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Game Developer Conventions

Started by cooperm211 Sep 16, 2011 at 5:17 PM 5 replies 1.7k views

Original Post

Sep 16, 2011 at 5:17 PM

Just curious if anyone has advice on how to find Game Developer Conventions or any other way to find multiple development teams in one place. I ran a bunch of Google searches but only a few keep popping up and they're all west cost. I'm on Long Island in New York so anything over here would be accessible. Just curious if there's a way to reach a number of programmers and developers and share my information and portfolio. I'm a composer and audio engineer and it seems pretty difficult to get a hold of anyone actually working in the gaming industry. I just feel like sending out emails to a million developers doesn't really get the personal edge necessary for people to remember me and listen to my stuff.

My compositions on YouTube:

My film soundtrack on my personal website:
http://mattcooper.info/guymanly.html

way2lazy2care

Sep 16, 2011 at 5:34 PM

There should be some IGDA chapters much closer, and Pax east isn't that far away when it happens next year but that's already passed this year.

I think you'll find the monetary investment for transportation and tickets is relatively miniscule compared to what you get out of it regardless of your location.

cooperm211

Sep 16, 2011 at 6:20 PM

Thanks for the response!

Yea I'm checking out IGDA now- It may just be my own perception of the crowd, but I feel like at PAX, the vast majority of the people there are just fans of various games. How do I sort out the game makers and make contacts?

ApochPiQ

Sep 16, 2011 at 7:07 PM

New York City is not a hotbed of game development. As Tom Sloper is fond of reminding people, if you want to get into the business, go where the jobs are.

That means, for better or worse, lots of time on the West Coast. There are other major zones of development (check gamedevmap for some guidance - the Triangle region in NC comes to mind, Baltimore has a few major studios, etc.) but most of the big gatherings happen in California, frankly. "The" GDC is probably your best bet for networking with real people, and that's in San Francisco these days.

gsamour

Sep 16, 2011 at 9:06 PM

New York City has a few social game studios (like Arkadium) and some mobile game studios (for example Gameloft). ApochPiQ pointed out a good resource, gamedevmap (http://gamedevmap.com/). You can use that to find companies. If you want to meet game developers in that area, I suggest finding upcoming game jams or visiting NYU's Game Center (http://gamecenter.nyu.edu/). They have gamedev events every now and then. There's also NYC Game Industry (http://www.nycgameindustry.com/). It looks like they get together for drinks once a month. And way2lazy2care's suggestion of IGDA is very good too. Local IGDA chapters also have events.

Gaiiden

Sep 17, 2011 at 1:51 AM

Duuude - IGDA (as mentioned already)

Just start there and you'll find out all you need. You'll want the NYC Chapter, but the NJ chapter I co-founded and help run has regular meetings too up around the Jersey City area mostly.

Then there's also nycgameindustry.com

Hope to see you at some area events!

cooperm211

Sep 20, 2011 at 9:23 PM

Thanks a bunch for the responses! That was quite helpful. I dunno who made that game dev map but I was seriously considering constructing precisely that sort of chart so thanks for the time saver. I'm gonna try hitting up some NYC IGDA meetings if I can. Yea everything I'm finding keeps pointing me to the West Cost--which would be fine with me if I had the money to burn to go over there. I suppose that's how it is for just about everyone though lol. Thanks a lot guys!

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