Boston GameLoop 2009 Impressions

On August 15, the Boston GameLoop “unconference” attracted industry personnel from around the country for a day of informal yet substantive roundtable discussions on a range of topics affecting the industry. 

Below are the thoughts of the event’s organizers and several of the attendees.

Darius Kazemi, Orbus Gameworks/ GameLoop Organizer

1.  How do you feel everything went this year? 

I think it went swimmingly well. We doubled our attendance from last year, and we almost doubled the number of sessions offered. Last year, 10% of our attendees came from outside of the Boston area, and all of those were from NYC. This year 20% of our attendees were out-of-towners, and we had a strong contingent from NYC and Albany, NY, as well as folks from DC, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles.

From talking to attendees, it seems like the session content itself has improved from last year. This is an advantage of the unconference format: the more attendees you have, the more likely you are to have interesting topics being proposed and good discussions arising from them.

The wiki is already being updated with session content, including audio, and we're hoping to get access to the video recordings from the conference very soon.

2.  What changes and improvements can we look forward to for next year?

We haven't come to any firm decisions about where we're taking the conference, but we've discussed tweaks to the schedule format to allow for more in-depth discussion. We're also toying with the idea of introducing a second day. Generally speaking, we're shooting to double the attendance again, and to reach even more people from outside the Boston area!

Scott Macmillan, Macguffin Games/GameLoop Organizer 

Agreed on Darius' points.  I think things went extremely well - the chance to have a really good discussions about in-depth topics is something you don't always find at other conferences, and I think that is one of the big things GameLoop brings to the table.

The best thing about it for me was, afterwards we got a thank-you from one attendee who said we'd helped reminded him why he wants to make games.  That's always the best thing about GDC for me, and it's what I hope we can do for people with GameLoop.

Alex Schwartz, Seven45 Studios 

When I signed up for GameLoop, I knew what sort of experience I would be getting because even though I couldn't attend the first one last year, I had heard good things about it. Also, Scott and Darius were organizing it so how could it go wrong. They mostly run the show at the Boston Postmortem, the local IGDA chapter for Boston (a VERY well attended monthly meeting). I'm a fan of the open conference format and it usually allows for a much more fluid way to communicate ideas and riff off of one another which makes for a good open discussion. In the case where a specific person is designated to be disseminating information to the larger group, the authority structure is not as strong due to the lack of formal conference structure, which may be a potential negative but a strong moderator can keep discussion on track.

I attended a bunch of sessions and wrote everything I could down on my laptop, which I do not have with me at the moment, but off of the top of my head, I attended the Business Models for Indies, What the Hell is a Technical Artist, Unity3d and iPhone, Successful Side Projects, Procedural Animation, Illusionary Gameplay, and finally 'Meaning in Games and Interactive Metaphor'. All of these were pretty fun :)

The sessions were definitely beneficial, especially the ones that focused on Indie themes, as I'm currently finishing up an iPhone game side project and am looking for techniques for publicizing and marketing the final product to get it in as many hands as possible. Ichiro Lambe (Dejobaan Games) as well as Scott MacMillan (Macguffin Games) and Eitan (Fire Hose Games) were all helpful, providing input as successful indie developers.

Avi Mintz, Kaos Studios 

This being my first time attending a casual conference, I wasn't too sure what to expect. The loose structuring of the event sounded intriguing, and I assumed that the sessions would evolve over the course of the day. This proved to be correct, the schedule continuing to fill up as the day went on with topics covering all aspects of game development.

I attended sessions on a broad range of topics, including project management, game journalism, the Boston IGDA chapter, and a few more. Most of the sessions were thought provoking round-table discussions, rather than prepared lectures, and this seemed to work well with the overall atmosphere at GameLoop; I was able to meet interesting people and discuss topics that interested me in a comfortable and casual environment. I would have liked to see some more structured talks interspersed between the round-table discussions, but that might just be something to look into for next year.

Donald Schwartz, Imagelink Productions

1.  What were you hoping to get out of GameLoop? 

New connections with close to the ground game developers, insiders, and academicians. By close to the ground I mean people actively involved in game creation and thinking about what may be next.

2.  How were the sessions beneficial to you? 

Catalyst for story ideas.

3.  Any other thoughts? 

Once again the podcamp conference approach trumped the traditional panel approach for real engagement.

 James Beals, Turbine

 1.  What were you hoping to get out of GameLoop?

Honestly I wasn't really sure what to expect from gameloop. The industry is still so very new and many people still don't know whats helpful and whats not I wasn't really expecting anything. I'm very grateful my friend convinced me to go however, I got the chance to network with tons of people that have different positions and have experienced the game industry inner workings. Really it was a great learning experience and gave me some direction on my own path to making games professionally.

2.  What sessions did you attend?

As for sessions I attended the ones that really interested me. Since I'm an artist I wanted to focus on sessions that could give me more knowledge in that field. I've come to find that its really not defined by one specific role and as an artist there is a lot expected from you, and with how quickly the industry is advancing there is always something new to learn so events like this and others are really useful tools.

3.  How were they beneficial to you?

I got to meet some really great, passionate, intelligent individuals that really love what they do. It makes you feel that this work is very satisfying and rewarding, I really couldn't picture myself doing anything else and enjoying it. This has also got me looking into other events and projects so I can really get involved and try to become more of a major role and player in the growing industry.

4.  Any other thoughts?

I think that if you really want to make it in this industry you need to be a really driven and passionate individual. If your heart isn't in it or you don't enjoy what your doing, its not for you. Its also not easy to establish yourself and work can be very sporadic, but if you continue working at it and show real drive things will pay off and it will become much easier to continue in the field. This has always been a dream job for me and I've had to work very hard to get involved plus get lucky with some opportunities, but its become very rewarding and I love going into work every morning and that's all I could hope for.

Johannes Kramer, Designer

1.  What were you hoping to get out of GameLoop?

I was there last year and liked it a lot so I went back. Meet people who are in games see what they are doing, spot trends in games dev and get in touch wtih ppl who are just starting out. It was especially nice to see some folks from last year again and see how they changed & progressed.

2.  How were the sessions beneficial to you?

- I heart small sessions & roundtables: you actually get to meet and talk to people

- Indie Business: Something that I'm considering for the future and it was valuable get some first-hand insights from people who are actually doing that right now ( Dejobaan, etc.)

- MMO's, E vs. West: Interesting backgrounds & info about "MMO gaming in Asia"

3.  Any other thoughts?

- Awesome location

- The most important thing was to meet people and see what everyone's doing and that was accomplished!

Shane Liesegang, Bethesda Softworks

For Shane's impressions, please see his blog. 

The Boston GameLoop left all of us here at nycgameindustry.com with a very positive impression as well. We gained a boatload of knowledge - anyone think it's time for a New York GameLoop?  So do we, please stay tuned.