Other Developers in Indiana

#1 Well.. I'm moving to Indiana later this year. I also have a background in 3d modeling for military simulations and product demos. I am currently prototyping a game with an unnamed lead artist from a major studio. How old are you and what would you like accomplished exactly?

I know of only one company in Indiana that handles game development: www.sunstorm.net

They are'nt exactly heavy, but I've been trying to make contact for years. They just ignore me.

#2 Where abouts in Indiana. Big state.

#3 I also hail from Indiana, although I doubt I could meet up with anyone. Nice to know that GG has a few other Indiananians. For anyone interested, Ben Garney also lived here - at least I think, he went to Purdue. Now he's workin in Oregon with GG. That makes, what, a total of 5 developers in Indiana? Better than I thought ;)

#4 Well, i'm going to be in Indianapolis, closer to greenwood for now. That would be south eastern. He's right though. I would only be interested if this were in the metropolis area.

#5 I am 33 and currently live in Munice. 45 min north-east of Indy.
I think it depends on the # of people in Indiana that want to get together.
I was thinking along the lines of once a month we try to get toghter to discuss anything game development realated. First meeting would be a great time to write up a topic list, see what everyone would want from our network. If we have enough people to warrant it, we could have guest speakers, do game creation workshops, We could focus on Torque or split time into two meeting one for Torque and one a general game creation group.
We could share knowledge with eachother, have a online network through one of the various network linker sites.
Or evry so often just get together to have a cook-out, all hook up to go to one of the various Conventions that may benifit us.

The possiblites are hugh for a Indiana game development network.

If anyone is interested I will look into getting more info and creating an outline for the group to keep some kind of structure.. Guess it all depends on the # of people interested.

I am thinking about having our meetings in Indy. Depends on the # of people interested on where we would have our mettings. I will wait to see who would be interested in this from this forum before I go and Post anything else in any other forums. or look into a place to meet.

Thanks
Richard Case.

#6 Steve, why could you not meet with us?

#7 Eh, what exactly would you want to discuss though, that could'nt be commented on here? Also what skills would you bring to the table?

There really should be a point to this thing other then just friends getting together and talking game development.

#8 Hmm good question Matthew. I guess getting together and talking game development was the point of this..
What exactly would we discuss, hmmm.
Like you said all Topics can be covered here or anywhere on the web through other forums, or the Various groups (i.e. Yahoo groups). I just was throwing out the idea of a local group to meet, make contacts, ask questions, answer questions.

Well I personally would love to discuss all areas of game development. (Example: I would love to hear if a one man Indy game developer creates a full blown design document why/ or why not. to hear others comment on the pro's and cons. To hear from people that worked on teams, hearing what worked for them and what did not.)
Like I said I just wanted to throw out this idea of a local group, Honestly I have not though of all the topics I personally would like to discuss. Or what all the group could do as a whole. If people where interested in it, I would contact other groups to see what works for them and what does not.
From what I can gather is, your thinking maybe I wont be bringing anything to a group and only taking away, trying to get others to develope a game for me. Or something along those lines.
Its true I Plan on learning anything I can from a group like this. And I would hope a group like this would welcome any newbie to help them out.
My skills are mainly in 2D and 3D work with some minor programming and just bought Torque so learning the ins and outs of it. Scripting is the thing I want to focus on at this time.
Check my GG profile.

Hope this helps.

Rich

#9 BTW- meetings would not have to be INDY, it would be up to the group as a whole on where we would meet, what things to discuss.

What would you want out of a group like this. Or is a group like this even a good Idea??

Thanks again
Rich

#10 Well, living in NW Indiana, Indy is over a 2 hour drive for me.. kind of far for a meeting like this.

#11 Perhaps a local guild type group that goes to eachother for help and learning?

I did not mean to offend with my remarks about you maybe not brining anything to the table. I lack skills in certain areas, as do many professionals. I'm a great modeler, and am even fluent in asp.net using vb.net, but I can't concept or texture worth anything. I'm a mediocre animator as well. I'm only 23, but I would prefer to work with people over 18 if possible.

Perhaps the idea would be to set up a web page for "indiana indies" and have discussions there. From there we could schedule gatherings etc, and promote that website to other indiana residents. Knowing asp.net, I could build a basic forum in a few days, and a more advanced one within that month, with login and registration etc etc. I might actually be up for that if everyone was willing to keep the project going.

Once we get a comfortable group, the possibilities for group demo development arise, and that intriges me.

On a side note, i'm developing design documentation on my own and see no problem with it. It may be a bit specific to my tastes before critiques, but at least it's consistent. Congrats on owning torque, I've yet take that step, still working on the docs and art assets.

#12 !Off topic:

I've been trying to get a job in indianapolis for a while now, but no one seems to be responding to my resume.

I am currently a Senior Network Engineer working at the Pentagon for the Headquarters Desk of The Army.

I have been applying for lesser ranked positions such as Lan administrator or helpdesk positions, but no one responds. I will pay for my own relocation and it would be reletively immediate.

Could any of you indiana folks direct me on what i'm doing wrong?

#13 Matthew, Great Ideas. I believe that a web site would be a step in the right direction.
Dont know why I did not even think about it. That would be a much better logical first step.

Anyway, As for your job status, I can get a Indy Paper and check the Classifieds if you want. Other than that I dont know how I could help.

Robert, If we go with Matthews Idea of the web site, we could latter setup differnt locations to meet. But All will be figured out during the process of building this network.
And mAtthew you did not offend me, In any forum its hard to show Humor/sarcasim/or just plain talking, So I never take anything to bad unless It very plain the tone of the message was sent in.

Thanks,
Richard
Thanks for the replys

#14 Matthew, I've never looked in the indianapolis area, but this much is true across the whole job market, especially in lower ranked positions like network techs and helpdeskers.

Local candidates always get interviews and job offers first. Calling someone from out of town is usually the last resort, even when they're handling their own relocation.

I wouldn't be surprised if your response rate went way up as soon as you completed the move.

#15 Well, I'm only 14.. and I doubt my parents would appreciate driving me 3 hours to meet strangers ;)

#16 A stranger is just a friend you haven't met ;) Oh, and Im in South Australia, so I guess this post is redundent. :O

#17 Yeah I figured. Thanks. Did'nt mean to bring this off topic. Anyone have any other good ideas about the web site? Perhaps group project idea submitals?

Perhaps a temp site with a poll at first, to see who would actually use the resource.

#18 Ive posted on Gamedev.net before You brought up the idea about a web site, and generated some interest. I also recived one email with interest.

I will try me hand at putting up a temp site. But my web development is lacking. I'll Post when I finished.

Richard

#19 Not sure if your familiar with asp.net, but it's a web application programming interface. I work with it quite often and would be willing to help. I could for example create your forums with some time, so you dont have to buy a pre made application. It would include registration and email notifications as well. That is if the server your putting the web site on supports asp.net pages.

Previous to my Sr. network Engineer position, I was Sr. Lan Systems Administrator and Webmaster for over 47 public web sites for HQDA G3 Operations and Planning. (main DOD army organization)

Like I said I would be willing to help a bit, but the site would have to be used. Hmm. I actually found a free forum starter kit using asp.net, I could use that to create forums for you in only a couple weeks time.

#20 Wow, thanks Matthew. I hope you would start saying us. Like creating a forum for us. :)

anyway that would be great. I am looking into getting a rough page up tonight. Get feed back and go from there.

Post back in a few.

Rich