Sumea at the Game Connect: Asia Pacific 2006 Conference

Written by Peter Davis

This year saw Brisbane host the inaugural Game Connect: Asia Pacific Conference for games development in Australia and the Asia Pacific Region. Over the weekend of the 30th November - 2nd December, Queensland received its fair share of industry delegates and representatives, in an admirable effort to assemble local developers, publishers, distributors, software enthusiasts and fresh talent.

The event calendar kicked off on Friday, offering Masterclasses on software, development platforms and languages. The conference's Gold Sponsor, Autodesk was in full force, with classes devoted equally to its software packages, 3ds Max and Maya. Sony's presence was felt with a Masterclass equipped with media restrictions and NDAs, presumably discussing the Cell Processor and cross platform (PSP<->PS3) development.

A 3ds Max enthusiast myself, I attended the Max classes throughout the day, quite sure I would be overwhelmed with knowledge. Autodesk were in full PR mode, and it felt as if they were just as interested in selling a few suites (to people already sold, for the most part) than teaching us how to use the current and new tools to our advantage within games development. However, this was largely due to the short sessions for the Masterclasses.

Most of the classes were only 30mins each, which doesn't leave much time to get into the nitty gritty of software tools and development techniques. While some classes did offer that content, it wasn't in the kind of volume befitting a stereotypical Masterclass. Instead, the classes offered general overviews of the packages, what the new versions offer to developers, and how it fits into a studio's pipeline.
There were a couple of exceptions, such as Allan McKay's cinematics class, equally as short, but richer in content.

However, I cannot speak for the Maya or Sony classes. For the most part, the 3 days were fairly bloated with content, meaning attendees were forced to choose which seminars, panels or classes interested them the most. However, the conference was organised to have as little conflicting sessions as possible. There were never two art, programming or design streams on at the same time.

During the day, the media representatives were called to the media room for a small roundtable with representatives and directors from Krome Studios, Pandemic Studios, Creative Assembly and Evelyn Richardson, the President of the GDAA. Interestingly, there was a small table covered with media passes that had not yet been claimed (and some I never saw all weekend, but it did admittedly get rather crowded)

That left a rather small gathering, making the roundtable rather casual. It was probably the most rewarding part of the conference, giving me the chance to get up close with the big-wigs of Australian games development. Evelyn kicked off the discussion by listing the data received from the GDAA's recent survey:

- The report reveals that the Australian electronic game industry now generates revenues of approximately $110 million per annum and directly employs approximately 1600 people of which 1350 are permanent staff and 250 are contract staff. This represents a 60% increase on 3 years ago.
- Turnover and employment are also concentrated in Victoria and Queensland, which collectively are the location for around 80% of industry activity.
- All of the largest 10 companies are more than 80% export oriented and most of them are more than 95% export oriented. Overall industry export revenues are estimated to account for over 90% of total industry revenues.
- Over 85% of companies within the industry now engage in the development of their own intellectual property assets and half of the companies that don't currently do so plan to in the future."
- Over 90% of companies expect to grow during the next three years and 70% of companies expect to increase their level of investment in own intellectual property development over the next three years.
- The sector is a high skill and high wage industry with average wages above the national full time earnings average ($57,000 p.a)

The table turned to discussions about the industry, how the studios are coping and some of the issues they face currently as, essentially, exporters. Given the facts above, Evelyn and the studio representatives all felt fairly confident about the industry's future, at least once the initial hurdles are left behind.

The end of Friday's events saw delegates dining together, and announcing the winners of the conference's awards program. Surprisingly, Krome Studios were not mentioned.

Saturday saw the real Conference coming into fruition, with the Conference Welcome by Evelyn Richardson, President & CEO of the GDAA, followed by the official opening by Mr. Gary Fenlon, Secretary to the Minister for State Development, Employment and Industrial Relations.

The following keynote by Zeno Colaco, Vice-President, Publisher & Developer Relations, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe saw the attendees of the conference really starting to think about next-generation gaming and games development, throwing the question into the crowd. Some of the more notable suggestions yelled out by the crowd are as follows:

- Nintendo
- Online
- Interaction
- 'What last gen can't do'
- Bigger better, faster
- More overheating

While Zeno was open for a few laughs, especially at the first and last suggestions, and even considered most of the responses completely fair, the general consensus is that next-gen is serious business, and that this is a serious question that needs answering.

When Zeno asked his own team of developers what their thoughts are regarding next-gen, he pointed out the fact that they found it difficult to distinguish between what it is that developers want, and what the consumer expects. The results?

- Real world interaction
- Living environments
- A new experience
- New ways to interact
- New type of game genres
- Evolving: next-gen in many aspects is still conceptual
- Bigger worlds, better graphics & more realism
- "Let's hope it's not last-gen with prettier graphics."
- Fully playable environments
- "Doesn't stop playing even when I do!"

and the list goes on quite a bit. The expectations of the consumer, it seems, are a little different to that of the core gamer demographic - the early adopter. Most notably:

- Refreshing and innovative content
- Sensory feedback
- Interactive storytelling
- Dynamic AI
- Saturated Realism
- Online Presence
- Inter-connectivity

While, naturally, Zeno was referring to the Playstation brand (nobody expected him to do otherwise, even though he did make an effort to keep it at a minimum), the lists above were essentially a wish list for everybody in the room, and the millions out there making the games industry more profitably than Hollywood.

To try and illustrate the concepts behind next-gen, Zeno played a trailer for an upcoming Playstation 3 title, The Outsider. It was a demonstration of narrative and immersion at the hands of high definition and dynamic AI, showcasing the Playstation 3 and the kinds of experiences Sony is trying to unlock in the near future.

The full keynote was very interesting and rather comprehensive, offering valuable information and solidifying some of the less coherent concepts that developers in Australia and around the world are facing with the onset of next generation development.

Zeno said it best himself:

"The wider consumer base cares much more about the experience than the products sublime technical prowess."

The video recording will be available on the site later this week, and it's well worth a watch.

The opening keynotes saw the bulk of the attendees watching, listening and thinking about next-gen, and it was promptly followed by one of many sponsored meals, in this case, morning tea. Suffice to say, we were spoilt, with pastries, tea and coffee, fresh fruit and the company of Kings (of Australian games development). The first bout of networking was a prelude to what was the bulk of the conference ? production, art, programming, design and audio streams. These sessions were an hour long each, and covered a variety of topics. Unfortunately, I can only cover the sessions I was able to attend, but it's important to note that the conference covered a variety of topics, from questioning whether C and C++ are the best platforms for programming, to self publishing and funding.

The first stream I attended was titled Max Vs Maya, and once again, it was more or less an Autodesk session, discussing the company's plans in the future and how they support the games industry with their tools.

It is interesting to recognise that in surveys Autodesk undertook with games developers, 50% of them used Max, while 51% used Maya, meaning that the majority of developers used Autodesk products, and some used both of them concurrently. It is also reassuring to know that Autodesk plan to continue development of the two software packages as two separate packages, much like it was before the acquisition of Alias earlier this year.

As they stand, both packages are popular, and have a reliable and growing user base who, as Ben Richards (3ds Max Specialist, Autodesk Asia Pacific) stated during the session, "we don't want to piss off". Essentially, the only thing that's going to change drastically over the packages in the coming years, apart from getting more features, and running faster (edit poly has seen a quoted 30x speed increase in version 9 of Max, for example), is the compatibility between the packages, and the seamless integration of both of them into a pipeline.

Directly following this session was one I found remarkably interesting, How To Use User Testing Feedback To Shape Your Game Design.
In this session, Matthew Ford from Auran went into great detail regarding the pros and cons of usability testing, and beta testing.

Usability testing, in a nutshell, is when a studio uses what are dubbed 'tissue testers' to play their game ? tissues, because you use them once, then throw them away. The idea is that testers are brought in who are entirely na?ve to your game. They aren't investing, they aren't developing, they aren't hardcore, they don't know about development. Usability testing takes advantage of a small group of testers, in a controlled environment, to produce scientific results on the usability of a game. Tests can even be effectively conducted without engine implementations, Matthew suggests, using mockups of interface prototypes for example. Sessions record their voice, face and hands, and even 'clickers' which the test subject click to record when they feel certain emotions such as boredom, like, dislike, confusion, etc.

Usability is important to ensure that a game doesn't repel a broader audience, and allows you to see into the gaming minds of that same audience.

Beta testing was a little more known by the general audience of the stream, but Matthew covered it well. Beta testing is important to establish that the game does what the developers intend; that the game translates. However, it's important to make sure the test subjects measure the game by the developer's standards, not their own.

Matt covered some of the less common areas which are often overlooked:

- Keep the subjects with less patience ? they more often represent a larger percentile of consumers than not
- Migrate save games between builds
- Make it easy to report bugs and opinions within the game
- Let them save and send local logs
- Reward testers for feedback
- Look for trends

Overall, I found the session very interesting. Matthew really highlighted the importance of good testing procedures within a studio, and it sounds like Auran has an asset in him.

Lunch on Friday was not provided by the sponsors, so everybody took it as an excellent opportunity to network, take a walk around Brisbane's lovely Southbank area for an hour, and check out the Expo section of the conference.

Off to the side of the Lizard Lounge, the conference's central area for meals and networking, complete with PS2 kiosks, comfy couches and LCD screens, was a large room housing the Expo. Inside were stalls for several games and tech companies, and a large section for unsigned developers, one of which would leave the conference with the Best Unsigned Independent award, and another with Best Unsigned Independent award. All of the games in the expo (except Irrational Games Bioshock) were there to be played and commented on.

The New Zealand games industry went to a lot of effort setting up a large section with several developers from across the ocean. Sidhe Interactive made their presence known with a fully playable version of their upcoming PS3 title, Gripshift DLX, with a 60gb Playstation 3 sitting under a LCD panel screen. I had a quick play, surprised to see a PS3 in the flesh, but also smiling a bit to play a game that reminded me of Nadeo's Trackmania.

Auran's upcoming MMORPG, Fury made an appearance, complete with 4 PC rigs connected together for PvP gameplay. However, the unsigned games seemed to garner the most attention, with IronMonkey studios, Endgame Studios, AIE Canberra and QANTM all seeming to be crowd favourites.

The Expo was installed over both Friday and Saturday, giving the attendees ample time to have a good look and play with the games on display.

After my first visit to the Expo, there was another Art stream which a large number of developers attended: The Secret Alchemy For Creating Outstanding Next Gen Visuals, presented by Adam Myhill and Kirk Gibbons, both from Pandemic Studios. This was one of the best sessions, in my opinion. It was interesting, thanks mostly to Adam's dorky sense of humour (in a good way), and the actual content was relevant and applicable to even those in the audience who weren't working in a studio environment.

Process, immersion, and in-game feedback were important, underlying concepts which they attributed to successful next-gen experiences. Immersion is one concept that most developers can agree on: "it draws the player in to the game. Good design is what keeps them there", according to Adam.

They also pointed out the importance of purpose within the implementation of visual elements, and the efficient use of reference throughout the process.

Adam and Kirk focused heavily on post effects to try and illustrate their equation. They downplayed the use of heavy, RAM intensive technology like normal maps, preferring well used geometry and freeing up memory with smaller, micro-detail normal maps. However, what they were really trying to encourage, is the adoption of film theory within games development.

The imperfections we see on film ? motion blur, depth of field, field of view, lighting effects ? aren't intrinsic to CG, in fact, it's the exact opposite. CG is so fundamentally precise and perfect, that in order to "make the image better, you have to make it worse", an irony that Adam made certain the audience was aware of. He drives home the point that if you don't know how to use post effects properly, it's worse than not using them at all.

On the subject of film theory, the session openly questions the camera cut myth within the games industry. The myth describes the use of camera cuts to tell the story as strictly taboo, while Adam and Kirk contest that myth, suggesting that we can learn much from some of the more famous film directors, and that the industry needs to experiment in order to grow.

That session saw the end of Friday for me, but it left good impressions that the right people were hearing the right things.

Saturday morning saw the arrival of Tsutomou Kouno from SCE Japan, in his stream Gameplay Over Graphics: The Loco Roco Story. Unfortunately, I was unable to attend the morning sessions, but this particular stream was worth noting simply based on the positive impressions I garnered from fellow developers at the conference.

My day started after lunch, and by that time, the Careers Market was in full swing, and students had been flowing through the conference all day to attend information sessions regarding the industry. This event was free for students, and it was a very pleasing initiative to undertake, showing the conference and the GDAA's commitment to expanding the talent base in the industry.

To be honest, I was a little disappointed with the number of studios at the careers market. I counted three, with the rest of the space taken up by educational institutions, of which I counted 3 as well. Talking to the lovely HR girls from Krome Studios, the careers market was a place where students could learn about what was out there as far as education, what the studios look for in talent, and what newcomers can expect from the industry as a career. Towards the end of the day's events, a last minute change meant one of the streams wasn't possible, so the developers organized a Developer's Rant. It was an open forum style Q&A discussion, which I was unable to attend because I was too busy hanging out with the girls from Krome in the Careers Market, talking about the studio, upcoming and current gaming and console trends.

What little I did catch of the Developer's Rant from those who were able to attend was that the session was fairly casual, with the developers describing some of the horror stories of development dealing with publishers, and generally opening up and laying down some of their fulfilled fears as developers. It was a welcome ending to the information sessions that littered the conference, making way for the closing speech by Evelyn Richardson.

Simon Lissaman from IR Gurus opened the closing address, thanking Evelyn for all her hard work and dedication, before handing the mic over to the leading lady. Evelyn took this opportunity to reflect upon her career as President of the GDAA and the experiences she's had with the developers. Quite memorably, however, Evelyn implored the producers of the industry to 'leave their egos at the door', and to allow the great talent within the industry to flourish and control the creative content that they are so passionate about.

Evelyn also took this opportunity to announce her stepping down from the position of President of the GDAA, effective January 10, 2007. While she had had no previous games experience before taking the role, it was very obvious to the audience that during her time as leading lady of the GDAA, she became a very important part of the industry, and enjoyed her time while there.

After the official closing of the conference, the venue opened up for drinks and social events, with two after parties, hosted by QANTM and Sony, giving people enough choice and selection of beverages to keep them energized for the remaining hours.

I personally toured the QANTM after party. The college had taken the time and effort to setup a large display area with students work from game art, design and multimedia, with computer rigs set up, free drinks and munchies, music and a plethora of business cards.

The beginning of that party saw the QANTM developers, who earned GameConnect's Award for Best Unsigned Game (Indie), screaming, hugging, posing for photos, and generally being elated over their well earned win.

The remainder of the party saw a good number of people browsing the displays, drinking, picking up business cards, and standing around waiting for the students to attend to their displays so they could sell their work.

The idea was that everybody left on a high, and I feel it worked. The drinks were flowing, and people got one last chance to meet all the local developers they wanted to.

Overall, I still think there's a lot to be added and repaired for future conferences. The organization of the conference, as I understand, was a bit rushed, and it showed. However, the concept has been laid, and it is one that the developers attending really got into. I met some wonderful people, gained some valuable insight, and learned quite a few things about development, as one would expect. While leaving quite a bit of room to improve (it is no SIGGRAPH), I would personally consider the conference a success.

Game Connect: Opening with Evelyn Richardson (31mb) CEO and President of the Game Developers? Association of Australia, Evelyn Richardson, opens the conference with some brief comments on the industry, including the closure various studios since last year. Evelyn also talks about the results of the national survey the GDAA recently made (with support by the Victorian and Queensland goverment) on the Australian games industry.

Game Connect: Opening part 2 with Gary F. (40mb) Mr. Gary Fenlon, Secretary to the Minister for State Development, Employment and Industrial Relations. in Queensland. Gary chats about the support the Queensland government has provided for the games industry, as well as talks up a fair bit about the games industry in Queensland.

Jungle Escape demonstration (30mb) Jungle Escape was an entrant in the Best Unsigned Game (Independent) category in the GD:AP awards. The platformer game was developed by the AIE students in Canberra calling themselves Alien Technologies.

Game Connect: Fury Demonstration (51mb) Peter Davis gets a demonstration of Auran's PvP based MMO called "Fury". An Auran personnel runs through the various features of the game, and it's looking extremely nice indeed!

Game Connect: Closing Presentation with Tom Crago and Evelyn Richardson (27mb) Tom Crago, CEO of Tantalus and Vice President of the Game Developers? Association of Australia introduces Evelyn Richardson for her final appearance as President and CEO of the GDAA. Evelyn talks about her four years as the head of the GDAA and provides her thoughts on the local games industry.

Game Connect: Closing 2 with Evelyn Richardson (32mb) Evelyn presents the Independant Games awards ceremony, with representatives from Iron Monkey Studios and Qantm college accepting their trophies.

Best Unsigned Game (Professional) 2006 nominees:
"Darkenlight " by Iron Monkey Studios (winner)
"Slidatron" Endgame Studios

Best Unsigned Game (Indie) 2006 nominees:
"Final Justice" by Qantm College (winner)
"Jungle Escape" by AIE Canberra
"Chiko Accidental Alien" by Indigo Digital
"Frequency" by South Bank Institute

Finally, Evelyn closes the presentation with comments on the Game Connect conference and gives thanks to everyone who came along and also to those who helped make it happen.

Just a note, if you have a problem viewing these .wmv video files, be sure to download the WMV 11 codecs at this link.