IRDC 2012

The International Roguelike Development Conference - London 2012. A unique opportunity for roguelike developers and enthusiasts to network and discuss their genre in depth. Attendance is free and open to all. Add your name to the participants list if you plan to attend.

IRDC London 2012

* Place: London, UK
* Time: June 2nd-3rd, 2012
* Venue: Imperial College London
* Venue Contact: Darren Grey
* Discussion: QuakeNet #rgrd, RogueTemple, RGRD, Facebook event
* Twitter tag: #IRDC12

Participants

• Darren Grey darrenjohngrey@hotmail.com, +44 (0)770 929 3627, @darrenjohngrey
• Ido Yehieli ido.yehieli@gmail.com, +43 (0)664 5585 708
• Kevin Glass kevin@cokeandcode.com, +44 (0)7794 453 8521
• Alex May psychicteeth@gmail.com, +44 (0)7795 257 591
• Mario Lassnig [?]
• DarkGod [?]
• Jeff Lait jmlait snail gmail thing-that-oracle-owns com, $3.50 per minute so it better be important.
• Risto Saarelma [?]
• Craig Turner cratuki@gmail.com, +44 (0) 7714 620 963
• Björn Ritzl bjorn.ritzl@gmail.com, +46 (0)704 335333
• Hayden Scott-Baron [?]
• Radomir Dopieralski [?]
• Joris Pyl [?]
• Michael Cook [Okay, I initially thought I couldn't come due to conference date clashes - the conference ends on June 1st. I *might* make it! I'll do my best.]
• SRD
• Andreas Dorn [?]
• Aaron Steed me@robotacid.com
• Ulf ?ström ulf.astrom@gmail.com
• Filip Dreger fdreger@gmail.com
• flend flend@compsoc.net
• Thomas Whetnall thomas.whetnall@gmail.com
• Connagh Muldoon connaghmuldoon@gmail.com. (Unlikely to arrive - money troubles)
• jpeg
• Daniel Slaney daniel@monkeybutter.co.uk, +44 (0) 788 182 0129 - game dev making a roguelike in my spare time
• Patric Mueller bhaak@gmx.net +41 76 536 87 08 - UnNetHack, NetHack-De, and Junethack
• Ruari O'Sullivan
• Alistair R roche.a@gmail.com
• Paul Jeffries paul AT vitruality.com
• Clare Boothby
• David Damerell damerell@chiark.greenend.org.uk

Talks

• Darren Grey: Introduction and primer on the Roguelike Renaissance
• Darren Grey: The Single Hit Point Model
• Ido Yehieli: surprise!
• Björn Ritzl: I might have a talk about developing roguelikes for limited/mobile devices (not sure if it's of any interest or if I really want to yet)
• flend: Mobile phone roguelikes - UI, design and the Android landscape
• Jeff Lait: Porting POWDER: A brief history.
• Michael Cook: If I'm around (second day more likely than first) I'd like to give a talk tentatively titled "Why The Games Industry Is Relying On You To Be As Insane As Possible"
• jpeg: I'd like to do another Stonesoup survey presentation. Not all of it, but there are some results that might be interesting for roguelike development in general.
• Connagh Muldoon: "Roguelikes as contrasted to the Commercial Games Industry": Unlikely I will be arriving to do this, money worries.
• Patric Mueller: "JuNetHack - The NetHack Cross-Variant Summer Tournament". Overview of Junethack's last year's(first) and this year's holding, including lessons learnt like why you need strong nerves and why your server should be D0S-resilient when dealing with NetHack players.
• Paul Jeffries: Real-life 'dungeon generation' - procedural generation in architectural design

Add your talk here if you wish to give a presentation. Any subject is welcome.

Schedule

All agenda items are fluid.

Friday 1st June

• Meet up at some point for those around for general socialising.

Saturday 2nd June

• Meet at 10am at the Library cafe on Imperial College Road (no 25 on this map). A large group of nerds should be fairly obvious, but if in doubt look for The Sign. Make sure you have my mobile number in case you're late or lost. Only I can let people into the room we'll be using.
• 10.30 Introductory talk from Darren Grey, including a primer for open discussion on the Roguelike Renaissance
• Various presentations from 11:00 till around 4, with a break for lunch at some point. Exact schedule is flexible and will be written up on a whiteboard.
• 4pm Recording of Roguelike Radio. If not interested in taking part then I suggest playing some roguelikes! Also a chance to just network or chat with others.

Sunday 3rd June

• Meet at 10am at Library cafe
• 10.30 till ~12: The Roguelike Showcase. Developers have 10 minutes to showcase their latest work or developments (including unreleased stuff), with audience questions. Timing will be strict.
• 12-1: Lunch
• 1 till 4pm: Any remaining presentations.
• 4pm Recording of Roguelike Radio.

Monday 4th June (Not officially part of IRDC, but some indie dev stuff that folks may be interested in if they're around)

• 1-9pm Indie Games Expo in London - http://indiegamesexpo.info/ We've been offered a stand to show off roguelikes here if anyone's interested. I may also be giving a talk on artistic gameplay in roguelikes.
• There is a meet-up of Indie Devs at a pub in central London at around 7pm. It's a good opportunity to meet some other devs and see some of their games. More info: http://londonindies.com/?page_id=116

Transportation

London is the centre of the world! Its five airports transport the largest number of passengers annually in all city airports combined. http://www.skyscanner.net/ is handy for getting a good price deal (it doesn't check Ryanair though). Heathrow and Gatwick are easiest for transport to the city centre, but Luton and Stanstead are also options. Those hunting a bargain may wish to check Birmingham Airport paired with a cheap 90 minute train ride to London Euston (trains are booked through http://thetrainline.com - much cheaper in advance). Other England airports may also be options with cheap coaches from MegaBus or National Express. Info on local travel is available at http://tfl.gov.uk - best to get a weekend pass or an Oyster card with 15 quid on it for the weekend.

If you have further questions feel free to ask me directly - I'm happy to help.

Accommodation

There's plenty of places available in London for a range of budgets. Google is your friend. Transport is good all over, so any location would be fine, though sticking is zone 1 or 2 is cheaper for tube travel. Hammersmith would be my best recommendation - lots of buses from there, or the quick tube option. You can frequently find good deals on http://lastminute.co.uk or http://laterooms.com (and in spite of their names they're fine to use in advance). Beware that a lot of places either don't have or charge extra for wireless. Book as early as possible for the best prices, as London gets very pricey on short notice.

Looking around, for somewhere cheap this seems sort of okay: http://www.laterooms.com/en/hotel-reservations/158205_euro-hotel-hammersmith-london.aspx (wifi, supposedly en suite, dodgy breakfast included, good location) Twinning up with others obviously saves cash for those so inclined.

Some hotels near the venue: http://www.doc.ic.ac.uk/icep/accommodation

Post here with details of where you're staying or looking at staying - it may be helpful if many are staying in the same place.

Venue

Imperial College London - South Kensington Campus, SW7 2AZ. Pretty much exactly here:

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?t=h&q=IRDC2012@51.499800,-0.175300&z=12

Event will take place in room 301D of the Royal School of Mines building (no 12 on this map). Access is through Prince Consort Road (the main entrance on Exhibition Road will be closed). Due to security restrictions at weekends we're best meeting first in the nearby library cafe and I can guide everyone to the meeting room.

Wifi: Those affiliated with universities will be able to log on to the Eduroam system. For others I'll try and arrange for guest logins.

Nearest tube station is South Kensington on the District and Piccadilly lines. Very central and easy to get to. Buses from all parts of the city also stop nearby.

There's lots to do in the area for after the conference, including the (free) Natural History Museum and Museum of Science next door. And it's London, so there's loads to do and see and places to eat in general. You may want to make an extended weekend of it if you're interested in some serious tourism. It's also a long bank holiday weekend for England (Monday and Tuesday off), which generally makes for a nice atmosphere.

Equipment & Supplies

• Projector will be set up in the room.
• Camcorder: Still Required
• Tripod: Still Required
• Food: Lots of places to go nearby.

Refreshments required/desired: I'll arrange for refreshments for the room. Post here with any requests for specific drinks/snacks. - Darren Grey

Obviously we'll need some slime mold. And Pepsi. You've got to have Pepsi when rogueliking. Mort432 16:08, 26 April 2012 (CEST)

How we get there and back and where to meet up

Post your own info here and check back for updates.

I live nearby and will be available all day Friday to Monday. Happy to meet up at whatever time suits others. - Darren Grey

I'll be in London thursday to monday (arrive and leave in the afternoon). - Ulf ?ström

Me and the family will arrive on Thursday and leave on Monday. We will arrive and leave in the afternoon (same flight as Ulf?) - Björn Ritzl

I'm on SK531 (11:15) and SK528 (18:00). -Ulf

Questions

Post questions here with your name.

What does the abbreviation IRDC stand for?

Mort432 20:35, 3 March 2012 (CET)

A: International Roguelike Development Conference. (Darren)

Can you give a brief description of the event for someone who has never attended?

Mort432 20:35, 3 March 2012 (CET)

A: It's a meet-up of roguelike developers to talk about development related topics. There are normally presentations on different subjects relating to development, as well as just generally hanging out and networking. Roguelike players are welcome to attend too. (Darren)

Is there a cost of admission?

Mort432 13:15, 4 March 2012 (CET)

A: Nope, it's free and open source! (Darren)

R: Sweet, free speech and free beer; I'll definitely be attending, hah. Thanks for all the replies.

Mort432 21:07, 4 March 2012 (CET)

Do talks have to be on development, or can they also be from a player perspective?

Mort432 23:41, 5 March 2012 (CET)

A: There is no strict division between the two. Talks can be about anything game or programming related that can be applied to roguelikes. There's no requirement to give a talk and it doesn't need to be very formal. At IRDC 2011 we had discussions ranging from the mechanics of specific games to general program architecture and programming practices. There were even people there that had never played a roguelike. For me it's entirely a social event, a chance to meet people I've been talking to online for years. There's no prestige in being a developer or "only" a player - if you enjoy roguelikes you "qualify" and should attend! /Ulf

Q: What time do we start on Saturday? (Björn)

A: Probably 10am, but I'll confirm closer to the time. - Darren

Q: What are the chances of getting the video footage of (at least) talks uploaded so the wider community can enjoy them? [Sidenote: I'd volounteer for that but I'm not going to be there. And this: Please please pretty please?] magikmw

A: If someone brings a camcorder then it'll definitely happen, but right now I can't promise that. - Darren