Indie workshops

Summary:

1) IndieCity are organising 2 free workshops that will focus on the topic of how to best promote, market and sell indie games.

2) The workshops will all be run using Open Space Technology

3) All participants will be encouraged to merge their notes into a single FAQ that can be shared with the entire indie community.

The Details:

1) There are 2 free workshops:  one will be held in Leamington Spa, UK on Wed 16th Feb from 3pm to 8pm. The other will be held at the Thirsty Bear in San Francisco on Sun 27th Feb from 5pm - 10pm (the evening before the GDC Indie Summit). Each workshop will last approximately 5 hours. Light food and drinks will be made available at both workshops thanks to our sponsors.

2) Open Space Technology is a way of holding discussions in a completely neutral and non-dictating manner. As Peggy Holman, co-founder of the Open Space Institute-US says: “Open Space is based in the belief that organizations and communities run on passion and responsibility. It allows groups of any size to self-organize around what they really care about to get things done.”

The meeting begins with an empty agenda, so step 1 sees that being filled in by the participants. The group then self-organises into smaller discussion groups, and the agenda items are taken and discussed in turn until all items have been dealt with.

It is based on four principles:

·         Whoever comes is the right people

·         Whatever happens is the only thing that could have happened

·         When it starts is the right time

·         When it's over it's over

And one law: the Law of two feet: “If you find yourself in a situation where you are neither learning nor contributing, go somewhere where you can.”

3) We will encouraging all contributors to place their notes from the workshops into a shared and public Google document, that can then be use by both workshops and shared with the entire indie development community.

Quotes:

Chris Swan, Project lead:

·         "It's great to be able to bring indie developers together to discuss this often-overlooked, almost-taboo subject."

·         "The Open Space Technology approach also creates a completely level playing field for everyone to be able to discuss indie game marketing in detail."

·         "I've personally used the Open Space Technology approach to large meetings before and they've always been tremendously empowering and productive."

·         "We aren't trying to claim that the IndieCity team are complete experts when it comes to indie marketing. Like the main site we are aiming to be a great service provider, which is why we are facilitating these workshops."

About our Sponsors

About Audiomotion

Audiomotion is Europe’s leading motion capture service provider. We are a multi-award winning studio, specialising in the provision of mocap animation to the Entertainment Industry. With 130 cameras, we have the capability to shoot on the UK or we can come to you – wherever you are. Our Full Performance solution enables us to capture multiple performers - face, fingers, fullbody and final audio, recording all the subtlety and nuance of the entire performance. Combine this with state of the art software, house it all in the largest studio in Europe, supported by a team of highly professional technicians and you'll see why we are confident that Audiomotion offers the best service in the industry.

About Blitz Games Studios

Blitz Games Studios was founded by industry veterans Philip and Andrew Oliver. It now has more than 220 staff and its six divisions encompass mature titles (Volatile Games), Serious Games (TruSim), family titles (Blitz Games), licensable middleware (BlitzTech), downloadable games (Blitz Arcade) and its education division (Blitz Academy). Blitz also runs the Blitz 1UP initiative, which is an outlet for small, independent teams to bring their titles to market on a variety of platforms. www.BlitzGamesStudios.com

About GameCentral

Game Central is the regional games network for the West Midlands. Established by Screen WM and supported by AWM, the network helps support and promote the region’s games industry.

www.gamecentral.org.uk

About Sheridans

Sheridans is the leading provider of legal services for indie developers and advises a large percentage of UK developers on all their legal issues from start-up to studio sale. Sheridans focuses on the interactive space and is at the forefront of advising and developing the interaction between media and technology. Feel free to introduce yourself at the event or contact them here http://sheridans.co.uk/services/technology-computer.asp

Chris Swan

Project lead

IndieCity

Tel: +44 (0)1926 880081

www.IndieCity.com

Follow us on Twitter: IndieCity_devs