Game Republic, GaMaYo and other social events

Thanks to a friend a met at the last year's Game Republic student showreel held at the college, I managed to get involved into numerous events. She and some of her friends put some money together and bought a year subscription to Game republic and managed to get entrance to events organised by parters such as TIGA and GaMaYo.
It was thanks to her help that I managed to get some access to the events happening locally that otherwise would have cost me quite a lot. Some reunions have been quite fun and informative, some other more social and relaxed, but so far I managed to make a physical presence with some people that represent companies such as Simon from Four Door Lemon and some other indie developers. The subscriptions has now expired, but if I stay around West Yorkshire, I'll definitely join it.

Sure at some point I'll probably start developing personal projects that I'll be able to demonstrate around. This kind of gatherings are incredibly good for getting feedback on projects you're working on. I got quite a lot of positive reviews for my Sanctuary game; I only managed to get some screen shots, yet that helped me to get some aesthetic feedback. Hopefully I'll get around to exported into an ipad/iphone and be able to show it around.

Just on the most recent GaMaYo event I went on the 24th of April at Shooters Sports Bar in Leeds there were special guests from Microsoft, Mastertronic, Unity, BBC and UKIE, not to mention a good bunch of people showing their work.