Now in its fourth iteration, GameON Finance has grown into a superb niche conference focused on the biz aspects of the games industry. The 2011 edition was sold out, and had a stellar line up of speakers: from bigwig bankers and VC types, to single-man micro studios providing case studies of their success. Also, it was the most international so far with folks from Europe, the USA and Latin America in for the event.
Admittedly, I’m a little biased as I’m on the advisory committee, but unsolicited feedback was great. This year, I didn’t do a lecture (or last minute keynote replacement). Instead, I moderated three different sessions: one on indie successes, another covering connected consoles and the final a panel on business aspects of social games.
Here are some quick photos from the conference:
Ontario Minister of Economic Development & Trade, Sandra Pupatello, kicks off the pre-conference reception at Ryerson University.
Nathan Vella tells the Capybara story for the reception keynote speech.
Remi Racine (Behaviour Interactive) provides the opening keynote.
Piers Harding-Rolls (Screen Digest) dives deep into the numbers…
…I really liked this graph looking at the average spend per user on consoles vs. social games. Hmm, would be more interesting if he filtered out all the non-paying social players.
Key slide from the Mark MacLeod (Real Ventures) presentation!
A look at alternative funding strategies. Moderator: Marc Jackson (Seahorn Capital); bonding: Risa Cohen; incubation/acceleration: Juan Benito (Joystick Labs); indie self-funding: Nathan Vella (Capybara/IndieFund).
Dino Patti (Playdead Games) discusses the background and success of Limbo with Shaun Hatton (Electric Playground).
VIP dinner on the KPMG executive floor (FYI, its 46th) with Malte Behrmann (European Game Developers Federation) and Interactive Ontario bossman, Ian Kelso.
Separated at birth: Dino Patti (Playdead Games) and Nathan Vella (Capybara).
Dino showing off his hardy European drinking skills with a “Flaming Burning Lamborghini”(yes, the glass is on fire). Tom Frencel (Little Guy Games) and Trevor Fencott (Bedlam) watch on. Not pictured: Scott Simpson’s flaming mustache!
I generally don’t dwell on the past. I’m very much a “live in the moment” kind of guy and as such I don’t do a good job of celebrating anniversaries. But, the 10 year milestone for the Montreal chapter of the International Game Developers Association seemed like something important (and luckily, others from the advisory committee were smart to push for us to do something special).
Past/Present/Future Panel Discussion: Standing = me. Seated (from left to right): Martin Lizee (Gamerizon), Sebastien Ebacher (Ubisoft), Denis Lacasse (Behaviour Interactive), Reid Schnieder (WB Games), Francois Dominic Laramee (freelance writer/journalist). On Screen = first ever chapter photo with Francois Dominic Laramee, JF William, Sebastien Ebacher, Christine?
I barely recall the first meeting back in January 2001. It was well attended by a few dozen folks and all we did was drink and network. It has been a fulfilling ride along the way, helping to drive and grow the chapter along with the growth of the game dev scene in Montreal overall. And, in small, often intangible ways, serving as a critical nexus point for the progress of game development in the city. It’s been fun.
Some photos from the anniversary night are posted at IGDA-Montreal’s Facebook page. Also,one of our long time chapter members wrote a little summary note. A full report covering the panel discussion and a video will go up shortly…
Alright, gotta run off and plan the next event!
As is tradition, here is my list of books I read over the past year. Shame on me as I came way under my self-imposed two books per month “quota”. I blame video games!
Business/Economics
Leadership/Management
Culture/Etc
Self-Help
Of the bunch, I found Drive and Switch to be particularly good books with lots of applicability to my day-to-day efforts. It was also great to finally read The Innovator’s Solution, as I have often lectured about the dilemma side of the equation… On cultural front, I thoroughly enjoyed both American Nerd and The Fighter’s Mind, as oddly enough I belong both to the nerd/geek and fighter tribes.
In the self-help department, I was mainly looking for marketing and promotion related guidance to help with my consulting efforts. Of the bunch, the only one that fell flat for me was The Language of New Media. Despite being a significant book on media theory, I found it too academically opaque to get much out of it. Oh, and I read a book on ethics since I taught a university communications course on media ethics last fall.
