|
I'm starting a LAN/gaming center in Pittsburgh that has an attached coworking area. Our plan to start is 10 gaming PCs, 8 individual console stations, 2 couch/living room setups, 14 desks in the coworking area and a conference table. I'm looking to make it a great space for indie developers to come and meet and build. And also a great place for local kids who are interested in games to take classes in modding, server building and game development. This is the front of the building, although at this point all of those terrible ceiling tiles are gone, we've put in pillars to hold the gaming tvs and we're now doing up some paint.  Here is a more recent picture. The giant expanse of gray will be covered with a mural by a local artist. He's starting in the next week. I have a whole bunch of info on the space, since I'm one of the two owners who are starting it. I'm happy to give you any info you want, but I'd like to hear people's thoughts on what we should have/do to make sure people are a) happy when they come in and b) actually come in. I didn't want to throw down a 9000 word epic on this place if no one here is actually interested. You can check out our first draft of our website at https://www.lfgpgh.com - it should look much prettier after this weekend and have more info about what we're offering. Ask questions, give advice, tell me what you think. The tag is because our first time people will be in and playing is the We Forgot party on 9/12)
|
#
?
Sep 4, 2015 21:04
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 26, 2024 16:53 |
|
|
I'm glad to see places like this pop up. I wish they existed back when I was in high school and college because I would have loved to hang out at them. Now that I'm older, I'd go not only to game but also just to meet people and make friends, since being over 30 and having a family makes it a lot harder to find cool people who share my interests. Having a workspace for game design is a great idea as well. I like to play around with game design tools on my own and I would love the opportunity to see what other folks are doing and bounce ideas off each other. I think one of the best draws is kind of obvious. Have regular gaming events that are open to the public and make them fun, friendly and inviting. I'm curious about how you're planning on handling younger kids and whether or not you're going to have an age limit or a restriction on playing mature games (like only allowing them after a certain time of the evening, etc). If I lived closer I'd come check it out but I'm in Philly and don't have much spare time. Best of luck to you and your group!
|
|
#
?
Sep 4, 2015 21:27
|
|
|
I would say that starting your business with a 9/11 joke is a bit tasteless and might alienate you from the local business community and maybe some customers. Cool ideas otherwise though.
|
|
#
?
Sep 4, 2015 21:35
|
|
|
I'm assuming you've talked to CMU? ETC and the Game Creation Society might be good to reach out to/ market towards.
|
|
#
?
Sep 4, 2015 21:48
|
|
|
Yeah, the 12th is my birthday, along with one of the other owners, which has been turned into a 9/11 joke for a while now. We're planning our "we forgot" birthday there as a day to put together desks/machines, not an actual advertised party for the public. Our first public offering starts on the 18th, we're opening up to have a game jam over the weekend. That'll let us make sure everything actually works as intended, let us figure out if there are any issues with the internet, power, placements, workflow, bathrooms, what have you. After that, we're going to start a series of opening events, friday and saturday nights where we bring in entertainment, have one price to get in and give the place a run through on the LAN side. Our plan for mixing adults and kids is basically see how it goes. We are going to have BYOB on certain nights and we're going to have to see if it is manageable enough for us to have it still be under 21 on those nights or not. As for mature games, I think we're going to mostly avoid them being on any outside facing TVs and maybe have times/days where we push for more all ages games, like Rocket League, Mario Maker, sports games and what have you instead of MGS5 or COD...12? I don't even know what number they're on anymore.
|
|
#
?
Sep 4, 2015 21:51
|
|
|
SHOTGUN REGULAR posted:I would say that starting your business with a 9/11 joke is a bit tasteless and might alienate you from the local business community and maybe some customers. Cool ideas otherwise though. Seconding this, you are going to have a hard enough time convincing people your business isn't filled with internet weirdos without making 9/11 jokes.
|
|
#
?
Sep 4, 2015 21:53
|
|
|
Yup, you're right. We're not actually calling our party on the 12th a we forgot party, it's a birthday party for the owners. But I couldn't find a good tag and thought we forgot was good for at least a joke. Amazingly enough, out of the 20+ people currently working on the space, only one or two are internet weirdos. Part of what we want to do is build a good community that hopefully moves a welcoming, friendly community to the internet as well.
|
|
#
?
Sep 5, 2015 01:17
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 26, 2024 16:53 |
|
|
The town I live in used to have a LAN gaming place, complete with PCs, console stations, and conference room. Also a little mini arcade section which had a Dance Dance Revolution machine. By all accounts the DDR machine was by far the shop's #1 revenue source. This was several years ago though, not sure if DDR is still quite as big a draw. Just checked your website... you're gonna do Nidhogg tournaments? Holy gently caress I'd be stoked if I lived in Pittsburgh.
|
|
#
?
Sep 6, 2015 05:13
|
|
