Toronto
Chapter
Summary & May 3, 2007
Before a full house at the International Academy of Design & Technology in Toronto, the latest IGDA Toronto Event featured participants in Telefilm’s Great Canadian Video Game Competition talking about their experiences.
In attendance were Susan Nation and Nina Beveridge from Hop To It Productions, whose game Create-a-Date was one of the ten first round selections; Keith Makse and Jason MacIsaac from Cerebral Vortex Games, whose game Ambush! Trivia is in the final four of the competition.
Also on the panel with lots of insight was Warren Currell of Sherpa Games, who acted as mentor to two of the companies who made it into the final four: Cerebral Vortex Games and Mind Habits. Acting as moderator was Anne-Marie Huurre of Women Wise.
Anne-Marie wasted no time in challenging the panel. Noting that Warren Currell’s expertise lay in pitching and dealing with publishers, she challenged Hop To It and CVG to pitch their games to Warren in 30 seconds. Both companies quickly served up their game's "DNA" as Nina and Susan called it: a quick single sentence "money pitch" that summed up the concept of their game. It was agreed that this was a very useful thing for game developers looking to pitch their projects to have. Anne-Marie, who did not let the panelists see the topics or questions prior to the panel, would often put the panelists on the spot like this; with questions about their experiences, their games and their business plans, assuring a raw and unrehearsed reaction.
The business side of development was a recurring topic. The companies were required to put together documents that not only described their game, but how it would make money. Everyone stressed the importance of doing the numbers, analyzing the competing products and making sure you budget your project right.
Many students were in attendance, and during the Q&A period one asked about the value of attending a school to learn game design. Warren Currell answered that it depended on what you were going for. Some companies want heavy degrees for programming, but often those looking for traditional artists want to see your drawing skills, and will take talent regardless of education. He did see the value in an education that exposed students to the vast world of game design overall.
The panel told stories about the highs of the competition: the thrill of finding out they were in, the joy of coming up with game ideas. Then came the lows: how Nina became ill during an inopportune time, how Jason once had a practice pitch session of the game concept where the listener just didn’t get the first thing about the game. But overall everyone agreed it was a positive experience.
The final round of the Great Canadian Game Competition is at Vidfest in September. More information about it can be found here.
IGDA Toronto would like to extend thanks to our panelists, and especially our moderator Anne-Marie Hurre for taking on the duties despite a sore throat. We would also like to thank the International Academy of Design & Technology for providing the space, and the students of the Video Game Design & Development program for setting up, managing and tearing down the event.
See you next time.
Disclosure: Jason MacIsaac of Cerebral Vortex Games is also the author of this report.
Report 2: IGDA Toronto shares insights on the Great Canadian Video Game CompetitionToronto, On. - Ever wonder what to do with a 30 second elevator ride? The IGDA (International Game Developers Association) Toronto chapter has some tips and insights into just how important a ride up to work can be for the people working to bring you the industry's hottest games.
On Thursday May 3, 2007 the International Academy of Design and Technology hosted an IGDA panel featuring finalists in the recent Great Canadian Video Game Competition, presented by Telefilm Canada. Panelists included first round finalists from Hop To It Productions Susan Nation (President) and Nina Beveridge (CEO), second round finalists from Cerebral Vortex Games - Jason MacIsaac (Design Director) and Keith Makse (Executive Producer), as well as Warren Currell of Sherpa Games (President, Founder, CEO). The event kicked off with a full house and without a hitch, and despite a harrying case of laryngitis, Anne-Marie Huurre of Women Wise got right down to business grilling her panelists.
The audience of attentive listeners, mostly game design students and enthusiasts, were treated to a full rundown of the Telefilm competition, from the initial steps of planning the game and the details of how the event was run. Each running team who qualified would be issued a mentor (or Sherpa, in the case of Cerebral Vortex's team mentor Warren Currell) to help them through the process of planning, budgeting and developing an independent game to be pitched to the big players in the industry. All for the chance to advance, be awarded a milestone grant, and strive for the next leg of the competition in order to receive even more operating capital for the development of a game.
This competition is no training run however; finalists could very well go on to publish and produce their game models, and the finalist, to be chosen from a lot of four finalists will receive up to a half million dollars in development funds to see their project out. Not too shabby.
Hop To It's Create-A-Date duo explained some of the details of their game, extolling their experience in post production and broadcasting for their inspiration. In their creation, players would make interactive toons to tell romantic stories, interact with game video, and simulate dating experiences not entirely unlike some of the popular evening television icons like Blind Date. These however are aimed towards empowering the players, namely women, to give them a more welcome footing in the primarily male endorsed gaming world. These strong and successful entrepreneurs take full advantage of their demographic tendencies, ascribing to studies and research to help them keynote the game to tailor fit their target audience. For the clincher, Create-A-Date indulges in a hybrid "Webisode" format, which blends television broadcasting with socially interactive online gaming.
When Cerebral Vortex's representatives had their turn under the lights, Jason MacIsaac stayed cool with the assertive air of "The man with the benefit of being in the middle." When pressed to give his interpretation of a 30 second elevator pitch, (sometimes that's all the time you get to make an impression on those with the power to bring you up in the world) Jason gave a spectacular showing of his game, calling Ambush! Trivia "the Counter-Strike of online trivia" and meeting with open ovation. With a solid business plan backed by Keith Makse's experience in business and intuitive market research, and an ever-growing "bottomless well" of trivia, they have a unique take on the old game of spitfire savvy. Ambush! Trivia lets players not only rack up the points answering interesting and diverse questions, but lets them "attack" other players with their tough choices, or split the pot with someone they know might have the answers they lack. They're a confident contender for the September finalist position.
There were some commonalities between the two teams; both impressed the importance of a sound business model. When you get into as many numbers as you need to come up with a plausible game, it's easy to rack up not only an incredibly complicated budget, but an interestingly delicate balance. Create-A-Date ran into a small bump when their budget ended up balancing perfectly, but only if they took a million dollars into account before they actually had it. Ambush! Trivia actually collected part of its sales expectations from someone who had been beaten as badly as humanly possible in the Xbox Live ladders to see who was in last place on the gold memberships. And both teams highly lauded the virtues of having an experienced mentor on hand to knock over their house of cards until it finally managed to stand up to the punishment.
Speaking of his involvement, Warren Currell was true to form, offering advice to up and coming game developers. The majority of the panel revolved around the most important factor in game development; money. An army runs on its stomach, and a game isn't made without a well fed army. Usually this doesn't necessarily mean your own team, but the people who will be sponsoring you to keep them fed. This means making the most of your first, last, and every impression. Warren pressed the importance of doing everything that is might be asked of you to get a project up and running, and to spare none of the details. For the Great Canadian Video Game Competition, this meant anything from a five minute pitch DVD to a well practiced elevator promo. Balancing the books is important, and meeting all your milestones is absolutely crucial. The business behind video game development is still a business and business is never anything short of cut-throat. Investors love their money. Playing his role as advisor to Cerebral Vortex Games in the competition, Warren kept the team on track and helped them to see points that they never even thought of.
Just as important, however, is social networking. Mentors like Warren and the others who worked with the Telefilm project represent a valuable boon and resource, an open ear inside the industry who not only serve to help contenders sharpen their edges and hone themselves to reach the top, but also help get them heard, working as agents, middlemen, or even front men themselves to interface with the business underbelly of the gaming world. And what advice can such a font of experience offer to aspiring game designers?
"A good way to get into the field is to go into level design. People who step up into game design are often level designers first." Warren offered. Good strong advice. Advice that has been echoed before from all different corners of the field, leading one to believe that it truly is a strong first step for people with the vision and inspiration to see an idea through the number crunch and the fierce competition to become the next Great Canadian Video Game.
-John MacFarlane
Disclosure: John MacFarlane is a student at the International Academy of Design & Technology's Video Game Design & Development program, where Keith Makse and Jason MacIsaac are instructors.