SXSW 2009 ScreenBurn Arcade!
by Joseph in Around Austin / 03.13.09
Gateway into the ScreenBurn Arcade
Hello again, loyal followers and new comers alike. Your Intern Extraordinaire is here to tell you a little bit about the SXSW Interactive event I will be attending and some of the things that I’m most excited to get a look at.
The ScreenBurn Arcade is a free event that is open to the public that showcases many indie and larger game companies as they try to showcase their newest ideas and projects. ScreenBurn Arcade is part of the larger ScreenBurn Conference which is the gaming conference inside the greater SXSW Interactive festival.
Presenters and products I am most excited about:
Austin Community College’s Game Design Institute and Texas State Technical College will both have exhibitions at this year’s ScreenBurn Arcade. While they may not have the most mind blowing things to showcase, as a Digital Media Management student, I am going to be working very closely with graduates from these and similar institutions. Getting to know more about what these programs are about and the kinds of things their students learn will be very beneficial. I hope to make some good contacts with both these programs, and especially ACC’s program as they are situated in Austin. With any luck, I may be able to work out some kind of partnership with their digital media program and help bring Austin’s digital media students closer together!
International Game Developers Association (IGDA) is a non-profit advocacy association for the promotion of the gaming industry. The Austin chapter will be exhibiting and hopefully I can learn a lot from them about what it is they do and the kinds of problems that they work most consistently on to try and promote Austin as a game development center. I am really looking forward to talking with this organization.
Critical Mass Interactive is a company I haven’t heard of before, but they produce a wide variety of projects across the digital media spectrum. I’m excited to see the kinds of things that they contribute and if there is an opportunity here to see a more unique way to exist within the digital media sphere.
Mindark: Entropia Universe Mindark’s excursion into the micro transaction based MMO space dominated by Second Life will be showcased at ScreenBurn Arcade. I have studied a large number of articles written about Second Life, so it will be very interesting to see the things Entropia Universe did differently and the ways they want to change this kind of virtual world. Talking to the developers and team behind Entropia Universe should be very interesting and I’m looking forward to it!
Championship Gaming Series
Gaming Tournaments not exactly a company or product, but as a gamer myself, I am interested in seeing some of the competitive tournaments. As I understand it, everything from cabinet level tournaments with Street Fighter 4 and PC competitions on Call of Duty 4 will be going down and I’m very excited to see what all the hype is about!
There are many other presenters that will be exhibiting at the ScreenBurn Arcade but these are the few I know that I am most excited about. For a more complete list check out the Screenburn site. If you are planning on attending SXSW or the ScreenBurn Arcade, be sure to keep your eyes out for MindBites stickers! If there are any events that you are excited about that I didn’t mention, feel free to mention them in the comments. See you there!
Ioda, the independent music marketing and distribution company, is providing the SXSW Opening Day Bash Sampler 2009 as a free MP3 download. You can find a link to the album here.