A Stimulating Week in London
As noted previously, this was an especially busy GDC Europe and ECTS outing for me... Despite the hectic nature of the week, the conference and the rest of the London Games Week events were quite enjoyable. This year, the running theme of GDCE was the eminent next next-gen consoles and their impact on game development: There were panel sessions looking at programming, design, production, art, etc. Admittedly, the various panelists were just speculating on what's to come, but everyone agreed game development is going to become ever more costly, time consuming, complex and risky...
The ECTS expo was quite small, despite the return of some big publishers (eg, Electronic Arts). But, overall things were bustling, given the effort of CMP to put multiple events/activities under the common London Games Week umbrella.
Of particular note, Laura Fryer (Xbox ATG) gave a compelling lecture on why we should never consider games to be "just a game". In short, she was pushing for an attitude shift from developers, gamers, people at large to realize the importance of playing games (and not just digital ones) and their impact on our culture.
Finally, the IGDA hosted its annual Academic Day on the closng day of the conference. The Day was well attended, with a diverse mix of 50+ instructors, researchers, developers, students, etc. The Day's activities focused on in depth discussion of meta challenges/opportunities in bridging the gap between industry and academia. It was a thoroughly exhausting day, but the extremely positive feedback from attendees made it all worth while :)
Anyway, here are some pics I snapped during the week:
Arnout van der Kamp (Exmachina) and Robin Hunicke (Northwestern U.) picking up their badges on the first day of GDC Europe.
A horde of scholarship recipients just after their orientation session...
A smiling Juan Guardado, and fellow nVidia crew, welcome developers to the day's end pub crawl.
Jason Rubin (Naughty Dog) provides the opening keynote lecture and tells us all why graphics alone will not sell a game.
Paul Steed (Xbox ATG) tries to chat with Julien Merceron (Ubi Soft), but is distracted by Alan Yu's (CMP) protruding tongue!
Fresh from getting Republic: The Revolution out the door, Demis Hassabis (Elixir Studios) joins Ernest Adams to discuss next next-gen game design.
A packed house for the inaugural Develop Industry Excellence Awards.
Climax's big boss dude pick's up their "Grand Prix" award for overall winner of the night.
Hmm, not sure what to make of Andy's (Evolution Studios) gesture. What's going on Liz (IGDA)?
Can't wait for Ubi Soft to release XIII...
Nokia was pushing hard.
What's a game expo without fast cars and booth babes (note, there was a booth babe sitting on the hood of the car, but she got clipped ;)
Gary Penn (Denki) evades a blow from Peter Molyneux (Lionhead Studios) during their "deathmatch" session.
Develop magazine's quiz masters: Owain Bennellack and Jon Jordan.
Gary Penn (Denki), Julien Merceron (Ubi Soft), Martin de Ronde (Guerilla Games), Chris van der Kuyl (VIS Interactive) and Jeremy Longley (Lost Toys) prep for the final quiz show session by downing a cold beer...
Eric Zimmerman (gameLab) leads the stimulating "futures" panel during the IGDA's Academic Day. Richard Evans (Lionhead Studios), Matteo Bittanti (Milan School of Design), Ernest Adams and Helen Kennedy (U. of the West of London) prognosticate on possible future directions.
Seamus Blackley (CEG) takes a question from the audience after giving the closing lecture of the Academic Day.
That's all folks!
Posted on September 2, 2003 12:46 AM
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Comments
Hi Buddies!!
My name is Jorge, I´m 20 years old and I write from Brazil.
I look at this pics and think: when a single guy, like.. me, will be in a event like these...
Maybe, in a Future of Dreams... Oh, man, how I can be a Game Designer if not even get ways to do this...
Well... Congratulations to everyone that has join the event!!!
PS: I need to study English...
J.F.
Posted by: J.F. at September 13, 2003 10:35 PM
damn, and I missed it again. Can you guys forgive me? :D
Great Pics Jason, so I can at least enjoy it from back home :D
Cu all hopefully at next GDC
Posted by: simon at September 20, 2003 11:50 AM
It was a great week. I was down for Wednesday and Thursday with our lead programmer - our first time at a game development conference - and it was a blast. Not to mention a real eye opener for a small, indie studio such as ours. Kudos to all who put in the hard work to make the conference a success.
Posted by: Andy at September 24, 2003 08:18 AM
Great comments guys. Peter FDA
Posted by: Peter at November 11, 2003 12:32 AM
Nice smile Owain !!!!!!
Posted by: Jackson at February 12, 2004 08:17 AM