Locked in Lively Debate

by Jason Della Rocca (October 2003)

This was the chapter's first attempt at both hosting a members-only event, and using the roundtable discussion format. For a first attempt, it surely seemed successful! About 80 IGDA members (mostly from Montreal, but with some visitors from France, New York and Quebec City) showed up to discuss and debate on various game development related topics (see summaries below).

Unlike the chapters usual beer infused social/presentation nights, the evening was somewhat more serious as developers were locked in debate for about an hour and a half (well, except the programmers, who decided to lock their door and chat for another 45 minutes - hmm, programmers being late, sounds familiar ;)

After the roundtable sessions, everyone hung around for a coffee and continued discussion. And, we raffled off a few books from the New Riders Games series. And, thanks to Eric Ballandras (LOR-Tech) who helped with the welcome desk.

Roundtable Summaries

Programming & Technology

by Dany Lepage, Lead Programmer, Ubisoft Montreal

While the discussion was originally targetted toward the next generation consoles. Most of the talk focused on production cost. The consensus was that middleware will be the only option for small companies if they want to compete in the business place. Companies like EA and Ubisoft have the ressources to develop their own SDKs because they can amortize the investment over several games. Overall, it looks like middleware companies have a very bright future in front of them.

Most people also believed that we were going to move in a era of content creation. In that respect, the role of the programmers will also be pushed toward content creation. In that respect, while there won't be as much to do in the low level (especially for graphics and sounds) 5 years from now but programmers will play a key role to procedurally generate assets and somewhat contain the huge increase in development cost.

The discussion was more heated when discussing the importance of technology. Some people believed that technology was only a tool at the service of game development while others believe that game design/art design should be tailored and adapted to the available technology. The first were claiming that only companies that are selling their engine (like Valve, Epic and id) are really pushing the technology while others claimed that technology was a key sale driver for a successful game like Splinter Cell.

In the end, a quick survey accross the participants of the roundtable showed a lot of diversity about what was going to be the next step in technology development for games ranging from audio, animation to AI. Some even believed that technology had already lost its appeal and game design was the key driver behind game development. The next few years are definitively going to be exciting with such diverse opinions.

Game Design

by Pierre Rivest - Lead Game Designer, Ubisoft Montreal

The discussion focused on the game rating system (ESRB) in relation to different game player demographics. We started the discussion with the announcement that a game buyer's average age is 29 and many were surprised by that. In general most agreed that it was the "atari generation" getting older and still playing games.

We quickly jumped into the topic of violence in games and in many cases its gratuitous nature. Most agreed that with an older audience, games would soon have to evolve, containing content that would justify the violence. Gratuitously violent games, while entertaining for some, will not be something that caters to a broadening audience. With that being said, many agreed that we are still going to see violence as a major game design element. If one decides to orient their design decisions around gratuitous violence, by all means go ahead, as developers have a right to express their creativity. But, perhaps it is time we look into more intelligent designs - with, our without, the violence.

Production & Management

by Denis Lacasse - Senior Producer, Artificial Mind & Movement

Game production is all about people, tools and processes. This roundtable was blessed with some experienced managers that shared their wisdom on how to be an efficient manager. At the people level, some time was spent on exchanging ideas on the importance of good communication, management training and efficient team structures. The discussion also touched the subject of tools and how they help plan, communicate and control the course of a project. Finally, A lot of interventions were about the different processes in place to enhance communication, help people break into positive and efficient work habits, the importance of methods and discipline, and a lot more.

In short, all of these should help the managers put in place a great team dynamic that provides the means to achieve the projects objectives whether it be to ship on time or to achieve greatness!

Audio

by Eric Vigneault - President, Multimediarts

With the growing emphasis on quality audio, we talked about movie standards for video games, like vox at -18 to -24db. The group also discussed matters of being internal or external to the development team, appropriate fees for external work. Business issues are always popular, like freeing rights after the last payment only on your contract. Another issues was how 80% of projects demand speed/optimization, so we got less room quality. Audio is 30 % of a project (including localisation) Music and SFX normally 10%. 55% of people that got a Xbox got Surround system (Dolby)... People are ready for the next one.

Breaking Into the Industry

by Jason Della Rocca - Executive Director, IGDA

Ever a popular topic, students and wannabes are always looking for more info, or an edge to help them break into the games industry. The concept of supply and demand was a recurring theme of the discussion (ie, low availability of job, great demand for them). Thus, tips on making yourself rise above the competition were great appreciated (eg, work on your own projects or mods, do lots of out-of-school studying and reading, attend industry events, etc).

Along similar lines, it was event that personal networks and "who you know" is a key factor in scoring a job. Hence, various tips on networking were passed along (ie, don't actually ask for job at a social event, get a business card for later follow-up, don't hog someone's time, etc). Finally, various resources were shared (eg, igda.org/BreakingIn, Sloperama.com, "Break Into the Game Industry", etc). While it would have been nice to have some specialized professionals in the roundtable session, meeting some pros became the group's assignment to practice their new networking tricks during the social period!

Visual Arts

Sadly, this roundtabe was cancelled due to lack of interest.

October Gathering Pictorial

...here are just a few shots I took during the October gathering of the Montreal Chapter. (all persons are identified from left to right)

The programming roundtable in deep discussion...

Patricia Pizer and Mike Steele of Ubi.com continue their production discussions with David Vincent (Digital Fiction).

Designers in debate mode: Cling Hocking (Ubisoft), ?, Pierre Rivest (Ubisoft), Bill Folsom, Francois Dominic Laramee.

Nicolas Gaume (Ubisoft France) was in town and made time to stop in for the discussion, in this case with Mike Drummelsmith (Quazal).