Fat Cat Lim (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} fatcatlim) wrote,@ 2005-10-11 22:38:00 |
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Asian Game Developers Summit (Day 1)
Today I made my way to Cititel Hotel at Mid Valley Mega Mall to attend the Asian Game Developers Summit, a gaming forum sponsored by the International Game Developers Association of Malaysia, Singapore and the Phillipines to promote game development within the region. It was an opportunity for local developers, publishers, and other people involved with the game industry to network and learn from the experiences of local and international veteran game industry professionals. When I had arrived there at 9.15 a.m., I could see a small crowd already congregating and socialising in front of the halls.
Jennifer Tai, Hasnul, and Terence Tan strikes a pose
After the opening speech by the organisers, Mike Dunkle from Valve shared with us the reasons why Valve adopted the Steam engine as a way of digitally distributing game content to customers and a form of verification for their games such as Half-Life 2. It not only provides simultaneous worldwide launching of new products and lower costs for retail distribution, but also provides a viable way for rising modders or new game developers to distribute their work to a large audience effectively. Rag Doll Kung Fu is one such title. To Mike Dunkle, using digital distribution methods such as Steam will be useful for 'Garage Developers'.
Attendees listening carefully to the presentation
When Mike Dunkle's presentation was over, we had a choice of attending another presentation at the adjacent hall so I attended "On Demand Games Platforms" by Quentin Staes-Polet. Speaking in a heavy French accent, his presentation on the management, development and infrastructure of the game industry was more geared towards prospective managers and publishers, so I decided to return to the previous hall to listen to Brett Bibby from GameBrains.
Quentin Staes-Polet
Big mistake.
A few minutes into the presentation about developing for cross-platforms, I realised that I had no idea what he was talking about as he went on about multiplatform code, private implementation, polymorphism, etc. Yet strangely enough, I didn't find it boring; it was like listening to an Italian speaker: you have no idea what he's talking about but it all sounds all so beautiful and interesting so you keep listening. Sheepishly, I returned to the presentation by Quentin Staes-Polet since at least I could still grasp the gist of his presentation without becoming lost in a jungle of technical jargon.
Brett Bibby
I also actually managed to have a short interview with Mike Dunkle thanks to Jennifer Tai's introduction. I'll probably provide the details of what we talked about tomorrow once I get my notes in order.
Mike Dunkle who graciously allowed me to take his picture, even though I admitted to him that I bought an unplayable pirated HL2 game
When lunch was over, I decided to skip the talk on "Real-Time Soft Shadows In Games" as I suspected that it'd be steeped in technical jargon. Instead, I chose to listen to the next door talk on "Programming Stickiness in Games" by Allan Simonsen. It was a frank personal discussion on what made users continue to "stick" to one game after all these years. There was much emphasis on players' "bragging right's" where virtual trophies and awards give a sense of accomplishment that keeps players from coming back for more and more. It was also pretty funny to think of DOA Extreme Volleyball as a game that can strongly appeal to female players for its idyllic settings, non-violent gameplay and its Barbie-like dress-up feature.
Makan, makan! Yum~
I later heard from an acquaintance that the "Real-Time Soft Shadow In Games" talk didn't go too well as the original speaker Eric Vidal had visa problems and they had sent his colleague as a substitute. Unfortunately, not only did his substitute had a very heavy Filipino accent, his colleague was not familiar with the original slides and notes as they were originally meant for Eric. Because of that, the talk ended 30 minutes earlier. That might have explained why I noticed half-way through the talk by Allan, more people suddenly appeared at the back of the room.
Allan Simonsen
I skipped the talk by David Nalasco sponsored by ATI and instead stayed for the following presentation after Allan's, which was "'Auteur Theory' for Interactive Storytelling" by Sarah Fay Krom. It was perhaps the talk that I anticipated the most since I come from a literary background. Listening to her discuss the various film and literary techniques and the distinguishing between story and plot brought back memories of my English film and narrative studies in Uni. It was a subject that I was most familiar with and I was glad to see it being discussed in the context of interactive storytelling in games.
Sarah Fay Krom
The last presentation of the day was a roundtable discussion on "Funding Game Companies" by Josh Galloway, Brett Bibby, and James Chong. To be honest, I got really sleepy around this time since I didn't get enough sleep last night so I dozed off a few times during the discussion. ^_^;; BTW, this doesn't mean in any way that their discussion was boring; some poignant notes were raised such as the allocation of MSC status really provided a lot of much needed tax breaks and incentives for establishment of a game company. However, anyone who wants to apply for a game company must be ready to submit a LOT of documents and update the officials on the business aspect of games and how to address the potential risk that games bring in.
Despite most of the lectures leaning towards the technical aspects of game development, I was glad to see that the organisers had included speakers that dealt with other non-technical aspects such as Allan Simonsen's talk on retaining customers' brand loyalty, as well as Sarah Fay Krom's talk on the role of the auteur in interactive storytelling. Most of the speeches progressed on time though there were minor hiccups such as Eric Vidal experiencing visa problems. Still, the event was organised very well with its number of active attendees and tight scheduling. The talks were much more focused that the ones previously done at the Zzap! E-games Asia 2005 business forums. Kudos to GameAxis and the Multimedia Development Corporation for doing such a great job with the organising so far.
For more info and background of the speakers at the Asian Game Developers Summit, you can check out their brief bios here:
http://www.agdsummit.com/speakers.html
I'll post more on Day 2 tomorrow. Hopefully I'll get some pictures of the event up by then. Dammit, I miss the ease and convenience of my digital camera. ;_;
Today I made my way to Cititel Hotel at Mid Valley Mega Mall to attend the Asian Game Developers Summit, a gaming forum sponsored by the International Game Developers Association of Malaysia, Singapore and the Phillipines to promote game development within the region. It was an opportunity for local developers, publishers, and other people involved with the game industry to network and learn from the experiences of local and international veteran game industry professionals. When I had arrived there at 9.15 a.m., I could see a small crowd already congregating and socialising in front of the halls.
Jennifer Tai, Hasnul, and Terence Tan strikes a pose
After the opening speech by the organisers, Mike Dunkle from Valve shared with us the reasons why Valve adopted the Steam engine as a way of digitally distributing game content to customers and a form of verification for their games such as Half-Life 2. It not only provides simultaneous worldwide launching of new products and lower costs for retail distribution, but also provides a viable way for rising modders or new game developers to distribute their work to a large audience effectively. Rag Doll Kung Fu is one such title. To Mike Dunkle, using digital distribution methods such as Steam will be useful for 'Garage Developers'.
Attendees listening carefully to the presentation
When Mike Dunkle's presentation was over, we had a choice of attending another presentation at the adjacent hall so I attended "On Demand Games Platforms" by Quentin Staes-Polet. Speaking in a heavy French accent, his presentation on the management, development and infrastructure of the game industry was more geared towards prospective managers and publishers, so I decided to return to the previous hall to listen to Brett Bibby from GameBrains.
Quentin Staes-Polet
Big mistake.
A few minutes into the presentation about developing for cross-platforms, I realised that I had no idea what he was talking about as he went on about multiplatform code, private implementation, polymorphism, etc. Yet strangely enough, I didn't find it boring; it was like listening to an Italian speaker: you have no idea what he's talking about but it all sounds all so beautiful and interesting so you keep listening. Sheepishly, I returned to the presentation by Quentin Staes-Polet since at least I could still grasp the gist of his presentation without becoming lost in a jungle of technical jargon.
Brett Bibby
I also actually managed to have a short interview with Mike Dunkle thanks to Jennifer Tai's introduction. I'll probably provide the details of what we talked about tomorrow once I get my notes in order.
Mike Dunkle who graciously allowed me to take his picture, even though I admitted to him that I bought an unplayable pirated HL2 game
When lunch was over, I decided to skip the talk on "Real-Time Soft Shadows In Games" as I suspected that it'd be steeped in technical jargon. Instead, I chose to listen to the next door talk on "Programming Stickiness in Games" by Allan Simonsen. It was a frank personal discussion on what made users continue to "stick" to one game after all these years. There was much emphasis on players' "bragging right's" where virtual trophies and awards give a sense of accomplishment that keeps players from coming back for more and more. It was also pretty funny to think of DOA Extreme Volleyball as a game that can strongly appeal to female players for its idyllic settings, non-violent gameplay and its Barbie-like dress-up feature.
Makan, makan! Yum~
I later heard from an acquaintance that the "Real-Time Soft Shadow In Games" talk didn't go too well as the original speaker Eric Vidal had visa problems and they had sent his colleague as a substitute. Unfortunately, not only did his substitute had a very heavy Filipino accent, his colleague was not familiar with the original slides and notes as they were originally meant for Eric. Because of that, the talk ended 30 minutes earlier. That might have explained why I noticed half-way through the talk by Allan, more people suddenly appeared at the back of the room.
Allan Simonsen
I skipped the talk by David Nalasco sponsored by ATI and instead stayed for the following presentation after Allan's, which was "'Auteur Theory' for Interactive Storytelling" by Sarah Fay Krom. It was perhaps the talk that I anticipated the most since I come from a literary background. Listening to her discuss the various film and literary techniques and the distinguishing between story and plot brought back memories of my English film and narrative studies in Uni. It was a subject that I was most familiar with and I was glad to see it being discussed in the context of interactive storytelling in games.
Sarah Fay Krom
The last presentation of the day was a roundtable discussion on "Funding Game Companies" by Josh Galloway, Brett Bibby, and James Chong. To be honest, I got really sleepy around this time since I didn't get enough sleep last night so I dozed off a few times during the discussion. ^_^;; BTW, this doesn't mean in any way that their discussion was boring; some poignant notes were raised such as the allocation of MSC status really provided a lot of much needed tax breaks and incentives for establishment of a game company. However, anyone who wants to apply for a game company must be ready to submit a LOT of documents and update the officials on the business aspect of games and how to address the potential risk that games bring in.
Despite most of the lectures leaning towards the technical aspects of game development, I was glad to see that the organisers had included speakers that dealt with other non-technical aspects such as Allan Simonsen's talk on retaining customers' brand loyalty, as well as Sarah Fay Krom's talk on the role of the auteur in interactive storytelling. Most of the speeches progressed on time though there were minor hiccups such as Eric Vidal experiencing visa problems. Still, the event was organised very well with its number of active attendees and tight scheduling. The talks were much more focused that the ones previously done at the Zzap! E-games Asia 2005 business forums. Kudos to GameAxis and the Multimedia Development Corporation for doing such a great job with the organising so far.
For more info and background of the speakers at the Asian Game Developers Summit, you can check out their brief bios here:
http://www.agdsummit.com/speakers.html
I'll post more on Day 2 tomorrow. Hopefully I'll get some pictures of the event up by then. Dammit, I miss the ease and convenience of my digital camera. ;_;
