodge — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 02:31:00 GMT

Cameron Reilly, replete with his own wikipedia entry, is Australia's premiere podcaster and Founder/CEO of The Podcast Network.

What you may not realise is that Cameron is a Napoleon Geek. So much so, that his podcast has tens of thousands of listeners and Cam has been named a Fellow of the International Nepoleonic Society.

After westling the intellectual tornado on the previous evening, I decided to go easy on Cameron and ask him about his Nepoleonic Podcast he co-hosts with J. David Markham. Now, what would Nepoleone di Buonaparte Do?

The Real Geek Story

nhodge — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 05:25:00 GMT

At Podcamp in Perth, there was this wild looking man. In his face you could see a million stories.

My initial chat started along the lines of knowing a little about a lot. You know those people: they once were the kings of Trivial Pursuit. Wikipedia now trumps all comers, and makes trivia trivial.

Ross Buncle surprised me. He had a real Geek Story. Way pre-dating and out-depthing my malarkey.

Have a listen.

The Geek Stories: Six at Podcamp Perth

nhodge — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 04:17:00 GMT

Virtualized, tatooed, 1970s and 1980s geeks abounded at Podcamp Perth.

Held on a Saturday, the famous Perth Port80 Posse hosted various luminaries, bloggers, famous podcasters and lowly corporate types in an free unconference of information (and beer) interchange.

Geek Stories? You betcha. Have a look. See if you recognise the famous ones.

The Geek Stories: Richard Giles, Scouta

nhodge — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 02:02:00 GMT

The internet seems to breed videos. Soapbox, Youtube, blip.tv.

How do you find clips that are of interest to you?

Whilst in Perth, I interviewed Richard Giles of Scouta. Scouta is a video recommendation engine. In a world where time is short and number of videos are large: this is an excellent tool to ensure you don't miss, well, stuff.

The Geek Stories: Bronwen Clune, Norgs

nhodge — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 02:35:00 GMT

Citizen journalism needs a citizen news organisation.

Bronwen Clune has created a news organisation (norg) for Perth, and is bound for other cities of the world.

In an environment where all news is local, yet we yearn for the local news of others, the PerthNorg breaks news that the limited number of community outlets fear to go.

In this episode, I talk to Bronwen about Perth, Silicon Beach House and the history behind the norgs.

And the new geek chic: Aussie made Crumpler bags!

The Geek Stories: littlevoices with Stephen Price

nhodge — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 08:47:00 GMT

Stephen Price comes across as an unassuming character. At least that was my impression speaking to him at ReMIX earlier this year.

A few days after return to Perth, he emailed me a caricature of my presentation of PopFly.

Stephen is a cartoonist and a developer.

Watch Stephen draw with his WACOM tablet, and hear his Geek Story.

GO3 07 - Keita Iida talks NVIDIA, SLI and Direct X 10

Nic — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 02:04:00 GMT

I met up with Keita Iida at GO3 to talk NVIDIA, Direct X 10 and SLI. Keita was in Perth presenting on the future of graphics; specifically the new technologies and tools that NVIDIA is bringing to the table in conjunction with DX10 and Windows Vista. Keita helped answer a few questions of mine around the inner workings of SLI and we spoke about some of the new DX10 titles currently in development. Now about my free 8800 GTX,..? ;)

BTW: The maroon behemoth behind us is the winning machine from the GO3 LAN PC Case Modding competition and belongs to a fellow by the name of Relic. For more details on his crazy Chevvy rig check out his web site.

Once again thanks to Dan Armstrong for his camera work.

GO3 07 - Tetsuya Mizuguchi Interview

Nic — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 09:26:00 GMT

Tetsuya Mizuguchi (CCO Q? Entertainment) was kind enough to give me 5 minutes of his time at GO3 for a quick video interview for Channel 10. I didn't have my hand held microphone with me so I crossed my fingers that the built in mic on my video camera would be sufficient,... it wasn't. The audio on this video is terrible and I apologise.

Mr Hodge kindly helped me remove as much background noise as he could from the video with his "magic audio tools" but it's still very difficult to hear Mizuguchi-san at times and the babies crying in the background certainly don't help.

Nevertheless, if you can bear with the acoustic anomalies Mizuguchi-san has, as always, some really interesting things to say. Namely his thoughts on turning creative ideas into games as well as the inspiration behind N3: Ninety Nine Nights.

And a big thank you to Rod Fergusson (yes this Rod Fergusson) for being my stand in camera man. Producer of Gears of War AND camera man extraordinaire!.. what a guy!

GO3 07 - Wrap Up

Nic — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 04:51:00 GMT

Well my first trip to Perth was a beauty.

Hung out with Hideo Kojima (see below), Tetsuya Mizuguchi, Masaya Matsuura, Rod Fergusson and many other luminaries from the gaming industry which was both awesome and humbling.

Since I was speaking at the conference I had an opportunity to meet with most of the other presenters and chat with them about the gaming industry, where they were heading with their current and future projects, their thoughts on Microsoft and what they thought of Australia as both a holiday destination and an international video gaming market.

I was organised enough to have my camera handy when catching up with Rod Fergusson and Mizuguchi-san and therefore video evidence of both encounters exists. For Kojima-san and Matsuura-san though I didn't have my camera with me but I was made privy to so many awesome secrets that I wouldn't have been able to blog about them on10 anyway ;P

For those of you who were unable to make it to GO3 here's a quick wrap up of (just some of) what went down

Rod Fergusson spoke about the importance of building a franchise. Case in point: Gears of War.
Luke from Kotaku was live blogging and caught up with Rod for an 1:1 afterwards
Bennett from IGN also sat down with Rod for an interview
Check out my video interview with Rod here for the scoop on the REAL inspiration behind GoW

Hideo Kojima gave us some insight into the history of the Metal Gear series and how both the limitations and advances in gaming hardware over time helped shape the direction of Solid Snake. We didn't see any new MGS4 footage unfortunately but it was great to hear Kojima-san walk through the design processes he and his development teams have gone through over the past 20 years.
Kotaku grabbed an interview with Kojima-san here and live blogged the presentation here

Tetsuya Mizuguchi presented on his experiences in the gaming industry and the challenges associated with turning inspiration and creative ideas into fun, interactive entertainment.
Kotaku live blogging coverage here
I managed to grab a 5 minute video interview with Mizuguchi-san out the front of his hotel which was great for lighting but terrible for audio - you've been warned.

Masaya Matsuura spoke about the importance of music in games and how music and audio can and should be used in game design. This was a fascinating session however my translation earpiece device was on the fritz so I didn't quite catch everything.
Kotaku have a brief overview from Matsuura-san's presentation here

Unfortunately I wasn't able to make Goichi Suda's session but Kotaku was there live-blogging and caught up with Suda-san for an interview on Killer 7, No More Heroes and much more.

For now here's some more photos of me with Mizuguchi-san, Kojima-san and Rod Fergusson. Rod and I found a bar in Perth called the 'EPICBAR' which we took as an omen and so used as a back drop for our self portrait. Not the most flattering of angles but I don't look much better either,.. ha!! me so funnie!!

GO3 07 - Rod Fergusson Interview (Censored)

Nic — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 09:17:00 GMT

At GO3 in Perth last month I had a chance to spend some time with Rod Fergusson from Epic (Producer: Gears of War) who was in town to speak about the importance of and challenges associated with creating a franchise.

On the final day of the conference I roped in Dan Armstrong to kindly help film a little 5 minute interview with Rod which quickly became 20 minutes of craziness that I've cut down to just under 11 mins of "G rated" material.

Some of the amazing revelations from Rod Fergusson contained within this interview:
- Rod and Cliff B's "special relationship"
- The TRUE inspiration for Gears of War
- We ALMOST had a sequel to Bloodwake,..

Re "censorship" - Rod and I should probably never be on camera together; for some reason we bring out the potty mouth in each other far too easily which is why there are a few words/phrases/hand gestures *bleeped* out. Feel free to use your imagination to guess what Rod might have said when the government censor man hits the big red *bleep* button.

A big thank you to Dan Armstrong for filming the interview for me. Check out StrongMan Pictures for more info on Dan's films and the Australian independant film making scene.

GO3 - Perth; Australia, March 30 - April 1

Nic — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 12:18:00 GMT

In Perth this weekend? If the answer is yes (and you know it is) you should head down to the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre for the GO3 Electronic Entertainment Expo.

From the web site "GO3 is an exciting three-day Electronic Entertainment Expo that will showcase the latest in gaming, hobbies, communication & technologies and electronic entertainment. The expo will feature over a hundred exhibitors housed in two exhibition halls."

And why should you travel potentially hundreds or thousands of kilometres to Western Australia I hear you ask? Well hows about a chance to see Hideo Kojima, Tezuya Mitzuguchi, Masaya Matsuura and Rod Ferguson all under the one roof? zOMG!!!

Check out the web site for more information and for the full lineup of speakers: www.go3.com.au

Oh yeah,.. and I'm presenting as well.