There have been many requests and offers of interest and help in setting up a Wellington Game Developers Meetup recently. The Auckland one has been going for several years now, and a Hamilton one is getting off the ground too. (See this Reddit forum for the latest interest http://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/u2h9f/hamilton_game_dev_meetup_new_zealand/)
So: Wellingtonians - who is interested in organising an initial Meetup? Should it be monthly or bi-monthly to begin with?
+1 to going to it, bit busy with regards to organising it though. How about drinks somewhere and discuss with those that turn up about how to proceed???
--nahum
Interested++
~A
FYI, there are a few emails going around offline with some Wellington game studios organising something for y'all. Expect an update in a week - it looks like something will happen in Wellington (plus Hamilton).
Sweet
--nahum
It would be great to have a regular meetup in Welly. There are heaps of indy devs around town these days.
re:Wellington Game Developer meet-ups (Community Management)
Greetings All,
I've come over from Australia not that long ago & was involved with the IGDAM group over there.
I have already been talking to a variety of people, including folks from Unlimited Potential & NZTE about a possible future tri-monthly Wellington Developers Meet-up. This is the most regular meet-up plan that I can manage due to contracting work committments. If people wanted monthly or bi-monthly meet-ups, I will have to step back as my free time is extremely limited. I am happy to continue doing this community organisation in my 'spare' time, unless someone else wants to take over. I am already connected to several Australian Developers & Community Managers (Giselle Rossman) as well as Allan Fowler, New Zealand's current IGDA representative about this. You may recognise my name (Pranee McKinlay) Stephen, on the FaceBook ANZ Indie Community Managers Group.
Sorry but i've been a bit inactive in the past few weeks due to work committments but have been putting 'feelers' out into the community to gauge the interest & creating a database of interested people at the same time.
Unfortunately, I have not yet personally contacted many of the game studios yet as that task has been sitting in my "to-do" box for a while now but I have verbally talked to a number of interested developers at Weta Digital & was planning on posting something on the Weta Digital Game Network this week so it was funny to see this new forum post. I am also contacting Creative HQ about this as well. I wrote to NZGDA a couple of months ago about this but heard no reply back so was doing what I could locally.
The people I have been speaking to, I mentioned starting with social drinks of some kind in July sometime and there is some interest.
Below is a copy of one of the messages with most information that I have sent to some people already,
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NB: due to me not wanting to post my contact details publically on the internet, feel free to message me via playmaker if you are interested in what I've said above or to use this forum. I was thinking of also setting up either a "blog" Wellington Developer Page site or Facebook group for ease of passing on information. Does one exist already & if so, please point me to it. If not, what would people prefer? Should we just keep it all here on Playmaker?
If someone else is also doing this or wants to take over from me or even collaborate with me, please let me know as well. More hands make light work!
Hi CreatorBot/Pranee,
I've hooked you in to the email discussion amongst some Wellington studios/indies. Things are looking positive, and it's great if we can all work together.
My 2 cents are: call it 'Wellington GameDev Meetup', so in future we can promote the Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington (and occassionally Christchurch) 'GameDev Meetups' consistently.
We would certainly be represented :)
Camilla (CM - Sidhe/PikPok)
What evening would people prefer to meet up for a social drink to start off with? Are any days better for some? I am unable to do anything in the daytime for quite a while unfortunately :'(
Also, Camilla from Sidhe/Pik Pok, I've been meaning to contact your organisation for a while now so apologise for my tardiness!
Not Fridays - but it also depends on which week of the month it is etc... I reckon pick a couple of dates and get people to vote on a free voting site
--nahum
Hi guys. The group meets today, 2pm at the BizDojo boardroom, 2pm.
Its really just a chance for us to rub noses and get to know each other a little better.
The address is 38 Vivian St, Wellington
I think in future we should have it somewhere more CBD central and more importantly it should be hosted by game studios that are run by gamers.
I think it is great that other businessess are interested in the game industry and want to help the industry in general but ultimatly I feel that we need to do this for ourselves and there are enough of us with offices now to do this, I know Mario / Sidhe offered space and so does Gamefroot. I think maybe we should do a meetup once a month around 5:30pm, the usual beer and pizza time for most of us I'd assume.
I'll talk to this effect later today :)
See you all soon!!!
Wow, that's not much notice and I can't make it then :-( Is there somewhere else I should be looking to get a better heads up?
--nahum
Not at the moment. We did this the best we could with short notice. I think going forward we should just setup a google group aka email list?
A google group would be great.
--nahum
Unable to make this meet-up due to work committments but would love an update as to what was/is discussed. Available after 7:30pm -ish for future meet-ups.
Facebook group vs Google group?
... definately can't meet up at 5:30pm 
for quite a while...
> Facebook group vs Google group?
For me, I don't have a facebook account.
I'll setup a google group asap...
Ok so we had meeting # one and a group of us are going to start fleshing out an event for either July or August. I'll keep you guys posted :)
Awesome, looking forward to it!
ok cool! Nice to know people are trying to do something, I'm more than happy to step back & go with what others organise as I'm way too busy lately anyway & it's probably only going to get worse for me in terms of time availability. Keep me posted though & I can add the info to the Weta Game Developers Mailing List when stuff & things are happening.
Yep definately more notice and a google mailing list would be the ticket.
+1 from me
Hey, sorry. I lost touch with the thread.
A google mail list would be good. I, like Pranee, find it easier to meet in the evening, but if something is set up for during business hours I can look into getting there.
- Camilla
Hi folks
I'm interested in meeting up as well.
Did a google group get made for this?? If not I'll set one up then.
--nahum
Ok, so I've gone and created a google group where us Wellington people can organise the first meetup from etc...
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/wellington-game-dev
--nahum
Sweet, thanks for setting that one up. I was wondering whether Dan had gotten around to it as I hadn't heard anything.
Through my links with the ANZ Indie Community, I have been connected to the Marketing Manager at Autodesk (Asia & Pacific Region). Autodesk have helped to sponsor game related events in Melbourne and are interested in collaboration in events occurring in the Games, Media & Entertainment Industries. They also have educational Webseminars which I will make another post for.
I will let some other interested people know about this group. Cheers