As all of you (hopefully) know, there is an election coming up in BC. Well, a bunch of industry folk are getting together to vote early. You don’t have to be in a downtown riding to vote early here – you can live anywhere.
Whether you’ve been an indie for life or are still learning the ropes, join us on April 20th for the Full Indie Summit!
Full Indie presents a day of lectures by leading independent game developers that will teach and inspire. The speakers are behind some of the biggest indie hits in recent years and have spoken at GDC, the Independent Games Summit, and PAX Dev just to name a few. Each talk will also feature a Q & A period for you to ask the experts your own specific questions.
Attendees and speakers from all over are welcome and encouraged to attend, but we expect the 400 seat venue to sell out so be sure to buy your ticket in advance. It’s a not for profit event and the tickets are simply cover the venue, so if you’ve been unable to afford conferences such as GDC, now’s your chance to experience what you’ve been missing.
The summit will take place at the Rio Theater on Broadway and Commercial, easily accessible by transit. The talks will start at 11AM up to 4PM, with a break for lunch. Each talk will be 25 or 50 minutes long. We will post the full schedule in the coming weeks.
What: 5 hours of lectures by and for independent game developers
When: April 20th, 2013 from 11AM to 4PM
Where: Rio Theater @ Commercial and Broadway
RSVP and secure your ticket right now!
**SUBMIT A PROPOSAL**
Speaker submissions are still open if you would like to propose a talk.
Contact us at summit@fullindie.com.
If you’re submitting a talk you have previously presented elsewhere, please provide a link to your slides and/or video. For all other talks, please submit a basic outline (500 words) and a short bio (200 words). Please also specify whether it’s targeted for a 25 or 50 minute slot.
Talks can be on any topic applicable to indie game development from programming and design to art, audio, business, production or marketing.
Submissions must be received by Sunday, April 7th, 2013 at 11:59 PM PT, but early bird submissions received by Wednesday, March 20th will receive priority, and confirmation of or feedback on your proposal much sooner. Slots are limited so please submit as soon as possible!
Chartboost is offering an opportunity for dev teams to go down to their San Francisco offices 10 days before GDC for mentoring, money and more. Includes $6,000 to cover lodging and flights.
Chekkit out!
Most of you have probably heard of Rockstar Games closing their Vancouver studio. Coming on the heels of Radical’s closure, the local AAA studio environment is looking quite depressing. You may be wondering why indies should care about these closures. There are a couple good reasons.
We are a part of a broader developer community in Vancouver. Many of us have worked for local AAA studios and got our first industry job there. It’s also the reason for many of the game schools being active in our city. Having a vibrant AAA developer and student community makes the indie scene stronger as well. If Vancouver becomes some sort of tech wasteland, fewer people will have the skills to make games and there’ll be fewer indies. That’s why the studio closures worry me.
A part of the problem is that other provinces, like Quebec, have more aggressive incentives for companies to work there. If we are going to remain a hub of game development, we need people in government who understand our industry.
I recently met Matt Toner – someone who’s willing to bring our issues to the attention of Victoria. He’s making the leap from game developer to politician and seeking a nomination for NDP. If you think that our government could do more for the tech industry in BC, perhaps you should check out his campaign page. His plan is to use his campaign to make these issues public and to get BC competitive again.
Did you know that ArenaNet is holding a recruiting event in Vancouver this week? If you’re one of the unlucky developers who have been affected by recent studio closures, you should check it out.
Come to Ceili’s Pub at 670 Smithe St. on Thursday, July 5th 6-9pm
