There are plenty of challenges with running any startup in any part of the world, but there’s quite another when deciding to set up shop in the business centre of the Kawartha cottage country. Sure, it’s great to get on a bike and be at the lake in a few minutes. Or go for a hike on your lunch. Or in the case of ardeeXYZ, we’re tenants at the new Greater Peterborough Innovation Cluster which is a 45-second walk to the Silver Bean, “our cottage in the city”.
This is all great, but the reality is attracting and retaining talent can be a challenge. Now, in our case, we have our core team and we’re developing pitches and content just fine, but in the back of my mind is the lingering fear and anxiety of scaling up fast and local. Is it really possible?
PtboGameJam01
I got an answer to this challenge this weekend when Matt Davey of local game dev studio DotBunny (also, our technology lead at ardeeXYZ) blew the doors off any notion of a nascent technology scene with PtboGameJam01.
It was a 30-hour marathon of game development, with over 20 participants who created, in the end, 11 working video games using the Unity engine. This technology is exactly what we’re using at ardeeXYZ for our VR development, so it was beyond belief to see so many talented people working in our environment…. and they were all local or had local connections.
We provided multi-media support and after shooting video and interviews, and turned around a short video teaser the very next morning. We hope you enjoy this as much we did producing this and also meeting so many talented local developers.