Archive for March, 2010

GDC 2010 Networking

Monday, March 1st, 2010

The Game Developer Conference (GDC to most) is coming up in just over one week. This is a well-attended industry event and the main benefit for most is the networking that extends well beyond the main conference hours. Due to this fact, the after-hours event schedule is almost overwhelming. Our marketing team had to build an event matrix just to sort it all out, and we figured it might be handy for others if the GDC mixer information was consolidated into one place.

To that end, below are the events, grouped by day and listed chronologically. If we missed some, give us the details in a comment and we’ll keep updating the list.

See you all there!

Monday, March 8th

Zynga Flash Soiree – Pre-GDC & Flash Gaming Summit Afterparty

Date: Monday, March 8
Time: 6-8pm
Location:
Harlot
46 Minna St.

http://fgs2010-party.eventbrite.com/

Tuesday, March 9th

Social Online Game Summit Mixer

Date: Tuesday, March 9
Time: 5:30 – 7:30
Location:

Moscone Center

North lower lobby

http://www.gdconf.com/events/partiesnetworking.html

Wednesday, March 10th

hi5’s Game Developer Program Mixer

Date: Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Time: 4:15 PM – 5:15 PM (PT)

Location:

Moscone Center

Room 122

North Hall

http://hi5games.eventbrite.com/

F2P Forum 2010 GDC Cocktail Mixer

Date: Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Time: 6-8pm

Location:

111 Minna Gallery

111 Minna St.

http://forum.f2pforum.org/2010/02/f2p-forum-2010-gdc-cocktail-mixer/

GamesBeat Networking Reception

Date: Wednesday, March 10th
Time:
6-8pm
Location:

Moscone Center

South Esplanade Room 303

http://www.gdconf.com/events/partiesnetworking.html

BRADIC VIP Reception (Baton Rouge Digital Industries Consortium)

Date: Wednesday, March 10
Time: 7-9pm
Location:

Slide SF

430 Mason St.

http://www.gdconf.com/events/partiesnetworking.html

GDC Tweetup

Date: Wednesday, March 10

Time: 8pm

Location:

Cigar Bar & Grill

850 Montgomery St.

http://macton.posterous.com/initial-details-for-our-gdc-tweetups-gdcdrink

Gamma IV Showcase Party

Date: Wednesday, March 10

Time: 8pm-3am

Location:

Mezzanine

444 Jessie Street @ Mint

http://www.gamesetwatch.com/2010/03/kokoromi_announces_gamma_iv_se.php

Thursday, March 11th

The Speakeasy Party (Hosted by Incomm, PeanutLabs, Vindicia & Zeevex)

Date: Thursday March 11, 2010

Time: 8-11pm

Location:

Metreon Center

101 4th Street – 4th Floor City Terrace

Friday, March 12th

IGDA Members Only Party

Date: March 12th, 2010

Time: 6-8pm

Location:

Jillian’s

101 4th Street

http://www.igda.org/civicrm/event/info?id=7&reset=1

The Dutch Party (INVITE ONLY)

Date: March 12th, 2010

Location:

The Supperclub San Francisco

657 Harrison Street

Billing System Economics

Monday, March 1st, 2010

When evaluating billing solutions, companies have a lot of information to sort through and little help to do so.  After talking with countless merchants, I’ve found that companies typically fall into two categories during their search – startup or veteran.  Startup companies aren’t necessarily those who just launched their business,  but any company that is bringing a new product to market and lacks pre-existing infrastructure or payment expertise falls into this category.  Veterans have built a system at least once before and are very aware of the pitfalls and the overall payments ecosystem.

Startup companies should spend the time to educate themselves on the industry – payments and billing are complex and outright confusing.  The diagram below shows the many different pieces of a complete billing infrastructure.

The systems above are involved when  a customer makes their purchase until the transaction is submitted to the customer’s bank (that issued the credit card or funds the payment source) and eventually money ends up in the companies bank account.  A further description of these systems, and how outsourced billing systems add value are after the jump.

(more…)