Viva Vancouver!

Wow, it has been a hectic June! A big contributing factor was my recent jam packed trip to Vancouver (arguably one of the largest game-development cities on the planet). While in town I participated in Vidfest, DiGRA and a local IGDA chapter event.

First up, Vidfest. In its second year, Vidfest is a well produced "new/digital media" event. The emphasis seems to be more so on digital film, animation and webby type new media forms, with a dash of games and mobile content in the mix. This diversity is both a strength and a weakness: It is nice to see the diversity, but a bit hard to build a critical mass with such a broad approach. I'm hoping the IGDA's Vancouver chapter can work more closely with New Media BC (the event organizers) to get more game content on the agenda, possibly an indie game fest style contest...

Next up, DiGRA. The second conference of the Digital Game Research Association was just as inspiring as the first one back in the Netherlands. The conference program was bursting at the seems with content (every time slot had way too much competing content!). Check out the list of papers for a sense of what was presented. (Also, check out more thorough event coverage via Terra Nova, Greg Costikyan, Flickr, Grand Text Auto, etc.)

Yet, despite all the great work being presented (and the huge local game development scene), there were not many developers on hand. Kudos to the Microsoft Playtest Lab guys for showing up (Tom, Marcos, etc) and Backbone's James Everett for getting involved in the action. Despite many examples of great collaborations, there is still such a divide between industry and academics in general (something the IGDA is working to improve).

In part, that was the motivation to get an "industry panel" onto the DiGRA schedule. So, in coordination with the DiGRA folks, the IGDA Vancouver chapter hosted their June meeting as part of the conference program (ie, as a special event at the end-of-day Friday, followed by a reception). I moderated the panel, consisting of the following local developers: Steve Rechtschaffner - VP & Chief Creative Officer, EA; Ron Moravek - General Manager, Relic; Douglas Tronsgard - CEO, Next Level Games; Dan Sochan - Producer, Backbone Entertainment; and Vlad Ceraldi - Producer, Radical Entertainment.

It was a great opportunity to have the academic crowd interact with a panel of pros. Although, it did get heated at times when such topics as unionization, industry openness to academic research, and gender diversity came up for discussion. The less-than-acceptable responses to "how many women work for you studio" (under 10% in most cases) elicited hisses from a back row of female academics! Anyway, despite these few flares, it was a productive event, providing insight into the realities of game development and the challenges/opportunities of the impending next gen of consoles.