IGDA reaches out to ex-Telltale, Capcom, Carbine devs with Virtual Mentor Café
Initiative designed to help anyone impacted by layoffs in the last 60 days with new career opportunities
The International Game Developers Association is making an effort to put those who have recently lost their jobs in touch with mentors and potential new employers.
The organisation has announced the Virtual Mentor Café, an online extension of a similar venture it runs at trade shows and conferences around the world.
For its debut, the program is being run "with the explicit goal of helping game developers who have been laid off in the past 60 days". This includes those who suffered in the near-closure of Telltale Games, or the shutdown of Capcom Vancouver and Carbine Studios.
There has been a number of high-profile closures in the past few weeks, or indeed the past year, with more than 1,000 jobs lost when studios have been forced to close down.
"It's been a brutal month for game developers around the world, and like so many people in our community, the IGDA team wants to help the game developers impacted by layoffs and studio closures get back on their feet," wrote IGDA director Jen MacLean.
The Virtual Mentor Café is open to developers of all disciplines and career levels from around the world - even those who aren't members of the IGDA. The body has set up a form for those affected to clarify what they hope to gain from this.
There is also a form for anyone who would like to be a mentor and help out those seeking new career opportunities.
The goal is to have everyone who applies set up with a 30-minute conversation between mentor and mentee by October 15th.