Celtx Call #2 Wrap-Up

[Ron Toland]

Today's meeting was pretty short. We walked them through the Celtx
Partnership Proposal, answering their questions and getting a better
feel for how an IGDA-Celtx partnership would actually work.

They didn't object to anything in the doc, and agreed we had a lot to
offer, from user testing and connections with game educators to using
an IGDA endorsement to market the software. They specifically
mentioned that documentation is something every developer dreads
doing, and they'd welcome help with that chore.

They *did* ask what percentage of the video game industry is involved
with the IGDA, and what percentage of game developers worldwide are
members.

We said we couldn't put hard numbers on what percentage of all
developers are in the IGDA, but that the membership was large
(16,000+) and growing, with the IGDA investing significant resources
in expanding its reach. We also said that even by non-members, the
IGDA is recognized as the largest organization of and for game
developers, since all the major conferences host IGDA-sponsored
events.

They again expressed how interested they are, as developers, in
working on this project with us. They see a lot of potential
applications of their approach, one of which would be not exporting
our narrative documents into formats that game engines could read, but
also *importing* information (character names, types, etc.) from a
game engine and building on that from within our game writing tool.

The major hurdle at this point seems to be funding. Their business
model works off of premium web services and support at this point.
Since they foresee anywhere from 1-2 years of development work (going
through cycles of discuss features, develop features, release test
version) to get an industry-standard-caliber tool, they will need some
revenue up front to get through it.

This is something they're willing to work with us on. They're going to
discuss what it would take to get the work done, and how much they'll
be willing to invest from their end. They should contact us next week
to go over their counter-proposal about financing.

All in all I think it went well. We're much closer to having a
concrete plan on how to pull this off.

Thanks again to Stephen for arranging the meeting!

Ron

[Roane Beard]

It sounds like you guys knocked the ball out of the park on this one. Great work!

--
___________
Roane Beard
Staff Writer
Meteor Games

[Ron Toland]

Update from Celtx:

They emailed us yesterday to say that they've decided to spend some
more time fleshing out how they would go about developing our tool.
They're bringing in a local consultant who's been involved in Celtx
development from the beginning and has some expertise in game
development.

They're also going to look into federal and provincial funding sources
to offset the costs of development.

They believe it may take them a few weeks to put everything together
and come back to us with a fleshed-out counter-proposal.

I told them we would use the time to investigate our own funding
sources, and that we'd be happy to help answer any lingering questions
about feature sets, etc.

Ron

[Coray Seifert]

Awesome. Great work all!

Keep it up!

- C