A Bit of History

Our personal journeys through game development has been long and arduous; along the way we met like minded people with whom we explored, learned and evolved over the years. In this blog post, we try to quickly summarize our efforts as IGDA Bangalore over the last few years. If you think we missed anything out or reported anything wrong, do let us know. We sincerely hope you had as much fun as we have had on this journey of ours.

2010

+Joel Johnson posts on InGDIn google group/mailing list about starting an IGDA chapter in Bangalore and trying to raise interest in Hyderabad and Mumbai (Dec 2010) - https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/ingdin/1vduim7J3RE

A bit about InGDIn - Yadu & Kinshuk had started a local game developer meetup and jam group in Delhi/India called InGDIn(Indie Gamedevs India, circa 2008). They started doing Build Your Own Game (BYOG) Jams as InGDIn in late 2008. InGDIn was setup with the intention to promote indie game development across india and aimed to be a place where programmers, gfx artists, writers, musicians, designers, and others can work together.

+Yadu Rajiv Jumps in with Joel to help create the IGDA Bangalore chapter

We decide to do it post Christmas/New years as people would be travelling/on vacations etcetera.

IGDA LinkedIn Group is Created - December 26, 2010 - http://www.linkedin.com/groups/IGDA-Bangalore-3727369

2011

First InGDIn/IGDA Meetup happens at Alienware Gaming Lounge in Koramangala (Sunday, January 2, 2011) - https://www.facebook.com/events/165975510111460/

+Gautam Narain volunteers to help with things IGDA Bangalore, although he was working at EA in Hyderabad at the time.

Bangalore Game Developers' Meetup #2 happens at AIGA - Asian Institute of Gaming and Animation (Saturday, March 5, 2011) - https://www.facebook.com/events/165964303453289/
Media:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.113703322051640.27654.113699182052054&type=1
Press:
Gaming Xpress - http://www.gamingxpress.com/newsitem/items/igda-bangalore-meet-up-discourses-game-development.html

IGDA Bangalore is still a Linked in Group and InGDIn is a Google Group/Maling list, facebook page and a website.

Planning for 3rd Meetup starts - Basu who was working at GameTantra/Dhruva and Anand Ramachandran from Zynga helps us with setting up the 3rd meetup

Initial discussions talk of a possibility of doing the third meetup at Dhruva's HSR office

Before the 3rd Meetup our facebook page is born - https://www.facebook.com/igda.bangalore/posts/113701918718447

3rd Meetup happens on 14th May 2011 takes place at AIGA -
Media:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.113704162051556.27656.113699182052054&type=1
https://plus.google.com/photos/+YaduRajiv/albums/5607146442079525377?banner=pwa
https://plus.google.com/photos/107483220809092397929/albums/5607006819654418129?banner=pwa&authkey=CKTRrobD5a3YDQ
Press:
Gaming Xpress - Pre Event - http://www.gamingxpress.com/newsitem/items/igda-bangalores-third-meet-up-to-be-held-on-14th-may-at-bangalore.html
Gaming Xpress - Post Event - http://www.gamingxpress.com/newsitem/items/igda-bangalores-third-meet-up-at-aiga-received-positive-response.html

4th IGDA Meetup happens on Saturday, July 16, 2011 at Zynga - https://www.facebook.com/events/118071798284609
Media:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.140965185992120.37929.113699182052054&type=3
Press:
Times of India - http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=TOINEW&BaseHref=TOIBG%2F2011%2F07%2F23&ViewMode=GIF&PageLabel=7&EntityId=Ar00700&AppName=1
Gaming Xpress - http://www.gamingxpress.com/newsitem/items/IGDA_Bangalore.html

5th IGDA Bangalore meetup happens on Friday, September 23, 2011 at AIGA - https://www.facebook.com/events/265390303482867/
Media:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.162641693824469.43727.113699182052054&type=1
Press:
Gaming Xpress - http://www.gamingxpress.com/newsitem/items/startuop_igda.html

Plans to do a Global Game Jam slowly starts to form, but it is too late into December.

2012

Sadly, GGJ Happens without IGDA Bangalore

To create an understanding of the game development eco-system and its needs, IGDA Bangalore gets talking to Educational Institutions that cater to students trying to get into the games industry and also Game development studios in and around Bangalore. - Aiga (Shailesh and Joshi) helps us with an initial list of studios they know in Bangalore.

IGDA Bangalore tries to create a directory of game developers and companies (Jan 2012) - https://www.facebook.com/igda.bangalore/posts/212643235491190?stream_ref=10

NGF Inaugural Meetup happens in Bangalore without IGDA (April 2012) - https://www.facebook.com/events/338136212907447/

Rajesh (founder of Dhruva and also lead the NASSCOM Gaming Forum initiative) asks if we'd(IGDA Bangalore) like to work together with the NASSCOM team to do the meetups in Bangalore. (~July 2012)

2nd NGF Meetup happens with IGDA Support on Saturday, August 4, 2012 at Zynga - https://www.facebook.com/events/399312646784509/?ref=22
Media:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_zVHgCZbHo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_zVHgCZbHo&feature=player_detailpage#t=1260s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLTVq7BNDJo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLTVq7BNDJo&feature=player_detailpage#t=493s
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.341207569301213.84134.113699182052054&type=1

Nikhil Gupta, talks to IGDA about doing a GGJ in Bangalore

Dhruva agrees to be the Jam location for the GGJ 2013

The last meetup of 2012 - 3rd NGF Meetup happens with IGDA Support on Saturday, December 15, 2012 - https://www.facebook.com/events/214716795329340/?ref=22
Media:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.394124854009484.97967.113699182052054&type=1

GGJ Bangalore facebook page is born on 11 Dec 2012 - https://www.facebook.com/GGJBlr

2013

IGDA Bangalore organizes the Global Game Jam 2013 on 25th of Jan 2013 hosted at Dhruva Interactive, HSR Layout - http://2013.globalgamejam.org/sites/2013/dhruva-interactive-hsr-studio
Media:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.182072585250100.6410.171280186329340&type=1

+Rishikanth Somayaji joins the core IGDA Bangalore team.

A Meetup Group is created on Jun 20, 2013 on meetup.com focusing on IGDA and other game development related activity - http://www.meetup.com/Bangalore-Game-Developers/

NGF Meetup Supported by the IGDA happens on Saturday, June 29, 2013 at Dhruva -
https://www.facebook.com/events/668860246461080/?ref=22

IGDA Bangalore organizes a non-digital game jam with Swissnex India on Sunday, September 1, 2013 at Swissnex - https://www.facebook.com/events/232732403542398/?ref=22
Media:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.613711951984711.1073741848.476248042397770&type=1

IGDA Bangalore helps in organizing speakers for Design Day #11 by Bangalore Designers - https://www.facebook.com/events/375850912517571/?ref=22

Planing for GGJ Bangalore 2014 starts - GameTantra agrees to host the GGJ in 2014

IGDA Bangalore helps in organizing a non-digital game jam at NID during their design/cultural festival Dfrost on 8th Dec 2013 - http://dfrost.in/gamejam/

2014

IGDA Bangalore organizes GGJ Bangalore on the 24th of Jan 2013, hosted by GameTantra - globalgamejam.org/2014/jam-sites/ggj-bangalore
Media:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.226603310797027.1073741826.171280186329340&type=1

1st NGF Meetup of the year, supported by IGDA Bangalore takes place on Friday, February 7, 2014 at Dhruva Interactive - https://www.facebook.com/events/697965803577104/

Planning for a Demo day in March starts - https://www.facebook.com/igda.bangalore/posts/584906941597940?stream_ref=10

IGDA Bangalore gets a website/blog on 14th February 2014 - http://igdabangalore.org

Demo Day is all set to happen on the 5th of April at Cobalt S2M - http://www.meetup.com/Bangalore-Game-Developers/events/170844102/

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and our journey continues :)