Winter4ever was created out of a personal need for a small and cozy game dev space to share knowledge. I wanted to spotlight marginalized developers and ask them less of what it’s like to be marginalized in our industry, and more about their expertise. I led this event for 3 years in a row, and with the help of Rad Magpie, created a safe, inclusive digital experience where we all could learn, interact, and gather.
In 2021 I attended the Game UX Summit hosted by Celia Hodent, and really enjoyed the welcoming atmosphere of this professional game development event. I thought to myself, “it would be really cool to attend more online events like this!” especially given the fact that many of us had to stay home because of the pandemic. I was craving to connect and learn from others, and wanted to put my energy towards something positive, inclusive, and accessible, so I founded Winter4ever: a game dev gathering~ (the squiggly is really important, it means it’s causal.)
Winter4ever was focused on supporting marginalized voices, sharing knowledge, and bringing visibility to the game dev community around Vermont and beyond through talks and community portfolio reviews. Over three years we gave the spotlight to 24 speakers and had an audience of 80+ game developers. Ticket sales funded professional captioning of all recorded videos so that talks could be accessed at any time.
Winter4ever’s vibes were created to represent how I felt at the time. With where I was living, March didn’t mean the coming of spring, it meant the continuation of winter. In the cold, sleepy darkness, I wanted to find a small corner of cozy-ness; a small corner that was safe and brimming with inspirational energy. Winter4ever’s silly mood board reflected all of this, and not only did it help guide the visual direction of the assets, but it helped set the tone for the entire event!
My goal with the visual design of the event was first, to just have fun. Second, I wanted to try something new and challenge myself to capture the above ~vibes~ into a graphic. The 2022 version of the event leaned into a consistent pink and blue color palette, and I wanted to explore a push and pull using soft and hard shapes together, as well as hard lines and soft gradients. 2023’s lite version was much more toned down and muted to represent how tired many of us felt at the time, as well as communicate a more casual version of the event. For the 2021 edition, Surge did an amazing job setting the tone and cozy factor with a calming blue palette.
For this event, I partnered with Rad Magpie, a non-profit who’s doing their part to dismantle the patriarchy and white supremacy through uplifting underrepresented video game developers. Knowing the people involved and their success in organizing fun, safe events, I sought their support. Rad Magpie assisted with marketing, event hosting, meetings/feedback sessions, and empowered me to take charge.
I led myself and the team at Rad Magpie to bring this event to life by creating a timeline with deadlines for ourselves and for speaker content. To create a stress-free environment for our volunteer speakers, I made sure to support them by encouraging their ideas and communicating the process of the online event. It was important to me to also give back to the community, so Winter4ever had dedicated time to connect those entering the video game industry with mentors in similar fields for a portfolio review.
Each year taught me something new, and I took those lessons learned into the following years, and am looking forward to taking it into future events!
