Gaming Conferences: DevGamm, White Nights and Health Industry
I am a technical evangelist of Unity Technologies, and my job is to travel, talk about something useful at conferences, help domestic developers get the most attention from Unity.
Six months ago, I made a brief guide to conferences for game developers , and now it’s time to figure out where I was right, where it’s not right, and watch the changing market for events in and around Russia.
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In fact, all conference organizers want more booths with games, but booths are made with indie, because organizers are trying to make money from famous developers, and there is nothing to take to indie, they are invited for nothing. This is a very positive trend - a sociable developer can now fit into the glossy business event Mobile VAS and the indigo DevGamm conference and also to various start-up events to attract investors.
In this paragraph, the key word is “outgoing”. The organizers call for free familiar teams that will adorn the demo zone of their event. If you are just starting your igrodel path - try to be useful and visible to the industry: write a blog, participate in gamesjam.org, communicate with industry leaders on twitter ...
Good conferences are opened by the keynote speech of the flagship speaker - everyone has come to it (or even better for morning coffee before the most important report of the event). Further, the presentation halls are empty, and the guests of the conference are engaged, in fact, in business: they sell / buy / watch projects, traffic, advertising, get to know each other, swear ... In general, they work. At industry conferences there are extremely few experienced developers, and all these people around are bizs and marketing, often from near-game services: billing, advertising.
At Moscow DevGamm, we tried to collect a lot of technical reports about art, optimization, physics, organized a round table igrozhurov, called the industry leaders to think out loud and talk to the people - tried to break the stereotype in the title of the paragraph. Who was on Devgamma, we did it?
White Nights - on the contrary, a conference about marketing and services, about igroprom as a business. From the St. Petersburg conference, guests expect a lot of useful networking and few useful reports, so the speakers were comforted by video recordings of the reports: “People on the Internet will hear you.”
People on the Internet, be sure to look at the records of reports from the Chinese and Korean Unity divisions - they tried to tell about the character and mentality of Asian users. It is time to understand these strange millions of downloads from China, which do not bring a dollar ...
Surely you yourself, dear reader, are going to the next conference of game developers to find money, publisher, traffic, get feedback, get to know someone. And clearly not to learn about the secrets of rendering and new DX11 chips, am I right? These are the new rules of the industry igroproma.
For knowledge, it is really worth going to workshops, sometimes for CG events and SIGGRAPHs, of which there are plenty in our country. Conferences have become an instrument that must be skillfully and creatively used.
“Throw your kazualki and start making art house,” the happy Bogdan Sereda was telling from the podium, taking another prize at the DevGamm conference. His project Breached did not fit into any casual frames, was very different from the rest of the nominees and ... was noticed by the jury. And experts would certainly suggest that he should better make a kazualka about balls for VKontakte ...
Six months ago, I made a brief guide to conferences for game developers , and now it’s time to figure out where I was right, where it’s not right, and watch the changing market for events in and around Russia.
')
Everybody wants indie
In fact, all conference organizers want more booths with games, but booths are made with indie, because organizers are trying to make money from famous developers, and there is nothing to take to indie, they are invited for nothing. This is a very positive trend - a sociable developer can now fit into the glossy business event Mobile VAS and the indigo DevGamm conference and also to various start-up events to attract investors.
In this paragraph, the key word is “outgoing”. The organizers call for free familiar teams that will adorn the demo zone of their event. If you are just starting your igrodel path - try to be useful and visible to the industry: write a blog, participate in gamesjam.org, communicate with industry leaders on twitter ...
Presentations are just an excuse.
Good conferences are opened by the keynote speech of the flagship speaker - everyone has come to it (or even better for morning coffee before the most important report of the event). Further, the presentation halls are empty, and the guests of the conference are engaged, in fact, in business: they sell / buy / watch projects, traffic, advertising, get to know each other, swear ... In general, they work. At industry conferences there are extremely few experienced developers, and all these people around are bizs and marketing, often from near-game services: billing, advertising.
At Moscow DevGamm, we tried to collect a lot of technical reports about art, optimization, physics, organized a round table igrozhurov, called the industry leaders to think out loud and talk to the people - tried to break the stereotype in the title of the paragraph. Who was on Devgamma, we did it?
White Nights - on the contrary, a conference about marketing and services, about igroprom as a business. From the St. Petersburg conference, guests expect a lot of useful networking and few useful reports, so the speakers were comforted by video recordings of the reports: “People on the Internet will hear you.”
People on the Internet, be sure to look at the records of reports from the Chinese and Korean Unity divisions - they tried to tell about the character and mentality of Asian users. It is time to understand these strange millions of downloads from China, which do not bring a dollar ...
Health Industry
Surely you yourself, dear reader, are going to the next conference of game developers to find money, publisher, traffic, get feedback, get to know someone. And clearly not to learn about the secrets of rendering and new DX11 chips, am I right? These are the new rules of the industry igroproma.
For knowledge, it is really worth going to workshops, sometimes for CG events and SIGGRAPHs, of which there are plenty in our country. Conferences have become an instrument that must be skillfully and creatively used.
“Throw your kazualki and start making art house,” the happy Bogdan Sereda was telling from the podium, taking another prize at the DevGamm conference. His project Breached did not fit into any casual frames, was very different from the rest of the nominees and ... was noticed by the jury. And experts would certainly suggest that he should better make a kazualka about balls for VKontakte ...
Promised Conference Guide
- Quo Vadis Berlin was actively, lively, along with other gaming events and festivals. All very indie, go to lectures, an hour before the closing of the conference halls were full. Then everything is on bikes and on the way to a special creative hangar for an exhibition of interactive installations. All the time, the focus was on games, not business. An interesting event.
- Spring DevGamm Moscow pleased with a strong technical program, excellent organization and a very healthy balance of guests. Next year it will be necessary to look at the time, place, list of sponsors and speakers. The event is worth the attention.
- Summer Petersburg White Nights is growing, developing and discussing mobile marketing. Next year, the organizers promise to pay more attention to new platforms, features of cross-platform marketing and non-mobile publishing. Be sure to look at the Nights next year.
- Gamescom traditionally gathers the European industry and a bit of the world industry in Cologne. The format looks familiar: no one goes to GDC Europe, but everyone made a lot of meetings at Gamescom and around it. A good way to feel the pulse of the market and to find the right acquaintances of the domestic, European and world industry. Expensive, but you have to go ...
- On Unite Seattle there will be a lot of announcements about Unity - it makes sense to go to get everything at once, meet colleagues and developers of the engine, and still lively discuss all the innovations, new services, see the roadmap. The event focuses on technology and business, do not send there only the director, be sure to take a senior programmer as well.
- DevGamm Minsk also moved from Kiev, but, in my opinion, chose uncomfortable dates between Igromir and Live Mobile from Game Insight. Plus, it is extremely difficult for westerners to get a visa to Belarus, and local people promise to come to a big event in Vilnius. As a result, there are very few reasons to go to Minsk Devgamm.
- This year, Live Mobile Vilnius will be held in conjunction with a conference about investors from Caliphronia . Game Insight promises 3,000 people and an incredible network. Judging by the reviews, the industry has noticed the conference, Peter, Moscow, they are getting ready for it, they ask. According to rumors, there will be free visas - a great chance to attend the Moscow conference in the new setting.
- By Igromir I look narrowly for which year. What will happen now? Comic with elements of KRI and Igromir or KRI with elements of Comic or ... The demo video on the site promises a great show about games and comics, plus somewhere hidden part for the creators. I still do not understand how to approach this event, from which side it is interesting to a developer without millions of budgets and AAA games.
- Casual Connect Belgrade moved from Kiev to Serbia - a good chance to see what is happening in the Czech Republic, Austria, and Central European game development in general. Plus meet Ukrainian geymdev. Sounds interesting, support.
- Mobile VAS organizers promise to turn the business forum into a larger show about trends and awards, talk about the demo zone. If you have a casual game that is understandable to people not from the industry, most likely you want to try to get into this demo zone.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/228401/
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