From Prototypes to Podcasts: Andrea Magnorsky on Game Jams, Alt.NET, and Community Hand-offs

January 07, 2022 • UGtastic Archive

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The Interviewer

Mike Hall

Interviewer, community organizer at UGtastic

The Guest

Andrea Magnorsky

Co-founder of BatCat Games, GameCraft Organizer

The Conversation

Mike Hall Interviewer, community organizer at UGtastic

Hi, it's Mike again with UGtastic. I'm on the line here with Andrea Magnorsky, who helps run the GameCraft, the Dublin Alt.net, and she also does a podcast called 32 Minutos, which is a Spanish language podcast. Hi, Andrea. Thanks for taking the time to sit down.

Andrea Magnorsky Co-founder of BatCat Games, GameCraft Organizer

Hi, how are you doing? It's great to be here talking to you.

Mike Hall Interviewer, community organizer at UGtastic

Good, good. Now, you're in Dublin right now?

Andrea Magnorsky Co-founder of BatCat Games, GameCraft Organizer

Yeah, we're in Dublin, Ireland.

Mike Hall Interviewer, community organizer at UGtastic

Dublin, Ireland. Okay, I'm in the United States, so we're a few hours separate. It's the afternoon for you.

Andrea Magnorsky Co-founder of BatCat Games, GameCraft Organizer

Yeah, it's a very nice 2.25 p.m. right now.

Mike Hall Interviewer, community organizer at UGtastic

Oh, nice. So, let's just jump right in. What is GameCraft?

Andrea Magnorsky Co-founder of BatCat Games, GameCraft Organizer

Okay, GameCraft is a game jam where you have to be there. The last one lasted 12 hours, and what a game jam is, you start the day with nothing, and you end the day with a game. You can work with a group or without a group, and there's prizes. You meet new people to make games with, and that kind of stuff.

Mike Hall Interviewer, community organizer at UGtastic

Now, is this like games for any platform, or is this a specific?

Andrea Magnorsky Co-founder of BatCat Games, GameCraft Organizer

Yeah, the idea is that you get good at prototyping, or that you get good at just actually make something. It doesn't matter what it is. Use any platform you like. The idea is you come from nothing to finish or have a rough prototype in that very set time frame.

Mike Hall Interviewer, community organizer at UGtastic

So, what kind of games do people make?

Andrea Magnorsky Co-founder of BatCat Games, GameCraft Organizer

Well, it was really funny. We had one two weeks ago, and we had HTML5 games, multiple MMOs type of games. We had single player games. We had games made in Unity with really nice art. We had games made with Love, a game engine from Lua. It's from puzzles to MMOs to anything, really.

Mike Hall Interviewer, community organizer at UGtastic

Oh, cool. And you said you had prizes and things like this, so you have corporate sponsors, or how does that work?

Andrea Magnorsky Co-founder of BatCat Games, GameCraft Organizer

Yeah, the gaming industry in Ireland is growing big time, and that also means there's companies. Some of them are well-known, like Demonware, Swerve, and we just reached out to them and said, 'Hey, do you want to pay for some food and some prizes?' And they were like, 'Yeah, this is great,' because for them, they get to meet people who are interested in making games. For us, it's great because it means we can run a really nice event.

Mike Hall Interviewer, community organizer at UGtastic

So, is this something you've done once, or you've done it a few times?

Andrea Magnorsky Co-founder of BatCat Games, GameCraft Organizer

This has gone now twice, and we have a slightly different one organized for the 11th of December. We're going to screencast it live, put a big donate button, and it's all going to go to a local charity. The idea is game jamming with a Christmas spirit.

Mike Hall Interviewer, community organizer at UGtastic

So, how did you get involved with GameCraft?

Andrea Magnorsky Co-founder of BatCat Games, GameCraft Organizer

Well, I have a games company. I'm one of the co-founders of BatCat Games. We make PC and console games. We realized there wasn't enough of these kinds of events. Because I have experience running events, I just said, 'Hey, let's do a game jam.' And it got really popular. The first one, we had 250 sign-ups, and 150 people turning up on the day, because it's a free event.

Mike Hall Interviewer, community organizer at UGtastic

The university was the host?

Andrea Magnorsky Co-founder of BatCat Games, GameCraft Organizer

Yeah, so we had a full ground floor full of people making games, and it was really exciting.

Mike Hall Interviewer, community organizer at UGtastic

Now that you've done a couple of these, do you have any advice for somebody who's planning on doing a game hacking event?

Andrea Magnorsky Co-founder of BatCat Games, GameCraft Organizer

Sure. If you're doing a presential one where you have to be there, at the end, make something so that people talk to each other about their games. Give them a hook so they have to talk to someone else. The other thing is actually having food in the place so people don't have to leave and come back. And water, coffee, tea. Offices are really good for running events, particularly open plan offices. Talk to your local people that do these things and say, 'Hey, can I use your office for a game jam?' Some will say yes.

Mike Hall Interviewer, community organizer at UGtastic

And for the people that might want to participate, do you have any advice?

Andrea Magnorsky Co-founder of BatCat Games, GameCraft Organizer

Always choose your framework before you go. It's super handy to be ready and not having to spend an hour downloading a framework. Don't count on wireless because there's going to be a lot of people. Have a bunch of USB sticks just because you're going to be working with people who might not have network. And bring a bottle of water so stay hydrated.

Mike Hall Interviewer, community organizer at UGtastic

Okay, and you're also involved with the Dublin alt.net. What is going on with alt.net in Dublin?

Andrea Magnorsky Co-founder of BatCat Games, GameCraft Organizer

At the moment, I'm not running the organization of the group anymore because I founded it about three years ago with someone else. It follows the principles of alternatives to Microsoft .NET technologies. We had a really nice group, and I thought it was time to let the community drive itself.

Mike Hall Interviewer, community organizer at UGtastic

What drove you to start the group?

Andrea Magnorsky Co-founder of BatCat Games, GameCraft Organizer

I was involved in Ruby Ireland at the start, and I saw the wonderful work they were doing. I craved something that would cover my main language, which is C#. I met Claudio Perrone, who helped found this. You put up a website, meet in a pub, and take it from there. The first day, we had 15 people. It kind of stays at that 20 to 30 level of people very interested in learning more.

Mike Hall Interviewer, community organizer at UGtastic

Did you use Meetup, or were you just word of mouth?

Andrea Magnorsky Co-founder of BatCat Games, GameCraft Organizer

We used Google Groups and Twitter to let people know about the meetings. Ireland is relatively small; there's one and a half million people here, and the developer community is not that big, so we all kind of know each other.

Mike Hall Interviewer, community organizer at UGtastic

I've recently handed off a group myself. When you handed off your group to another organizer, how did you handle that?

Andrea Magnorsky Co-founder of BatCat Games, GameCraft Organizer

With difficulty. I really wanted to let it go. It's so much work to do it right, to keep it going every month. The thing was finding someone that would look after the group with the same level of care. I sent an email to everybody saying, 'Listen, I need to leave. Someone needs to take care of this because it's only fair.' I wanted new blood and new ideas. Now two guys took it over, and then one had to move to Switzerland. So now it's just one guy, Andrew Smith, doing a great job.

Mike Hall Interviewer, community organizer at UGtastic

It's very satisfying when you see it handed off and see the people that took over schedule meetings so it isn't dead.

Andrea Magnorsky Co-founder of BatCat Games, GameCraft Organizer

Yeah.

Mike Hall Interviewer, community organizer at UGtastic

So, you're in Dublin, Ireland, but you do a Spanish language podcast. You don't sound like you have a traditional Irish accent.

Andrea Magnorsky Co-founder of BatCat Games, GameCraft Organizer

No, I was born in Argentina. I came to Ireland 10 years ago.

Mike Hall Interviewer, community organizer at UGtastic

What is 32 Minutos?

Andrea Magnorsky Co-founder of BatCat Games, GameCraft Organizer

32 Minutos is a podcast about .NET technologies. I was interviewed on it a few times talking about better practices, CQRS, and whatnot. Then they asked me to co-host the show. I was struggling with the Spanish even though I'm a native speaker because I don't speak it often enough. I thought this is a great way to connect with a community that is hungry for knowledge and practice my Spanish a bit more.

Mike Hall Interviewer, community organizer at UGtastic

Did you learn technology in Spanish or in English? I have friends who are not native English speakers, and the bias in programming is generally English.

Andrea Magnorsky Co-founder of BatCat Games, GameCraft Organizer

In Argentina, unlike in Spain, we're very pro-using the English words. Your networking class is not called 'redes', it's called 'networking'. 'iDisposable' is still 'iDisposable'. But this is not the same in Spain, so the podcast is sometimes incredibly funny. When people say 'MBC' instead of 'MVC', I'm like, 'What is MBC?' It doesn't make sense.

Critical Insights

durable

"Game jams (like GameCraft) emphasize prototyping and completion over technical perfection, challenging developers to deliver a functional product within a strict timeframe."

durable

"Sustaining a successful community event relies heavily on reducing attendee friction (e.g., providing food on-site) and forcing interaction to build network density."

durable

"Handing off leadership of a user group is often more difficult than starting one, as founders must find successors who share the same level of care and commitment."

durable

"The language of technology is heavily biased toward English, creating unique cultural and pedagogical challenges for non-English technical communities (e.g., translating acronyms like MVC)."