IGDA New York City/Meetings/20040223
International Game Developers Association
[edit] Gametrust Social
by David Allen
On November 9, 2004, Gametrust hosted a NY IGDA social event with at least 60 members of the game development community in attendance. For nearly two hours that evening, Gametrust's offices were littered with gaming pseudo-celebrities & veterans, outsiders from companies like MTV, NYU students, composers, and, allegedly, at least one industry pundit and an unnamed member of a competing company (who is named later on in this report).
Things started slowly with no more life than the attract loops of the pinball, NFL, and Maximum Force machines in the lobby. As people trickled in, introductions were made, games were played, and introductions were made while playing games. I spotted Karthik Swaminathan, Executive Producer at Screentoons, spastically yanking and twisting the handles of table hockey while meeting Luca Fusi as a partner in Maximum Force.
Eric Zimmerman and Greg Costikyan showed up shortly thereafter as Coray Seifert & Wade Tinney from Large Animal Games brought a few NJ IGDA friends with them. Matthew Hawkins, Lead Game Designer at PixelJump ( www.pixeljump.com ), and Peter Mack, President of Templar Studios were also rumored to be in attendance, although I did not see them personally. Even Kenny Rosenblatt, Co-founder & CEO of Arkadium Games, prowled through the crowd checking out the competition.
At about 7:30, Adeo Ressi, CEO of Gametrust, announced that Gametrust's first game, Shroomz, won Billboard's “Web/Downloadable Game of the Year.” Gametrust celebrated having developed the most comprehensive multi-player, premium play platform, and was appreciative towards the IGDA for giving them the opportunity to build relationships with NYC developers.
Things wrapped up by 8:30 as the arcade machine rental guys started carrying off the glue that kept us together, and, in the days that followed the event, I gathered the following feedback:
“In our view it went very well and GT certainly hopes to host other events in the near future.” —— Andy Morris, GametrustPress Contact
“The offices at Gametrust were quite nice, outfitted with an old-school pinball machine and arcade machines! Thanks to Gametrust for hosting the IGDA meeting, complete with pizza and refreshments for the enthusiastic buzzing throng.” —— Bill Folsom, Arkadium.
“I had a pretty interesting game of foosball style hockey with one fellow attendant and the pizza was fantastic.” —— Karthik Swaminathan, Executive Producer, Screentoons
“I liked that the event was hosted. I have only been to 3 or 4 ... events but this seemed more formal in a way. I think that helped the event to stay focused on the subject matter at hand.” —— Andy Brick, Composer
“Everyone at the GameTrust meeting was confident, easy-going and completely receptive to even the least experienced chapter members; I walked out of there full of hope and ideas... I'm looking forward to the day when I'll be able to host one of the meetings myself.” —— Luca Fusi, fourth-year student at NYU.
Overall, it was a successful event from the perspective of the host, the professionals in attendance, and the amateurs looking to break into the industry. And I am confident that everyone in attendance will look forward to the next one.
