From Prototypes to Podcasts: Andrea Magnorsky on Game Jams, Alt.NET, and Community Hand-offs
From Prototypes to Podcasts: Andrea Magnorsky on Game Jams, Alt.NET, and Community Hand-offs
🚀 Andrea Magnorsky shares her experience in organizing GameCraft, a game jam event in Dublin, Ireland. Learn tips on running successful events, including the importance of in-person participation and comfortable venues. 🎮 #GameCraft #EventOrganization #InPersonParticipation #FoodForEvents #LocalBusinessSupport
The Interviewer
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
The Guest
Andrea Magnorsky
conference speaking and presentation skills
The Conversation
Mike Hall
Interviewer, 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 Minutos. I'm very American here. I will mangle it, but it's a Spanish language podcast. Hi, Andrea. Thanks for taking the time to sit down. Hi, how are you doing?
Andrea Magnorsky
conference speaking and presentation skills
It's great to be here talking to you. Good, good.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Now, you're in Dublin right now?
Andrea Magnorsky
conference speaking and presentation skills
Yeah, we're in Dublin, Ireland. Dublin, Ireland. Okay, I'm in the United States, so we're a few hours separate. It's the afternoon for you. Yeah, it's a very nice 2. 25 p. m. right now. Oh, nice. So, let's just jump right in.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
What is GameCraft?
Andrea Magnorsky
conference speaking and presentation skills
Okay, GameCraft is a game jam where you have to be there. The last one lasted 12 hours, and what a game jam is, is a , 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, UGtastic
Now, is this like games for any platform, or is this a specific?
Andrea Magnorsky
conference speaking and presentation skills
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, you know, to have a rough prototype in that very set time frame.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
So, like, what kind of games do people make?
Andrea Magnorsky
conference speaking and presentation skills
Well, it was really funny. We had one, like, two weeks ago, and we had, you know, we had HTML5 games, you know, multiple MMOs type of games. We had single player games. We had games made in Unity with really nice art, and we had games made with really nice art. We had games made with Love, you know, it's a game engine from Lua. It's really interesting. It's really borrowed. It's from puzzles to, like, MMOs to anything, really. Oh, cool. And you said you had, like, prizes and things like this, so you have, like, corporate sponsors, or how does that work? Yeah, the gaming industry in Ireland is growing big time, and that also means there's companies. Some of them are well-known, like Joel. Yeah, they're well-known, like Joel, Demon Wars, Swerve, and, you know, 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, and for us, it's great, because it means we can run a really nice event.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Right. So, is this something you've done once, or you've done it a few times?
Andrea Magnorsky
conference speaking and presentation skills
This has gone now twice, and we have a slightly different one organized for the 11th. The 11th of December, and that's one where we're just companies, like, we're just, like, little indie games companies that we're going to do, we're going to screencast it live, and we're going to put a big donate button, and it's all going to go to a local charity. And the idea is, again, you know, game jamming, and do it with a kind of Christmas spirit, and, you know, do something for Christmas that is not like, oh, I'll just put a hat in the game.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Yeah. So, what made you start? How did you start this, or how did you get involved with GameCraft?
Andrea Magnorsky
conference speaking and presentation skills
Well, I have a games company. Oh, okay. Well, that would make sense. Yeah, so, I don't know, something died there.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
BatCat, right?
Andrea Magnorsky
conference speaking and presentation skills
Yeah, I'm one of the co-founders of BatCat Games. We make PC and console games, maybe some, or, you know, it doesn't matter. And, you know, we kind of went, like, you know, there's not enough, these kinds of events. So, I just, because I have... I have experience running events, I just went and talked to, 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, UGtastic
Right.
Andrea Magnorsky
conference speaking and presentation skills
And it was great. The university was the host, so we had a full kind of ground floor, full of people making games, and it was really exciting. So, you had people, like, sleeping and hacking and... No, it was just eight hours. Oh, it was just eight hours, okay. So, they were, like, particularly at the end, everybody was coming for us.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Yeah.
Andrea Magnorsky
conference speaking and presentation skills
It was great.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
They're mainlining the Red Bull, you know? Yeah.
Andrea Magnorsky
conference speaking and presentation skills
Yeah, we had food in the place, so that was actually really good. And, you know, people kind of commented, and, you know, we actually made it thinking, okay, you know, we'll just do this.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
And then, as soon as, the same day, people said, when are you doing this again?
Andrea Magnorsky
conference speaking and presentation skills
So, that was February, and we did one now in November, so... So, now that... Now that you've done a couple of these now, do you have any advice for somebody who's planning on doing a game, hacking events?
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Sure.
Andrea Magnorsky
conference speaking and presentation skills
I think the distinction I made on our Game Jam is that you have to be there. There are some online ones that are great. So, if you're doing a presential one, I don't know if that's the correct word, like, one when you have to be there, at the end, make something so that people talk to each other about their games. Either, like, that everybody has two minutes to... Present the games to everybody, or that they have to go and talk to each other for some, like, some... Give them a hook, so they have to talk to someone else. Then, the other thing is actually having food on the place, so people don't have to leave and come back.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Yeah.
Andrea Magnorsky
conference speaking and presentation skills
It's really helpful. And water, and, you know, the coffee, and tea, that kind of stuff. It's actually quite cheap to run.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
And prices are a nice addition, you know? Yeah.
Andrea Magnorsky
conference speaking and presentation skills
Make it comfortable. Offices are really good for running. Running the events, particularly open plan offices. So, you know, talk to your local people that does these things.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
And, you know, say, hey, can I use your office for a game camp? Yeah.
Andrea Magnorsky
conference speaking and presentation skills
Some of them will say yes.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Yeah.
Andrea Magnorsky
conference speaking and presentation skills
And for the people that might want to participate in a game hacking event, or any kind of hacking endurance event, do you have any advice for those people that are going to be participants?
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Yeah.
Andrea Magnorsky
conference speaking and presentation skills
Always prepare what... Choose your framework. Before you go. It's super handy to be ready and not having to spend an hour.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
It's like, oh, what would I do?
Andrea Magnorsky
conference speaking and presentation skills
Downloading the framework, or setting up, if you're going to use a repository, set it up. Make sure, you know, don't count on wireless, because there's going to be a lot of people. Maybe you won't be able to access that. That kind of stuff. Have a bunch of USB sticks, just because you're going to be working with people who might not have network. That might be a good way. And bring a bottle of water.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Okay.
Andrea Magnorsky
conference speaking and presentation skills
Yeah, so stay hydrated.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Yeah.
Andrea Magnorsky
conference speaking and presentation skills
Okay, and you're also involved with the Dublin Alt.NET.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
And so, what is going on with Alt.NET in Dublin?
Andrea Magnorsky
conference speaking and presentation skills
Well, at the moment, I'm not running the organization of the group anymore.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Okay.
Andrea Magnorsky
conference speaking and presentation skills
Because I founded it, like, about three years ago with someone else. Well, we founded Alt.NET. It follows the principles of... I'm sure you guys know, your audience, basically, it's just alternatives to Microsoft . NET technologies. And we had a really, really nice group, and I thought it was time to leave the community drive itself. Okay, cool.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Well, what drove you to start the group?
Andrea Magnorsky
conference speaking and presentation skills
Well, I was involved in Ruby Ireland at the start. And I saw the wonderful work they were doing. And I just craved... You know, something that would cover my main language, which is C#. So, then I met Claudio Perrone, which he's another guy that helped. He said, let's found this. And it's like, okay.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
So, how do we do this?
Andrea Magnorsky
conference speaking and presentation skills
And it's like, well, you put a website, and you're going to meet in a pub and take it from there.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Yeah.
Andrea Magnorsky
conference speaking and presentation skills
And, you know, the first day, we had, like, 15 people. And then, you know, we kept having meetings. And it kind of stays at that 20, 30. Level of people, you know. Very interested in learning more.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Did you use Meetup, or were you just word of mouth, or how did you communicate?
Andrea Magnorsky
conference speaking and presentation skills
We used Google Groups and Twitter. Oh, okay. To let people know about the meetings. Yeah, yeah. And, you know, the things like Ireland is relatively small. There's one and a half million people here. And developer community is not that big. So, we all kind of know each other.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Yeah.
Andrea Magnorsky
conference speaking and presentation skills
So. It's like, hey, you know, there's, like, beer, and we talk about code. It's great, you know. Yeah, beer and code is always good.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Yeah.
Andrea Magnorsky
conference speaking and presentation skills
And I've recently handed off a group myself after a couple years. And so, I'm interested in somebody else who's done something like that.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
When you handed off your group to another organizer, how did you do that? How did you handle handing the group off?
Andrea Magnorsky
conference speaking and presentation skills
With difficulty. With difficulty.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Well, when you say difficulty, you mean you didn't want to let it go because you enjoyed it, or?
Andrea Magnorsky
conference speaking and presentation skills
No, I really wanted to let it go. It's so much work to do it right.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Yeah.
Andrea Magnorsky
conference speaking and presentation skills
You know, to actually keep it going, particularly every month, you know. And the thing was finding someone that would look after the group with the same level of care. And, you know, you wouldn't disappoint the community by not being there.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Right.
Andrea Magnorsky
conference speaking and presentation skills
And I was lucky enough that the guys taking over. They were working in my office. So, I was like, I sent an email to everybody saying, listen, I need to leave. And someone needs to take care of this because it's only fair. And I think, you know, maybe what I'm doing is getting tired and boring because two years, you probably just keep doing the same thing. So, I wanted new blood and new ideas. And now, two guys actually took it over. And then one of them had to move to Switzerland. So, now it's just... Just one guy. He's doing a great job, Andrew Smith. That's great.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Yeah.
Andrea Magnorsky
conference speaking and presentation skills
It's very satisfying when you see it handed off. To me, it was. And seeing the people that took over it, started to schedule meetings and see that, okay, this isn't dead. This isn't dead. It's great.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Yeah.
Andrea Magnorsky
conference speaking and presentation skills
And the last thing is kind of interesting. So, you're in Dublin, Ireland, but you do a Spanish language podcast.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Yeah.
Andrea Magnorsky
conference speaking and presentation skills
And you don't sound like you have a traditional Irish accent. Oh, come on. No. I was born in Argentina. Oh, okay.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Okay.
Andrea Magnorsky
conference speaking and presentation skills
I came to Ireland 10 years ago.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Okay.
Andrea Magnorsky
conference speaking and presentation skills
So, you do this podcast.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
What is 32 Minutos?
Andrea Magnorsky
conference speaking and presentation skills
32 Minutes. 32 Minutos or 32 Minutos is a podcast about dot-net technologies too. And I was interviewed on it a few times. I was just talking about, like, better practices, CQRS, and whatnot. And then, you know, somehow it kind of turned out that, like, hey, you know, we had tonight, like, two or three times.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Can you do one?
Andrea Magnorsky
conference speaking and presentation skills
I kind of host the show with us.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Oh, really?
Andrea Magnorsky
conference speaking and presentation skills
And I was like, yeah, sure. It's great. Because every time I was talking, I was struggling with the Spanish, even though I'm a native speaker, because I don't speak it often enough. And I thought, this is a great way to connect with a community that is latent and hungry for knowledge. And hopefully I can help and also get to practice my Spanish a bit more, you know, and make friends in Spain. And that's all good things.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Yeah. So, I had to wonder, though, did you learn technology in Spanish or did you learn technology in English?
Andrea Magnorsky
conference speaking and presentation skills
Because I have some friends and some colleagues who aren't native English speakers, but the bias in programming is generally English. Yep. And when they turn… I try to translate stuff back into native language. My wife is Polish, so sometimes when we're having a conversation, she's helping translate for me. She doesn't have equal words for them.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Was that something that was, like… A problem?
Andrea Magnorsky
conference speaking and presentation skills
Well, the thing is, in Argentina, unlike in Spain, we're very pro-using the English words. Like, you know, your networking class is not called redes, it's called networking. Oh, okay. So, in Cat5, it's Cat5. And iDisposable is still iDisposable, you know. So, but this is not the same in Spain. So, the podcast is sometimes incredibly funny. So, no, and also I left Argentina about 10, over 10 years ago. So, I never dealt with technology, like, in depth in Spanish. I thought, well, like, it's not a problem for me at all. And actually, I find it weird in the podcast, too. When people say, for example, I'm used to say NBC and MBC.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
It's like, what? What is MBC?
Andrea Magnorsky
conference speaking and presentation skills
That doesn't even make sense. Yeah, it's like whenever an acronym gets translated in, like, you know, the USSR, the SSSR, that old… It always struck me as funny, like, translating the Russian acronym into English. And it's always, ugh, just feels weird. It's like… Yeah, it totally is.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Okay. Well, thank you very much for taking the time to sit down with me. I really appreciate it. Oh, thank you very much. And I'm glad to hear people are doing stuff about user groups. Cool. Anything you need to let me know, I'm roundcrisis and Twitter. roundcrisis on Twitter.
Critical Insights
durable
"In-person participation is crucial for successful events."
durable
"Providing food and comfortable venues can greatly enhance the experience."
durable
"Engaging with local businesses can provide financial support for events."