EVA 2007 - A success
Last november we had our 5th edition of the argentine GDC: EVA.
The quality of the lectures was the best in all of the editions, boasted international speakers, and we had many companies interested in sponsoring the event to get exposure.
My talk this year was about “The New Gameplay”. Even though I was unsure at the moment of the call for presentations what I meant to talk about, I discovered during my lecture that I was trying to touch the heart of the argentine developer to push it away from the rotting dream of making huge blockbusters or Monkey Island. I don’t think I was able to bring down that ghost, but based on the feedback of my talk I can say that most people felt that I stirred something inside. I’m happy.
Another event we have during EVA is a gamedev contest called CODEAR (click for the games), which I’ve been helping organize since its inception four years ago. It’s meant to be a showcase for hobbyists and startups, as a way of giving them the motivation to finish what they are doing.
The contest sparks a very warm feeling on me as the participants talk about their games and show the audience how they play for a bit. I think it’s love.
My conclusion for this EVA is that we are finally starting to mature as an industry, after many years of stumbling in the dark.
All we need now is to lure more people into joining us so we can solve our urgent need of talented professionals and reach critical-mass, so we can jump to the next level…
I know we will.
5 Comments so far
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The first thing that needs to happen is the organizational structure and process of these studios needs to become more conducive to design innovation while emphasing business strategies only possible now. The second thing that needs to happen is more talent, I’d like to see all my indie dev friends move here, but I think there’s enough indigenous talent that we’d be alright either way.
By Patrick on 11.24.07 3:40 pm
You have to post some kind of summary of your talk. And slides. Or a video with English subtitles
Also there are some pretty interesting looking games at CODEAR. I have to check them out.
By Petri Purho on 11.25.07 12:18 am
I’m sorry to inform Daniel’s readers that the only thing available about his talk at EVA is the pps, which can be downloaded here (in spanish).
Too bad, I would’ve loved to have have a recording of the standing ovation his talk received
By Egar on 11.25.07 4:48 am
Standing ovation, wow.
Now Daniel you have to post some kind of summary. I will pester you until you do!
By Petri Purho on 11.25.07 8:05 am
The main point of the talk is a proposition to shift the heart of the argentine developers from the longing to belong to the hardcore game industry (big games, 3D, etc.), to the new “generation” of game developers.
Basically, I was saying that more people should do what Petri is doing (by all means check his games! Specially “Crayon Physics”, which should be called just “Crayons” if you ask me).
To those here that don’t know who Petri is, he started making the kind of games I was talking about a year ago. Now he is going for the IGF Contest. I’m sure he’s going to be a celebrity this year at the GDC. He might even get the offering to work with the big platforms, too…
By Daniel Benmergui on 11.25.07 1:45 pm
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