History of the Australian games industry/SVG format for your technical docs

Come join us for a night of engaging talks on how the gaming industry has evolved in the last 30 years and what you can learn about working with SVG formats for your technical documentation. Wargaming Sydney will be hosting its first joint Meetup, where game developers can mingle and meet with those who can help shed some light on how to manage your technical documentation.

For this event we will have 2 great speakers who will discuss the following:

The history of the Australian games industry

Aidan Millott, Area Product Owner, Wargaming Sydney

Since Beam Software’s release of The Hobbit game in 1982, the Australian games industry has continued to make its mark locally and internationally with games such as Crash Bandicoot, L.A. Noire and Fruit Ninja. As one of the Area Product Owners for BigWorld Technology, the Australian game engine behind World of Tanks and other major MMOs, Aidan Millott will discuss the history of the Australian games industry. Learn about the technologies and people behind some of the most loved games produced locally in the last 30 years, and where the Australian games industry is heading in the near future.

About Aidan: Aidan Millott is an Area Product Owner at Wargaming Sydney. In this capacity, he works with internal stakeholders to improve BigWorld Technology, focusing on the development of games by small teams.

Before Wargaming.net, Aidan was an Executive Producer and Studio Manager at Halfbrick Studios. He led two small teams that developed games for the mobile platform. He was responsible for all stages of the development process and also all recruitment for the studio in Sydney. During his 8 years working at Halfbrick, Aidan released 11 games on several platforms including Nintendo DS, PSP, iOS, Android and Xbox 360. Aidan has over 10 years of experience working in the games industry as an engineer and producer.

Scalable vector graphics for technical communication

Dave Gardiner, Technical communicator, Xmplar

Scalable vector graphics (SVG) might sound like just another type of graphic, but a whole world of applications awaits those who venture into its secrets. Dave Gardiner will show just what this graphics format can do when combined with web technologies. For the past several years, he has experimented with SVG and looked for ways to make it work for technical documents. Dave will take us through some interesting apps that show the format’s capabilities. High-quality technical graphics, interactive user documentation and multilingual procedural videos are just three applications of this overlooked technology.

About Dave: Dave Garinder is a certified technical communicator with a passion for XML and an interest in creating interactive visual documentation. He has dabbled with visual design ever since he started life as a cartographer, and is excited by the nexus of art and technology. He has given several conference presentations and published articles on SVG.

Check out our co-host's event page and let them know you are coming too! https://www.meetup.com/Write-the-Docs-Australia/events/242301964/

Agenda

5:45pm – Guests arrive and network

6:15pm – Hello and introduction to speaker

6:20pm – The history of the Australian games industry

6:45pm – Scalable vector graphics for technical communication

7:15pm – Network/closing

Pizzas and drinks will be available as per usual!