Becoming an Indie: Where to Start and Where to End, Hopefully

Description: MediaTech Ventures and Austin Game Developers are joining together to discuss the path of the indie game developer. We will be having a panel discuss and take questions on where to start with building a business, building a team, finding funding, and how to make it to the "big leagues".

Moderator: Frank Coppersmith
CEO of Smarter Reality, a digital discovery and development company in Austin, Texas. Frank was named Austin’s “CFO of the Year” (small company category) by the Austin Business Journal in 2010. Previously President of Capson Technology, as well as COO and studio general manager for GameSalad. He has also served as Vice President, Finance and Administration, for Challenge Online Games; a venture-backed (Sequoia Capital, Globespan Capital) startup in the web and social (Facebook) gaming space which was sold to Zynga.

Panelists:
Jared Steffes- COO of Muxy and serial entrepreneur
Jared's been through it all. AAA, starting 3 game studios, Twitch streaming, getting ripped off, licensing IP to make games, having co-founder troubles, having a mobile game hit, making serious games, esports, and even venturing into real money mobile games. He is a wealth of knowledge and has helped a lot of people figure out how to build a successful indie game studio. It is not easy, but if you have the right attitude and learn quickly you can make it happen

Adam Creighton - A strategic industry leader for video games, consumer goods, and services. Adam Creighton is Founder & Studio Head for Austin's Enduring Games. The studio crafts high-quality products for upcoming console hardware and business models, making good games with good people. Key companies include Disney, Emergent Game Technologies, & Panic Button. Key brands include Marvel, Star Wars, DOOM, Warframe, & Rocket League. Adam is a professional voice and on-camera actor. He's been known to wrestle llamas.

Ben Crossbones - Currently audio lead at Arkane Studios Austin, Ben Crossbones has contributed creative sound and technical sound design to 39 titles ranging from casino to indie mobile to AAA to VR. Previous credits include Tony Hawk, WWE, Killer Instinct and Organ Trail. Since transplanting from Chicago to Austin, Ben has worked on Prey, Prey: Mooncrash, Super Lucky's Tale, and Wilson's Heart. Prior to games, Ben has worked as a live sound engineer, roadie, touring musician, film composer, foley artist, film and trailer sound design, and one of Yelp's least favorite bartenders.

MediaTech Ventures:
Venture development group, employing a proprietary framework connecting capital and advancing opportunities in modern media. Modern Media verticals include, but not limited to: Music/Sound, Film/VR/AR, News/PR, Publishing, Radio/Podcast, Video Games, Marketing/Advertising

Collective Incubator:
Collective is a 12 week Media Technology focused incubator program by MediaTech Ventures dedicated to developing and launching idea stage and pre-seed stage media focused startups. Currently the ONLY media focused incubator in Austin, TX.

Schedule:
6:30 PM - Doors Open
7:00 PM - Panel Starts
8:00 PM - Panel Ends
8:30 PM - Networking
9:00 PM - Event Ends, but people may stay and network

Beer to be provided while supplies lasts