Was lucky to be in town long enough to attend a great conference happening right here in Montreal: the International Startup Festival. The focus was definitely on webby/techy/mobile stuff, but there were a few game folks floating around.
It was refreshing to see all the enthusiasm and energy, and (much like with the game industry), a vibrant community willing to share and help each other. The lectures were amazingly relevant in the context of all the new mobile and social micro/indie studios that are starting up. Too bad more of them weren’t there.
Important lessons about running things lean, focusing on product/market fit, how the overall business model is the product, not the product itself, the need to fall in love with the problem and not your specific solution, iteration not ideation, etc, etc. Lots of good stuff! Check out the program for pointers to more stuff…
Some quick pics:
Conference founder/director Phil Telio welcomes folks at the opening reception.
Energetic entrepreneurs working the room.
Just so happened to coincide with the fireworks festival in Montreal.
Writer and social junkie Julien Smith opens the first day of sessions.
Awesome 101 talk by Sarah Prevette of startup community/support site Sprouter.com.
Someone shouted out “best graph of event” when Sarah put this up to discuss the life-cycle of a startup.
Dan Martell on accelerating the iteration/learning process.
Ash Maurya on why your product is not “the product”of a startup.
We got close when Alan Yu and I designed the Game Developers Choice Awards… One of the rules was that studios had to name their key people for a given award (eg, creative director and lead designer if your game was up for the best game design award). We had to fight in a few cases (and push back on “the team” attributions), but only lost two nominees over the years (might have been Halo2 and one of the GTA games, if I recall correctly). But, somehow, it felt so good/right to announce “and the award for best game design goes to John Smith and Mary Jane for GameXYZ”.
With the newly announced Canadian Game Development Talent Awards, we’re going a step further and focusing just on the talent. Who is the designer of the year? The best artist? And so on… Let’s give them all a pat on the back and shine a big spotlight on them and their achievements.
I have no doubt that some studios/bosses will make a fuss about it (scared of their top talent getting poached, or having too much attention). Also, I’m guessing that some developers will balk at the idea that it is unfair to recognize individuals since game dev is such a team effort. True, but someone was ultimately the lead, the director, guiding the others and pushing everyone forward. (Besides, Valve is not Canadian so we don’t have to worry about how to handle their “cabal” process ;)
I’m envisioning a moment, after the ceremony, where all the recipients are on stage for a group photo, and we can look at them and say, “Wow these people represent some of the best creative talent that Canada has to offer,” and be inspired to match, and surpass, their achievements.
While I was excited to be heading back to the always awesome Paris, this trip was my first time in Spain - making the combo trip all the more exciting. First up in Paris was the bi-annual cultural festival Futur en Seine. This sprawling city-wide event was diverse in nature, with discussions on the future of cities, creativity, communications, etc. Games were a tiny little part, mainly represented by my presentation on how games are expressive/persuasive (and a workshop on designing games for social impact (one of the participants put up a cool summary, in French)).
Of special note, the closing event was a big party by a lake just outside of Paris. The music was produced by DJs set up in a giant boom box, with their decks slotted in where normally the cassette would go. With the accompanying light show, was very rave-like.
There were a couple of days between the end of the Paris festivities and the Gamelab conference in Barcelona. So, rather than fly, I rented a car and drove down the French countryside and along the Mediterranean coast, hitting Barcelona in about 10hrs. Was a picturesque drive (castles, old churches, vineyards, etc), but sadly I had to have both hands on the wheel speeding along at 130km/h that I’ve got no pictures from that part of the trip. Sorry.
Barcelona was amazing. Full of energy and passion, with wondrous architecture and parks, and super delicious food, and friendly people. Gamelab itself was a nice event with a star-studded line up of speakers. I was quite impressed with the level of development going on in Spain, and interest by government to help support and grow the industry (with a strong message of “taking control” and pushing for creation of original IP, owned by Spanish studios).
Overall a fun and productive trip. Some photos…
View from hotel room in Paris, with Sacre-Coeur basilica in the distance.
Mouthwatering platter of cheeses after dinner. I had to have a taste of each one!
Futur en Seine director, Andrew Bullen kicks of the communication themed third day of conferences.
Winner of most intense use of slides (this whole thing was animated and swiping in, etc): Vincent Ducrey, author and new media expert.
The future of education by the legendary Sugata Mitra (the inspiration behind Slumdog Millionaire).
Participants in my game design workshop hard at work.
More workshop action.
Folks settling in for a long night of partying by the lake.
Yoichiro Kawaguchi (Todai), Stephane Distinguin (faberNovel) and Andrew Bullen enjoying some Champagne.
BOOMbox in action!
View from my hotel window in Barcelona. It was the much less glamorous back-alley…
View from the front of the hotel was much more impressive. This is the Plaza Espana round-about.
And just up the street was Las Fuentes De Montjuic, one of Spain’s famous castles.
Mmmmm, Iberian ham.
Entry to Park Guell, fantastically designed by Gaudi in the early 1900s.
More Park Guell.
Park Guell stone arches.
Lovely flowers were all over Park Guell.
View overlooking Barcelona from atop Park Guell.
Amazing pillars and mosaic work in Park Guell.
Famous dragon in Park Guell.
1000 year old Gothic church in the old part of Barcelona…
Even older Roman walls right nearby.
Opening panel of Gamelab, discussing the future of game development in Spain.
Microsoft’s booth focused on Gears3 and Kinect.
Nintendo focused on Zelda for 3DS.
Sony’s centerpiece was Uncharted 3.
Daniel Kaplan (Mojang) on the rise of Minecraft.
Daniel Sanchez Crespo (Novarama) dives into their Move tech.
Trip Hawkins (Digital Chocolate) preaches the virtue of the browser as the dominant platform for the future.
Fanboy Moment: Dino Patti (Playdead Games) autographs art from Limbo.
Peter Molyneux (Lionhead) recounts his past inspirations.
Richard Bartle with words of warning for those blindly pursuing social/F2P strategies.
At the Spanish game industry awards, special honorees: Peter Molyneux (Lionhead), Hideo Kojima (Konami) and James Armstrong (Sony Europe).
Clean sweep for Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, which won every category they were in.
Conference director Ivan Fernandez Lobo presents a specially commissioned painting to commemorate Zelda’s induction into their “hall of fame”.
Like all award ceremonies, they did some silly stuff, like make fun of kids animated TV series Pocoyo creator, David Cantolla.
Over the Top Games takes the best indie game prize with The Fancy Pants Adventures.
Kojima accepts his award.
Post ceremony celebration: Kojima, Dino Patti (Playdead), Lauren Berggren and Cliff Bleszinski (Epic).
Me, Dino and Brandon Sheffield (Game Developer Magazine).
Me presenting on business model evolution.
Siobhan Reddy (Media Molecule) on production process.
Enric Alvarez (Mercury Steam) with a Castlevania postmortem.
Dino Patti (Playdead) reviews his Christmas wishlist from 18 years ago. Mostly games and computer stuff, plus a shotgun with 6 rounds. Hmm…
Cliff on being awesome.
Day off at the Sitges beach, just outside of Barcelona.
17th century seaside church of Sant Bartomeu i Santa Tecla in Sitges.
Frying pan full of super delicious fisherman’s paella.
Tight winding little cobblestone roads reminded me of Mdina in Malta.
The passion facade of the massive/impressive Sagrada Familia church.
The nativity facade of Sagrada Familia, which looks like it is melting.
