Most of you probably don't know that last Sunday, August 28, First Baptist Church in Newton made 12 large tables and 100 chairs available for the Boston Indie Game Dev Summer BBQ. It was a fun gathering of a diverse group of people in the Boston area who make tabletop games and video games. It happened the day after Boston GameLoop, an unconference (or open conference) about game development and related topics. Besides technical discussions, issues like cultural competency were discussed. I even led a discussion on good and bad examples of depictions of religion in video games.
Volunteers from the event arrived at the church Sunday morning to help pick up and transport everything to the American Twine building in Cambridge where the event was held. It was a great group to work with, and they were even kind enough to put thank you notes to the church on all the tables.
Volunteers from the event arrived at the church Sunday morning to help pick up and transport everything to the American Twine building in Cambridge where the event was held. It was a great group to work with, and they were even kind enough to put thank you notes to the church on all the tables.
Finally, I want to share with you a thank you note from one of the event organizers. I hope it gives you a sense of how much this simple act of generosity was appreciated.
Hello everyone!
I don't know how you guys are doing, but I'm a funny mixture of elated and exhausted at the exact same time! What a weekend, right?!
The reason I'm writing is to thank all of you for your help with organizing the Game Dev Potluck that happened yesterday. I consider all of you a core part of our success. I heard nothing but thanks and congratulations from many of the game dev community members who attended. Especially if you weren't there or weren't there the whole time, I want you to know that people had a GREAT time yesterday!
Thank you all for your time, patience, and skills. This includes those of you who were more behind the scenes - everything you contributed is valued and appreciated. Whether you were moving chairs and tables, helping us get that excellent location, giving expert advice, reaching out to sponsors, advertising the event to the community...every single one of you made this happen.
I saw so much hard work this year that I can only believe that next year's event will be even better! I hope we can all work together again to continue bringing our community together.
As someone who loves video games and has been getting more involved with the Boston game developer community over the years, I echo those sentiments.
~Ben Chicka
~Ben Chicka