It’s the start of a new year, and we have to talk about the future of RunJumpDev — how do we help our members grow and learn, and facilitate the creation of game designers in Lexington and beyond?

RJD Members

  • Game development commercially
  • game development on the side, hoping to make games commercially
  • game development not commercially


Key Areas

  • Sharing Knowledge
  • Facilitate collaboration (industry speakers, Tuesday meetings, game jams)
  • Marketing/promotion (PAX)
  • Mentoring (informal)

Sharing Knowledge

  • More trainings
  • Have something for middle and high school students (is this a comfortable space for younger participants)
  • More detailed in areas (programming, art, design)  covering more advance topics
  • Different schedules

Facilitate Collaboration

  • More game jams (will we do every Ludum Dare? Doing a jam for the Lexitron, more organization)
  • Better outreach to industry speakers

Marketing/Promotion

  • Louisville Arcade Expo – March 7
  • Lexington Comic Con – March 14
  • PAX East – April 11
  • Lexitron at the Library during April (potentially, in talks)
  • TOJam – May 3-5
  • Sigma Play – May 23
  • We Make Games 2 – TBD
  • Also look into more community outreach events, LAN parties, etc.

Mentoring

  • Develop more formal mentorship process?
  • Help connect people to internships and jobs

Tasks for 2014

  • Fundraising – For events, game jams, web site, pay someone for work, etc.
  • IRS – Tax exempt status
  • Lobbying – Tax credits, better internet

Committees

  • Education
  • Events (monthly meetings, PAX East)
  • Marketing
  • Mentorship
  • Fundraising

Ideas/Comments

  • Formal membership with added bonuses for paid membership (funds would cover events/jams)
  • Group Dev Kits? Expensive hardware and shareable resources (Occulus Rift, etc)
  • Game/Book library (group Steam account?)
  • RJD game bundle
  • Business workshops
  • What have we done wrong?
  • What have we done right?

Lexitron

  • Finishing the physical component, completing the bottom and the back, coin doors need to be hooked up, cutting access holes to reach the deck.
  • Need input on color scheme, possible digital photoshop competition to figure out paint scheme
  • Low key assistance needed for Saturday, but it will not be physically done by then.
  • Meeting at noon on Saturday to discuss Lexitron, etc.

RJD Game Bundle

  • Games included made in a specific month-long jam.
  • Fundraising
  • Marketing for the group

Membership

  • Membership cards
  • Access to the game library
  • Access to expensive equipment
  • Great for networking and connectivity
  • Group sponsorship for a person to go to GDC
  • Different fees for companies vs individuals, tiered system

Website

  • individual game designer profiles
  • space to show off and exhibit game designer.
  • gamify
  • working on the calendar
  • a section of the site where to ask for assistance
  • forums?

Assistance for Creating Groups

  • Want to expand the community
  • Work on remote creation of satellite communities in Louisville/Richmond
  • LVL 1 Hackerspace – burgeoning community
  • EKU, looking to get more speakers, organize more jams, connect more.  ACMEKU.com
  • Expanding our reach

PAX East

  • WE DON”T KNOW ANYTHING CONCRETE YET
  • Last email says that we will know by at latest February 10, but people applied individually
  • Randy has hotel info and travel info
  • RunJumpDev Business Cards
  • Know Your Booth Number
  • Booth Design

TOJam

  • Near Mothers Day May 3-5
  • Toronto

Non-Traditional Gaming Aspects/Outreach

  • Contacting companies about game creation
  • Autistic Educational Games
  • Game Jam for Educational Games/Partner with UK and EKU/Community Tie-In
  • A University Convention for students
  • Conference for Gaming