I’m sad to be missing the boutique State of Play conference this year. I’m actually heading to Denver (to speak at the local chapter, at a journalism conference and various academic visits) and will be back too close to the start of the SoP conference…
The topics they wrestle with (virtual law, economics, etc) a very specific and challenging, and from reading past reports, there seems to be such an air of critical engagement among the speakers and attendees that you don’t often get in big industry conferences…
Oh well, will try to book it for next year.
Well, this is interesting: Manifesto Games launch press release. Kudos to Greg for diving in and actually doing something about all his ranting. Here’s hoping that he succeeds in fostering a more diverse ecosystem for games to be made/played. Although, if it all crashes, I’m sure we’ll at least get a few big rants out of it…
Check out the piece I wrote for The Escapist, titled “Salvation vs. Condemnation - The Two Faces of Government“. I suppose it is not presenting any new info/ideas, but more so provides a quick look at how most governments are working to help the game industry (from an economic/tech point of view) and yet simultaneously impeding it (ie, “saving culture from corruption”). This whole “issue” of The Escapist was dedicated to government intervention with the games industry…
Nice to see GamePolitics plug it. And, always happy to be slashdotted, despite someone’s confusion that the creepy Jekyll/Hyde character is a picture of me!
Ugh, so much politics. Thankfully, the aptly named GamePolitics.com does a nice agregation job… Anyway.
An interesting tid bit that hasn’t gotten much attention is the fact that anti-game crusader Leland Yee has supported/praised martial arts tournaments in the past. This gets into an earlier post I made about violent/aggressive sports (eg, football, judo, etc) not being perceived necessarily as a bad thing by the community at large, while their virtual incarnations are. A passionate gamer/indie developer points this out along with further holes in Lee’s rhetoric.
This is just one example that puts into question the motives of the anti-game crusaders…
Goodness, what a hot week in London. The fact that GDC Europe was packed to the brim didn’t help any…
Kudos to the American game group of CMP for reviving GDC Europe and putting on a great conference - especially under greater scrutiny given last year’s mess… I particularly enjoyed all the non-conventional talks on stuff like government intervention, curriculum initiatives, global development hotspots, and designing games for grannies… And while my quality of life panel was well attended/received, I was a bit disappointed to discover that the IGDA’s whitepaper and related QoL initiatives have not gotten the same exposure in UK/Europe…
As noted earlier, I kept pretty busy during my short stay. In particular, the Develop Industry Excellence Awards were quite enjoyable (with a wholly different, more social vibe, than the IGDA’s Choice Awards). The IGDA’s own members-only party was a blast and served an a good chance to unwind after the conference.
I’d write up a more complete set of notes, but I am sadly swamped with catch-up work. Besides, the folks at Gamasutra have done a great job at summarizing most of the sessions and news (and/or grabs bits from the proceedings page).
Here are some quick pics I snapped during the week:
The venerable Ernest Adams lectures on game design.
Simon Smith (Blitz), Andrew Oliver (Blitz) and Mark Baker (Climax) take some time out to orient the IGDA’s student scholars to GDCe and the industry.
…Andrew and scholars move on to the pub for deeper discussion…
On the eve of GDCe, there was a serious games showcase at the very hip Dana Center.
GDCe conference director Jamil Moledina interviews Phil Harrison (SCEE) as the opening keynote (I’m guessing Phil was too busy to prep a formal presentation ;)
Develop Magazine’s Owain Bennallack hard at work… Nice shirt.
Keita Takahashi’s winning granny game design.
A very deserving David Braben (Frontier) picks up his Legend award.
Developer Chic: Jason and Chris Kingsley (Rebellion) and Miles Jacobson (Sports Interactive) admire each others formal developer attire.
EA Montreal studio head, Alain Tascan, gives an unbiased reportage of which cities are best for development and why (hint bad weather keeps coders indoors).
IGDA Party: Hugh Grimley and Thomas Howalt from IO-Interactive piece together the Ageia puzzle…
IGDA Party: Karl Reader, Michael McKinnon, Jane Barnett (Middlesex University) and Rohan Bangdiwala chilling.
IGDA Party: Carl Bateman, Christian West and Micah Rosenkind also chilling.
IGDA Party: Owain Bennallack (Develop), Ed Bartlett (IGA Partners) and Kathy Schoback (Ageia) chatting at the bar.
IGDA Party: Always playing… Dean Butcher (IdeaWorks3D!), Jane Barnett (Middlesex University) and Steven Goodwin (Criterion) playing some cards among the party noise.
IGDA Party: Lightweights… I enjoy a nice bottle of sparkling water with Daniel Boutros.
