Not sure what happened to any form of restraint – this month sees me with no less than 4 conference appearances which has got to be some kind of record. For me. I know some of you are workaholics, but sadly I only ever seem to collect addictions that are bad for me.
However, as I try not to look those deadlines too squarely in the face, I can be somewhat comforted by the fact that there is currently quite a lot worth talking about. Firstly there is the ever approaching Away3D 4.0 gold release which we are hoping to occur some time towards the end of the month, as well as new development on Away Physics and analysis on how the Adobe premium license (or “speed tax” as it is more affectionately known) will affect us here. Then there is Prefab 2.0 which is getting closer to a release as well although Fabrice won’t give too much away on an exact date as yet – expect more information soon enough.
First event on May 17th will be the exotic looking FlashGamm! conference in Moscow – a day long game developers festival based around Flash, social and mobile (like it says above. What do you mean you can’t read?). Having met a few Russian devs at previous conferences around the world I’m fairly confident their a friendly, outgoing bunch but the country itself is something I’ve not experienced before. For some reason, all that comes to mind when thinking of Moscow is Tetris and James Bond. Which doesn’t sound right at all.
I’ll be presenting a new talk titled Away3D for the accelerated age – you can probably guess what that will be about. The Alternativa guys are a FlashGamm! sponsor this year, and I’m really looking forward to hearing more about what they’ve been up to after the recent open-sourcing of their engine. At least now I can’t feel bad about me invading their turf. 
Straight after FlashGamm!, I’ll be presenting at the larger KRI conference – another Russian game developers event (bearing some similarity to the GDC in San Francisco) that takes place over 3 days from May 18th – 20th. I’m a little confused so far on the name, as all the signs clearly call it “KPN”, but in certain text its KRI and some even have it as RGDC… whatever its called, I will be presenting Dissecting the Gloop – a breakdown of a recent mobile project collaboration called Gloop-a-hoop. The game is being released later this month and was an interesting experience on using Away3D and Stage3D with the latest FP11.2 and AIR3.2 APIs that I hope others will find useful.
After I make it home from Moscow (always assuming that happens), I’ll be attending and presenting at the Digital Shoreditch festival in London. This is a two-week long collection of various events with a creative and/or technical theme, and I’ll be part of the lineup at the Next Tech event curated by The Hoxton Mix. This presentation will be a more involved exploration of the Gloop-a-hoop game and will hopefully give attendees the information they need to start creating and publishing 3D content on mobile devices, with a bit of help from the various free tools and libraries used here.
Finally, on May 31st I’ll be presenting Away3D for the accelerated age at a slightly more usual stomping ground – the monthly LFPUG event in London. I’m pleased to say that the accompanying speaking here will be none other that the daddy of Flash 3D, Carlos Ulloa himself. And that doesn’t worry me at all. Nope, not in the slightest.