I met with the Vermont Gaming Community: Game Design Group last week. Great group! They shared prototypes of card games, board games, dice games and other table top games they were all personally working on. We did some play testing of a few games. Feedback was collected, rules were amended, and tried playing the game again to try the new rules. It was really cool! It made me a little envious of how quickly variations of table top games can be iterated through. It strengthened my resolve to try to create a similar environment for video game developers.

Jeff Sprenger and I started a meetup group for local video game developers in Vermont. Jeff’s making an evolutionary robotics based game Neurobotik. I’m making Quadrapus Sumo. We’re having our first meeting on Thursday, March 26th at 6:30 PM at Farrell Hall. We plan on hosting a monthly meeting for people to give talks or show-and-tells.

The talks can be on whatever game development related topic you like. Have a new technology or app in your tool belt that you want to share? Tell us about it! Making a game that’s driving you insane because you’re not sure it’s fun yet? Tell us about that too. Maybe someone will share an idea that alters your perspective. Suggest a talk that you’d like to give, or just suggest a talk that you’d like to hear.

I’m envisioning show-and-tells similar to how IndieCade East did them but with less polish; I’m picturing laptops on tables. Show-and-tells let many local developers to show off their game in its current state, whatever state that is. It can be beta, alpha, or super alpha. Just show us what you’ve been working on! Get feedback from other game designers. Your programmer art will not be held against you (but you might meet an artist that gets what you’re trying to do).

So please consider coming out and joining us on March 26th for our first meetup!