Two weeks ago (the 21st) marked our second year going to EKU Gaming Institute’s Vector Conference. Unlike last year (read about that here: http://blog.wraithgames.com/2016/05/a-day-at-vector.html) where it was me and Steve making the trip to Richmond, KY, I was joined instead by Natalie and Adam (they seem to be kinda my go-to team for events, it seems). While we only got to go down for Friday (it was a two day event), we certainly had a great time!
Vector is a little different from the events we usually go to. Instead of it being a bunch of professional indies showing off their projects to potential customers, it’s all about showcasing student games and panels of industry professionals giving talks to other developers. Funnily enough, last year at Vector is where we picked up our Collapsus programmer, Mark! The main point of going this year was for me to give a couple talks about what it’s like running an indie game studio as a small business and what to expect in your first few years (abbreviated, thankfully, as “Jay’s Studio Talk” in the program). It was some great turnout and It was my hope that it helped some people!
There were tons of other great talks this year. Many were by our friends Leonard Wedderburn (@ktp4life), AJ Ryan (@ONLYUSEmeFEET), Jarryd Huntley (@JarrydHuntley), Alex Bezuska, (@alexbezuska), Allen Brower (@ambocclusion) and Ben Thornburg (@benthornburg) (maybe even a few of our other friends, but man there were a LOT of talks!)
IGDA Cincinnati, RunJumpDev (two organizations we’re proud to be a part of) and Louisville Makes Games (an awesome charity whom we created Radarkanoid to help support: http://blog.wraithgames.com/2016/07/radarkanoid-out-now.html).
Our friends George Landon (@GeorgeVLandon), Amanda Wallace (@barelyconcealed), Olivia ( @red_sorrel), David Cannon (@dmcannon27), and Leonard Wedderburn (again) ran the thing! How cool is that?! Heck, this year the were apparently sponsored by IdeaFestival, that awesome educational event we went to last year! (Here: http://blog.wraithgames.com/2016/10/a-bright-idea-festival.html)
We also got to show off Collapsus a bit (Mark IS a student after-all), though again, that wasn’t the point of us being there. We did find some hilarious bugs in the current weekly build, though!
Vector was awesome! We got to see so many of our friends, play so many great student games, and give/see so many great talks! We’re very much hoping to be back next year… we can only dream about how much cooler it will be then since this event keeps growing! If you saw us there, let us know! We’d love to connect with you!