Picture by Navaboo

I’ve met up with a lot of game developers in the past few months, and seen awesome local-develpment-hangouts, gamejams, and general community cohesion. It seems every major city in Canada has a vibrant Indie Game Development community!

I’ve also lived in Victoria for 10 years, where we have the University of Victoria and it’s awesome Computer Science department. We have a few game studios in town, and even a branch of Disney up island a bit. I don’t know a single developer here. It feels like I’m a monitor with no computer to connect to (see image).

My friend Fieran and I discussed it over a pint, and we’ve decided we’re going to get things moving, instead of waiting for it to happen!

WELCOME TO VDEV. I founded a Meetup.com group, we’re using our University contacts to secure some computing space, and we’re going to have monthly beer-and-games meetups, and a GameJam in September. I’m really trying to get the local university folks involved, because so many students graduate and immediately move to Vancouver. Vancouver surely has more jobs than Victoria (it is a bigger city after all), but most are completely unaware of how fun Indie Game Making is, and I’m hoping to make a few converts!

VDev's current logo.

Don’t get me wrong; I miss all my international friends, and hope to attract a few to the larger events. I hope a bunch from Vancouver will come out. And most of all, I hope all those quiet Victoria devs finally come out of the woodwork and I get to meet you all!

So take a look at the Meetup group. It’s free to join and you’ll be notified (optionally) of any events we hold. I’d love it if you did!

We’re currently aiming to have our first big GameJam on September 17th-19th. Just waiting on space confirmation; already have a few big ticket guys on the line!

(And for those that might have to travel: Victoria is hosting the annual Great Canadian Beer Festival on September 10th and 11th. It might be a good month to visit!)