The Student Showcase is accepting applications! Are you a student or have you been within the last 6 months? Feel free to send in your game or work in progress title to Vector 2018.
Student showcase attendees get free admission to the event and a chance to show their games in our showcase with feedback from our professional attendees and speakers.
The form is here: https://goo.gl/forms/jJF5P6tGXL1fC80V2
We are super excited to welcome this years keynote speaker, Chris Charla! Chris will join our already amazing line up of speakers for Vector 2018 and were incredibly glad that he can come to see us.
Chris Charla is senior director for ID@Xbox at Microsoft. ID@Xbox enables independent developers to self-publish their games on Xbox One and Windows 10 with Xbox Live. He launched the program after working with developers for several years as portfolio director for Xbox Live Arcade on Xbox 360 at Microsoft Studios. Prior to joining Microsoft, Chris worked at an independent developer doing everything from design and production, to helping create, pitch and produce original IPs. A million years ago, he was the launch editor of IGN.com, and the editor-in-chief of Next Generation magazine. He also edits the fanzines Incredibly Strange Games and Wallingford Skate Report.
We are incredibly pleased that Chris will be joining us for this event!
Vector 2018 is coming April 20-21, 2018! Our first day is a student day focused on education and learning for new developers, and our second day is focused on more learned developers. Tickets are available for purchase at Eventbrite now so be sure to get yours.
We are excited to announce an additional speaker for Vector 2018, Brian Chellgren! Brian will be presenting a talk entitled Intellectual Property for Game Developers.
Brian is a partner with the law firm of Bingham Greenebaum Doll LLP. Located in the firm’s Lexington office, Brian is a member of the firm’s Corporate Services Department and Chair of the Intellectual Property Practice Group. A registered patent attorney with degrees in molecular biology (B.S.) and biochemistry (Ph.D.), Brian is a published author in the biological sciences field. His practice covers all aspects of intellectual property law, including registration and enforcement of U.S. and international patent, trademark and copyright rights. Brian advises and assists clients with their trademark portfolios, including reviewing potential marks and selecting marks, protecting marks in the U.S. and around the world, and enforcing marks. Brian has prepared and prosecuted patents in a wide range of fields, including surfactants, nanoparticles, medical devices, sports equipment and computer systems. Brian also assists clients in the tabletop gaming, boutique consumer goods, life sciences, higher education and other fields with licensing and acquiring intellectual property and negotiating relationships with their contractual partners.
Brian’s talk, Intellectual Property for Game Developers focuses on giving developers an overview of the major types of intellectual property – patent, trademark, and copyright – with a focus on their relevance to the computer game industry.
Vector 2018 is coming April 20-21, 2018! Our first day is a student day focused on education and learning for new developers, and our second day is focused on more learned developers. Tickets are available for purchase at Eventbrite now so be sure to get yours.
With Vector 2018 just a month away (oh geez) we’re continuing to announce our amazing line-up of keynote and local speakers. With that in mind, we are really excited to announce another of our keynote speakers, Lena Raine!
Lena Raine is a composer and producer of original music and game soundtracks. Best known for her work on the games Celeste, Guild Wars 2 and hackmud, she has also released electronic music under the name Kuraine including her debut EP Singularity. Her soundtrack for Celeste was nominated for the IGF 2018 “Excellence in Audio” award. Lena is also an avid writer, having published her first novel City of Tigers, several short stories, and her upcoming interactive novel ESC. Lena lives in Seattle with her succulents and stuffed animals.
Vector 2018 is coming April 20-21, 2018! Our first day is a student day focused on education and learning for new developers, and our second day is focused on more learned developers.
Tickets are available for purchase at Eventbrite now so be sure to get yours.
We are super thrilled to announce our first speaker for 2018’s Vector Conferences: Jake Sones! An industry veteran, Jake will be joining us this April at Vector 2018! Jake is one of our keynote speakers this year, and we’re going to be announcing the rest shortly.
Jake’s Bio:
Sones is a game designer with 18 years of industry experience, with most of that time split between working at Sony Online Entertainment, Insomniac Games, and Blizzard Entertainment. In 2014, he founded Shovelware Games, a studio focused on developing small scope titles and providing game design consultation. Jake enjoys minimalist design mechanics and despises writing in third person.
Again, we are super thrilled that Jake will be joining us this year for our fourth convention! He will be able to bring his experience in both AAA and indie development to both students and mature developers alike.
Tickets are available for purchase at Eventbrite now so be sure to get yours.
We are super excited to announce returning event sponsor I Need Diverse Games! With their help, we’ll be offering a diversity scholarship for our 2-Day badges. We’re excited to sponsor diverse individuals in the community and to bring their voices to the conference.
Don’t Know I Need Diverse Games? You should.
Their info:
We are dedicated to helping those that want to bring more diversity to the art of gaming. We will do this by sponsoring attendance at diverse gaming conventions, promoting those that are making diverse games, indie projects and presenting on the topics of diversity in gaming at conventions. One of our goals is to have more articles, to pay people for their contributions, and to do more tangible things for the community.
We also want to help others get to conventions, share their work if funding is an issue. We would love your support to send aspiring game devs to conventions like GDC, IGDA events in their city, GeekGirlCon, HavenCon, GaymerX, and other places where gaming and diversity are parts of the conversation. We want to do this by highlighting work by marginalized, underrepresented people in the industry, getting their voices heard and their work seen be it a game, articles, etc.
Find out more about I Need Diverse Games at their website or follow them on Twitter!
Haven’t grabbed your ticket yet? Go ahead and grab your ticket at our EventBrite here. If you want to apply for one of the diversity scholarships, just email us at vector@runjumpdev.org, or contact us through the contact form at the bottom of the page.
This years event will feature a showing of the 26 Ares film The Lost Arcade.
Written and produced by Irene Chin and directed by Kurt Vincent, The Lost Arcade is an intimate story of a once-ubiquitous cultural phenomenon on the edge of extinction, especially in New York City, which one had video arcades by the dozen. These arcades were as much social hubs to meet up and hang out as they were public arenas for gamers to demonstrate their skills. But by 2011, only a handful remained, most of them corporate affairs, leaving the legendary Chinatown Fair on Mott Street as the last hold-out of old-school arcade culture. Opened in the early 1940’s, Chinatown Fair, famous for its dancing and tic tac toe playing chickens, survived turf wars between rival gangs, increases in rent, and the rise of the home gaming system to become an institution and a haven for kids from all five boroughs. A documentary portrait of the Chinatown Fair and its denizens, the Lost Arcade is a eulogy for and a celebration of the arcade gaming community, tenacity, and the Dance Dance Revolutionary spirit.
The movie will be shown at the Planetarium next door to the Carl D. Perkins building, and admission is free with your ticket Saturday night as a closing event. A Q&A with director Kurt Vincent will follow.
This year we’re pleased to announce another Keynote speaker, Nigel Lowrie! Nigel will be joining us for Vector 2017 this year and we’re incredibly excited to announce his involvement in our conference.
Nigel Lowrie is a partner in boutique game label Devolver Digital and has worked with independent developers like Croteam (The Talos Principle), Dennaton (Hotline Miami), Dodge Roll (Enter the Gungeon), Free Lives (Broforce), and Flying Wild Hog (Shadow Warrior 2). Prior to that he worked in advertising on such brands as 7-Eleven and Hot Pockets so you can see why he moved into video games.
We’re really excited that Nigel will be joining us! If you haven’t grabbed your tickets yet for Vector 2017, you can do so on our Eventbrite. Don’t forget we have special prices for students and educators!
Vector is offering the Unity Certified Developers Exam, Friday, April 21, 2017. This exam is offered at a discount for Vector conference attendees, $200 including a 2-Day pass to the conference itself.
The Unity Developers exam is a way to show employers that you have the knowledge and skills in this common games engine. Eastern Kentucky University Gaming Institute will be proctoring the examination.
To find out more about the Unity Certified Developers Exam, be sure to read the FAQ. If you’re interested in participating in our test site at Vector 2017, be sure to buy the tickets in advance. There will be no at the door admissions for the test at the conference. You must pre-register.
We are incredibly pleased to announce the first year of our $500 Pitch Contest, made possible by the games publisher Black Shell Media. This pitch contest will be 3-4PM on Friday, April 21st and is open to all Vector conference attendees. All you have to do is make your pitch and be heard by our panel of expert judges.
Winners of the Pitch contest will receive $500 as well as the opportunity to pitch their game to publisher Black Shell Media. This is a great opportunity for young and professional developers alike, and we’re incredibly excited to offer it this year.
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