mind•haven

Last week, I attended the Games Connect Asia Pacific Conference in Brisbane, Australia. I went with my Professor John Buchanan and the rest of the Game Sketching project team from the ETC.

The Game Connect conference started out slow with the MasterClasses. The Autodesk sessions were only really useful to 3d artists, and I could not get into the Sony PS3 lectures. So, I spent most of my time networking near the snack bar. There I met up with Mario from Sidhe Interactive, who in turn introduced me to an old acquaintance from GDC Tim Nixon. In turns out that Tim founded one of the three largest developers in NZ, which was very inspiring.

The next day, I spent the morning on the expo floor. There I met new people from Sidhe and talked about their new port of their game to the PS3 online download platform. One was a designer from Arkansas. Another was the business development person for the company. I found that Sidhe employees are allowed to do company pitches for new games. It looks like Game Sketching would be most helpful to individuals seeking to prove their ideas at larger studios.

The first session I attended was Matt Ford’s talk on User Testing, which only lightly touched on the topic. After lunch, our team interviewed by David Nye from “Control Freaks.” It is hard to concentrate when your on camera. I then made it into the last half of the programming language talk. The speaker from IR Gurus proposed that a committee from the game industry create a new programming language to replace C++. While the cost alone of such an undertaking is prohibitive, his case was further weakened since most game studios already use alternative forms of programming as engines become more data-driven.

Chris Avellone’s talk on Interactive Storytelling, on the other hand, was very helpful. He cited many personal stories on how to best integrate writing into design. The Game Sketching team was able to grab him for questions at the end, and he became very interested in our project. The rest of the afternoon, I hung around the Iron Monkey booth. The team was made up of young professionals trying to sign their first console title.

That evening we went to the Sony party, which was packed. I was able to talk more with developers I had met earlier and even met some new ones. The creator of fMod was there. He had very truthful insights about the Australian game industry. The stated that most studios are only working on title with licensed IP and don’t create any distinguishing titles. However, I found that to be generally true of the industry worldwide.

The last day, I attended a session by the creator of Loco Roco. I found it amazing on how straightforward the Japanese design process is. In North America, any title pitch must have a business and marketing case, which muddies up any good idea trying to make it into production. After the talk, fellow teammate Albith and I were able to take pictures with the speaker. That made the entire conference for us.

Overall, the conference gave us an overall impression of the Australian game industry. Plus, it allowed us to make several contacts for next year’s Game Sketching project and our future careers.