MGSA Promo Materials?
Do we have anything to represent and/or explain what MGSA is that we could take with us to GDC? Something like business cards or pamphlets to trigger a follow up if we talk incubator investment or 'africa tech outreach jam' with people. Erm, that should probably come with a briefing of what MGSA might be looking for when we speak to people. ;)
If we want to get something made up, the time is upon us.
If we want to get something made up, the time is upon us.
Comments
Would it be useful to volunteer to start the process to make stuff, how would this work?
A - "MGSA business cards" - are they personalised? I can't imagine everyone, getting personalised MGSA branded business cards.
B - So I guess we're talking about business cards that aren't business cards but actually contain some info regarding MGSA, like website, mandate, etc. Like a super short brochure?
C - Otherwise, are we looking for brochures? Pamphlets? Something that we can use as a leave-behind whenever we mention MGSA to other people?
D - I assume this will be in addition to our personal credentials - so we have our personal business cards, then have this MGSA component in addition? So, how about a sticker that goes on our own business cards? Probably will disrupt our own personal cards, so probably won't work.
E - Or, some kind of element that we all work into our own business cards? But that's impractical too as we can't expect everyone to re-design and reprint their own business cards.
So I think B - business card sized leave-behind "pamphlet" type things with basic info regarding MGSA - is what we're looking for, right? Printing can be done, but turnaround time is typically a week, so we're really pushing up against that if we want to get that done for GDC. It could be shorter if we go for smaller quantity bespoke printing, or we just sheet print it and cut it up ourselves, but that'll be a bit unprofessional and be more expensive overall.
I'm pretty certain we can still get a decent, pro printed batch made before we leave. I've had batches of 1000, double sided made overnight before. But yes, we do need to be quick about it.
@Fengol, that would be useful, yes please.
Makegamessa logo
Contact details? URL is of primary importance. Then?
Twitter?
Facebook?
Phone number? (I don't like this as it's gonna be locked to a person)
Email? (Do we have a general MGSA email? There should be one shouldn't there?)
Brief description - what's important for people to know about MGSA? "Game Maker's Association of South Africa" is all good and well, but it feels like we need more specific stuff. Legal entity? Government ties? Something? NIck @lexaquilia? (god I hope I spelled that correctly)
I tell people "Hey we got an association of game makers, we have monthly meetups in Joburg, CT and Durban, and if you're interested at all in making games (and who doesn't? It's effing awesome), check our forum out! Join our meetups! We're a friendly bunch!" - give URL.
Is that basically it? Is there more?
Logo - Make Games SA
South African Association of Game Makers
URL
Email (i think it's info@makegamessa.com)
Twitter & Facebook
Monthly events in JHB and Cape Town!
Regular competitions on our forums.
Boom, done.
Everything else you have in the conversation - it's just that people need that URL to get to it again. We don't need it to be written like a pamphlet ("come to our website!") because the conversation will already have done that.
Logo - Make Games SA
South African Association of Game Makers
URL
Email (i think it's info@makegamessa.com)
Twitter & Facebook
Because if you're talking about investment, future incubators and places to spend your donation dollars for bursaries then "Monthly events in JHB and Cape Town! & Regular competitions on our forums" is not an upsell.
I think it need to be as universal as possible.
I agree that we're taking this to GDC, "monthly meetups" is not going to mean much to anyone we hand this to over there. Unless we meet South Africans.... Nope. Unless we meet people who are impressed with meetups and "regular competitions"... Admittedly I can't think of a situation/person with whom this might resonate (in a meaningful way) over there.
I still wonder if there are things we can include to upsell us to investors and potential partners. For example, Humble. What would make pique their interest? (Not that we need to, we already have an in apparently, but thinking along those lines. Let's say we're building a relationship with Desura? Itch.io?)
I don't know the answers so I'm asking. The answer might be "nothing more than what we proposed above". Which is fine too. We just need to get it finalised today. I can make up a business card.
We might want to include bullet points of what we do, but right now that's not as important as actually just having something that I can send to some printers. (Bullet points probably require more discussion and normalising though, because I have no idea if "Lobbying govt" is a worthwhile thing to put there).
I'd suggest a tagline of something like "Supporting and addressing the unique problems of the South African game development industry", but that's really just a talking point.
Version 1 has two punch holes for making the card flash with the aid of two elastic bands, because it's fun.
<img src="http://makegamessa.com/uploads/FileUpload/de/9be7a1658ca8affae7595362927b9e.png" />
Version 2 is not fun :)
<img src="http://makegamessa.com/uploads/FileUpload/ea/349ad69363586d1c74d59f221eff50.png" />
Double sided, no name on the red side because seeing the red side makes you wonder "eh?" and turn to the front side.
Have at it!
I don't know what you mean by the rubber band thing, like spinning? :D
If (mostly) everyone's in agreement, who do I send the PDF to to get printed before GDC dawns on us? Omg I'm flying Wednesday. OMG OMG OMGOGMOMG OMG
It's less negative that "addressing unique problems"
Section 4 of our constituion:
The Organisation’s main objectives are to;
Promote and develop the game development industry in South Africa;
Act as a voice piece for the game development community in South Africa;
Act as a community hub for game developers in South Africa;
Assist game developers in establishing sustainable businesses; and
Promote proper game development education
"Promoting and growing a sustainable game development industry in South Africa through education" feels generic. And granted that it *is* what it is, it feels necktie to me.
But nevermind, I'll go with whatever the consensus is. Go for it guys. I'll drop in whatever the consensus ends up being. Go go go.
However, the inclusion of "through education" makes the whole sentence ambiguous. It makes it seem like our entire organisation achieves "Promoting and growing a sustainable game development industry in South Africa" through education - when in reality it's only part.
Just having "Promoting and growing a sustainable game development industry in South Africa." would be better.
Something more colloquial might also be cool: "Helping South Africans make cool games anyway we can." - it might juxtapose the more formal nature of the white side. It's more friendly and kind of sums up our goals neatly.
I'm also for making the phrase more colloquial. Don't forget I have a day job so I tend to think corporate :P
"Making making games a business in South Africa"
(of course I'm just kidding)
Please print a bunch so that we can all have them with us when we're possibly talking to interesting people :)
"Giving game development a voice in South Africa"
We need to look at costs and time and and actually talk to printers to do that we need numbers
Scenario 1: We're still in time to organise a Litho or screen print run, this is cheaper in bulk but requires set up time ( I expect the option of this scenario closes around midday today (Friday)), I'll confirm this.
Let's say cards here have a minimum batch number of 500 in the region of R320-R370
So let's use R70 for 100 cards
How many are you buying?
the tentative list:
- @Lexaquilla 100
- @dislekcia 100
- [ ]
- [ ]
- [ ] (3 more slots because this scenario depends on a minimum of 500)
This scenario will also depend on the practical logistics of getting them to GDC/distributed between us, if that's organising a pickup with somebody leaving a day later etc
Scenario 2 We go with a digital print, this is more costly but offers more flexibility with regards to time and batch size.
The figures I have for this basically equate to about R2 per card
How many cards are you buying for right now if we can't get the cheaper option sorted in time?
- @dislekcia 's 100 from above
Scenario 3 Figures like scenario 1, but minus the time pressure. Those of us without the immediate need, we take our time and make a larger bulk order a bit later when everybody has had a chance to get on board, pushing the price lower. This scenario would probably also play out with a printer in Joburg since they're cheaper, generally.
META COMMENT: this isn't a promise I'll get this done, I'm probably already spreading myself a bit thin, but I will try. Also, Admins, I'm running on assumptions about the way we do things here, looking at the t shirt thread etc, If I'm out of line in any way please help me out.
Also plz spread the word about this quickly, not everybody who would want these cards is going to drop by here in time, but lets try to get it to enough people in enough time.
When is everyone flying to GDC? What's the actual deadline here? I'm flying Wednesday.
Alternatively, and this is probably risky, can we get it printed in the US?
In the meantime, what o we want that blurb to say?
Ideas:
1. Making making games a business in South Africa
2.Giving game development a voice in South Africa
3.Striving for South Africa's game making voice
4. Challenges | Opportunity - South African Game Dev
5. Supporting and addressing the unique problems of the South African game development industry
6.Promoting and growing a sustainable game development industry in South Africa
7.Helping South Africans make cool games anyway we can
best Scenario 2 prices so far:
300 for R454.54
500 for R486.47
quite a bit cheaper(half at 500) than the information I had above, I think this printshop has a better setup for cutting, giving us a better sweet spot.
Do we go ahead with a 500 order here?
I appreciate humour and cleverness, but I suspect the versatility of this need cleaner.
Of course I'm not saying go fourth and stick them everywhere and mess up their con and hijack branding space, I believe they had a problem with that? It's just a nice tool for marketing yourself, giving them to people personally. Making sure they don't stick them irresponsibly.
that price is for how many?
Personally I'd contribute to making that a thing, it is worthwhile to me, but I have to bow out of planning and design atm. Generally I trust your sensibilities though, please explore it.