Physical (and not so physical) Locations for Networking within the Game Industry
This past weekend, I attended the Spectrum Fantastic Art gathering that took place in Kansas City, MO to support my fiancee during her portfolio review process. There she met with Jeremy Cranford (Blizzard), Jon Schindehette (WotC), and Irene Gallo (Tor Books). The convention held top-tier talent to be sure. Just being there, inspired me to further consider my own networking possibilities within the games industry...
Lately, I've been trying to network through art sites (such as PC
) and LinkedIn. However, I still feel like this is not enough. In terms of showing up in a physical location and meeting face-to-face, Where lies the best opportunity for this? In a thread I made prior to this one a while back, I discovered that the best way certainly is not to drive up to a studio of interest to introduce yourself onsite and drop off your materials for them to catalogue. Would the Game Developers Conference be the place for optimal networking and possible opportunities within the video game industry, or something else entirely different or in addition to?
Lately, I've been trying to network through art sites (such as PC
) and LinkedIn. However, I still feel like this is not enough. In terms of showing up in a physical location and meeting face-to-face, Where lies the best opportunity for this? In a thread I made prior to this one a while back, I discovered that the best way certainly is not to drive up to a studio of interest to introduce yourself onsite and drop off your materials for them to catalogue. Would the Game Developers Conference be the place for optimal networking and possible opportunities within the video game industry, or something else entirely different or in addition to?
Replies
Maybe there's a local chapter of IGDA that meets near you http://www.igda.org/
Try to get out to a physical gamejam of some sort. There are new ones popping up all the time.
http://www.gamejamming.com/
http://globalgamejam.org/
http://www.whatwouldmolydeux.com/
Or participate in one virtually, Ludem Dare is the big one. http://www.ludumdare.com/ There are many many more.
Most of the indie developers hang out on Twitter, some on Google+. Quite a few Polycounters participate in hangouts on Google+. I think there's some sort of Polycount Skype group too.
EDIT:
Oh and often a bunch of Polycounters living near each other will have a meetup too. Just try a forum search for "meetup" to see what I mean.
Sadly I don't live near anyone else
Lots of times you can find Bar nights (IGDA might be a good place to start). those are fun and a great way to meet up with local devs.
quoted for knowing what you mean, italy isnt the best place for a game artist :S
Try hard to avoid just speaking to HR, or at least, try to get them to introduce you to someone else.