Hosted by GarageGames in Eugene Oregon, only cost's $150. 2 folks from Rainfall Studios are headded that direction... are any of you? Indie Games Con Website (http://www.indiegamescon.com)

I was thinking about it, but November is going to be crunch time for me. It sounds like a fun event, though.

You know you never can under-estimate the opportunity to network with other successful members of our community ;)

Actually, I'll take good notes when I go and if anything proves useful I'll write up a little report and post a link to it here for those who would like to go but can't.

I checked out their web site, but the selection of topics seemed a bit off-base to me, so I decided to pass on it. I only saw one session remotely related to marketing and selling games (a PR session, which is also given at GDC), and it doesn't look like there are any topics related to online distribution. I guess this conference is aimed more at helping people get up and running -- how to setup a business, what technology to use to make games, how to use a specific game engine, etc. ... sort of like a mini-GDC. I was hoping for something more like the Shareware Industry Conference for Games -- where the focus is on how to promote and sell games rather than on how to develop them.

I'm planning to attend, and hope to get my flight plans finalized today... <glares at United for being a pain>

My presentation is going to be "Selling Your Software Over the Internet." More shareware oriented than specifically game oriented, though, and rather basic. At least, basic to someone who's already been selling shareware for a year or more. It was listed, last time I checked the web page.

The areas that I find would-be indies have the most trouble with are:
* Treating the whole process as a business.
* Using third-party components/solutions instead of trying to do everything on their own.
* Pricing their games too low.
* Marketing their games.

My presentation is marketing focused, trying to help them see their game (to paraphrase something Steve wrote once) as their best salesman.

Gah... not enough warning. I'll try to make it next year...

I'll definatly attend your Session David, I'm currently very weak in skills and techniques related to selling software online.

I'm suprised you wouldn't send at least some representation Steve, if only to get Dexterity out there infront of some potential developers who havn't heard of you yet. I'll be sure to direct any I find in your general direction. :)

:( wont be able to make it

Originally posted by Dan MacDonald
I'm suprised you wouldn't send at least some representation Steve, if only to get Dexterity out there infront of some potential developers who havn't heard of you yet. I'll be sure to direct any I find in your general direction. :)

Getting developers to know about us hasn't been a limiting factor so far. The current demand is already keeping us at capacity -- word of mouth continues to bring in all the business we can handle. So marketing our publishing services hasn't become a big priority just yet.

I'll be there, and I'm pretty excited about it to tell you the truth. I'm flying in on Friday and flying back out on Sunday. Staying at the Doubletree hotel.

I don't make games or anything, but I'm hoping to meet some developers and do some interviews for the website. I'm also bringing my trusty(I.E. old) laptop and and hooking it up to a cellphone that Verizonwireless was kind enough to donate. Barring any connectivity issues i'll be able to do updates from the show without any problems, pictures and all. Besides, we should have all our software problems worked out by then and have some actual content.

If anyone from the forums are going and would like to arrange an interview or something then drop me an email (gmicek at diygames dot com). Drinks are on me!

We're planning on going since it's about 2.5 hrs from us by road. Not sure if we'll stay for the whole thing yet, probably just go for the day Saturday.

Be jazzed to meet up with any of you, I'll probably wearing my signature Jester Hat :)

Sorry you won't be coming Steve, but I totally understand. If it wasn't extremely convenient, we probably wouldn't either. But we figured if all else bites, we want to at least support any conference that's in our backyard that talks about games. I still think they need to move the GDC and SIC to Oregon :P

Jonas Stewart
Silver Creek Entertainment
www.silvercrk.com

It turns out all of Rainfall Studios (3 of us) will be attending now. I stand about 6"5' with dirty blond hair and a red orange goatee. Sort of an odd combination so if you see someone matching my description feel free to introduce yourself I'd be glad to meet you.

There a picture of my from our company field trip report on our site
here (http://www.rainfallstudios.com/pictureView.aspx?group=1&id=14). It's a little blurry but you should be able to recognize me at the IGC.

Here's a pick of some of us at the IGF in 2001. I'm the creepy guy with the funny hat with the bells and the gray shirt or you will see Dan Edwards the guy with the ball cap in the IMG.

http://www.igf.com/gifs/photos/2001pic3.jpg

Anyhow I have the recall of a gnat, so make sure if you see me to say "Yo Jonas it's Dan McDonald from the message board, rember 'Orange goatee' " ... you might point to your beard for extra reffrence ;)

Live from the IGC!
It's a lot of fun, a lot of great indie developers showed up and brought their wares. The first night there were only about 35 people here and we had a great time hanging out and meeting developers as well as playing their games. A lot of great discussions were had and I got to see a lot of great indie games i'd never herd of. The second day (today) the attendance doubled and there were a lot of cool sessions. I've met jonas and Gmicek, and i've seen David Michael (DavidRM) walking around but havn't introduced myself.

It's interesting that a number of the speakers have mentioned dexterity as one of the success stories in indie development and the name has come up in more then one of the sessions i've attended. I took notes on a lot of the sessions I attended and i'll try to post summaries sometime in the near future.

anyway.. back to the foray, time to play some games. :)

It's interesting, I live in Oregon, but since I have a thing about people I didn't even think about going ;-) Well Dan you can tell me how it went right? :-D

Well, I wish I could come but it is very hard especially after the 11th of September :(

I wish I could have been there this year too. I will try to get there next year!

I wonder, is anyone going to DICE, GDC, or E3? I'm going to DICE and E3, but GDC is just way too expensive -- not nearly enough bang for the buck for me. It's also much more retail/big industry oriented I suppose, as is E3. Still, the latter still seems worth it for me.

I hope that the IDC really takes off! It sure fills a need.

For quite a few years we volunteered at the GDC, you "work" part of the time and the rest of the time you are free to attend whatever events you like. Often times you can work checking badges at the very event that you wanted to see, so you might not miss much at all.

I highly recommend any indie that doesn't have the funds to pay for GDC , to go that route.

The energies and the folks you meet that way are also more indie in spirit.


the IDC was pretty nifty. I'd have to say that my 1st impressions were a bit low (it was held in a large garage), but it was cool once you got into it. I think with the turnout they got on such short notice, I think next year will probably be even better.

Steve, you got your share of plugs for dexterity (perhaps it was to counteract the GG slant) but non the less you we're well represnted. It was definalty your sorta thing, plenty of networking type stuff. And Jay had conjoured up a good bit of media coverage what we all got some blips in possilbly.

And Dan, It was great seeing you there even if you did kick my ass at Halo.

Well I just got back and I have to say it was well worth the $150, I'll definitely be attending next year. It was great to meet so many talented and dedicated individuals involved in indie game development.

Yeah it was nice meeting you too Jonas ;) (I picked up your demo CD of your hardwood games for my wife, I know she's gonna love it), I was a little worried at first that it would be too big and I couldn't meet everyone but we were all crammed into this "big" (as in big for cars but small for conferences) garage and you pretty much had to meet everyone. I think at it's peak on Saturday there were a little over 120 people there! Pretty big turn out for something set up in a little over 5 weeks and only marketed on the internet.

I took a bunch of pictures and ended up taking notes in a bunch of sessions so I'll get those typed up in presentable form and put them out there for all who are interested.

Originally posted by Dan MacDonald
Well I just got back and I have to say it was well worth the $150, I'll definitely be attending next year. It was great to meet so many talented and dedicated individuals involved in indie game development.

I took a bunch of pictures and ended up taking notes in a bunch of sessions so I'll get those typed up in presentable form and put them out there for all who are interested.

Oh yeah, well worth the $150 entrance fee(and $200 flight, and $200 room, and $80 in cab fare... ugh!). I met a decent number of people. Got to kick some ass at Godzilla. Touched one of my personal heroes (Jeff Tunnel). And took about three rolls of pictures and about two hours of audio recordings(most of which turned out)

The lan gaming had me a bit worried at first. I was afraid that all these people at an indie gaming convention would be playing games like NOLF2, UT2K3, and other big titles. As it turns out I didn't see anyone playing those, exclusively indie titles. Trash was very cool in particular.

Hey Dan, who won the game of show anyway? I didn't get to go today to I missed that.

Dan,

I am very interested in the trip report for this conference. Hope you had a good time.

At GDC there is an interesting talk titled "Proven Strategies for Self-Publishing on the Internet: Real-Life Stories of What Works and What Doesn't". Is anybody planning to attend this one? A report on that would be nice too. I am asking for the same from Brian Hook of Pyrogon, one of the speakers.

Thanks.

I found the results a little surprising because the games people voted for weren't nessisairly the games that were being played the most.

1. Orbz by 21-6
2. ThinkTanks by Bravetree
3. Marble Blast by garage games

I personally would have liked to see "Chain Reaction" up on that list because it really is a well done game with a lot of time and energy invested by one developer.

I personally voted for ThinkTanks as game of show, it was a little tough to get into at first if you come from an FPS background. But as you got used to it, wonderful little strategies emerged, you found you could use the terrain to gain distinct advantages. You also learned how to aim you're shots effectively. By the 2nd day Josh ( a fellow Rainfall Studios guy) and I were getting pretty surgical with those projectiles.

I was quite impressed with the design in orbs as well, however it didn't hook me in the way think tanks did so I had to tip my hat to brave tree.

All the contest winners got GForce 4's courtesy of Nvidia.

I got one of the sessions I took notes in typed up and I’m waiting to hear back from the session speakers to make sure I didn't miss represent them in any way, as soon as I hear back from them I’ll make the link known.

I had a nice chat with DavidRM on Sunday. David really is a wealth of good information and experience so it was great talking to him.

I have notes from his session with Davis Ray Sickmon entitled "Can I Make Money as an Indie?" - which was definitely one of the best sessions on Sunday. I'll try and get that written up and available in the next day or two.