New Orleans-based developers and gamers Barrett Conrad and Paul Teall have decided to take the NOLA Game Developer meetup to the next level. The duo has announced Launch Fest Play, an expo of the video game development happening in and around New Orleans, happening next week.
Conrad said there around around 40 people signed up now and have more registering each day. The conference will take place the evening before Launch Fest, April 30th, from 5:00 to 9:00 PM at Launch Pad.
Conrad and Teall pitched the idea of hosting an demonstration to bring the amazing game development talent into the spotlight at one of the meetups and received extremely positive feedback.
“Part of the fun of helping grow the NOLA Game Developer group has just been realizing how many talented people we have right in our own backyard,” said Teall. “It’s been really encouraging! With Launch Fest Play, we want to expand on the momentum we’ve built with the Meetup. I know there are even more talented game devs in the area, and we want to bring as many of them together as we can. It should be a great opportunity for people to connect with other like-minded developers! We’ve also locked down some top-notch speakers, and I’m hoping they will help inspire attendees to build even more incredible games here in New Orleans.”
Launch Fest Play will help connect the developers, artists, writers, musicians and actors to create the next great game.
Conrad said the meetup has grown to attract a larger, more consistent batch of local game developers. “Many of these indie game developers are publishing new games regularly. The meetup has also allowed experienced local game developers to connect with industry talent from the local Gameloft studio and industry veterans from other national studios working in New Orleans now.”
The conference will feature keynote Ken Keys, Art Director at Gameloft New Orleans, Keys formerly worked at EA, Weta Digital, Dreamworks and Hanna Barbera. Launch Fest Play will also include panels led by Matt Kelly from Autodesk and Harmonix, Brenden McGuire from Playable Bread, and Chris Gianelloni from Vile Media. A presentation on game design from Castle Pixel’s Rosstin Murphy and another from Pixel Dash’s Jason Tate are also scheduled.
“We hope that this conference will allow those developers to share their work with other game developers, the tech community and the entire New Orleans community,” Conrad said. “The conference is Launch Fest’s first spin-off event as well. Part of the Play event is a game pitch competition, where the winner will have the opportunity to pitch the main Launch Fest audience on Thursday afternoon.”
Launch Fest play will also include a game demo area for the New Orleans area developers to share what they have been working on.
To register for Launch Fest Play, click here.