Ah, GDC, my favorite event of the year. This year was a marathon. Six days of conferences, followed up by a quick road trip down to Seattle for the Emerald City Comic-Con. I did enough nerding out and geek partying to last me until PAX in the fall.
My marathon began with the Flash Gaming Summit, the second (now annual) event that focuses on the Flash Gaming side of the industry. I deeply, deeply enjoyed the Flash Gaming Summit. Not only was it a chance to meet fellow Flash developers, but it was great to get a pulse on where the Flash space is going (more on that later…)
My favorite sessions from FGS:
1. Opening Keynote – Mochi announces:
a) Social Media Plug-in for Flash games which means that indie developers get to spend less time fighting with Facebook’s API and more time on the game. (Facebook is notorious of randomly changing their API without warning, causing games to break)
b) Mochi Game Developer Fund – A 10 Million dollar fund to help developers get their game done and out. (Yes, Ray Ardent has been submitted)
2. Canabalt: Behind the Skyline – Adam Atomic talks about the 2009 uber-success that is Canabalt – and where the name came from.
3. Monetizing Your Game Outside of Sponsorship – Sponsorship has been the main source of revenue for Flash Developers for the past few years. Times, they are a changing and this panel goes through a few ways that developers can make money from their games outside of sponsors.
My personal big take-away from the weekend is that the industry is one that is in transition. Companies like Mochi, Gamersafe and Flash Game License are putting more power in the hands of the developers. Portals like Kongregate are taking a more supportive role for developers and more and more developers are making a lucrative living off of their Flash Games.
Every developer I talked to was all about micro-transactions and digital download as a way to take Flash developers to the next level. While a couple of portals were flat out refusing micro-transaction games, it quickly became obvious that this the the future of the free-to-play Flash game world.
If you want to spend a couple of days at the Flash Game Summit – Mochi has been kind enough to post all of the panels w/video and slides (in Flash – of course) online free of charge.
My two favorite tidbits from Flash Gaming Summit:
– King.com – the Flash game portal – employs 100 people in Stockholm. Yep – 100 people.
– At one of the panels, the moderator asked the panelists to look into their crystal balls and predict what the industry would be like in FOUR MONTHS. That’s how fast this space is changing. A far reaching prediction asks the leaders of the industry to speculate what it’ll be like in the summer. Crazy.
The next two days were spent at the Independent Games Summit. Sadly, GDC is keeping most of the panels and discussions behind a pay-gate, so there’s only so much I can share.
The general vibe at the Indie Summit was amazing. Ranging from highly experimental art games to polished commercially released games on XBLA and Steam. The attendees ranged from college students and established indies to game industry veterans like myself who are going indie to pursue their dreams.
My personal highlights from the Independent Summit:
– Numerous talks and perspectives on the future of indie games. While everyone had their own opinions and success stories on the future, the one thing that was obvious was that if you can make a good game it can find an audience. If it finds an audience, it can be successful.
– Randy Smith’s presentation on Immediacy and Depth reminded me of the basics that are so easy to forget when trying to get everything to work and play together.
– The Gamma4 party was great time meeting up with old friends while surrounded by cool games and chiptune DJ’s.
After these three intense days, it was time for to kick off the main GDC conference.
The GDC expo floor is often a spot to see new tech and new ideas – this year, it was pretty quiet. Which was a bit of a disappointment for me, but the floor was still packed, so maybe I’m just too jaded.
The Conference itself was filled with great sessions.
My personal fav sessions:
– Get Your Game out of my Movie by Armando Troisi – Armando is a former student and a good friend and his presentation was great.
– Dan Cook’s presentation on the Convergence of Social and Flash games
– David Edery’s insight’s into digital distribution. I especially enjoyed Edery’s identifying the Kindle as a huge opportunity that everyone is missing.
– The Nuovo Sessions gave each nominee of the IGF’s Nuovo award 5-10 minutes to talk about their game. Incredibly enjoyable.
If you are looking for more from GDC, you can also check out slideshare and search for GDC 2010, or do the same on Youtube and see what you can find that might tickle your fancy.
Did you go to GDC? What were your highlights?