The first ever Canadian Game Developers Conference wrapped up yesterday after 2 days of keynote speeches, a fairly small scale exhibition but quite a few informative development workshops.
Here are the highlights:
The biggest draws were unsurprisingly the keynote speeches delivered on both days of the events by Don Mattrick (Seinor VP Xbox) and the CEO’s for Bioware. For the workshops I decided to attend any put on by developers where there would be potential for a glimpse on any upcoming projects.
Keynotes:
The convention kicked off with an interview with Senior VP of Xbox, Don Mattrick. Being a local lad it seemed appropriate that he start things off. After a brief intro video about him, Victor Lucas from Electric Playground fame quick fired a bunch of questions to try and coax Mattrick to leak some info on rumoured announcements Xbox will be have at this years E3. It went something like this:
Victor: So are you going to let us in on what Xbox is announcing at E3?
Don: Let me start practicing ‘No Comment’
Victor: Motion Control?
Don: No Comment
Victor: Metal Gear Solid 4?
Don: Love it, no comment
Victor: Your next generation system, The 720?
Don: No comment
Victor: The new Star Trek movie
Don: Pretty good
In response to Victor asking if Don thought the Xbox will kill the PS3, without hesitation he said ‘Statement of fact’. Being a PS3 and 360 owner, I would have to agree.
The rest of the interview consisted mainly about his personal game development history and Canada’s contribution to the video game industry, a fitting start to GDC Canada.
The keynote on day two was hosted by Bioware’s Dr. Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk titled “Emotionally Engaging Narrative: Gaming`s New Frontier” and anyone who has played games like Knights of the Old Republic and Mass Effect know that Bioware has this concept down pat. With the help of slides and video examples from their catalog of games (Baldur’s Gate, Dragon Age: Origins, Mass Effect) the good doctors showcased Bioware’s approach to telling stories and highlighted the fact that gaming should be about seamlessly combining narratives, interesting storylines and community involvement (ie. acheivements, player stats) to create a more immersive experience. They dropped hints that their upcoming titles Dragon Age: Origins and Star Wars: The Old Republic MMO would put more into the hands of the player.
We were treated to some already released video footage of Dragon Age: Origins, Mass Effect 2 and a screenshot of the Star Wars MMO. Stay tuned to E3 for more.
Exhibition
The exhibition itself was more along the lines of a job fair. Fair dues as this conference was geared for people already or plan to be in the industry. There was only one demo on one TV for “Punch Out!!” courtesy of Next Level games. Other developers present were Blue Castle Games (Dead Rising 2) and Radical Entertainment (Prototype), both of whom just showed trailers and anyone who’s interested enough in these games would have already seen them.
Workshops
There were quite a few workshops happening simultaneously during the 2 days ranging from creating game characters, how to make interesting multiplayer, developing games for Windows 7 and how students can get a start in the industry. I attended any lecture put on by a developer in the hopes of finding or catching a glimpse of any upcoming projects. Although I was lucky enough to watch some cool tech demo’s, the focus of the lectures was more to inform developers, rather than pitch products. Here are a few of the more interesting l workshops I attended:
Building Your Plane While Flying It: Production at Bungie – This lecture was a late addition to the line up and one of the more popular lectures at GDC and with good reason, for those of you living under a rock the past 10 or so years, Bungie is the developer of the Halo series. Allen Murray, producer at Bungie walked us through the infrastructure at Bungie, what did and didn’t work during the production of the Halo series and how a studio should be prepared in order to optimize staff production and deliver products on time. Not quite what I was expecting but still, how many people get to have an inside look at how Bungie ticks? Allen did give an inside scoop on the production of Halo 3 on how characters and levels were dropped at the last minute due to time constraints. Did you know that the Guardian multiplayer map was actually part of a full level that they completely scrapped? All in all, a very interesting talk although a bit boring at times as there were alot of charts a graphs. Although he did mention the upcoming expansion Halo 3: ODST, nothing was shown, but keep an eye out for it during E3.
Cross Platform Development with the Infernal Engine presented by Terminal Reality – Unless you follow video games as religiously as I do, you probably have no idea who Terminal Reality (TR) and what this infernal Infernal Engine is. But you may have heard about a little soon to released sure to be a hit Ghostbusters: The Video Game. Although this lecture was more of a sales pitch for the Infernal Engine, I found it quite interesting. During the workshop the folks from TR demonstrated the use of physics in the engine and how anyone using the dev tools for the engine can seamlessly create multi-platform (360, PS3, Wii, PSP) content that can change dynamically (and on the fly I might add) depending on the capabilities and limitations of said platform. They proceeded to show us never before seen footage from Ghostbusters demonstrating the Infernal Engines more than capable use of physics, graphics and motion.
An Army of Two Post-Mortem – Deconstructing the Mercenary – Presented by Reid Schneider, Executive Producer at EA Montreal basically discussing what went right and what went wrong for Army of Two. He took us through the step by step process of production of Army Of Two, building a team from the ground up for a new IP and dealing with the public’s reaction to a game that shadowed a private military firm (hello Blackwater) that was released during the height of it’s controversial involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq. A very informative lecture throughout and it showed me that even though a finished product may receive mediocre reviews, the players and community should understand the amount of pressure developers are under on several fronts during the production process.
All in all a very successful start GDC’s inaugural year in Canada. As someone who has no development experience but only a love of playing video games, it was nice to see what happens behind the scenes and chat with the people who make them. There were alot of networking opportunities available for developers and anyone in search of a job within the industry had plenty of opportunity to shop around. Based on the turnout and participation of speakers and companies it seems like despite the state of the economy, the video game industry shows no sign of slowing down.
Have a look at our gallery for photo’s from the event.
