I’d be more than happy to write up some articles on the business/marketing/pr side of things if people are interested in them, and can actually tell me what it is you want to know.[/quote:c2ae61e11d]
That would be really interesting indeed! It’s true, there aren’t many developers based in Ireland (the only ones I can think of are Jolt, Popcap, Havok and DemonWare; please correct if I’m wrong or if there are others), but on the other hand going Indie these days couldn’t be easier. Of course it could be hard and not so rewarding at the beginning, might not even produce profit, but still if making games is what we really want, we must try.
I think there’s a lack of knowledge (speaking for myself as a developer) on how the business/marketing sides work: how do you get your game known, which platform could be the best to publish given the type of game, how to write a business plan to eventually get funding, what are the smaller events to show your work, etc.
These are the area I think are worth exploring, together with creating an active community where everyone can contribute and with a fixed meeting schedule, so that people can organise in time.
As for the website, maybe adding a little bit of integration with 2.0 features (like link with twitter accounts), a Facebook fanpage where people can get news while not frequenting the forum could be helpful as well. I’ve done a little bit of web development lately, so if you need and hand on that side, just give me a shout.
Just my two cents.