Indie Game Conference EAST

#21 The G.A.M.E.S. Synergy Summit 2006 that is taking place in Orlando Florida on January 16-18th will have an Indie Game room for all indie studios to show off their games. This is the closest thing to an Indie Con in the East Coast that I know of. GarageGames will aslo be doing a Torque Bootcamp there. This could be a great oppurtunity for Indies and Pros alike to try and pick up a Military Contract.

Ray Kurzweil will be the keynote for the event which is amazing. Every one is a fan of Kurzweil, from Bill Gates to Bill Clinton.

The webpage for the event is synergysummit.com/

And Orlando Florida in January....How can you beat that? ;)

#22 Hmm. It looks like Phil C. will be there with Air Ace. Cool.

#23 Phil might be speaking i believe.

#24 I'll chime in here...

I think Regional Mini-Conferences are more feasable. For instance, if we held a mini-conference in Chicago and managed to intice a couple GG folks to hold some sessions.... I think that would be well worth some money to me.

I've got a few connections in the Chicago area and I believe it's more than possible to get some sponsors for such an event. We would have to provide a legit plan for the conference(including comitments from a couple GG folks), but it's not beyond the realm of possibility.

I do understand that the folks at GG are busy making tools for us and they don't have time to attend every mini-conference that crops up, but if the community in a particular region puts forth the effort and manages to secure some sponsorship $$, I would be curious to know if GG would be willing to consider this kind of additional face to face opportunities.

Even if it's just one day with a couple of sessions and another day to display our work.

...just my 2 cents.

-Tim

#25 Well that is pretty much what is going on at the GSS06. It will have an all day Torque Bootcamp, plus will have other all day workshops before the conference opens up.

http://synergysummit.com/pre-conference.html that talks about all the Pre-Conference activities. then as for the main conference, there will be many companies showing off products there. For indies having a ballroom dedicated to indie games will really be fun. I believe that showing your game and having your own table is free for all participants that request such thing. That i feel is worth the price of admission alone not to mention all the networking possibilities.

There will be plenty of military and academia games on hand as well as regular everyday fun games.

I would love to do an Indie Music, Classic Gaming and Indie Games Festival! Something that I am starting to brain storm.

#26 I like Tim's idea. Regional mini-conferences don't seem so bad, and they can be organized by local groups, much like they are now (IGDA would be a good place to start, or any other local organizations). Small one/two day events would be nice, and probably attract enough people to entice a GG person to fly out, though not be a full-blown IGC-type of deal.

As for the population of devs here in NY... Kinda small. Artist-wise, there's a huge amount of creative types, but most are geared towards non-game positions. This is an expensive city to operate in, which is why so many game studios are in states like Texas and Oregon. Simply a lower cost of living and operating. But, it's slowly changing, since some people want to stay in NY and make games.

#27 FYI we (and I mean the marketing/sales guys and training side of the house) are keeping our options open for things like this as we plan out FY2006, but no promises, and no information to provide at the moment. I just wanted to let you know we aren't ignoring the idea!

#28 @Stephen
I appreciate the response.

-Tim

#29 If it happens, it should be in Montreal, seeing as it's the biggest East Coast game dev concentration, and still growing like crazy.