The good folks over at Game Developer magazine have just released “Kickstart Your Career as a Game Developer”. Its currently available (in full) for FREE download! There’s plenty of info including tips from the pros, game schools in your local area plus a DIY guide.
Links
Kickstart Your Game Career Issue: http://tiny.cc/cRlzB
Game Developer: http://www.gdmag.com
Screen Australia in concert with ABC TV are supporting a Serious Games Initiative and are looking for interested people to hook up to propose and develop a serious game. As someone with extensive interest and knowledge in the area, alongside practical experience in the game and entertainment industries, I’m looking for similarly interested and experienced individuals to partner up with. Feel free to contact me via the Contact page of my blog.
So come and join me… and lets develop a serious game together 
You can find more about the initiative at http://www.abc.net.au/tv/seriousgames/default.html.
The Sydney Morning Herald reports that the “NSW Police Force will spend about $2 million on a virtual reality shooting range as senior officers blame a lack of training for recruits being frightened of firearms”. And I’d hazard a guess that nervous rookie cops and a loaded pistol are less than optimal situation. The article goes on to say that the Goulburn police academy has “only six lanes” available for live fire, meaning the guys and gals in blue have tended to hoof it to the local range to supplement their training when needed.
Due to the combination of an increase in the number of recruits, the lack of available “live” fire ranges and the limited opportunity for training, the NSW Police Force is seeking tenders to build a virtual reality shooting range to supplement their live fire training. It’s anticipated that the virtual range will include “replica guns, complete with recoil, being “shot” at scenarios on a video screen, via wireless technology” according to the article. The force is expected to spend approximately $850K for the computer systems and a further $1M for the building.
The article also includes comments from the Opposition Police spokesman and the Police Association spokesman and Assistant Commissioner which, for me, highlighted the importance of game and simulation based training to be understood as a supplementing other forms of training, as well as some of the barriers (such as possible misconceptions between games and simulations) that still remain when implementing game-based training.
Opposition Police spokesman, Michael Gallacher said “These simulators are very advanced but quite simply nothing will replace live fire training …The idea of the training is to get a feel for the pressure of the situation of actually using the firearm that you’re going to be issued. I’d be concerned we’re now reducing live fire training and replacing it with the Nintendo Wii.”. These views were supported by the police spokesman with the union supporting virtual training as long as it did not replace live training, and the Assistant Commissioner Michael Corboy saying there while there would be no reduction in live training, “the use of a weapons simulator [will allow] NSW Police to train students more frequently in a more efficient and technologically advanced manner.”
So if you’ve dreamed of creating your very own firing range simulator, it looks like here’s your perfect opportunity.
We’ll it must be that time of the year again… when Dr. Jeff Brand and the gang at Bond Uni deliver their report on the Australian Game Industry for the IEAA (Interactive Entertainment Association of Australia). The usual stats are available — splits between gender, game ‘genre’ preferences, gamers versus non-gamers — plus the R18+ “debate”. It shouldn’t really be a continuing debate since the report for this year is that the average age of a gamer is now 30 (up from 28 last year)… yet we still don’t have a R18+ for games (but its available for other media). Its definitely worth a read… even if only for a general overview of the state of play in Australia.
You can get your hands on a copy of the report at the IEEA site http://ieea.com.au (its a 2.80MB PDF).
Links
Interactive Entertainment Association of Australia: http://ieea.com.au