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

Year-End PowerSurge Event!

Powersurge is LA’s hottest, newest, and most unique gaming venue ever - and we’re taking it over for an evening of all out gaming madness!

With their ever-expanding selection of games this place has something for everyone. Kick back and relax on the Wii, get active with the Kinect, or p0wn your friends on the latest Xbox titles.

Other Awesomeness:

38 HD TVs hard wired for Internet play

82” competition screen - 154” jumbo 5.1 surround sound competition area

When: Thursday, December 9th, 2010 6:30pm-9:30pm

Where: Powersurge Video Fun & Fitness- 6081 Center Drive Los Angeles, CA 90045 - (Level 1 The Promenade Howard Hughes Center) http://www.gopowersurge.com/

 

Cost: $20/person at the door. The entry fee gets you 3 hours of outrageous gaming bliss!

You really can't find action like this anywhere else in LA! Come down, bring your friends and throw down with the IGDA-LA for this special holiday event!

(EventBrite link: coming soon)

A very special event: AN EVENING WITH MARK CERNY

GAMES: A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

Join us Tuesday November 30 at the Game Lab at UCLA Design Media Arts for a VERY special event. Mark Cerny will be sharing his perspective on games history.

When: Tuesday, November 30, 6:30pm – 9:30pm

Where: UCLA
Broad Art Center (in North Campus)
EDA Room 1250

Parking:
Heading east on Sunset Blvd. (coming from the 405).
Turn Right on Hilgard
Take the immediate first right onto Charles E Young Dr.
Take the immediate first right into Parking structure 3.
There is the pay station right near that entrance. Park at any numbered spot and then print out a ticket to display on your dashboard.

Sign-up now: http://igdala-november2010.eventbrite.com/

Special Birthday Event!

IGDA-LA members and friends: Please join us tonight (Nov 11, 2010) for an informal birthday event in honor of WIGI President Belinda Van Sickle! We'll be at the Howard Hughes Promenade at 6081 Center Drive (Westchester/Culver City) at 6:30pm chowing down eats at the food court before getting our game on (blacklight mini golf!) at the Putting Edge from 7pm to 9pm. Hope to see you there!

October Meeting

Come join the IGDA-LA for this month's free networking event -

"Funding for Video Games: Raising the Dough"

Funding for video game development has always been a challenge and never more so than over the past two years. Nonetheless, funding opportunities remain. A panel of experts will discuss sources of potential funding, including venture capital, equity, debt, publisher funding, brand integration and state tax incentives. The panel will focus on what videogame entrepreneurs need to know in pursing funding as a start up and as an existing development companies looking for early stage financing for additional capital and growth. The discussion will include what each type of financier is looking for in evaluating funding opportunities, the pros and cons of the various types of funding, how to prepare a business plan and other documentation needed for funding and the legal issues most likely to arise in such transactions.

SPEAKERS:
Victoria Duff, Founder and CEO, The Hive and aBusinessPlan.com
Don Karl, Attorney, Perkins Coie
Asra Rasheed, CEO, RRKidz
Stephanie Spong, Principal, EPIC Ventures
Brian Williams, Executive Vice President, Brand in Entertainment

Moderator: Louise Nemschoff, Attorney, Nemschoff Law Offices

Location:
Rich Media Institute
525 Venezia Avenue
Venice, CA 90291

Time: October 14, 6:30-9:30pm

Parking: Street parking is available near the venue. If you have difficulty finding parking, additional spaces are available on Abbott Kinney or Venice.

Light refreshments will be available.

Limited seating available; please register in advance to ensure a spot: EventBrite

FREE Playstation Lounge entry @ IndieCade for our members!

The Los Angeles Chapter of the IGDA Is Cordially Invited To Morning Coffee, Refreshments, and Games at Playstation Home Lounge. All members of the IGDA-LA may attend this event for FREE!

*Two hours free parking (and $1/hr afterward) is ...available at the neighboring public lot on the corner of Ince and Culver, or on Cardiff between Venice and Culver Blvds.

------------------
Time: Saturday, October 9 · 9:00am - 12:00pm


Location: Fresh Paint Art Advisors (9355 Culver Blvd - located down the alley between Kay n' Daves and The mCafé.)

IndieCade Volunteer Invitation

IndieCade is seeking volunteers to help produce its 2010 festival. IndieCade 2010 will be held in multiple venues throughout downtown Culver City from October 8-10, including October 6 and 7 for set-up and October 11 for tear-down. For details, visit: http://www.indiecade.com We also hold a showcases at each year at E3 in Los Angeles and Game City Nottingham. Volunteers who have participated in the IndieCade festival receive priority for E3.

All IndieCade volunteers will be required to attend an orientation the weekend of October 7 (date/time TBA) at Media Park in Culver City, adjacent to the Ivy Substation (9070 Venice Blvd., Culver City, CA 90232-2305).

Activities involved in volunteering for IndieCade may include

-Transporting computers
-Carrying and setting up computers and installing software
-Installing exhibition components
-Manning ticket booths
-Serving as docents and guides on the street and in galleries to assist guests
-Setting up and managing AV for conference venues
-Documentation, including taking photographs and video, editing and formatting for the web
-Monitoring and directing press to IndieCade staff

Marketing duties may include:
-Flyering/distributing postcards
-Social networking (tweeting, Facebook, blogging)

This is an exciting opportunity to get a major independent game festival on your resume, network with developers and publishers, and be exposed to some of the most innovative work in today's game industry.

If you are interested in volunteering, please register at: http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/WEB22APHEY6BAN.

If you have already registered for E3 or other past events, there is no need to register again; however, IndieCade has expanded significantly since last year, so please pass this information onto your friends as we will be needing many more volunteers!

If you have any additional questions, please contact volunteer@indiecade.com.

Thank you for supporting IndieCade.

Larry Loc, IndieCade Volunteer Coordinator
Contact: volunteer@indiecade.com

September Chapter Meeting

We returned to our gamer roots this month by taking a break from the usual panel format of our regular meetings. This meeting was pure networking fun at the Playland Arcade at Santa Monica Pier!

Next month we will return to our usual panel format - and we have a GREAT panel planned for you!