It was kinda odd to be staying at a hotel in Montreal. I guess I was just too lazy to fight the traffic into downtown for the two days of the recent Montreal Game Summit. Given I live in the suburbs, and that I was going to be crazy busy, why bother wasting the time to drive home? Despite the wise strategy, I still barely managed to catch any sleep (ah, training for GDC). Anyway.

By all counts, the Summit was a great success, with the Alliance NumeriQC (the organizers/hosts) boasting that their reg numbers surpassed 550 - while they were only hoping to hit a max of 400. Well done! While the large community of pro game developers in Montreal certainly helped, the key was the great content. It was truly encouraging to see the extent by which they got developers involved (via forming an advisory committee) and focusing the sessions on relevant and meaningful topics. Plus, they worked hard at bringing in outside speakers, with over half of the lectures presented by non-Montrealers.

I gave a lecture on the ever popular topic of licensed IP versus original games, advocating for a more balanced approach to what we’re seeing today… Also, I moderated the closing panel with all the local studio execs. That was fun :) With the cooperation of a 400+ strong audience, I grilled the execs on issues such as quality of life and production practices, technology vs design, reliance on licenses and sequels, etc, etc. Yet, beyond the stimulating discussion, it was significant to just have them up on the stage at the same time… I applaud their bravery.

Overall, it was a great summit, and a sign of even greater things to come!

(Check out Noel Llopis’ Summit report (it’s much more thorough then mine).)

Here are some photos from the Summit (people listed left-to-right):


Gilles Bertrand (Alliance NumeriQC) kicks off the Summit.

With a flurry of graphs and charts, Ray Muzyka discussed the keys to success for BioWare (ie, focus on quality products and a quality workplace) as the opening keynote.

In the (shamefully small) expo area, a developer raps to A2M’s Get On Da Mic

An interesting slide from Patrice Desilets “stream of consciousness” style lecture…

Martin Tremblay (Ubisoft) welcomes the VIP crowd at the VIP cocktail reception. Jean-Pierre Faucher (Alliance NumeriQC) claps in the background.

Microsofties: Mario?, Mark Relph and Mario Rodriguez.

Yannis Mallat (Ubisoft) is delirious from the lack of sleep (crunching on the next Prince of Persia game), Gregoire Gobbi (Ubisoft) simply decides to sleep while standing…

David Lipes (Wave Generation) and Sylvie Brunet (Alliance NumeriQC) enjoying the developer party hosted by the IGDA’s local chapter.

Martine Quesnel (Microids), Vander Caballero (EA), Elspeth Tory (Microids) and Heather Kelley (Ubisoft) at the party. Vander made it very clear that he “had to be in the middle of all these women”…

Martin Tremblay, Martin Carrier (Ubisoft), Chantal Cloutier (Discreet) and Jean-Pierre Faucher were “stuck” at the party well past 2am.

Ex-Montrealer, Michel Bastien (Bungie) showed off some Halo2 action, which he helped to produce.

Dominique Roussy (A2M) and Samuel Gatte (ex-Microids) chilling at the post-Summit cocktail at the digitally hip Society for Arts & Technology.

Chris Crowell (Ubisoft) takes in a lesson on characters/story by Lee Sheldon (Anti-Linear Logic).

Later that same day… Bill Van Buren (Valve) shows off his animation muscles during a Softimage usergroup meeting.