Staying in the game

"Is the industry in trouble?" was one of the questions answered with a confident denial last Wednesday night. Answered in the first part by James Grant, Probe Games' Programmer specialist, speaking on employment trends in the games industry, which included a balanced assessment of contracting as a way of working. The gathered group of industry insiders, peripheral parties and other keenly interested individuals also displayed healthy evidence to the contrary.

Paul Wilkes from Datascope opened with a thorough guide to "Getting into the Game" which was invaluable to many and a welcome refresher on the basics of maximising your chances at a new job for others. Following on from James, Lizzie Haines, and independent researcher, presented a response to the topic of the moment, "Would you want to work in this industry anyway?" Lizzie came armed with lots of enlightening first-hand anecdotal evidence from women in the industry and company directors whom she interviewed. This led to open debate about Family Friendly - or rather Life Friendly - business practices and criticism of a "garage-hacker culture" that champions the long hours, Cokes and pizzas.

The most popular part of the evening was definitely the PSP demo presented by Gerge Bain and members of the SCEE Technology Group. George highlighted the versatility of the UMD format, its copy-protection and the relative of coding for the exciting new platform. At the end of the evening, the audience formed a disorderly queue to express a word or two of their appreciation of Sony Soho's local support... or was it just a frenzied bundle to try out PSP Ridge Racer...?!

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