I had the distinct honor of being the opening keynote for the GAMEplaces conference, held in Frankfurt mid June. As it’s organized by Frankfurt’s economic development agency, there is a greater focus on the business side of things, and getting industry players to connect with each other, and with local stakeholders.
My lecture focused on the evolving ecosystem of games, from the market/player perspective, as well as the development and business models that are emerging. Also covered barriers to innovation, and how regions can accelerate the process via a tight collaboration between industry, academia and government.
This was my first time to Frankfurt (despite flying through the airport many times), and was surprised by its relatively small size. The massive airport gave me the impression of a similarly large and sprawling city. Anyway. I did get some time to be a tourist and even took in the “Making of Art” exhibition at one of the museums.
Frankfurt is also home to Crytek, which I had the pleasure to visit. Impressive offices, and lots of cool stuff going on! But, I’ve been sworn to secrecy.
Some photos from the trip…
Conference organizer Manuela Schiffner opens GAMEplaces 2009.
Nicola Beer, the state secretary for European affairs of the Hessen state government gave the introductory remarks.
Silja Gulicher discussed Nintendo’s outreach strategy via book stores…
…and Tupperware parties!
The Production Panel: Klaas Kersting (Gameforge), Andre Peschke (Krawall), Chris Schmitz (Ubisoft), Ed Zorbist (ASAP Games), Jan Jockel (Keen Games), GAF van Baalen (Ranj).
The modern sports stadium right next to the convention center.
Frankfurt deputy mayor Markus Frank makes some opening remarks at the dinner reception.
Carla Hoekendijk (Hogeschool van Amsterdam) and Eku Wand (Braunschweig University of Art) awaiting their food.
Main entrance to the train station.
Cool cylindrical building, the Westhafen Tower.
Along the Main river.
Skater trolls under the bridge…
The Dreikonigskirche church across the river.
In the Romerberg area (ie, the old city center).
More Romerberg.
The very old cathedral, under repairs.
The Schirn Kunsthalle art museum.
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Outside the Crytek offices, right next to a McFit gym.
In two-birds-one-stone mode, I spent a week over in Pittsburgh to present at the Korean Game Academy and lecture during the Game Education Summit - both hosted by Carnegie Mellon’s Entertainment Technology Center.
Given the ETC’s relationship with Korea, they welcome a delegation of Korean developers each summer to spend a week of intensive game related training and learning. I did three sessions with them: design theory (covered LeBlanc’s MDA), user research and usability testing, and a serious games overview.
A few days later, the 2nd annual Game Education Summit hosted upwards of 200 faculty, researchers, students, developers and other industry folk. Session quality of high overall, though I did fall asleep in class at least once ;) My lecture was on the need to support a culture of risk taking and experimentation, tolerant to failure.
To kill a bit of time between the two events, I looked up a local Judo dojo and popped in to train. As a special treat, I got to spare with the sensei, a 6th dan black belt (ie, he can whup some serious ass). He mostly tossed me around like a rag doll, but I did score on him once. The experience served as a good personal anecdote of risking taking and failure!
Some quick shots from the week:
The ‘09 class of the Korean Game Academy.
Don Marinelli opens the Game Education Summit with a big ETC welcome.
Terrence Masson discusses the curriculum at Northeastern Univeristy.
A terminator bot was guarding the entrance to my lecture room.
Conference organizer Mark Chuberka welcomes folks to the post-day1 reception.
Attendees playing the “Irish game”…
Leah Smith (Texas Film Commission) and Kristy Bowden (Digital Media Council) play a session of Train.
Andrew Hieronymi (Savannah College of Art and Design) discusses his physical interface gaming projects.
I did a high-level overview of serious games during the MODSIM World Canada conference taking place in Montreal this week. Far from a pure video game context (with tracks on aeronautics, defense, biotech, etc) there was still plenty of gamey stuff on the scene.
My session discussed the social impact of games more generally, covered some of the misconceptions about games, discussed the audience and challenge, along with give a good dozen+ example of cool games with positive impact.
Quick snap of the expo floor with modsim heavyweights like CAE and Lockheed Martin.
Brian Bauer (Étape Partners) gives a case study the launch of virtual world technology in a corporate environment.
Sadly, I was too busy to stick around and missed all the other cool content.
