Working from opposite sides of the continent

Hi there. I'm the Cat in GigaCat.


Gig posted a fair bit about the advantages and disadvantages of being on either side of the coast. And it's true that if you are looking for a game industry job with an established game developer, West is probably where you want to be.
But for a small independent team working on a game I really don't think it matters where you are. I'm with 37 signals on this one. We have the technology to overcome geographical limitations and nowadays its cheap to almost free.
Gig and I work from opposite sides of the continent. Our 'virtual office' consists of the following:

• Google Talk (free) is our video conferencing software
• A shared Google Docs Presentation (free) serves as our white board
• A private Github account (some dollars a month) serves as our code repository, task tracker, and wiki

We communicate constantly over IM, email, and voice chat, but we also make it a point to have a standing virtual meeting twice a week: Quick check point call on Tuesday nights and multi-hour working sessions on Saturdays. Gig's made the plunge but I still have a day job, so these standing meetings create the momentum to keep us moving forward.


What we realized is that if we really want to work on a game, we should stop worrying about what coast we are on. We should stop thinking about making a game and just start making one.


Go download the free Corona SDK and jam on the example source codes. Even if you are not a seasoned programmer, if a 14 year old can do it, you can certainly teach yourself to do it.