Draft Retrospective

1. 20 Nov 16
Austin Game Devs
2016 Year in Review

2. WithThanks
✤ Randall Robbins for panels, leadership and awesomeness.
✤ Courtney Wilson for amazing marketing and energy.
✤ Edgar Gresores for a spectacular panel.
✤ Finn Staber for the Austin Game Showcase
✤ Gordon Walton for his leadership and support.
✤ Jason Maltzen and Tess Snider for SXSW (again and again).
✤ Kathy Amell for handling three SXSW game co booths.
✤ William Vickery for great student and university events.

3. Austin Game Devs
✤ AGD supports thousands of game developers and over 135
studios throughout the greater Austin area
✤ It’s 100% volunteer!
✤ What we want to do in 2016:
✤ Provide programs and resources that help great game
developers make great game companies
✤ Work with local stakeholders to help Austin become the indie
game capital
✤ Empower industry members via leadership training and
education

4. Austin is Great for Games!
✤ Austin is one of the top
cities for video game
development.
✤ Forty-four major studios,
135 indie studios and
thousands of designers,
engineers, artists and
others make Austin a
vibrant location for game
development.
http://www.gameindustrycareerguide.com/best-cities-for-video-game-development-jobs/

5. 2016 Events
✤ How to Pay Your Mortgage
✤ 2015 Retrospective
✤ SXSW
✤
Networking Mixer
✤ Strategic Planning
✤ Sound Design
✤
Austin Game Dev Showcase
✤ Resume Roast
AGD was busy!
✤ Marketing Panel
✤ Partnering with Publishers
✤ Production Panel
✤ Women in Games

6. PayYour Mortgage
✤ We started the year
with a panel of ndie
game studio heads
on how to turn your
game talent into a
thriving business.
January

7. PayYour Mortgage

8. Women In Games
✤ AGD was thrilled to
support The Women in
Games Conference at the
State Capital helping
attendees learn about
resources available for
indie game devs.
February

9. Retrospective
✤ In March a great crowd
came out to discuss our
plans for 2016. Tons of
great ideas and volunteers
were had!
March

10. SXSW
✤ AGD again had a great event
with SXSW. We were thrilled to
help run three indie game
booths on behalf of award
nominated game teams!
March

11. SXSW

12. Networking Mixer
✤ Sometimes it’s good to kick back. We
held our first mixer at GamePlan
Entertainment. Tons of gaming
goodness!
May

13. Strategic Planning
✤ Building a game
company takes more
than just a great idea and
talent, it takes planning
for the long term. Z-
Factor Group
(management
consultants) led 15 indie
games teams through
their “visioneering “
process to establish
organizational and team
goals and the plans to
reach them.
June

14. Strategic Planning

15. Strategic Planning

16. Sound Design
✤ A group of amazingly
talented sound
designers came
together to share their
experiences and tell
why sound design is
critical for game devs.
July

17. Game Showcase
✤ Over 200 game
developers and
enthusiasts turned
out for our first-ever
showcase. 22 game
developers showed
off their latest work
for mobile, STEAM
and AR/VR.
August

18. Game Showcase

19. Game Showcase

20. Producers Panel
✤ Experts in game
development came
together to help our
community get a first-hand
account of what it takes to
get a game finished.
September

21. Producers Panel
September

22. Resume Roast
✤ Getting into the
game industry is
tough! To help,
members of AGD
reviewed over 50
student resumes
and held a panel at
the University of
Texas on how to
make your resume
better!
September

23. Austin Game Con
✤ Members of AGD were
thrilled to moderate
and join panels
supporting the Austin
video game industry.

24. Austin Game Con

25. Marketing Panel
✤ Intel brought their “Buzz
Workshop,” a game-focused
technology conference to
Austin.
✤ IGDA was there, providing
speakers and panelists,
including “Women in
Games” and “Game
Funding.”
✤ There was even an indie
game showcase!
Starr Long, Executive
Producer, Portalarium
October

26. Publishers
✤ Getting a publisher can
make a game
company’s dream a
reality. Aspyr Media
gave the Austin
community a terrific
explanation of how and
why publishers make
sense.
November

27. Who AreWe?
Frank Coppersmith
Chair - IGDA Austin
CEO, Possum Interactive
Randall Robbins
Project Manager
William Vickery
Gordon Walton
Executive Producer / GM
ArtCraft Entertainment
Finn Staber
Programmer/Designer/World Builder
Portalarium
Jason Maltzen
Founder
Hidden Achievement
Tess Snider
Owner
Pixelsea Entertainment

28. Where we meet!
We Work provides great co-working space
for entrepreneurs of all sizes!
Mister Tramps is the home of socially redeeming
events that promote the community spirit of the
immediate neighborhoods.
Connecting Austin’s entrepreneurs with
investors, talent and customers since 2009.

29. 2015 Speakers / Panelists
Adam Creighton
Studio GM
Panic Button
Gordon Walton
Executive Producer/GM
ArtCraft Entertainment
Warren Spector
Director, Denius-Sams
Gaming Academy, UT
Starr Long
Executive Producer
Portalarium
Rofl Mohr
VR Art Director
Kay Oder
Bus Performance Adv.
Insperity
Lewis Leavitt
Bus Dev
Bridgepoint
Doug Jones
Principal & EVP
Colliers Int’l
Brian Halbert
Bus Dev
Merrill Lynch
Gregg Perry
Professor, Attorney
St. Edwards Univ.
Raphael Colantonio
President
Arkane
Elizabeth Howard
VP, Publishing
Aspyr
Stephanie Orkand
Sr. Project Manager
XO Group
Sheri Graner Ray
Director, Design & Production
Big Noise Games
Billy Garretsen
UX Design Lead
ArtCraft Entertainment

30. More 2015 Speakers!
Chelsea Hostetter
Sr Interaction Designer
Frog
Ryan Joy
Developer Evangelist
Microsoft
Beth Beinke-Schwartz
Level Designer
Certain Affinity
Stacia Damron
Marketing Manager
Capson
Brad Graeber
CEO
Powerhouse Animation
Mark Thompson
CCO
Thunkhub
Chris Kokkinos
Sound Designer
KingsIsle
Tess Snider
Owner
Pixelsea Ent.
Jen Bullard
Founder
Captivate!
Todd Simmons
Owner
Gridspark
Finn Staber
Programmer/Designer/World Builder
Portalarium
John Erskine
VP, Publishing
Cloud Imperium
Alex Thomas
Creative Director
Candle and Key
Blake Burns
Founder
Blank Media Games
... And more!