Volunteers Needed for the WIGI/IGDA LA Holiday Party This Saturday!

12/1/11:

Tis the season for giving, now you can give your friends and colleagues the gift of a fabulous holiday party by helping out your favorite non-profit game industry orgs! We need volunteers to help out for shifts between 2pm & 11pm.

All you have to do is send an email before this Friday at noon to brandii@igda.org [subject (no quotes): "Holiday Party Volunteer"].

Thank you all and get ready to have a blast!

Gaming LA - Holiday Happiness

11/23/11 Edition

It's Thanksgiving week, and you can give thanks for the fun packed weekend coming-up with a guest speaker and the IGDA-LA charity party!

Business of pLAy - Creating Quality Quickly with Creativity

11/18/11 Edition:

(This is the second post in a small series addressing the issue of quality in license titles.)

When a team is presented a "just throw something together" attitude, it sets negative expectations for everyone. It may seem impossible to get people excited over a game about a car wash; but if you approach such projects as a challenge and an opportunity you can create something innovative that is fun and engaging!

Business of pLAy: Does Lowering Quality Raise Your Company Profile?

The Binary (11/11/11) Edition:

Many studios pay the bills by taking on non-Triple-A license projects. Some studios focus exclusively on these types of projects; others use these to fund internal "pet" (original IP) projects. Unfortuantely, some of these are projects these companies are less-than-thrilled to take on. This makes companies less willing to commit time & resources to complete these projects. That, in turn, leads to a sharp decline in quality. This begs the question: should a company always spend the time and energy required to make top-quality products or is it ok for a company to have a portfolio filled with quickly made, mediocre games?

Gaming LA - Breaking Records & Stereotypes

Nov 9th Edition:

Gamers break an unfortunate new TV record, holiday party time is here, and the IGDA needs your help to measure diversity in the industry!

Gaming LA: Liking Beer

11/2/2011 Edition:

In this edition of Gaming LA - Join OC developers for some beer; the IGDA FB page hits a major milestone!

Gaming LA: Fabulous Forum + Hack Halloween

10/26/2011

The IGDA-LA blog is back on track this week with an all-new Gaming LA!

This week, learn from industry leaders and get game-y with your Halloween costume!

Level-Up Your Career: 15 Tips to Keep Your Job (or Get Promoted!)

Monday, 10/24/2011 Edition:

We have an enormous amount of turnover in our incredibly fast-paced industry. A lot of first time first timers are really surprised that they don’t have any guidance or explicit tasks when they start working at a game company and wind-up leaving their jobs without much to show for it.

Here’s a list of 15 tips to help you avoid being at the top of the next layoff list. (I’m going to avoid obvious tips like - do your job well, don’t steal, don’t be rude, don’t come to work drunk/high, etc.)

Who knows, with these tips you may even be promoted!

The Business of pLAy: The Bad Manager's Guide to Driving a Project into the Ground

The Friday 10/21/2011 Edition of "Business of pLAy":

In celebration of the IGDA Leadership Forum, which focuses on improving production and leadership skills in the game industry, we present a 2-part special to teach better management through ironic humor: The Bad Manager's Guide.

Edition Delay Announcement

The next edition of "Business of Play" will be delayed until Saturday, Oct 22nd. Sorry for the inconvenience.

[Update: Ok, I underestimated how sick I was. The post is now going up Sunday night/Monday morning.]

Gaming LA: Party in Gamer Gear!

10/19/2011 Edition:

Join the IGDA-LA for the Leadership Forum party, check out the Writers Guild, and wear your best gamer gear while you rub-elbows with Hollywood Celebrities in Downtown LA!

Level-Up Your Career: 20 Things to do Between Jobs

Level-Up Your Career, 10/17/11 Edition:

Turnover is a persistent fact in our industry under normal circumstances, but in this economy...

Here is a quick list of 20 tips for things you can do when you are between jobs in the games industry. (Are you transitioning between college and the industry? I’ve put an *asterisk next to tips that will help you, too!)

Business of pLAy, 10/14/11 Edition: Upgrade Your Business at the Leadership Forum

How can the IGDA Leadership Forum help your business? By offering access to top experts who will cover a wide range of topics: productivity, leadership management, communication, marketing, studio growth - and much more!

Take a look at what some of the speakers have planned and judge for yourself:

Gaming LA, 10/12/11 Edition: Drink Up!

In this edition: Join a great social party this week at GameDevDrink, get into the Leadership Forum for free as a volunteer, and celebrate as we congratulate all the IndieCade winners!

Level-Up Your Career, 10/10/11 Edition: Score BIG on Your Job Review

Annual or end-of-project job reviews can be nightmarish. You can think you are doing great and then be blindsided by a less-than-stellar review. Fortunately, there are a couple of easy steps you can take to uncover "trouble spots" before your raise in on the line!

Business of pLAy, 10/7/11 Edition: Dewing Modern Warfare 3

Beginning on Monday, Mountain Dew and Doritos are teaming up with SoCal's Activision to run a killer campaign. Through the remainder of 2011, players buying various quantities and sizes of Mountain Dew's specially marked "Gamer Fuel" flavors will receive codes enabling them to receive double experience points in the new CoD game. Specially marked Doritos bags will provide the same Double XP boost. Players who buy both chips and a drink get a special "combo bonus".

Gaming LA, 10/5/11 Edition: IndieCade is Invading!

This week is the annual IndieCade festival! Starting this Friday, Oct 7th, Culver City will be taken over by some of the most innovative and artful games the indie scene has to offer. Check out their awesome events here.

IGDA-LA members get a special discount on Conference Passes and Festival Wristbands when you use the code "IGDA" to register online!

Don't have a lot of cash? There are plenty of family friendly public events available for Free! A complete schedule of events - free and otherwise - is available here.

Come check out the "Invasion" of Culver City!

Also Don't Forget - the IGDA Leadership Forum is coming up fast (October 27 & 28), so be sure to register NOW!

Big Blog Updates Are Coming!

Hello IGDA-LA fans!

We are pleased to announce that we are beginning a new online campaign to revamp our social media presence and make information more accessible to all our loyal readers! For starters - in addition to posting about upcoming meetings and important events, this blog will now see specifically themed "edition" posts 3 days a week!

Mondays - Career Edition: Job growth tips, Job postings for the SoCal area, etc.
Wednesdays - Gaming LA Edition: Happenings about town, local color, dev issues, etc.
Fridays - Business Edition: SoCal game company news, business growth tips, interviews, etc.

There's much more to come, so stay tuned!

Feb Meet-up Event!

Pre-GDC Meet-Up

Headed to GDC? Not going but wish you were? Not sure what the heck GDC is? Come out and join IGDA LA and share all the GDC tips and tricks with your fellow SoCal game developers. You might even find out about some of those secretive GDC parties!

When:
Thursday, February 17
7pm – 10pm

Location:
The Cat & Fiddle
6530 West Sunset Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90028-7202