Networking opportunities and portfolio reviews

Beestonian

I think PAX is going to be a place that will be great for talking about games, the future of games, the future of the Industry or participate in the Biggest LAN that many of us will experience in our lifetimes. It's gonna be awesome. But there will be a small group of people who are more interested in making games rather than playing them. People who will be looking for contacts to earn a living, to get into contact with other content creators, to get portfolio reviews or simply to be noticed by international developers. Most of the people we'd want to meet will either be on a panel or have booths of their own trying to sell something to you and would therefore be very, VERY busy.

Is there any kind of format or time set aside for people who are just looking to network and get noticed? I know that at Illustration conventions, portfolio reviews have their own time set aside, Illustrators meet each other, discuss their work, etc. I imagine it would be bad form to walk up to a booth and ask to show your work to them.

Does anyone have any tips about this? Is there anyone who has experience with this sort of thing for PAX for those who are looking for opportunities with Devs? Us Australians will know that our own industry is on the decline, so being noticed by international panelists is extremely important. How can we accomplish this?

Thanks

zerzhul

PAX is generally for the "gamers" as it were. While there are often panels associated with game development and whatnot that can be helpful to aspiring developers and designers, it is not really an "industry event." There is PAX Dev for developers in the US, directly before PAX Prime. Maybe if there's enough demand, a PAX Aus Dev could happen at some point?

Beestonian

I think there would definitely be enough demand. Our industry is kind of dead right now so I imagine there would be a large number of people, especially in Brisbane and Melbourne, looking for some kind of Industry 'revival'. PAX seems to be the perfect opportunity for that. And by 'at some point' does that mean that it's possible to organize one in tangent with PAX Aus?

FPFr0sty

Yer, a few of my friends who started out over here, found it was too hard to make a living, unless you get sponsored or do one of them donation drives.
So they have moved to singapore and are going work with blizzard, and EA..... basterds....

zerzhul

Beestonian wrote: »

I think there would definitely be enough demand. Our industry is kind of dead right now so I imagine there would be a large number of people, especially in Brisbane and Melbourne, looking for some kind of Industry 'revival'. PAX seems to be the perfect opportunity for that. And by 'at some point' does that mean that it's possible to organize one in tangent with PAX Aus?

If it hasn't been announced already, I wouldn't count on it for this year. I'm sure there *will* be some developer-centric panels at the event, I just wouldn't count on it being a focus. There's always a "post-pax survey" though and that would be a really good place to bring it up. I know that each and every survey gets read in detail. Also if you know developers that are successful and want to do panels, push them to submit panel ideas.

Yug

There will be panels with known game developers, talking about a multitude of topics.

There will also be a HUGE amount of Aussie and New Zealand game developers at the show - they won't be hard to find and will be happy to chat.

Trizoe

When you say NZ developers , I hope you mean Dean "Rocket" Hall!

wanderthegame

There are some much more dev focused events in Australia that I would recommend if you want to network, like GCAP. I actually think the best place to network is at your local IGDA meetings and similar functions. I'm also rather hopeful that the decline of the Australian industry is just a temporary readjustment to a different focus and that around the time of PAX an Aussie based indie will turn things around with a ground breaking title... *cough*

MattyG08

I dont think we as developers really need any "official" events set just for us, Im sure all use indie devs will just sit around the Indie Pavillion for most of the time so we will have a large opportunity to speak to one another.

MattyG08

I think all Indie devs should wear name badges or something like "NAME" "Indie Game dev" or whatever, so we can spot eachother easier.

thewinterdragon

okay so I'm an indie developer with a degree in screenwriting and a background in novel/poetry writing and I've been a hobbyist game writer for 24years. I'm 35 and I live outside Wellington. I've been to comic-con twice. I'm finally moving out of my folks' house in a few months and I'm aiming to study online with cgmasters drawing fundamentals - line art and perspective, then eventually environment sketching because I want to get into production design and eventually art direction for movies and games as well as writing them. I'm learning to code in unity and construct 2 (and python/liberty basic as a hobby) I'm also learning photoshop, illustrator and graphic design. And stop motion animation as a hobby. My novel won a mentorship in 2012 while in development but I'm not published yet. I'd love to get another portfolio review at a big con - I got one done early in my cartooning development through White Cloud Worlds at The Dowse (WGTN) one of my dreams is to visit Pax Aus in Melbourne and meet up with Aus Retro Gamer who I've chatted with a little on twitter - I think what he's doing for classic gaming is awesome. Anyways, yea I totally am 100% behind a con that can support portfolio reviews and anyone who's looking to set one up please do get in touch with me I'd love to volunteer to help and I have some transferable skills from college and work experience and as an indie developer.