Hi peeps,
After coming back from Free Play I was pretty pumped, and have been thinking about organising a Game Development Weekend at my house, preferably on a long weekend. The idea is to have a 48-hour challenge with a more social component to get to know more Adelaide developers.
Of course, there's nothing stopping anyone else participating. Hell, it would be awesome to see that happen.
I'm trying to get a mix of amateur, indie and professional people interested, so the more experienced can share their knowledge with the not so experienced. Depending on the ratio of amateurs to pros, if I get enough interest, I've been thinking of teaming an amateur and a pro together.
The biggest emphasis for me is on bringing together people and forming relationships, something you really can't do well on the Internet. It would be good to see some more Adelaide dev teams springing up with some original ideas.
So is anyone from Adelaide interested? Is anyone else interested in hosting a similar event? I'm thinking about holding it in October, since (I think) that's the next long weekend and it gives plenty of time to organise things like extra furniture, talking to pro developers, etc.
Cheers,
Paul.
Ack! Sumea ate up my original reply! :)
All of the professional game developers I've talked to or know are Ratbag or ex-Ratbag. I've heard some horror stories, it's quite funny to hear, and made me reconsider whether I even wanted to get into the professional circuit.
The next public holiday in SA (and only public holiday until Christmas) is Labour Day on October 4, so the event would go from October 1-4. Of course you could arrive or leave at any time, but I'd be prepared to have people from the Friday evening until Monday night.
Yes, you would need to bring your own computers.
I've found that when you get enough enthusiastic people together talking about game development, the ideas and opinions tend to flow pretty thick, and that in turn spawns action -- Free Play taught me that. I'm not really worried about it degenerating into a LAN, because no-one (I hope) comes with the intention of turning it into one. Unless everyone likes the same kind of games, the gaming action won't last too long anyhow.
Maybe I'll offer a prize incentive; that seems to work the best.
The ideal situation would be to team up professional and amateur developers together to form teams, so they can share ideas and experience. If I can't get enough pros in, I know enough amateur developers eager for this kind of experience to form a small event.
As to having enough room at my house, it depends on how many people want to turn up. As a rule of thumb, I expect about half the respondents to turn up, but I'll cap the number if I get a deluge of enthusiastic replies. There will be enough furniture for however many turn up, though.
I'm working on an optional theme for the event, too... shouldn't be hard to come up with something interesting.
Cheers,
Paul.
Sounds interesting, although availability would depend on the date of the event...
I would be a good estimation that the professional game development people in Adelaide would be from Ratbag, either current or former employees... So if you would wnat to get many of them then you'd have to pick a date not close to a milestone.
Also how big is your house, and would we be bringing our own computers there? Plus then what would be the temptation of making it a lan instead?