Orange Is the New Black isn’t just a hot Netflix series, as Fort Tectoria newcomers discovered during Geek: Into the Pixel.
It also described the colour scheme and industrial-chic ambience of the Victoria Advanced Technology Council’s hub at 777 Fort St., where artists from local gaming studios showed off their screen gems and personal works.
A growing tide of millenials, hipsters and geeks who would never be confused with the opera crowd inched toward a gaming lounge highlighted by a crimson floral couch and giant flat-screen TVs where video-game junkies played classic video games such as Sonic the Hedgehog.
They passed diverse clusters of stunning artworks and sculptures, glistening orange stools and swivel-chairs, a giant surfboard and a “Cat Canvas” — a whiteboard with a “no dicks please” advisory that prompted guffaws from kitty-doodling artists.
“We’re trying to focus on the unsung heroes of the tech industry — the artists,” said event co-organizer Nadine Kerk-Hecker, while Tout de Sweet Confectionary’s Jeanette Miller greeted patrons with organic cotton candy.
“A lot of people think the gaming industry is just the programmers, but we’ve hired a lot of artists and do social and mobile gaming,” explained Eric Jordan, the kilted, bearded CEO of Codename Entertainment.
Neither Jordan nor Tim Teh, who heads KANO/APPS, one of Victoria’s 19 gaming studios, look like a conventional CEO.
“We’re definitely not corporate ... no suits in our office,” smiled Teh, wearing a white V-neck shirt, jeans, sneakers and a cool designer cap.
They’re part of a collective of local studio chiefs who meet periodically to exchange ideas about ways to grow the industry.
“It’s very different from video industries anywhere else in the world,” observed Teh, who said last weekend’s inaugural art show doubled as an awareness tool.
“A lot of people are leaving Victoria and trying to find jobs in Silicon Valley or even Vancouver,” he said. “But they can have a job in gaming here and not have to leave.”
About 5,500 people work in the gaming industry in B.C., including 250 in Victoria, added Jordan.
One contributor is Alex Carmichael, a University of Victoria computer-science graduate with an art background, who uses the object-oriented programming language C++ at InLight Entertainment.
“I think games are very much part of our visual landscape, whether people think that or not,” the co-op programmer said. “One of the striking things I’ve learned at InLight is that the code-side of game-making is obvious, but I don’t know if the art side is. I think people would be amazed if they met our artists and found out how quickly they can iterate through ideas and get stuff to the programmers. It’s pretty amazing.”
Organizer Amaris Fisher, a KANO/APPS concept artist, concurred.
“The amount of work done in a day is pretty crazy,” said Fisher, who was a kitchen manager and publicist before she broke in.
“There’s always pressure to be creative on a timeline ... bring something out of your head and put it on the screen.”
Joanne Parker Robertson, founder and design director for One Bit Labs, got into the industry 20 years ago because it allowed her to make a decent living as a single mother, she said.
“Besides, my kids thought it was pretty cool,” laughed the artist, designer and mother-of-four who built Microsoft’s video-game studio here in 2012.
“What’s really exciting is seeing the number of women now working in this industry because there have been some not-great politics,” said Robertson, adding it’s one of her company’s mandates.
