About Kayla Bayens

I don’t know about you con goers, but I have always felt that a good convention runs on the power of food. Now that might just be the foodie in me talking but I mean who doesn’t like a good meal. And when you are in a new area why not be a little adventurous and step outside of the same old tired food you always get? Which is why I have put together this list of rather saliva inducing deliciousness.

 

Back A Yard, Caribbean, .5 miles

[80 N Market St San Jose, CA 95113]

Tofoo Com Chay, Vietnamese/Vegetarian/Vegan, .7 miles

[388 E Santa Clara St San Jose, CA 95113]

The City Fish, Seafood/Fish & Chips/Sandwiches, .4 miles

[30 E Santa Clara St Ste 140 San Jose, CA 95113]

Vegetarian House, Asian Fusion/Vegetarian/Vegan, .9 miles

[520 E Santa Clara St San Jose, CA 95112]

Paper Plane, American/Cocktail Bar, .3 miles

[72 S 1st St San Jose, CA 95113]

Good Karma Artisan Ales & Cafe, Pubs/Vegetarian/Vegan, .4 miles

[37 S 1st St San Jose, CA 95113]

Pho Cong Ly, Vietnamese, .7 miles

[460 E William St San Jose, CA 95112]

Nemea Greek Taverna, Greek/Mediterranean, .3 miles

[96 S 1st St San Jose, CA 95113]

Punjab Cafe, Indian, .7 miles

[322 E Santa Clara St San Jose, CA 95112]

San Pedro Square Bistro & Wine, American/Wine Bar, .5 miles

[20 N Almaden Ave San Jose, CA 95112]

Now I’m not saying there is a GX3 “Food Club” [mostly because we’re not allowed to talk about it], but if you all happen to want to do some group gatherings take to twitter and use #GX3GrubTime to send up the rainbow flare. We’ll see how many of us can flood a business at a time, it will be like a fun little experiment. Think of it as the next item on our gay agenda.

 

FOR SCIENCE!

~Kayla

Sounding like the name of a superhero group, the MAVEN 5 are pretty much just that. They are a group of super LGBTQ youth who are taking on Washington. Or at least they hope to with your help. See these kids have the drive and passion to actually tackle something as large and sinister as the 2nd Annual LGBTQ Tech Summit but they need the help of every member of the community to get there.  Now while these super heroes aren’t wearing masks they are still a little mysterious to us, that’s why this modern day Lois Lane hunted down the story and got the once in a lifetime scoop of an interview with two of the group’s members.

What got you interested in technology?

Humaira – “My father. He introduced my siblings and I to the Xbox 360, the nintendo gamecube and DS, the PS3. Everyone in my family has always been into tech, really. When my dad started taking computer science courses, he suggested we do the same. Even though it was really hard at first, the more I did it the more I realized how big the possibilities were when it came to what I could build as I gained more computer science knowledge.”

How did you get involved with Maven?

Kiernynn – “I went to their very first LGBTQ+ youth tech camp in San Francisco. I met some really cool people there, had some crazy new experiences and felt closer to an actual job in tech than I ever had before. It was also when I met Matt, Toni, and Phillip. I came back for the second year, and that’s when Monica informed me I was on of five being nominated for the Summit. I guess Monica likes me. :)”

For all the other LGBTQ youth out there interested in getting into a tech field, what advice do you have for them?

Humaira – “Be resourceful. You can’t be a coder and not be resourceful. This could mean scouring the internet for answers to a problem you have, finding someone experienced in tech to teach you, or asking for advice on stack overflow. There isn’t going to be someone there to hold your hand all the time, and you need to know how to figure stuff out for yourself, or at least know how to research online and ask the right questions. All the knowledge is out there on the internet and at your fingertips, you just have to realize it’s right there. Also, don’t give up too easily.”

Kiernynn – “Just do it. Think of the Shia Lebouf meme and take it to heart. Your best in is actually participating in some form of technology whether you like robots and participate in battle bots or you leave a comment on a youtube video. You’d be surprised who talks to you and what they’ve done in their lives. I’m not sure I’m the best person to tell you how to get a job because I’m still working on that, but if you’re interested in technology, use it and play around with it. You have to be a consumer first.”

Why do you feel its important for LGBTQ youth to attend the tech summit?

Humaira – “Youth make up a huge part of our LGBTQ community! If the goal is to bring together people in the LGBTQ tech community to think of ways to solve problems members of our community face, then as youth, our problems and opinions need to be heard too. ”

What do you hope to achieve by attending?

Kiernynn – “The goal is more freedom, more equality, and more (as cheesy as it sounds) love and understanding. We want to create romance between minorities and the majority that leads to a healthy marriage and three kids. I honestly don’t know what the issues are that we’re tackling and what, exactly, they want us to do to solve them, but I think as long as I keep my goal in mind and act with my goal in mind, I can end up doing some good at this Summit. It’s not going to solves everyone’s problemS (I doubt it will even do noticeable change in an average community) but we’re there! We’re in D.C., we’re in a Summit specifically designed for our input, and that’s something at least. Who knows, maybe we can have a third recognized gender soon?”

Is there a plan to continue over what you learn from the tech summit into other Maven activities?

Humaira – “Most definitely! I’ll be attending Maven’s tech camp next year, and I plan on volunteering to help teach one of their programming class. I’ll have more experience after working on the projects after the summit, so that will definitely help. Also, the other members of the “Maven 5” and I are working on a LGBTQ themed game together that we plan on submitting to Maven’s national game jam, though we’ll continue working on it even after game jam.”

What is the biggest thing that you all would like to see come out of this tech summit?

Kiernynn – “The big things I would like to see come out of this are all government-based. I’ve come to terms with knowing others’ opinions of me and my family and my friends are not going to change in a couple of days or even a couple of years or even at all. My goals are all focused on limiting what those people can do with their opinions and not changing the actual opinions themselves. As a youth, I would like to focus on what I can do for other youth who don’t necessarily have the opportunity to do something like go to a tech summit and tell the government how to lessen oppression like I do. At my school, I’ve been focusing more recently on getting gender neutral bathrooms in every school in every district in San Diego County and getting mandatory sensitivity training in every school in every district of San Diego county.”

Humaira – “Honestly? I’d like for people at the summit who have the power to change things to listen. Really listen when the issues are brought up. Try to empathize with the real people who face these problems every day, and use that as motivation to help them. The White House can hold all the summits and events in the world, but at the end of the day, if people up the chain aren’t really listening and are just using this event to show the world that ‘Hey, we support the LGBTQ community!’ without actually trying to help, then it’s all for naught.”

As you can see these super youths are ready to go to bat for the community. If you’d like to help send them and their team to Washington then go check out their IndieGoGo page now to donate. Or if you’d like to donate your time to the organization you can find the information for that here on their website.

Ready and waiting with a cape in the wings

~Kayla

When it comes to taste in games mine tend to be very diverse. I’m also that weird person who likes metagames. You know like playing a game about making games. If you happen to be in the same pixelized boat as me then prepare to be recommended a great game! Game Dev Tycoon is an indie game created by Greenhart Games. Its not a new game since its debut was 2012 but it’s still a very good game. Many of you all in the community are developers, some dabble while others pursue it as a career. For both sides of that spectrum there is fun to be had in this game.

Now this game does go into some crazy meta levels people. I’m talking plays off of all the big companies, there systems, and even their choices. This thing is kind of on it’s A game when it comes to throwing things like that at you. And its not above poking fun at some of the companies either. The game spans the life, so far, of what we consider video games. You start your company right at the start of it and try to ride it out to be one of the big hitters come the end of the game. Like in life sometimes you fail horribly and become so in debt it hurts, other times you manage to squeak by. However there is that occasionally play through where you just happen to make the right decisions and the lines of code align to give you an incredible fake game company. Don’t you wish life were that easy sometimes?

Graphics aren’t really up there with this game but its art style is kind of funky enough to fit with what the creators were going for. The stylized look helps you really get in the mood as you navigate what systems to license and what kind of games to make. I have to admit I played with the sound off most of the time just because if it’s not critical to the game I tend to avoid the in game music. Mostly because if it’s not critical it tends to be a short snip looped forever and I like to play long hauls of those kind of games. No sense driving myself insane while doing it. As such I can’t really speak on the sound effects or the game music.

BUT I can tell you I had alot of fun playing it and trying to spot all of the references and digs at companies. I even kept playing it after the official “end” of the game. Which really is just the game tallying up where you are and giving you a ranking. You can still keep playing after that to continue your company it just won’t count towards your rank. Boy did I continue with it though, I wanted to see how futuristic I could get my company. I encourage you all to play it well past the official ending of the game to find out for yourself.

In the end I give this game a solid 4 out of 5. Its a good game with lots of video game references for all those nerds out there. Plus you get the awesome bonus of seeing how running a video game company would feel like without the risk of massive amounts of personal debt. Who could argue with that?

Taking on the pixels one by one

~Kayla

As time has chugged on by since my last post about panel submissions I figured I’d pop back in here and give you all an update. Right now our roster is filling out nicely with all kinds of fun panels for you to check out during the conventions. However some panels are in need of additional panelists.

Many of you have submitted great ideas, and we love the passion we have seen and some of you have been asking for help on finding panelists. This is perfectly fine! That’s the reason the Panel Advisory Board was made, to help make sure that panels are the best they can possibly be.

So if you would like to be a panelist but don’t have an idea to submit or just haven’t gotten around to it yet take a look at the subjects below that we are currently looking for experts in!

• Kickstarter and/or Patreon
• Mental health
• Game Design
• Comics/Webcomics
• Story Writing
• Game Production

If any of these subjects catch your eye and you’d like to be a panelists please send an email to with the subject heading “Submitting Panelist for [Topic]”. And even if you don’t see a subject you’d like to be a panelist on and still don’t know what panel you’d like to submit, drop us an email with your background and credentials and we will work to find you a place!

This year we are working really hard to both ensure the panels submitted are the best they can be as well as to create some fun ones just for you so panelists are always needed. We will make sure every panel-less panelist finds a loving table to reside at.

While we are on the subject of finding people I’d also like to put out a call for any and all art professionals out there in the internet ether. We are setting up a table for portfolio reviews and would like to get as many art professionals as possible to volunteer to go over portfolios. Each art professional wouldn’t have to review for more then a 2-3 hour block at a time and with enough art professionals you might not even have to do it more than once a day! If you’d be interested in volunteering for such a thing please send an email to with the subject heading “Volunteer Art Professional” along with a little bit of your background and credentials.

To nicely wrap things up I’ll remind everyone that the deadline for panel submissions closes September 1st. So if you do have an idea you want to get in there for review please remember to do so before then as no late submissions will be accepted. If you have any questions involving panels please don’t hesitate to email that to !

On the look out for panelists in need!

~Kayla

Now I am a big believer in a community coming together. I grew up in what most of the US considers a “rural” area but we had a great sense of community there to fall back on. My parents knew that I could ride my bike all over the place as a kid with no problems because there were at least 10 pairs of eyes on me at all times. I knew I could play and be carefree as a kid and often would go over and visit those neighbors sitting out on their porch. Through GaymerX and their conventions I have found yet another amazing community to fall back on. It is through this community that I have had the great honor of meeting people from MAVEN and getting to actually lend a hand by running a robotics workshop for them.

MAVEN is a non-profit organization that works to not only make LGBTQ youth feel safe, loved, and appreciated but takes that extra step to making sure they are prepared. The organization helps teach these kids all kinds of things focused around technology. They learn to code and make games, they learn about different fields they can get into, but most importantly they are provided the support they need to actually be able to pursue a career in those fields if they wanted to. Youth, through MAVEN, are given a chance to experiment and learn skills that otherwise would not be readily available to them. Or if they were would still leave them feeling ostracized due to how they identify. Take it from someone who was the only female (not to mention lesbian) in her track at college, it’s tough feeling like you completely belong in a tech field without this kind of support.

Every year MAVEN runs a tech camp that this year I had the great pleasure of helping out with as a presenter. I can tell you that these kids are super eager to learn and ready to try anything. By no means am I great at teaching people, I’ve only been out of college myself for a few years, but these kids made the experience downright enjoyable. It is with this same inexhaustible enthusiasm that these kids are tackling their next challenge: getting to Washington for the 2015 White House LGBTQ Tech & Innovation Summit. Something I can’t wait to see happen as I believe these kids will not only provide an enlightening experience to those attending the summit this year, but because they will come back full to the bursting with ideas and drive. That more then anything is something we need to make sure that we keep in the youth of our community.

It is only the second year of the White House LGBTQ Tech & Innovation Summit but it is a big deal for us as a nation. The event brings in the most innovative and influential LGBTQ tech talent across the country to try and come up with solutions to some of America’s toughest societal challenges.  To make things even better this year everyone that attends will be placed on a team to work on a project for the White House after the summit. Which is cool by any standards but we as a community can make sure that 5 of those on projects are LGBTQ youth we sent. Just to show just how much of an impact getting to send these kids would provide, of the 200 people going the 5 you can help send would be the only 5 youth there.

As I have said multiple times in this post you all are a fantastic community I have come to love dearly. You all inspire me with your tenacity, dedication, convictions, and heart. The kids over at MAVEN have done the same. Not to sound too corny but I believe these kids are the future of our community. It is through them that the pathways we have cut across through this sometimes hostile environment will not only be continued but widened. Through them we will one day get to a place where we all feel safe & wanted surround in a community of like minded people. So it is with this in mind that I encourage all of you to not only go check out the MAVEN organization and how you might volunteer, but also that you all go to their IndieGoGo campaign and send a little help their way. Please even if you aren’t in a position to donate to their cause be sure to give them a signal boost by sharing their campaign around on your social media.

With feelings of love & hope for the community

~Kayla

Hey everyone! Today we’re going to be talking about panels – and if YOU want to run one (or be on one!) how to make that happen: I’m going to take you through the process of making a panel idea a reality.

Now I know what you are thinking, but I promise it’s not a difficult process and it’s one we have put in place to make sure we get the best panels possible that really represent GX3 and the amazing diversity we see at our conventions.

As is the first step in any thing, you have to come up with an idea for the panel or talk–the form itself is pretty self explanatory and can be found here: at this lovely little link.

FUN FACT: Be prepared to give as much detail on your panel as possible, because incomplete panels submissions won’t be reviewed. Also, have fun!

Note: All panel submissions are due by September 1st – no later, no exceptions. Once submitted panels won’t be viewed by just a single person, but by a group of people. We call this group the Panel Advisory Board. Their job is to do things like sift through all of the submissions, reach out to submitters and get more information where needed, work with the panelists for any needs they might have, and find additional panelists if needed.

The Panel Advisory Board, or PAB, will also do something called a diversity review. This ensures mishaps like a panel on diversification in games isn’t held by a line up of only white dudes. We feel that where appropriate panels that discuss such topics should have a wide array of voices that better represent the vast amount of diversity we see and want to see in our community.

Once the PAB has reviewed your submissions, then comes the fun part: the scheduling. Now that’s not something that you all have to worry about, just something that happens on our end. Please let us know if there are any times that would work especially well for you or that don’t work for you, and we’ll try to work with all reasonable requests – once that happens your panel is as good as gold and ready to be debuted at GX3.

As always, don’t be afraid to ask any questions as the crew here at GX3 is here to help! You can find us on our forums or on twitter @gaymerX! You can also email us at: [email protected].

As always signing off with nothing but love for the community.

~Kayla

Hello all you wild and awesome gamers and followers out there! I’d like to start off this post by thanking everyone who has supported us in getting GaymerX to this point! I hope what we have planned for this blog will help to continue to grow our relationship moving forward. So up to this point posts on this blog have been sporadic at best but we’re going to work really hard on improving that!

Moving forward from here we will be doing a lot of different types of posts which I’ll explain a bit below, and we will be accepting topics to discuss from you awesome people.

Starting from here on out we will be doing posts about the following:

• Events! – When are they, what do they involved, how did they go?
• GX3 Convention – Updates on panels, workshops, guests, and more!
• Friends of GX – Posts about games, events, and other awesome things people from the community are doing.
• Calling the Mothership – Community suggested topics or questions that the writers of the blog tackle just for you guys.
• Around the World – We travel a lot to other events and conventions so its about time we start sharing our wrap ups of those.

If you are interested in keep up with our blog, or if you have friends you think would like to hop on board, please don’t be afraid to subscribe to our RSS feed!

From all of us to you, we salute you. Together we are working hard at not only carving out a safe space for gamers of all kinds but we are redefining what is allowed in games. We at GX3 like to think of this community as a family.

 

 

 

With that said this is Kayla signing off and hoping you’ll join us for the new blog.