It's all over for another year, just wondering what people thought of AGDC 2003 (assuming you attended)
Which were the best talks ?
What should you do differently next year ?
Did you win anything in the raffle ?
etc
Zaph [B)]
Well I only got to see the expo, and quite frankly I got bored quickly, although I really liked watching that fly-through of STALKER: Oblivion Lost. I actually could have seen the talks because no-one was watching the doors, but I just got tired and left.
If I go again next year, I'm Drinking before I get there.
quote:Originally posted by Red 5
Tell us what you thought...
:-)
Ok, Personal opinions follow.
I won't comment on the expo because it really wasn't intended for someone like me. The unsigned game competition was good though, I enjoyed quite a few of the games.
Some of the talks I attended:
Hybrid Engines - Mixing C++ and Python to build efficient game engines.
This one scared me and everyone I talked to away from using Python in a game :-) A great talk that showed just how hard it really is, letting you weigh up the pro's and con's of doing it - I felt like the con's won.
Monkey Madness [B)] It seemed to work from my side of the microphone :-)
Iterative Process in Game Development (Ian Fischer, Keynote)
Wow... best talk I attended, I'm off to www.agilealliance.com checking out more information about this - it is pretty similar to the way we currently work at AMH but I never realised it was a well documented and proven method of development, this talk will have the biggest effect on the way I work of all the talks I attended
Gender Inclusive Game Design
Excellent information about making games for both males and females (and non-gamers). Some obvious stuff, some interesting info I'd never heard, some contentious moral issues there too. This talk will have some impact on the way I work.
Creating AI that people want.
This was OK, nothing I didn't already know though so it's hard to judge. A few neat things mentioned in there though.
Our Gameplay is in another castle (Panel)
this one got the people going. A great audience participation argument/discussion of several related topics, showing how little we know about the industry that we work in at times, and how moral issues differ between people and countries. I don't know if anyone left 'changed' but at least people thought about the issues being talked about.
Mobile Games Overview: Whats new in business/tech/design
This was interesting, I have a personal interest in mobile games and it was interesting to see where things are going and where they have come from. The differences between the USA and the rest of the world were good to hear (USA is behind the rest of the world in general)
Aside from the talks I had a great time at the parties, and met quite a few Sumeans too!
quote:Originally posted by Red 5
quote:Originally posted by Red 5
Tell us what you thought Zaph... was it worth the $800-$900?
First, thats not a quote, you didn't ask that the first time. [:)] I'll assume that was an editing error and you weren't trying to make it look like I didn't answer it the first time.
Was it worth the money..? thats a very hard question to answer because sometimes the things you learn and the contacts you make are not able to be quantified and a dollar value put on them.
I didn't pay, my work paid for me - but I think it was worth it. I spent time talking with some very knowledgable people, attended a couple of talks that will easily be worth the money spent in the improvements they make to the way we work.
There were also a couple of sessions I wish I'd attended because they sounded very good from the people I spoke to.
I think it really depends on who you are and what you are trying to get out of it. If you are a senior programmer and you only attended the programming related talks then you'd be hearing stuff you already knew in many gases - but if you attended some design/process talks you'd have learnt a great deal. The same goes for artists/management - if you choose stuff that will broaden your knowledge then it can be invaluable. People who are new to the industry can get more out of it, but often they don't know where to look for it - a catch-22 situation.
The biggest value is always the people you meet and the contacts you make though.
It was good fun, and DavidCoen deserves an award for the dancing he did on friday night, the mans a machine :D
Dave King did a great talk, really enthusiastic as usual, while Paul Steed seemed a bit out of it on the day. The best talk for my money was Bringing realism into games through studying life. He really made you look at it in a different way.
I only really got a chance to read the confrence handbook after the event. I didn't have a chance to attend ANY sessions... i hope some transcripts surface (or similar) particularly some of those game design talks...
Good event. If you were there and NOT involved in the Queensland Government NERF battle, you missed out.
cheers
Another year, another great event; apart from a few little niggles (hi-fi noise/smoke was especially annoying, but the night was still a lot of fun), my only regret is not being able to spend more time speaking with everyone. Met a lot of great people, and came away with a lot more of that elusive knowledge you don't get from books than when I went in [:)]
AGDC is very much about the people - the panels/sessions may give you things to take home and think about, but the people you meet, and the contacts you make are invaluable.
I missed your monkeys, but it was good to meet you Kevin :)
quote:Originally posted by Afro
It was good fun, and DavidCoen deserves an award for the dancing he did on friday night
well, after mistaking the guy who owned the pub we where in for Zaph (which took a few minutes of talking to him to figure out) and getting tired of talking to people over the loud music, getting some basic dancing practic in seemed like a good idea :) (forward basic, back basic, crossover, repeat) (getting involved in a fight in the nightclub we went to after the pub was less of a good idea though) the jumping castle boxing ring rocked, though have been in programming mode for the last month an not exercising/eating so could only last a few minutes....
the talks where interesting, but found it easier to talk to individuals last year (cough, got distracted by nividia stand 'bridgelt' demo, very evil and it works on my machine :) wanted to talk to microforte and perception people, but didn't suceed in hunting down any perception people down. (did managed to do a good 'shock and awe' portfolio demo to the microforte people though :) but then again i tend to be quite motivated after getting rejected in jobinterviews (tell me my textures are no good? well, cop this, hehehhe)
don't know if it would be a good idea to introduce a few talks on bridging the gap of tech and art (seems the general lack of teck skills in artist worries me~ less certain how to help artist by understanding art though~ even just some art tricks like having a frame of black to 'clean up' video cuts or postulating on how artist think...)
will definatly need to put one or more of the small project that i'm involved on on the 'unsigned games' ~ was not that impressed by frost, and the fighting game i am programming/creating content for is dangerously close to be better than it (got multiple characters working today, and fixed the 'fade manager' and a few other bugs. argh, had i just started it a month earlier (pardon complete lack of modesty, it is my defence agains self doubt)
DSC
Generally I thought that the attendance was down on last years conference, because the rooms seemed less packed. The giveaways by ATI and NVIDIA were good of course, even though I didn't manage to score a video card :~(
Yeah, David Coen gets the "dancing" award, however earlier in the night Blitz got the "wiping" award for his go on the Eye-toy window wiping game. And the party was alright because of the large amount of free alcohol that could be consumed, although the music was to loud, the speakers couldn't handle it that well.
Overall the talks were alright, the shader talks by both NVIDIA and ATI were good and very informative, Zaph's Monkey talk was entertaining, interesting, and I await the sequel next year ;-) I missed the starting bit of the hybrid engines talk, but it from my previous chats with people here and that talk I have to say that using hybrid engines is good for (a) tools and (b) game prototyping. The starting keynote by De Margharetti was good for being made probably in hurry, and the other three keynotes were also interesting and well worth it. The talks by intel were also good but not that many developers attended them, however I did learn not to be afraid of software processing in DirectX as a result.
But probably the best thing about attending the conference is the chat / speech that John De Margharetti gave us (Blitz and I plus some other guy) after the conference finished on sunday, and the gatecrashing that we did on monday after the conference. So if nothing else we got some good contacts and ideas out of the conference.
(Thanks Zaph :-)
quote:Originally posted by Zaph
Hybrid Engines - Mixing C++ and Python to build efficient game engines.
This one scared me and everyone I talked to away from using Python in a game :-) A great talk that showed just how hard it really is, letting you weigh up the pro's and con's of doing it - I felt like the con's won.
What other scripting language are you comparing it to? I've used Lua in my own stuff, and what he showed looks so nice and simple that I'm going to trash all my Lua interface code in favour of python!
for "Iterative Process in Game Development" and "Gender Inclusive Game Design", I have to agree with you Zaph, they were very good. The overall quality of the talks was good, although a few could have been better prepared.
I know I'll be comming again next year if I can :)
quote:Originally posted by redwyre
quote:Originally posted by Zaph
Hybrid Engines - Mixing C++ and Python to build efficient game engines.
This one scared me and everyone I talked to away from using Python in a game :-) A great talk that showed just how hard it really is, letting you weigh up the pro's and con's of doing it - I felt like the con's won.What other scripting language are you comparing it to? I've used Lua in my own stuff, and what he showed looks so nice and simple that I'm going to trash all my Lua interface code in favour of python!
for "Iterative Process in Game Development" and "Gender Inclusive Game Design", I have to agree with you Zaph, they were very good. The overall quality of the talks was good, although a few could have been better prepared.
I know I'll be comming again next year if I can :)
Some photos that I took at AGDC 2003 are online here:
http://www.burfitt.org/gallery/view_album.php?set_albumName=AGDC2003
Am I the only one who thinks that Jacana looks incredibly evil >:D We all love red eye.
http://www.burfitt.org/gallery/view_photo.php?set_albumName=AGDC2003&id…
Looks like you guys had a lot of fun.
What's that lady doing to that [url="http://www.burfitt.org/gallery/view_photo.php?set_albumName=AGDC2003&id…"]cardboard cut out[/url]!
AGDC was great got to meet a lot of interesting people except u zaph [:(] Just like to thank Jacana for organizing blue train dinner [:)] hehehe there are so many programmers there it was unbeleivable !!! it seemed like artists were a dying breed... as far as i can recall it was me, the great joel styles and david coen that were artists from sumea..... i didnt get to meet smeg as well and anyone else i missed out[:(]
we had a lot of fun. [:D]
chris.. [:)]
quote:Originally posted by Souri
What's that lady doing to that [url="http://www.burfitt.org/gallery/view_photo.php?set_albumName=AGDC2003&id…"]cardboard cut out[/url]!
Creepy...
Here's a 1:1 piece of the original image - does anyone recognise her ? [url="http://www.burfitt.org/gallery/view_photo.php?set_albumName=AGDC2003&id…"]creepy kiss[/url]! [:X]
quote:Originally posted by Souri
Ahh.. it looks like the lady is a cardboard cut out as well [:)].. from the smaller picture, it looks like a real person. Zaph - the company paid your entry in to the AGDC? I thought speakers get a free pass?
Ah, yeah, you are right - I got a free pass - free is free and I didn't really think about where it came from :-)
Hey you even got one of me , well me running from the camera onto the dance floor. http://www.burfitt.org/gallery/view_photo.php?full=1&set_albumName=AGDC… bottom right hand corner :P
quote:Originally posted by Zaph
quote:Originally posted by Souri
What's that lady doing to that [url="http://www.burfitt.org/gallery/view_photo.php?set_albumName=AGDC2003&id…"]cardboard cut out[/url]!Creepy...
Here's a 1:1 piece of the original image - does anyone recognise her ? [url="http://www.burfitt.org/gallery/view_photo.php?set_albumName=AGDC2003&id…"]creepy kiss[/url]! [:X]
Mu...Mum? What the hell is she doing there?
*waves*
I managed to make it back and in one piece - sorta *grin* Had a quick peek at the photos, talked a bit with Souri about the meeting etc...
Once I get some sleep and catch up on life I'll actually get something more worthwhile to say!
Love the pics Zaph - somehow I think I will never become a poster child for Women against Violence....
quote:Originally posted by JonathanKerr
Any one go to Sidhes 'starting your own business' talk? What was it like?
i found it interesting, though i was starting to get some strange looks from people who knew i was an 'artist'
summary of Sidhes talk;- to plan ahead to the next projects, as it is easy for a company to die between projects.
;-have backup systems inplace, and use them
;-be flexible, show appreciation to employees
;-be prepaired to deal with employees that download 3gig of porn on company bandwidth
Tell us what you thought Zaph...