My name is John Henderson. Some of you might have seen me standing around at events recently. I tend to stand out in a crowd. For the record, Donald “TallGamer” Harris is an inch or two taller than I.
For myself and everyone else who used to occasionally venture outside to meet people, these past two years have been difficult. Besides having to adapt our personal lives to stay safe during the worldwide pandemic, convening with other people added wrinkles of worry for my own health and that for my fellow human beings — and only if there was an opportunity to go out, anywhere.
So, the locale of Austin went from having multiple video game development events every week to none at all, rather abruptly. Here we are two years later, and the dust hasn’t settled.
I’ve been privileged to be a hobbyist community organizer in the greater Austin area for more than 10 years. At one time I was an officer for the IGDA chapter here, and other people have trusted me to help with their projects at the intersection of the real world and the worlds that game developers make up — including SXSW, Captivate Conference, PAX South and up until early 2020, a finishing school program for game developers looking for their first job. (What turned out to be the final cohort for that program won Best Student Game at IGF last year. Wish I could take any credit for that, but it was good to be remotely associated with it.)
At any rate, I’m writing because the recent reduction in pandemic risk in the Central Texas area was all it took those in Austin to get back on the horse and start planning events. I had a good time at the ATXGM event on Tuesday of last week and following that, Valhalla Esports Lounge‘s Indie Game Night and Esports and Tech Networking, a more than effective double-dip of a Friday night event so nice, they branded it twice.
I had been planning three events, all in association with other people, all to happen in the first half of April. And then this weekend, we had an announcement that an old event series will be coming back under new management and with a new name. So, of course that’s what I told Donald this blog entry should be about — a look forward at four Austin-area events coming in the first half of April 2022.
- Friday, April 1 – Games Y’all. Right before the pandemic hit, Fantastic Arcade, originally associated with the Alamo Drafthouse’s annual genre film festival, Fantastic Fest, was given over to the Museum of Human Achievement, along with Fantastic Arcade’s monthly indie-game showcase and fellowship event, Juegos Rancheros. The group has yet to set a time for the event, but the announcement implies that this will be a “first Friday” monthly event at the MoHA location in Govalle on Springdale Road, at the back end of the Canopy mixed-use business center. Watch their Twitter account for updates.
- Sunday, April 10 – Austin Portfolio Posse South. 1-4 p.m., Munday Library, St. Edward’s University campus. Portfolio Posse isn’t an original concept, but the Austin chapter of ACM SIGGRAPH would use that name for its regular resume and portfolio review show, where review seekers are paired 1-on-1 with bona fide professionals. We organized these quarterly at the aforementioned program at HOFT Institute, and Bob Bryant and Jeremy Johnson from St. Ed’s video game development program had participated, and asked me to bring it back. Could be the start of something regular, again.
- Thursday, April 14 – VGMU! Presents Pixelated: A Fireside Chat with Richard James Cook, 7 p.m. at Captain America Room, 8th floor, Capital Factory. A show every other month, always the second Thursday of the month (barring reschedules,) this is a speaker show I’ve hosted with Gordon Walton continuously since December 2016. Richard is still a relatively young game developer who came in via film production, and has a perspective we’re excited to hear him share. Please sign up if you’re planning to attend, and get aware of the location if you’ve not been there before — half of the building is the Omni Hotel, and the other half is office space. We’ll be on the 8th floor of the office-space side.
- MOVED TO Tuesday, April 19th– Austin Game Developer Beer Night. 7:30 p.m., Mister Tramps. The O.G. location of the event that’s been running since 2009. Started by others who are no longer in Austin (thanks Jon and Blake) and run by me and Tyler Coleman, now. Nice patio under a pavilion, good pub grub, remodeled interior that will look a lot different to those who haven’t been back since the pandemic started. March’s Beer Night was the first event we had since November, and it’s not a requirement that you drink alcohol, but those under 21 are not allowed inside after 9 p.m. Read and respect the event rules, pay your tab, don’t start a fight, practice treating yourselves and other people, especially those you don’t work with, as people.
Leaving the house still feels like an act of bravery to me, worthy of admiration. I welcome you to join me at any or all of these Austin-area game development fellowship and career development opportunities, which aim to have us venture outside together. If you see me standing tall in the crowd, come say hello! We make this place we call ATX special with the connections we make in person.
Keep tabs on @ATXGameDevCal on Twitter for more upcoming ATX Game Dev events.