Utah Indie Game Night - July 2006

Our fifth Utah Indie Night yesterday was fantastic! We had about 33 people show up, which is our largest turnout yet. It's even a few more than our amazing turnout last time. It's an indicator that the word is still getting out and that these events do fill a need in the indie community.

Again there was so much going on, that my head is still spinning. There were people I wanted to talk to more, but just didn't get a chance to. I didn't get a chance to thank everyone for coming personally either. My appologies if any felt left-out of what was going on.

Ray Rackiewicz from ITT Tech came with some of his students in tow. They just started a Video Game Design program there about 9 months ago. It's the only one that I've heard of in the state, but I could just be in the dark on that (after all I finished college 14 years ago). But it sounds like the program is doing well thus far. I'm sure there are more ways that the student and indie games communities can benefit each other.

This time we had tons more room, thanks to Ninjabee's new office space. It was easier for lots of people to fit around on machine this time. However the downside was it was harder to hear some of the demos with everything else that was going on around you.

The demos that were shown (that I'm aware of) are:

Caster
Tatics Engine
I Got Balls 3
Vespas 3D
FxRedom
A yet to be named 2D Shooter (inside the body shooting viruses,etc)

That last one was mine; I don't have a name for it yet, but I did get some good feedback on it. Thanks everyone for that. Caster looks like it has some nice enviromental improvements to it. I was also quite impressed with Victor's "I Got Balls 3" demo and the engine he built to create that game. You can check out his engine out at http://www.flatredball.com/.

It's amazing to me to see the both the amount and quality of indies that we have right here in Utah. I never realized the depth and breadth of the "Indie Scene" until we started putting these meetings together. I feel both humbled and honored to be associated with such quality people. See you all next time!

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