From Mike Neel:

Hello Knox Game Design members!

Normally I’d have the default template here, but I’m skipping all that in hopes you’ll take a moment to read this email closer and join us this Sunday.

This will be the last meetup of Knox Game Design that I will be organizing.  I’m stepping down Lead Organizer (that’s what I’ve called myself if you were curious) after this meeting.

The first meeting of the group, originally called KnoXNA, was February 2010.  The group was part XNA game development and part robotics, mostly Lego Mindstorm bots but with an eye on using Microsoft Robotics Studio and XNA for bigger things.   We met weekly, which was a crazy pace for a group, and held mini challenges for the robots while talk though the XNA examples provided by Microsoft.  Things slowed down, the robotics side tapered off, and we moved to holding the meetings monthly at the newly formed Technology Cooperative (yes, the group is older than the TechCo!).  As Microsoft began to sunset XNA we renamed the group Knox Game Design to match an existing Facebook of local ITT Tech game design graduates.

This is a long time to have run a community group, and though I love it, it is something that takes time.  I’ve been over stretching myself lately and it’s time to dial back.  I want to focus on some of the things I’ve put off because I haven’t had the time and energy to do them.

We seen a lot of game designers, artists, programmers, musicians, and more at the meetups over the years.  I hope that this continues, and so the topic at this meetup will be to discuss the group and where it goes in 2017 and beyond.

The Podcast

I have to admit I failed this time to play the selected game, Dwarf Fortress.  I gave it several attempts but the legends were true and this is not an easy game to jump into.  I’d still love to record a podcast after the meetup, and open it up to games we played over the break.

Location and Time

The meetup will be held at the Technology Cooperative located at 13 Emory Place, Knoxville TN.  Parking is available in front of the Technology Cooperative.