I visited North Carolina for the first time last week, Raleigh to be exact. I was invited to give the keynote at a local conference called Digital Game XPO, and was able to piggyback several other activities during my 3-day stay… In short:

  • Met up with Heather Chandler (Media Sunshine) to discuss the future plans of the IGDA’s Production SIG. Heather was recently appointed as the chair for the SIG.
  • Attended the IGDA’s NC Triangle chapter meeting held the night before the conference. Kudos to Dana Cowley (Octagon), the chapter’s indefatigable coordinator and Epic for hosting a great gathering.
  • Had lunch with Michael Capps (Epic Games), one of my new bosses and freshly appointed Treasurer of the IGDA. We discussed org finances and related board of director matters.
  • Presented the second-day keynote at the Digital Game XPO and hung around to check out some of the other speakers, etc
  • Even had some extra time to go see Nacho Libre with some of the conference folks. Hehehehe, that Jack Black is so crazy funny :)

Here are some pics I snapped during my visit:


Entrance of the Epic Games office, where the IGDA chapter meeting was hosted.
CliffyB (Epic Games) demoing Gears of War for chapter meeting attendees.


Mark Rein (Epic Games) touching the in-house exercise equipment for the first time…


Coder extraordinaire Tim Sweeney (Epic Games) with his collection of colorful kites (which double as window blinds).


Best art in the joint: While most desks were adorned with the usual Star Wars and D&D inspired figurines/toys, this desk was plastered with kiddy art. Nice to see :)


Epic’s so-called quality of life room. Where’s the defibrillator?


Local heroe Jerry Heneghan (Virtual Heroes) delivers the keynote on the first day of the Digital Game XPO.


Farhad Javidi (Central Piedmont Community College) chats with Eeljin Chae (Dongseo University, Korea) during dinner after the first day of the conference.


Waketech Community College class project: A two-player Tetris-style puzzle game.


Another student project, this time using the Unreal engine for a futuristic racer game.


Folks playing America’s Army (which was partially produced locally) at the expo.