As one of North America’s largest game development centers, Vancouver has been ripe for its very own game industry focused event. Cue the Vancouver International Game Summit, a decent first attempt that attracted 300+ attendees.

The event wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t particularly awesome, either. The organizers made a valiant attempt to put things on, however, they dealt with a challenging “wait and see” attitude of many local developers. Also, there was a lack of thematic cohesion and no declaration of who the core audience was supposed to be beyond “games + Vancouver”. This bore out in the very diverse audience (educators, recruiters, gov/support orgs, bankers, lawyers, students, etc), but with very few actual game developers for them to connect with.

Most of the content was good, and I particularly enjoyed Alexander Seropian’s keynote dissecting industry economics and production challenges. Sadly, I spent most of the second day in bed after my kids’ flu germs caught up with me.

Hopefully, this first one will generate enough confidence to get more support from the local community and help mold it into a much more robust event (like we’re seeing on Canada’s other coast).

Beth A. Dillon did up a nice summary of the Summit over at Gamasutra, with more detail on individual sessions…

As usual, here are some snaps from the trip. (And, someone else put a bunch more up at Flickr.)


Microsoft Canada’s Mark Relph kicks off the Summit with the opening keynote.

Steve Bocska (Hothead Games) moderates the “how to get published” panel (arguably, the best panel of the conference).

While not officially recruiting booths, recruiters were in full force…

Josh Holmes (Propaganda Games) did a textbook “game industry is broken” rant that got the audience engaged in some good discussion.

Oddly, the north tower of the Sheraton Wall Center (the venue for the conference) was shaped a lot like a PS3.

Trevor Sones (Reboot Communications) and Lynda Brown (New Media BC) were two of the key people behind the Summit.

Vlad Ceraldi (Hothead Games) and Alexander Seropian (Wideload Games) tackling a tower of raw fish and seafood for dinner.

Bob ? (Seven Group) and Jessica Tams (Casual Games Association) at the Minna Mingle.

EA Canada top gun Rory Armes delivering a surprisingly not crap keynote for a suit.

Having a BBQ lunch in the gardens was a particularly nice touch.

Friction on EA’s Need For Speed team? David Elton taking out some frustration on Stephane Grefford.

IGDA Vancouver Chapter strategy session: Jason Elliot (Art Institute), Su Skerl (Hothead Games), a very sick me, and David Elton (EA).