24 Things We Learned from IGDA Toronto Open Mic Night

It was a great night of ranting at IGDA Toronto's Inaugural Open Mic Night. Many, many topics were discussed, often with a great deal of profanity, and always with passion. Here are the 24 things we learned from last night:

1. “Narrative Dissonance” occurs when the in-game actions contradict the game's fiction. E.g. When the player character moves merrily along despite being showered with bullets, but is disabled by a single gunshot to the shoulder during a cutscene.

- Craig D. Adams

2. Coconuts have yet to be peer reviewed. - Mathew Kumar

3. Most game “journalists” can't really be considered journalists, because they do not dig deep to find the truth. However, it's fine being an enthusiast who writes about games. - David Gallant

4. Wearing a pink dress and smearing yourself with cake will win you a copy of Fat Princess. - David Gallant

5. Talking about game journalism is erotic. - Mathew Kumar

6. Anyone who wishes to become and succeed as a game developer needs to get out of the basement and start networking.

- Arthur Marris

7. Students note: Attend IGDA events. Beer is better than business cards and resumes. - Arthur Marris

8. Good art makes you think about your life and your choices, and then challenges them. If a player leaves the game's core ideas at the console, then we've failed as artists. - Randy Orenstein

9. If we are going to ask players to spend so much time playing our games, we have a responsibility to make that time spent worthwhile for the player and for the planet. - Randy Orenstein

10. The problem with the App Store is not that it sells games for 99 cents, but that there is no consensus on how much game value 99 cents should provide. - Jon Remedios

11. Put personality and soul into your App Store games and you might make a sale. And stop making Air Hockey. - Jon Remedios

12. A shower curtain makes a surprisingly effective projector screen. - Ryan Creighton, Jim McGinley and Paul Forest

13. It is perfectly natural for game developers to question the quality of their game as development wears on, and even question their own skills. Persevere. Everything looks bad when it's in development. Things suck until they are good. - Kris Piotrowski

14. Making games is hard. Making good games is really hard. Making really good games you actually care about is really, really hard. - Kris Piotrowski

15. Kris Piotrowski can drop at least 23 curse words in the space of about two minutes. Yes, I counted. - Jason MacIsaac

16. Videogames are a powerful tool for communicating science and education. - Damian Pope

17. There is no reason an educational game can't be as good as a AAA title. - Damian Pope

18. Lots of videogame design schools don't teach the theory behind game design. - Fraser Adams

19. Without instructors who have game industry experience guiding students, student projects become free-for-alls. - Fraser Adams

20. Somebody needs to find away to effectively market Xbox Live Indie Games. - Daniel Steger

21. I think it's a funny game. I don't understand why it's FOREVER ALONE. - Eric Roberts

22. It's hard to stand out in the world of indie games and it's going to get worse. Indie developers need to think about their potential audiences and their overall goal in designing the game in the first place. - Eric Roberts

23. A lot of videogames make you feel like a dirty manchild whore. - Benjamin Rivers

24. It is the duty of indie game developers to elevate the state of gaming, because nobody else will. Come up with new ideas and turn them into videogames. - Benjamin Rivers 

In the end, the crowd chose Kris Piotrowski as the best ranter of the evening. He was awarded the Mathew Kumar Littul Squeegee Award and a pair of tickets to Videogames Live.

Congratulations to our four lucky draw winners who also each won a pair of tickets to Videogames Live, courtesy of Paul Mercs Concerts.

IGDA Toronto would like to thank all of our ranters and Mathew Kumar for MCing. Also, a special thanks to all of you who helped to help out with the event: Paul Forest, Jason MacIsaac, Andrei Petrov, Lesley Phord-Toy, and Michaelagelo Pereira (please forgive us if we missed anyone!).

Last but not least, huge kudos to Ryan Henson Creighton and Jim McGinley for organizing the event, and to Bar 244 for generously providing the space.

Report by Jason MacIsaac