As a burgeoning indie developer, I’ve been trying to become more involved in the “scene”, as they call it. Part of that includes maintaining a presence on social media sites like Twitter and Tumblr, but it also includes meeting with local people involved in game development. Luckily for me, IndieNomicon has made that job a whole lot easier by bringing indies together once a month. They do all the work for me!
Orlando is pretty well known for its involvement in the entertainment industry, what with Walt Disney World and Universal Studios here in town. The Madden fans here on the ‘Cola may also recall that EA Tiburon is less than five miles from my house. Orlando is also home to Full Sail University, the Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy, and the DAVE School—colleges that are focused on entertainment, and quickly moving into the gaming world from the world of film. With the constant conveyor belt of new graduates being dumped into the gaping maw of EA Tiburon only to be spit back out on the street level of game development activity here in town, one would imagine that Orlando would be a bigger name in the indie world.
Sadly, game development seems to be overshadowed by other entertainment media in the area. That doesn’t mean that indies don’t exist in Orlando, and IndieNomicon has been working to show that there’s actually a large number of studios and individuals spread across the development spectrum. They explain it better themselves in their latest video, however:
And, wait…what is that…is there someone we recognize there?
Why, yes! For between six and ten frames (Or, as many as 26 if you count those in which only the hat is visible), you can see that I, Alex “The Jeddy” Jedraszczak, was, in fact, in attendance at their last event! I’ve attended a few of their events previously, but I’ve somehow managed to avoid photographic evidence, even in crowd shots.
As I’m gearing up and closing in on releasing my second game, I’m glad to see that the local support structure for developers is coming along as well. I hope to become more involved as time goes on, and I’m excited to see where things go! The next event is only two weeks away, and if there’s any big news to share, I’ll be sure to make another post about it.
