PixelFest, April 8-10, 2016

I've always tried to bring gaming to places in which it did not yet exist. Call me a contrarian!

Today is no different. Norfolk, VA sits between at least two large game development hubs, Washington DC and Raleigh, NC. I've been to events in both of those fine cities and I've participated in the games industry as it currently exists in Norfolk, VA. That is, I've participated in the Serious Games and Modeling and Simulation industry, which dominates our region.

Throughout the years I have also partaken in the consumer games industry as an indie developer though, having delivered several successful desktop and mobile games. They weren't great games but they managed to get popular and even make a living for my family.

As I've navigated game development, the idea of creating an event has always appealed to me but the timing was never there. The alignment of the motivation or need to create the event, the space to host it, a team to work with, and the knowledge of how other events had been created are all necessary components of an event plan.

Well, I have to say that we lucked out big time at Midnight Status. The first step was the formation of a new team. Throughout the years I have worked with a number of people both local and remote. This summer I had the pleasure to begin working with a recent college graduate, Henry Meredith, who is just as passionate about games (especially Nintendo) as I am.

After a few meetings over coffee we started to take a look at some projects I had in various states of development. After playing a few of them we identified one from the archives that was more fun to us than the others. We decided that would be the game we would work on. The target platform was the Wii U of course.

After getting the game to a place where it was fun to play with some friends (it's couch multiplayer) we identified that part of our marketing strategy would involve traveling to various events to show the game off. Since there aren't really any gaming events in our area we also thought, why not add our own event to the schedule? We decided on doing a local game jam with the goal of attracting 100 people.

So at this point the team and the need to host an event had started building. The next step was to start looking for a space to host it. This is where we got really lucky. Slover Library had just opened in January 2015 and it was beautiful. 

Henry and I researched it and the space was pretty expensive. We weren't sure we'd actually be able to find 100 people to participate in a game jam. We had hoped to pull talent from Richmond, Raleigh, and DC for a weekend event but we really weren't sure if they'd make the drive (up to 3 hours). It was a risky proposition to pay for the space and hope we could sell 100 tickets.

The really big luck kicked in when we approached the library about the game jam. As part of their "new status", sponsoring space for appropriate events was part and parcel. Not only that but the library staff was so excited that they wanted to turn the event into something bigger than just a game jam. Just like that PixelFest was born!

You may have noticed that I failed to mention one of the necessary components behind forming an event. That is, being involved to some degree in other events. Over the past 3 years I've participated in a number of local events (mostly startup events) that have popped up around Norfolk as the area has started to spontaneously combust with entrepreneurial energy. I've gotten to know the creators of those events and I've asked many questions, until the point at which I felt comfortable orchestrating something myself.

Of course, this event has grown into something much bigger than myself. Although the event is 6 months away I already have a number of people to thank. The staff of Slover Library (Jineane, Bonnie, Tim and, Nicole), my wife and children for putting up with the late nights that have already begun, Ray from That Game Store, Paul on photos, Beau from 757 Makerspace, Zack from Hatch, Curtiss Murphy (our local award winning serious game developer), John O'Neil from Spark Plug Games in Raleigh, Chris Melissinos (The Art of Video Games), and of course Henry Meredith who's been instrumental in getting this together. At some point I'll have to get a proper list together because it keeps growing!

For now, I hope anyone reading will check out the website and register on Eventbrite (all tickets are free). We have a great lineup of activities for the whole family that we believe will be worth anyone's time, especially if you're a mid-atlantic game developer.

www.pixelfest.org