[Event] Cape Town Community Night and AGM - 25 May

francoisvn

This event happens monthly, is free to attend, and anyone may speak at the meetup - just comment beneath to let us know! This is for anyone and everyone interested in making games of any shape, size or type. Come join us!

Test games! Talk games! Make games!

When: 18:30 until around 21:30, Last Wednesday of the month

Where: Bandwidth Barn - 68 Albert Rd, Woodstock, Cape Town, 7925

If you have a demo you want played, bring a station on which people can play it, and set it up before the meetup begins!


Agenda
- 6:30 - 7:00 - Meet and greet
- AGM vote on dissolution of MGSA (20 mins)
- Rapid fire intros (10 min)
- Community News (5 min)

Talks - 20 min slots:
- SCARF by @Nandrew (postponed)
- Having Your Cake And Eating It Too by @Elyaradine

Focused Feedback - 10 min slots
- this could be you! (suggestions wanted)

Open Demo Floor


Facebook Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/1797267863826148/

If you'd like to give a talk or show something to get some feedback, please post below!


If you'd like more details on the AGM, including alternative satellite venues for those not nearby, please have a look at this thread.

dammit

Isn't this going to be the agm?

LexAquillia

Yup. We'll need about 20min for the AGM as we are only doing the Vote for dissolution

francoisvn

@LexAquillia: when would you like to hold the vote? Close to 19:00? Or perhaps a little later? I imagine having a preset time we aim for will help with others that might be Skyping in. Will you be able to organise everything for the voting? If we need audio, we might want to organise something; last time we were lucky enough to find some small speakers in a cupboard, but that's no guarantee.

LexAquillia

I'd like to start at 19:00 sharp for people dialing in. If we can organise speakers that would be a plus

francoisvn

@LexAquillia: I've added the vote to the agenda.

I don't have any speakers and my laptop speakers won't be loud enough. Does anyone have any speakers they can help with?

francoisvn

@DaveRussellSA: it's about a week before the meetup. Could you sticky this thread please?

Do we have any volunteers for talks or focused feedback? We could potentially look at doing another GDC talk, but those are generally a bit long, so I think something shorter would be better. Maybe you have an idea you'd like to chat with everyone about? Maybe you have a game you're working on and would like some feedback?

mattbenic

How will involvement of non-capetonians in the vote be handled? Do we need to organize some satellite venues with hangout access?

francoisvn

@mattbenic: I've been assuming @LexAquillia is handling that side of things. I'll have my laptop there and therefore access to Hangouts, Skype and whatever else can run on Linux (if someone wants something that doesn't work on Linux, they are welcome to bring another laptop). I imagine it'll probably be sensible if there is a satellite venue organised (cause we don't want to have 20 individuals trying to connect separately).

mattbenic

Ok, I'll check if we can have a satellite at Luma again.

mattbenic

Ok confirmed, we can host at Luma. The meeting room there can probably take about 15 at a push, so it's probably best that other sites be organized as well. In particular there should definitely be something at WITS if possible :)

francoisvn

@mattbenic: Cool thanks for organising. Does it make sense to post the details for people to find over in this thread?

mattbenic

It does, and I'll do that thanks

[edit]
Actually I think it makes more sense to keep details here and just mention it there. Could you add the location details to your OP as an alt location please:

Luma Animation, Wedgewood Office Park Block E, 3 Muswell Road South, Bryanston
[/edit]

francoisvn

@mattbenic: I have to disagree with your edit. I'd like to keep this thread focussed on the community meetup, which is the primary purpose of this thread after all. The other thread is for the AGM and all matters surrounding that. I've added another link to the other thread for people that might come via this thread.

francoisvn said:

Do we have any volunteers for talks or focused feedback? We could potentially look at doing another GDC talk, but those are generally a bit long, so I think something shorter would be better. Maybe you have an idea you'd like to chat with everyone about? Maybe you have a game you're working on and would like some feedback?

mattbenic

It would would just be nice to have a single place for location info, rather than have it hidden in one of the posts. I'll add it there anyway.

Elyaradine

I think it's generally accepted that people working in games get paid less than in other related fields, and that that's kind of the price that creative people pay for doing work that's "fun". But when I decided I wanted to make games for my career, and I wanted to be good at it, I also wanted to be paid well, and also want to have the option of settling down, maybe having a family, buying a house, being able to pay for medical aid and insurance and stuff, maybe holidays and other savings...

I wanted all of the things. And I think I've done a pretty good job of it so far, in that I'm on a path that will check all of those boxes, with a number of safety nets in case various things go wrong.

There are loads of caveats to this, and a bunch of my situation comes from various privileges, but I'd be pretty keen to talk about ways I feel make it more likely for you to be able to (1) make making games your career, (2) get paid well for your work, and therefore not have to choose between passion and not having to live pay-cheque to pay-cheque. I think many of these things aren't secrets at all (and rather quite obvious), but the number of people who think being (for example) an artist means you'll struggle to make ends meet is a bit distressing, because that really doesn't have to be true.

It'd be pretty cool to have a few professionals there to weigh in and compare notes, and maybe to chat with people who're trying to make making games a career and lay out less-risky, more successful paths toward doing it without making unreasonable sacrifices.

I don't think I've got time to prep slides or anything, but I think it's something cool to talk about anyway...?

francoisvn

@Elyaradine: that sounds great! Added you to the agenda (I took a liberty with the title ;) )

fried

I think I'd be able to make it this month. Looking forward to it!

francoisvn

If anyone has any news they'd like announced, please ping me to get it added to the slides :)

Nandrew

My time has slipped by in the most hectic way, but if you don't mind just a little something for five minutes I can still deliver a bare-bones talk, maybe springboarding into discussion. Would really like to cover something at least.

francoisvn

@Nandrew: No worries. I think your suggestion would work well, but if you'd like to postpone that'll also be completely fine :)

Nandrew

Oh crap, my prev reply didn't get through. :(

Yeah, sorry, I definitely have to cancel/postpone tonight, but I'll come in strong next month with something way better thought out.

Elyaradine

Sorry my talk wasn't well-prepared. (I usually prepare super hard for my talks, but this one was decided on shortish notice because of our not having that much content this month.)

The response was very positive though, so I'm happy that it seemed to be inspiring. :)

I've attached my presentation notes (edited for clarity, and with some additions based on the discussion that followed). There's some minor stuff in there that I missed in the actual delivery.

AngryMoose

Obviously didn't catch your talk @elyaradine but your notes are awesome and should be required reading for everyone already in the game dev industry as well as those looking to get in. Good stuff!

garethf

Would have loved to have been at your talk, @elyaradine, but great notes!

Nandrew

Seconded/thirded whatever, thanks very much for posting the notes!

Andrew_Sound_Foundry

For those of us who couldn't attend the meetup/AGM - what was the result of the vote on Dissolution?

TheFuntastic

Full status incoming from @LexAquillia, but basically MGSA the org to be dissolved and assets to be transferred to IESA. But as explained it's probably going to be business mostly as per usual on this forum.