No business card. No resume. No portfolio. It seems like every local game dev meetup somehow attracts at least one clique of unestablished youngsters eager to interact with professionals despite a total lack of experience.
To some degree, I am someone you can blame for that.
My name is Noah Kuhn, and I am the current president of the Electronic Game Developers Society (EGaDS!)—the game development student organization at UT Austin. We are a student-run organization dedicated to getting the talent from our university engaged in and excited about game dev, no matter their major, career path, discipline, or skill level. We are highly welcoming of beginners and hobbyists, and our goal is to foster their passion for game development and give them the resources they need to grow.
That said, I hope it’s clear that I don’t say “unestablished youngsters” as a pejorative; in fact, I’d argue that they are my people. When I first arrived at UT, I was undeniably part of this group: I had downloaded Unity on a whim a few years beforehand, but I had no projects to show for it. I entered college convinced that game dev was not a valid career path and that I should focus on getting a “real” job instead. Yet here I am three years later, president of the student game dev org, with about twenty game projects to my name and a completely altered perspective on game development as a career. Our organization has a knack for maturing curious novices into experienced game-making wizards.
However, it’s also worth noting that EGaDS! is not merely a glorified tutorial series. We have accrued numerous members of all skill levels—even some with commercially available games under their belts. We’ve also established deep camaraderie with industry veterans both in Austin and beyond. Encouraging relationships with more seasoned game devs benefits everyone in the organization: beginners have access to tangible, judgment-free advice from experts and adept developers can push their own boundaries with dialogue fit for their level of experience. When we say we’re an organization for all skill levels, we mean it.
Given the wide variety of skill levels constituting our org, it should come as no surprise that we offer a wide variety of events for our members. Our regular events include art and Unity workshops, industry speaker nights, socials, and weekly virtual dev hangouts—a little bit of everything so every member is bound to find something they like. We also promote local game dev events outside of our org through our announcement channels (hence why you might blame us for those cliques of newbies at professional events). One of our largest draws for game developers both inside and outside of the org, though, is our slate of larger annual events—in particular, our conference/project showcase called GDC2 in the spring and our Texas Game Jam (TXGJ) in the fall. TXGJ is right around the corner, taking place from September 23-25 this year, and it’s shaping up to be our biggest one yet; industry friends are 100% welcome to jam with us, and we are also still taking applications for volunteer judges and mentors.
We welcome newcomers, help each other grow no matter where in our game dev journey we are, and put on fantastic events that bring game makers together. In many ways, EGaDS! is a support network similar to that of ATX Game Makers. So the next time you find yourself surrounded by idealistic students at a local meetup, just remember that there is a community behind them, actively fostering their growth to make them the future of the local game dev scene.
For more info on EGaDS click here