The Liverpool John Moores University held their 4th annual International Game Design and Technology Workshop and Conference, where I happily gave one of the keynote lectures (more on positive industry trends).

The event was an eclectic mix of invited speakers from industry along with juried academic papers. While several sessions were complete bombs, most talks were interesting and well delivered. And, the seeming lack of coherent thematic control made for serendipitous discoveries of academics doing interesting research (eg, use of games for your social work) and developers with smart things to say (eg, britsoft veteran Dino Dini’s rant on game design).

Sadly, it was a quick trip and I didn’t get much time to explore Liverpool. There was serious hustle and bustle about town as many rejuvenation/refurbishment efforts were underway in preparation for Liverpool’s designation as Europe’s capital of culture for 2008. Gotta wonder if games will be factored into the cultural equation at all…

Overall, despite the heavy rain, folks were generally upbeat and positive on the future of games, and the potential for game development in Liverpool and the northwest region of the UK.

Some photos from the trip:


Ken Perlin (NYU) was on hand to give his “illusion of life” keynote - just like he did the week earlier in Montreal - to great effect.
8-year-old Jake Watson, an aspiring young game designer, specially invited to attend the conference.


Jason Chown (Sony Liverpool) discusses dev efforts behind their PS3 launch game, Formula One Championship Edition.


Yanni Ellen Liu (U. of Manitoba), conference chair Abdennour El Rhalibi (John Moores) and Maddy Janse (Philips Research) at the conference gala dinner.


The famous Royal Liver Building.


…and another impressive looking old building next door that I can’t remember the name of.


Gino Yu (Polytechnic U. of Hong Kong) calls forth a MERECL. (He also showed a really cool clip of the Michael Highland movie.)


Nick Burton (Rare) and Andrew Oliver (Blitz) prep before our closing panel.


Everyone was thoroughly impressed with Caitlin Kelleher’s demo of the Alice programming/storytelling environment.


Closing reception hosted by the IGDA’s Northwest UK chapter.


Richard Boon (iHobo) and Alger Lee (U. of Manchester) welcome attendees to the reception.


Ben Kirman (U. of Lincoln) and Matthew Southern (Evolution Studios) chatting at the chapter reception.