The
first thing I noticed when I walked into the Vortex 2007 Game
Competition coaching sessions on Saturday, June 2nd, was that the room was almost completely
full. There were hardly any seats left in the audience. I later found
out that approximately 90 people had shown up. It was an impressive
showing, and spoke a lot about the rising popularity of the Vortex
event. Clearly there were a lot of people out there who wanted to
learn more about game creation and the game industry as a whole.
As
I came in, Tom Quigley (Senior Account Manager, The Createch Group) was giving a
bit of a motivational introduction. It's no surprise that a lot goes
into the making of a game. These 'coaching sessions' as they were
called were essentially various three-day courses condensed down to
several 45-minute presentations. There were seven sessions to
Saturday's segment, and then five more on Monday. The first presenter
was a classy man named Jason MacIsaac (Design Director, Cerebral
Vortex Games). I learned two very important things from listening to
him speak, namely that Jason MacIsaac is a very witty man, and
secondly, Jason MacIsaac hates Roger Ebert.
For
almost an hour he told us about his experiences as a gamer and how
those experiences relate to game design. The main message he tried to
get across was that video games have as strong of an effect on
people, if not stronger, then other forms of entertainment (such as
movies, books, art and television) and that those meaningful
experiences are largely derived from the interactivity that is only
found in video games. He even told us about some of his more
emotional experiences playing video games, emotional responses that
he hadn't gotten from other activities such as watching movies.
Star
Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
The
rest of the day contained a multitude of information. If I had wanted
to produce, finance and publish a game of my own someday, the things
I learned at Vortex would definitely be invaluable. Even just going
as an observer proved to be very enlightening as to the steps people
go through to take a game from a concept or idea into a finished
product. And let me tell you, it is NOT an easy process!
Another
highlight of the day was when Sean Guadron, a professor of video games at George Brown College, demonstrated how to build
a level using the Half-Life 2 level editor. While it was truly fun
and interesting watching him work, the best part was when he showed
us a finished product of a custom-built level, complete with bad guys
to shoot. Even better, he showed a bit of a sneak preview of a
project he's been working on and hoping to release soon: a replica of
some areas of the city of Toronto made into a very exciting Half-Life
2 mod. Check it out at http://www.torontoconflict.com/,
and if it's not up yet then keep checking back every once in a while.
Did
You Know That?
-
The
average age of a gamer is 33
-
25%
of all gamers are over the age of 50
-
Brain
Age was originally designed for senior citizens
In
the end, Vortex was a smashing success and everyone very much enjoyed
the learning experience it offered. The staff tried to make
everything run smoothly even when things started going behind
schedule. They very graciously offered some snacks to the crowd after
the event was over. There's no way to really sum up the things said
and learned in those six or seven hours. It was a great experience to
hear some of the veterans and professionals of the game design
industry speak their minds and share their knowledge. Be forewarned
that making a game is as much business and marketing as it is coding
and designing. You need to have a capable team working with you, and
have a business plan. Vortex taught things like intellectual
copyright and patent laws, venture capitalist financing, idea
ownership, and much more. I would encourage anyone who has an idea
for a really great game to attend next year and see for themselves
how to turn it from a concept written on a napkin into an actual
product.
Who
knows... if you're dedicated enough you just might make it big. And
then if you do, you can come back to Vortex one day and tell everyone
how you did it!
