November 17
concluded another Montreal International Games Summit and it continues to be a shining example for not just games, but also for ideas.
The Palais des Congres was packed with programmers, publishers, writers, and designers all eager to share their knowledge and passion for video games. Not only could up and coming devs learn from a variety of master classes (new to MIGS 2015), but also from the wide list of experts in the field of video game design speaking at the conference. Such people included Senior Creative Director for Visceral Games, Amy Hennig; Creative Director at Ubisoft, Clint Hocking; Senior Dev Rel Tech Artist for Epic Games, Zak Parrish; and living legend himself, Former founder of Games Workshop and Eidos, Ian Livingstone.
These talks were not only incredibly insightful, particularly Clint Hocking’s who went into great detail of the culture, process and products of chocolate, and wine relating them to video game production, but also incredibly inspiring. One of the recurring themes in quite a few talks was the passion of creating video games and drive to be daring enough to do it, without the understandable fear of failure.
Aside from talks and classes, the showroom floor was both interesting and fun, showing off demos for PlayStation VR, Google’s Project Tango, and a weekend long demo and tournament for Ubisoft’s new MOBA-style game For Honor. Alongside these were interesting and fun booths by both AAA and indie developers alike, showcasing interesting design tools, and up-and-coming dev tech.
With one of the largest indie gaming communities in the world, the MIGS remains one of the best shows for students and budding developers to attend. MIGS has set itself as the leading conference for development, allowing devs new and old to meet people in the industry, collaborate, and hone their ideas in the realm of video game development.
One of MIGS’ best features is how strong and eager the community is to gain knowledge, network, and begin on their path to making interesting and new games. With such an impressive turnout, we can only be hopeful that next year’s MIGS will be even bigger and better.
