Isn’t game design more about mechanics, etc, etc?
Exactly. It’s nice to meet up with other Unity folks, but general gamedev meetups are just fine to discuss design, art, etc., such as IGDA South Florida meetups for those like @BrewNCode in Miami.
2 Likes
Ah read it wrong, like those two are the same 
A (sort of) funny story: I was working at a front desk for a hotel this past summer, when we were having a conference staying with us. The group was all from Poland, they specialized in Mathematics.
They got visibly annoyed every time I greeted them with “Howdy!” (no joke), to which I just laughed. I can only imagine they were thinking to themselves “Damn yankee”. lmao
EDIT: This comes to mind:
Bloody Yanks is the correct term
i was a co-organizer for a growing and thriving group in the Tampa Florida area. Now we are living in northern New Jersey. I had expected it to be easy since NYC is so close but having a very difficult time meeting other game developers. We joined a group south of us and it is a great group of people but it is very small and no room to grow. It is difficult to find places to meet and while I loved meeting at the Microsoft Store (may daughter gave an art talk that day), the rest of the group did not like it.
Anyone in northern New Jersey out there who would like to get together? I contacted the User group folks at Unity as I thought we could start a User group here, but no response. So not even sure they are sponsoring the groups anymore.
2 Likes
I was born here and just never came up with a good enough reason to move somewhere else.
1 Like
I like challenges. I was dreaming to live in the US and specifically in CA in my entire life. You know kinda’ gold rush without gold and stuff.
1 Like
I dunno how close you are to CT, but I’m part of a public group over here that started doing monthly meetups a few months ago. We’re still finding our footing but you can check out our website which has links to our social media accounts on which we post updates for our meetups. Our meetups happen at public libraries and serve as informal co-working / playtesting sessions.
Even though it’s not in NJ, I thought I should still mention it as we’re still in the tristate area. Also we host our meetups on weekends to accommodate people who live further away and can’t just swing on by after work.
An issue I’ve run into a lot is that even though there are so many meetups in NYC, most of them happen during the week while I’m at work 
Edit: Does northern New Jersey also have any public meetup groups that happen to meet on weekends? I wouldn’t mind making the occasional day trip out there on like a Saturday afternoon. I always love meeting other game developers to talk game design with, bounce ideas off of, and get feedback from.
I’m from Southern Texas. Almost everyone here is extremely stupid, I don’t trust any devs from down here. I can kill snakes and other dangerous things though, so it’s a fair tradeoff. Massachusetts bound.
1 Like
I’m from Singapore, and the game dev industry here is pretty bad tbh. Not a lot of indie game studios, and there’s only Ubisoft and Bandai Namco here. Most likely game-related jobs you’ll find is simulations or visualization.
Also, Unity’s legal headquarters are in Singapore, apparently! So yeah, we’re the ones holding back open source and dark skin. Welcome! 
3 Likes
This reminds me of my old home too. I didn’t kill them (I don’t like killing animals, as dangerous as they might be), but once every two or three weeks I found myself removing, armed with the power of my broomstick, a snake that thought of my bathroom as a nice place to rest from the terrible temperature (it could get to 55 degrees of thermal sensation in the summer). Venenom ones, I might add: bothrops alternatus, for those curious on zoology.
As in your case this sweet rural adventures were the tradeoff I got in exchange of the narrow-minded, conservative way of living of my little town.
Haha, I think I just got my second brown recluse bite in two weeks. The cold is bringing them all in at night.
Pro-tip: Prids black drawing salve is a wonder material.
1 Like
Rural Australia. Game development is as strong as the mobile phone reception is.
4 Likes
Lucky. Our dangerous things are pretty difficult to kill. Plus most of them are protected species.
Dropbear?
1 Like
You guys have nothign when it comes to dangerous animals, we have the Tick. 
2 Likes
I’m from New Zealand, I live in Auckland, although the majority of game dev seems to be happening down in Wellington, where companies like PikPok and CerebralFX are doing most of the hiring, in Dunedin we have RocketWerkz, owned by Dean Hall who made Dayz, and TenCent has a big stake in it.
Grinding Gear Games (Path of Exile) is in Auckland too, but other than them not much else is going on sadly.
Gameloft used to have a branch here employing 100 people, but they closed it down.
The last GDC we had was about 500 game developers, and its getting bigger every year.
But still, more money to be made in software development here, not much game dev contract work going around, and the cost of living in NZ is very high, so I choose to contract.
The NZ game dev association is trying to get the government more involved in funding games, but little progress has been made, although the government gives huge grants for movies and such, but not really anything for games.
I think I’d be insulted if I cared what anyone thought.
You mean this guy?
1 Like
No this one is waaaaaay more disgusting
