Mission Statement

IGDA-Austin is a nonprofit advocacy group for the video games industry in Austin, Texas. Our goals are focused on strengthening professional game development in the Austin area by...

  1. Fostering a sense of community amongst game developers
  2. Keeping talent in Austin
  3. Attracting talent to Austin
  4. Showcasing the fact that Austin has an excellent game development community

We do this by holding events that are relevant to game developers in Austin, updating this website as a central depot of information. and maintaining a community forum.



Contacting Us

For job postings, studio changes, and advertising inquiries, contact Kain Shin. Please read our FAQ below for terms and conditions on job postings and announcements.

For all other inquiries (such as questions on policy), or to sign up as a volunteer, contact Quoc Tran.

Initial contacts will have to be done with the IGDA web form instead of email to protect against spam. Please do not send us advertisements, urgent "account" alerts, or letters about a wealthy relative in Nigeria.



The Mailing List

We send out a periodic newsletter that contains the latest updates on our website (news, jobs, announcements, and changes). You can subscribe to the newsletter by clicking here to join our mailing list.

Due to popular demand from games industry professionals, some of our events will be open only to developers employed (past or present) within the industry. We will announce these meetings on our developer-only mailing list.

If you would like to join our developer-only mailing list, please send an email to IGDA-Austin_Correspondence *AT* googlegroups.com FROM YOUR WORK EMAIL ACCOUNT. If you prefer to add your personal email account to our mailing list instead of your work account, then you can include your preferred email address in the body of the email that you send us. If you are currently unemployed, then you will need to have a known industry professional vouch for you in person at our next meeting. We personally screen every entry into this private mailing list.

DUE TO ATTACKS FROM UNRELENTING SPAM-BOTS, WE HAVE CLOSED OFF THE CORRESPONDENCE MAILING LIST. CONTACT AN OFFICER DIRECTLY IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO BE ON THE MAILING LIST.



The Board of Directors

The vision and direction of this organization is driven by the board of directors. Members of the board are carefully selected by other board members. All executive decisions concerning IGDA-Austin will come from this board. The current members of the board are as follows:

  • Billy Cain - Critical Mass Interactive, Vice President of Development
  • Gary Gattis - Spacetime Studios, President & Executive Producer
  • Rodney Gibbs - Amaze Entertainment Austin, Studio Director
  • Alan Kane - Midway Studios Austin, Studio Finance & Operations Director
  • Michael Kelbaugh - Retro Studios, President & CEO
  • Mike McShaffry - Production Consultant
  • Binu Philip - Edge of Reality, President
  • Warren Spector - Junction Point, President
  • Ted Staloch - Executive Vice President, Publishing at Aspyr Media, Inc.
  • Gordon Walton - Bioware Austin, Co-Studio Director



The Officers

The volunteer officers take care of day to day operations within the organization and work under the guidance of the board of directors with the purpose of seeing the board's vision through to fruition. These volunteer officers do NOT make executive decisions about the direction of the IGDA-Austin organization. Current officers are as follows:

  • Operations Coordinator: Quoc Tran (Contractor)
  • Tracie Cook (Associate Producer at Vigil Games)
  • Amy Goldenburg (Technical Writer and Account Executive)
  • Kain Shin (Programmer at Red Fly)
  • Mark Richards (Associate Producer at Midway Austin)
  • Webmaster: Alex Marquez (Student)



Frequently Asked Questions

  • My Studio is a member of IGDA Central. What does that mean for the local Austin chapter? Unfortunately, a studio's status with IGDA central is completely independent from the status with the local chapter. The money paid to IGDA central does not reach the Austin chapter in any way, shape, or form. The Austin chapter is solely responsible for its own funding of the events that are thrown for local developers.
  • I am a card carrying member of IGDA Central. What does that mean for me? The Austin chapter holds an annual picnic that is open only to IGDA members. Your membership will be honored at this event. However, all other IGDA-Austin events are independent of your IGDA membership status as our emphasis is on serving the professional developer community by giving them what they ask for. Please note that IGDA-Austin does not receive any funding from IGDA-Central. The policies set by IGDA-Austin are specified by our directors, not the central organization.
  • I'd like to have IGDA-Austin post news about my event on the website and newsletter. How should I go about doing this? Send us an email. If the event relates to a nonprofit organization, then we will post the news for free as long as it is directly related to the Austin game development community. If the event relates to a profit-making venture, then we require a sponsorship from the organization to promote the event as news; otherwise, we can report the event in the news section after it has transpired.
  • There is a new studio/contractor in town. I'd like to have that studio/contractor listed on the website as well as be able to announce job listings. How should I do this? Send us an email. We do require that studios and contractors prove their legitimacy and sponsor IGDA-Austin for a fixed nominal fee to support our services. Once we receive the sponsorship from the studio or contractor, we will update our listing and allow job posting privileges for that studio. This sponsorship term will need to be renewed on an annual basis to make sure that our list remains up to date.
  • My organization is neither a studio nor a contractor in the Austin area. What are the benefits of sponsoring IGDA-Austin? Depending on the level of sponsorship, your company will get benefits ranging from the opportunity to make an announcement on our newsletter and website all the way to a dedicated entry in the Partners and Sponsors section on this website along with a timeslice of the rotating banner ad. Seats are limited at higher levels of sponsorship. At the highest level, sponsors will be able to give a short presentation before a selected meeting as well as have promotional material distributed at meetings by our staff. The terms of sponsorship will remain active for one year.
  • Something on the website is wrong. How can I have that corrected? Send us an email (see above for contact informaton), and we'll have that corrected immediately. Don't forget to tell us who you are so we know that the source of the correction is reliable.
  • I've never developed games professionally, before. Can you help me get a job? Are you hiring student interns? Do you need playtesters? Can I just hang out with you? I have about ten personal game designs in my back pocket; let's talk! We do acknowledge the importance of maintaining a steady stream of new talent into our industry, but IGDA-Austin is an organization that specifically focuses on the needs of the professional game development community in Austin. Resources within IGDA-Austin are limited, and so we have chosen to focus on the professional sphere while other very capable organizations focus on the other spheres that relate to games. IGDA-Austin will have a minimum of two meetings per year open to everyone – keep looking at this web site for details. There are plenty of resources and organizations out there that focus on the more educational and/or hobbyist spheres of game development. Here are a few good links to those resources:
  • What is IGDA-Austin's definition of a PROFESSIONAL that gets notified of all events? IGDA-Austin focuses on the following groups of people:
    1. Developers who are currently or previously employed at a recognized game studio
    2. Contractors with established work credits on a game project
    3. Employees of games industry vendors and service providers to development entities (audio, localization, middleware vendors, staffing specialists)
    4. Invited Members of the press
    Recruitment is strictly prohibited at meetings! If you are a recruiter or an employee of a hiring company, we specifically ask that you refrain from any recruitment efforts at our meetings unless the meeting is specifically held for the purpose of recruitment networking. This rule will be strictly enforced at all of our events. This does not apply in the case of developers who are unemployed. We specifically want studios to encourage their employees to come to meetings without fear of poaching.
  • I'm looking for people knowledgeable in game development to participate in my organization or venture. Can you help me? Any announcements you'd like to make will have to fall under the same rules that we have for posting news on our website and newsletter. Other helpful organizations that may have a more direct means of finding volunteers and participants for your event are as follows: