Digital & Interactive Gaming Conference

DIG London is an annual conference and is the information hub for the digital interactive gaming industry in Ontario.

This annual conference connects London Ontario’s digital gaming cluster with industry and talent across North America. London is home to world renowned game development studios, outsourcing studios, and educational institutions. DIG London promotes and supports the continued growth of this dynamic industry.

The GameZone, sponsored by Head 2 Head Games showcases Canadian-made games along with international best-sellers.

Network, learn about emerging trends, explore industry issues, and connect with new opportunities and emerging talent at DIG 2009.

2008 Conference

The 2008 DIG London Conference took place in November 2008. For a recap of the event, visit 2008 DIG London

2009 Conference

The 2009 DIG London Conference will take place on November 3 & 4 at the London Convention Center. Conference keynote speakers include:

• Denis Dyack
• Eric Randall
• James Schmalz
• Damir Slogar
• Fredrik Liliegren
• Dr. Michael Katchabaw
• Claudette Critchley
• Michael Schmalz

Sponsors

DIG London attracts over 600 industry professionals and emerging talent. This annual conference is the primary forum for programmers, artists, producers, game designers, audio professionals, and business owners to connect and share ideas that shape the future of the industry in Canada.

Though sponsorship you can attract the attention of this industry. With signage, giveaways, session sponsorships, and exhibit marketing, you can connect with DIG London delegates.

Some sponsors for the 2009 DIG London Conference include:

• Digital Extremes
• Big Blue Bubble
• Silicon Knights
• Head 2 Head Games Internet Cafe
• Red Jade
• Antic Entertainment
• Province of Ontario
• London Economic Development Corporation
• The University of Western Ontario
• Fanshawe College

2009 DIG London Games Competition

This competition was created to allow industry professionals, students and others to show off their gaming art and programming skills. Digital game industry professional will judge all submissions and help award great prizes including cash. The DIG London Game Design Competition for Students is coming again this September 2009! Artists, Programmers and Audio designers will have an opportunity to earn a share of $10,000 in cash prizes! The highest quality work will be exposed to the Ontario game design industry at the DIG London Conference, November 3-4, 2009, in London, Ontario.

Last year's competition produced six cash winners and three of the winners began careers with well known game developers.

Structure of the 2009 Competition

The 2009 DIG London Games Competition returns this year and builds upon the success of last year’s competition. This year, the competition has been expanded and revamped to allow entries developed independently by aspiring artists, programmers, and sound designers to be integrated into functional games at the close of the competition to both more closely emulate the work environment in the games industry and to allow this talent to be more readily and impressively showcased. As mentioned above, the 2009 competition will seek entries in the areas of:

• Game art
• Game programming
• Game sound design

Entrants to the competition will be supplied with preproduction materials that allow them to ply their own craft with the knowledge that their entries will be suitable for use in a final integrated game, provided that they follow specifications, of course. The game theme in the 2009 competition is also both a creative and modular one, in which players piece together a collection of building blocks with well-defined behaviours in order to solve a particular problem at hand. The role of entrants to the competition then is to define the look-and-feel of these building blocks, code their behaviour, and determine how they should sound in the game world.

Entrants pre-register for the competition stream(s) in which they want to complete at the DIG London website (http://www.diglondon.ca). On the opening day for the competition, entrants are expected to return to the site and download competition specifications and materials. Entrants must complete their work within the time frame allocated, and submit their entries online using instructions provided on the opening day.

Art Competition

In the art competition, entrants will be creating a small number of 3D assets (objects, background materials, and so on) according to design specifications using the tools of their choice, provided that their work can be exported to industry-standard formats. As a reference, entrants will be provided with game design documentation detailing what is required of their work, as well as placeholder art that can be used as a basis of comparison. Furthermore, entrants will be provided with a reference implementation of the game that they can use to assess how their work will appear in the final game once they are done.

Programming Competition

In the programming competition, entrants will be developing code for the game, implementing the behaviours of the various gameplay elements within the game. Entrants will be provided with the same game design documentation as the artists to guide their development efforts, and will be given placeholder art and sounds to ensure that their code functions according to specifications. Programmers will also be given reference engine code that can be used within their entries so that they do not need to write their own 3D renderer, sound engine, and so on. Programs must be written for the Windows platform, and it is best for programs to be written in C++, as this tends to be the language of choice in the industry. Other languages may also be permitted, depending on final competition guidelines.

Sound Competition

In the sound competition, entrants will be creating the sound effects and, optionally, music for the game, producing several pieces in total. As above, entrants will be provided with game design documentation as a reference, as well as a reference implementation of the game that can be used for assessing how well their work fits within the game. This time, entrants will also be provided with selected submissions from the art competition to enable them to match their sound with the look-and-feel of the game. Entrants are permitted to use any tools at their disposal, provided that they can submit their work in industry-standard formats.

Prizes

Artists, Programmers and Audio designers will have an opportunity to earn a share of $10,000 in cash prizes in the 2009 DIG Game Design Competition. The highest quality work will be exposed to the Ontario game design industry at the DIG London Conference. Last year's competition produced six cash winners and three of the winners began careers with well known game developers.

External links

• DIG Home Page
• DIG on Facebook
• Gaming Union (Official Partner)