Hello all, this is Dan Bushman, aka MrMacabreman. Some of you may remember my idea for Round Table Development from about a year ago. I have been gathering contacts and information in order to actually make the site useful. Beyond that, work with my own projects has postponed it's opening. I am glad however to now announce that the site will be open soon and I am looking for a core set of development teams to sign up. For those of you who don't know what this is/means, let me explain. What is Round Table Dev? Round Table Dev is a game development community for independent game developers that operates on two levels. Level one - Standard community member level at this level you register in the community and fill out a resume of skills you have, examples of work, previous projects and the type of work you are looking for or people you are looking for (IE programmer, writers, spriters) to start your own development team. You may post in the forums to help other people with information, post to request information, request a job or request for staff. You also have access to tutorials and links on information regarding various aspects of game development such as copyrights, business contacts, where to begin and so on. Level two - Knighthood Knighthood is granted to established development teams who are working on a project and have requested Knighthood membership and have been accepted after review. With Knighthood membership you are given access to the core site content including development management tools for your game, full access to all user resumes, a listing in the Round Table Dev Registered developers list which is given to publishers as well as 1gb of web space including e-mail and ftp accounts. Here is a beta screenshot: http://www.roundtabledev.com/images/rtd_demo_screen.gif If you choose, you will also be allowed a website at http://www.roundtabledev.com/your_teams_name What is the best part? It's free! The point of this site is not to give money to receive a service, but to give information and support. How many of you independent developers have good concepts, a great team, but are unable to find the information you need (how to get licensed for example) or to be taken seriously when looking for staff due to lack of funding? Another more common problem is having skills but getting hooked up with a team that is going nowhere. RTD allows you to browse resumes, not to mention apply to teams that have been accepted into Knighthood status. Let me know if you would like to join on a user level or knighthood level if you are interested. You may also subscribe to the newsletter for information and updates by sending a blank e-mail to subscribe@roundtabledev.com - and enter either "standard" or "knighthood" in the subject. Thanks all Dan Bushman Exile Games

just out of curiosity Dan, (perhaps you mentioned this and i didn't see it) but is this site for dev teams or potential team seekers only ? and would the resume be required at signup, or can it be postponed if the member doesn't wish to post them at that time (they don't want a team atm and don't want to be assaulted by others who do) but still participate/browse the forums (ect..insert other cool round table dev functions). still, its a jolly good idea.

for anyone who cares, pictar clickified

cheers.

In response to you questions, yes, there are some restrictions. Here they are as well as the reasons why we felt it was needed to put those restrictions into effect:


is this site for dev teams or potential team seekers only?
The site is for anyone, but there is a catch. People who are not members can not view resume's of other members. They may obviously request a resume to be sent to them via an anonymous PM with informatin regarding why you are inquiring, but whether or not you get a response will be at the discretion of the member in question. The reason for this rule is basically to keep intact the one and only form of payment that the community requires to exist - Information and community contribution. The only thing that RTD asks in return for information is information. Whether that be an addition to the publisher contact list or simply a list of your skills doesn't make a difference. Without this simple requirment, the community cannot thrive. The few will take what they want, leave, the community will whither and we will all be worse off.

This leads into the second question

would the resume be required at signup, or can it be postponed if the member doesn't wish to post them at that time (they don't want a team atm and don't want to be assaulted by others who do) but still participate/browse the forums?

In some respect, yes, it will be required. When you sign up there is a simple list of drop down fields that are the minimum requirment to access the forums. Basically this will be a series of questions for example:

area of expertise (IE Programming and what languages or art or whatever)
Looking for a team - yes or no
Looking for staff - yes or no
What are you primarily interested in helping developing for (GBA, PC, ETC...)

and so on...

In this respect, you shouldn't be assaulted by requests unless that is what you specify. Additionally, no contact information is given unless you allow it. You are not required to give personal contact info. All requests will be sent to your PM account.

I hope this answers your questions. If you have anymore, let me know.

I am also considering trying to organize Round Table in-person meetings for dev teams and people interested in indie dev in various major cities. As soon as next week we may have one here in NYC if enough interest is shown.

UPDATE: Site is nearing completion: preview
That is a screenshot of the registration page, so that you know what it involves.

We will be uploading the site with the next week and 1/2 to 2 weeks

Anymore questions?

Question: How do you keep sane with so many IM and mozilla windows open at once? :)

No, seriously, I look forward to the sites opening!

Haha, yes, it does get a little crazy at times. I generally have a lot of things going on at once.

You may now register an account at Round Table Dev. Basic forum functions are operational, however the site will not be finished until the end of this week.

Sign Up!

Despite the lack of response to this forum post, many of you have e-mailed me personally, so I will continue to update this post until the forum is complete

Dan Bushman
Founder, Exile Games and RoundTableDev

I am bumping this because people from this forum have contacted me personally to voice their interest in the project. The site is now functional, however the content is still not all uploaded. The have been seom changes to the design, and I have updated the first post regarding those changes, marking them with "*UPDATE*"

Thanks again for all of your interest!

Dan Bushman