Honing In
I’m writing this in the flush of excitement of January 20, 2021; the presidential inauguration rolling on the dual monitor beside this one. It is an excellent day! and a good day to share with you some Rad Magpie updates.
Many of you have known us through different iterations. We’ve taught at summer coding camps for girls, developed a couple video game titles, held events at local schools, and ran three summers of Rad Studio. Our inspiration and mission has always been the same -- to support the voices of marginalized game developers -- but our manner of execution has evolved.
Each one of these programs has been rewarding, but we couldn’t shake the feeling that focusing our energy would have a bigger impact on our mission. We wanted to hone in. It was easy and natural to choose Rad Studio, our summer game development incubator for college students. Recent reflection made me realize why:
It turns out that the real inspiration for Rad Magpie was more specific than I had realized - and much more personal.
White supremacy and misogyny are embedded within the very systems of our college institutions. All of us who contributed to the foundation of Rad Magpie experienced this personally. For a lot of us, college wasn’t a confidence incubator - it was the opposite. College was a place that reinforced the societal positioning that we had already experienced in the rest of our lives.
Rad Magpie came into existence to support the game development students that we believed were being failed by these institutions. We are remedial: a supplement. We exist to provide the space for those underrepresented students to thrive. But the work goes beyond that, because we believe that when we empower these students, they will enter the industry and challenge it and change it. And when they change the video game industry, they will change the culture. Evolving the industry is evolving the world.
Many of you have known us through different iterations, but it has become ever more clear to us that Rad Magpie’s calling is Rad Studio. It is our confidence booster and our social justice radicalization program. It is the most direct line to accomplishing our mission.
So instead of seeking to grow all of our original programs at this time, we are going to focus on building the foundation of Rad Studio so it is systematically replicable and staged for growth in coming years. We believe that we will have completed a financially sustainable, replicable iteration of Rad Studio by the end of 2021. Once the foundation is built and that program no longer requires as many resources, Rad Magpie can turn its attention to expanding our programmatic offerings.
This is not to say that we will reject opportunities that fall outside of Rad Studio if they feel right for us. It simply means that we do not intend to devote significant resources to seeking out opportunities in the realms of Rad Jams and Rad Media at this time.
Banking on Rad Studio feels like the clarity and singularity of vision that the Rad Magpie executives have been craving for a long time. Launching Rad Jams, Rad Media, and Rad Studio all at once, while simultaneously building up internal processes and learning the ropes of running a nonprofit has been exhilarating on the good days and downright terribly overwhelming on the rest of them. Now we can all dive into a single project with all of our energy - and that’s what we’re doing! We’re already well into the planning of this summer’s cohort. Early admissions open in a little over a month!
It has been an incredible ride these past few years. We are grateful for all of the opportunities that have brought us here. 2021 is going to be great.
Thank you for your attention and your support. We continue to exist because and for you.
Happy new year! May you and your loved ones be safe.
Dana Steinhoff
Executive Director
Rad Magpie