Past Presentations
17th Annual World Congress of Science & Factual Producers
Collaborate to Innovate: A Networking Opportunity for Producers to Meet Digital Media and Gaming Experts – Friday 4th Dec
Taking linear broadcast projects to online and gaming platforms can present new possibilities in creativity, finance and audience reach. The key to a successful transition lies in the collaboration of teams with multi-disciplinary expertise. This session gives the opportunity to a limited number of experienced filmmakers interested in convergence to meet one-on-one with Australia’s leading digital media and gaming experts. The morning will provide an overview of techniques and possibilities followed by 15-minute one-on-one sessions for targeted advice and potential collaboration with any or all of the digital specialists.
Game Connect Asia Pacific 2009
Games Literacy – Sunday 6th December
Presentation – .mov
Today’s students have never seen a world without video games. They’re an integral part of life now, becoming a new cultural artifact, a new entertainment medium, and bringing with them a whole slew of new employment opportunities.
But how do they work? And what are the parameters for having a meaningful dialog about them with our students?
In this session, Paul Callaghan, a veteran game developer, will explore the elements that contribute to games literacy and how that can be applied to traditional literacy and numeracy skills.
What does a writer do anyway? – 3:35, Tuesday 8th December
Presentation – Google Presentation
Telling stories is an essential part of our cultural fabric, but in the face of a new medium, one in which mechanics, rules, and play are at the heart of the audience experience, we’re still learning how to work the thousands of years of accumulated knowledge in writing and storytelling to our best advantage.
An often-neglected discipline in video games, this session will look at the skills and craft that writers use when approaching storytelling, dialogue, structure, and characterisation, and how to apply those to video games without losing the particular strengths of the medium. By dissecting the craft of writing, it will demonstrate the thought processes behind story creation, what does and doesn’t work within the medium of games, and why some of those boundaries exist. It will also show how some of those core concepts are applicable to games without stories, informing mechanic, level, and systems design.
Looking to the future, the session will lastly speculate on the marriage of traditional narrative and mechanics, and the sorts of stories that can only be told in the medium of games by exploiting the fundamental gameplay forces of agency, choice, rules, and goals.
IGDA Melbourne
Trends for local indies – 10/11/09
Presentation – Google Presentation
An overview of local industry trends since 2000 and options for independent development. More detail on the numbers can be found in the blog posts The State of Things and Collated data.
iDef 2009
Do you have a game plan? – 30/10/09
Presentation – .mov
The state of the industry worldwide by Tony Reed from Reed Interactive followed by an overview of the roles and career paths in development.
Take me by the hand – 31/10/09
Presentation – .mov
Join game developers Craig Duturbure and Paul Callaghan as they walk you through their favourite games and reveal the highlights and hiccups of game development.
Academy of Interactive Entertainment
Guest Lecture: Independent Development – 14/10/09
Presentation – .mov
The shape of the local industry and opportunities for indie developers, including what to focus on, experimental gameplay models, and options for funding and distribution.
Screen Australia
Innovation Session – 1/10/09
Presentation – .mov
An overview of games as an industry and medium, their relationship to film, and their relative strengths and weaknesses.
RMIT Games Program
Mechanics and Narrative – 8/09/09
Presentation – .mov
Lecture on symbolism and grammar and how that can be applied to traditional media and games.
SYN Media Learning Week 2009
Gaming and Learning: Panel Discussion and Play – 28/8/09
Games Industry and IT experts will help you learn and experience the educational potential of video games and gaming culture. Starting with a panel discussion on how games help students learn useful skills and ending with a chance to get your hands on some gaming consoles and play!
With Vincent Trundle and Michael Woods
Freeplay 2009
Where to from here? – 15/8/09
At the first Freeplay in 2004, there was no steam, no App store, no XNA, no Xbox Live Arcade, no PSN, and no WiiWare.
This panel looks at where we might be in another 5 years.
VITTA ICT Career Expo 2009
How I got a job playing games for a living – 1/8/09
Presentation – .mov
An updated version of my talk from 2008
Video games don’t just appear from nowhere. Somewhere, right now, there are people writing code, making art, designing levels and putting the finishing touches on games that will eventually find their way into PCs and consoles all over the world. In Australia, there are around 2500 people doing just that and this number is expected to grow dramatically over the next 5 years. In this presentation, Paul Callaghan, who has worked as a programmer, a game designer, and now a games teacher, will talk about how he found his way into the industry, how things have changed since then, how it’s possible to earn a living from it, and how it’s not all just sitting around playing games all day.
Emerging Writers’ Festival 2009
I can say yes now but in the end it will be no – 31/5/09
You spend hours deliberating over your punctuation, only to have actors, artists, directors and all and sundry throw out semi colons with barely a thought! This panel looks at maintaining ownership over your own words.
With Liz Argall, Angela Bentzien, Paul Callaghan and Luke Devenish
Hosted by Andrew Horabain
Doctor Who – Computer Game Storylining – 31/5/09
In late 2005 Paul Callaghan found himself unsuccessfully pitching to the BBC for the new Doctor Who computer game. Eventually, he worked with them on developing the game – and what followed was a writer’s dream in aligning with the revamped TV show, and a nightmare of restrictions due to the differing viewpoints of the BBC.
In conversation with Daniel Ducrou
CAE Melbourne
Industry Overview – 13/5/09
As part of the PWE Industry Overview subject, an outline of what writing for games involves and how I found myself doing it.
National Screenwriters Conference 2009
Writing – It’s More Than A Game – 26/2/09
Presentation – .mov
The differentiation between games and films is blurring rapidly. As game graphics and other technical innovations reach a highpoint, games are depending more and more on character, story and plot… and traditional screenwriters are becoming a valuable resource for the games industry.
The major global film market (15-30yo) is spending more time and money on games than cinema – and the trend isn’t slowing. So is there a place for you in game writing? Do you have to be a user to appreciate the form? How do your skills translate to this exciting field? And is the sky really the limit? Find out how you can tap into this exciting writing opportunity from three internationally respected games writers.
VITTA 2008
From designer to teacher and back again – 24/11/08
Presentation – .mov
Today’s students have never seen a world without video games. According to ABS statistics: 12.5m games were sold in 2006; 6.1m video game consoles have been sold since 2000; 3.6m Australian households have a video game console; and 4.8million Australian households have an internet enabled PC which is capable of playing games.
In this session, Paul Callaghan, a veteran game developer now teaching programming & game design in the VET sector, will discuss his experiences transitioning from industry to teaching and how playing games and learning are inextricably linked.
Critical thinking about video games – 26/11/08
Presentation – .mov
Today’s students have never seen a world without video games. They’re an integral part of life now, becoming a new cultural artifact, a new entertainment medium, and bringing with them a whole slew of new employment opportunities.
But how do they work? And what are the parameters for having a meaningful dialog about them with our students?
In this session, Paul Callaghan, a veteran game developer now teaching programming & game design in the VET sector, will discuss the theory of how video games work and how that knowledge can be used in the classroom.
GC:AP 2008
Towards a theory of Everything: Lessons learned as a programmer, designer, writer, and teacher – 20/11/08
Presentation – .mov
One of our first instincts is to play. As children, we use it to explore our environment, to test roles, to establish our position in the world. We test the rules imposed by our psychology, our biology, our social structure. We form our own individual goals as we go, trying to build a model of how the world works, trying to work out who we are and why we’re here. We skip and stumble and run and tell stories as we move further and further away from our comfort zone towards the extreme limits of our abilities, where we fall, hopefully not too far, then pull out our pencils and scribble down that we found the edge of the map.
Video games tap deeply into our need for play, but now the goals are constructed, the rules are more rigid, and how we interact with the world has been carefully designed as an experience. But that experience is still an act of exploration. The player is wandering through a game space finding the edges, charting the terrain, failing and trying again.
The process of creation is the same. We begin with a vague sense of where we are, and where we want to go, and then we write experimental programs and sketch thick lines in photoshop and build prototypes from paper. We tentatively map the programming and art and design space, finding new things, stumbling, falling, mapping the edges, still following that same urge we have as children – to play.
This instinct is central to how we learn, how we create, and how we live. Drawing on experience as a programmer, a designer, a writer, and a teacher, this presentation will discuss how that knowledge can inform our approach to the development process and the eventual player experience.
iDef 2008
Industry and Education working together – 14/8/08
Panel with Kurt Busch & Damon Raynor from Krome Melbourne
VITTA ICT Career Expo 2008
How I got a job playing games for a living – 2/8/08
Presentation – .mov
Video games don’t just appear from nowhere. Somewhere, right now, there are people writing code, making art, designing levels and putting the finishing touches on games that will eventually find their way into PCs and consoles all over the world. In Australia, there are around 2500 people doing just that and this number is expected to grow dramatically over the next 5 years. In this presentation, Paul Callaghan, who has worked as a programmer, a game designer, and now a games teacher, will talk about how he found his way into the industry, how things have changed since then, how it’s possible to earn a living from it, and how it’s not all just sitting around playing games all day.
ACMI Game Girls Event
Workshop with Moran Paldi
Game developer and educator Paul Callaghan and games designer Moran Paldi will host a workshop where groups will get hands-on with the design process by conceiving a game around your favourite TV franchise.
Freeplay 2007
Independents Day
Panel presentation with Jonathan Blow and Robert J. Spencer – video; powerpoint
How can independents come up with earth-shattering ideas that change the face of gaming? What are the parameters of independent game making and who are the innovators outside of the big-publisher system? This session investigates innovation in independent gaming to date, and discusses where it might come from in the future.
Why I still really love you
Chair of panel with David Hewitt, Eve Penford-Dennis, and Andrei Nadin – video
Newbie game developers are everywhere, but their love of game development is often short lived; like puppy love it goes away real quick when the going gets rough. So how do great developers maintain the love through the tough times and, perhaps more importantly, why do they stick it out? Veteran insiders express the real reasons why they still love games development.
Freeplay 2005
What happens when you become a designer?
Panel discussion with Clint Reid and Kirsty Baird
Everyone has an idea for the best game ever, the most awesome combination of favourite game x plus sensational game y, but what is it really like to be a game designer? These panellists talk about the experience of designing a game for the first time.
Game Stories: How to make yours much, much better.
Panel presentation with Mark Angeli and Jackie Turnure - powerpoint
There are many ways to tell an interactive narrative – scripted sequences, cut scenes, emergent storylines to name a few – our panel of expers will argue about when to use what to improve your story and whether you need one at all.
Burning down the Shed.
Chair of panel with Greg Costikyan, Mark Angeli, and Katharine Neil
This is our Australian Indie Answer to the GDC’s ‘Burning down the house’ session. Angry game developers vent their spleen.