Reality Panic

Luckily, was able to pop into the final day of the Assassin’s Creed art exposition at the Yves Laroche art gallery in Montreal. I’m a huge fan of digital/pixel/concept art, and the gallery did not disappoint with a splendid array from the AC franchise.

My only criticism is I wanted to see more! I think I’ll have to push my son to whip up a few more scenes…

With a November trip to Peru pushed to next year, my schedule freed up to attend the DIG Conference in London, Ontario for the first time. Given a direct flight between Montreal and London was nearly a thousand bucks(!) I opted to fly into Toronto a few days early, do some business, and then head to London via train for a whopping $50.

While in Toronto, in addition to some client visits, I got to hang out with Nathan Vella and visit the Capybara studio. Also, spent some time visiting the impressive Ontario College of Art and Design (OCAD) with Emma Westecott, and visited with folks from the TIFF Lightbox “Think Tank” advisory group that I’m a member off.

That meeting with TIFF turned out doubly valuable as I scored tickets to go see the “Rebirth of a Nation” screening/performance by DJ Spooky. Wow, what an amazing experience!

Off to London for DIG, there was a definite local vibe to the event. Lots of camaraderie and a sense of needing to collaborate, which was nice to see. The audience was somewhat student heavy, though the running of the event was top notch professional.

My keynote took place during the evening dinner reception. I joked that it was the first time presenting after drinking wine (and I blamed London’s mayor (who was sitting at my dinner table) for filling up my glass one time too many). I presented a variation of my “need to fail to find success” talk.

Here are some quick pics from the trip:

DJ Spooky intros his string quartet ahead of his Rebirth of a Nation performance at TIFF Lightbox.

On the train to London…

State of Social Panel: Joey DeVilla (Microsoft), Grey Thomson (Tall Tree Games), Bryce Hunter (Big Blue Bubble), Rob Balahura (Electronic Arts), Fredrik Liliegren (Antic Entertainment).

Students playing on Kinect in the expo area.

London mayor Anne Marie DeCicco-Best welcomes everyone to the dinner reception.

Joey DeVilla (Microsoft) shows off his accordion playing skills during the party.

Biz chat: Sean Murch (Next Level Games), Julian Spillane (Frozen North), Tonya Constant (The Ant Firm), Damir Slogar (Big Blue Bubble).

Jesse Divnich (EEDAR) discuss the power of brands.

Kim Gibson (OMDC) gives an update the Interactive Digital Media program.

Fredrik Liljegren (Antic Entertainment) provides a case study on their success with OMDC support.

Wolfgang Hamann (Koolhous Games) discusses development of Madden for iPad.

Will Makra (Digital Extremes) dives into concept art processes for console games.

Local hero, Mike Schmalz (Digital Extremes), along with Kadie Ward (LEDC) close out the conference with final remarks.

Year after year, the Montreal Game Summit continues to prove its awesomeness. I’m biased of course, being local and involved in putting the program together… Ed Fries kicked things off with an excellent keynote. Admittedly, I thought it was a bit long in the middle part on Atari 2600 assembly code, but he ended up laying the groundwork for the rest of the conference, IMHO.

The themes of constraint, beauty and art kept resurfacing throughout the conference. From John Sharpe art history lessons to discussing the social impact of games to Ron Carmel’s day2 keynote on indies game development, etc.

My personal load at the conference was relatively light, with my main duty being the moderation of the closing keynote panel of local studio heads. They were great and it was loads of fun to poke at them.

Note that Gamasutra did a great job of covering many of the sessions, if you are interested in recaps. And, here are my pics from MIGS and a couple from Unity’s annual Unite user conference…

Striking visual theme for MIGS 2010.

Ed Fries discusses the hacks used to construct Master Chief on the Atari 2600.

The capacity crowd of 1500+ developers in for Ed’s keynote.

Chris Yoon and other Champlain College students participate in the D3D competition.

Tom Wujec (Autodesk) on the value of prototyping and visualizing problems.

John Sharp (SCAD) gives a history lesson on art.

Panel on the social impact of games: Genevieve Lord (Champlain), Alex Hutchinson (Ubisoft), Ann DeMarle (Emergent Media Center), Dante Anderson (Seriosity), David Edery (Fuzbi).

At the VIP part on the top of Mount-Royal.

On the B-Side terrace, where it wasn’t totally insanely packed for the Visceral party.

Ron Carmel (2D Boy) parsing who/what is indie.

Tony Tseng (SCAD) packs the room for cool augmented reality demos.

Louis-Pierre Sarrazin (University of Montreal) gives a preview of his thesis on leadership and managing creativity in the game industry.

Expo area was lively, especially recruiting efforts by news studios like THQ…

Game playing and chiptune fun at the Prince of Arcade indie party/gathering.

David Edery (Fuzbi) playing Halo 2600 on original hardware during Prince of Arcade.

Jamin Brophy-Warren (Kill Screen), Heather Kelley and Edery at Prince of Arcade.

False alarm at Marche Bonsecours during Unite 2010.

Unity users focused on fun at the Unite 2010 conference party.