Blog
Looking back - PAX East 2010 - The Benefits
PAX East was an excellent experience for multiple reasons.
As a fan of games in general the benefits are obvious: previews of games, a chance to geek out to your idols, new technology demos, booth babes, etc.
As a game developer the benefits are a bit more involved.
The first benefit of attending the show as a presenter is the chance to show your wares to your audience while you are yourself present. While QA and game reviews can help you understand how to make your product better along with some (hopefully) constructive criticism. However, having your target audience play your game in front of you while telling you candidly what they think is a rare opportunity to get the most authentic insight into the fruits of your labor.
Another benefit is that you get the opportunity to mingle among your own (game designers and developers). Not only do you get to meet with your contemporaries but you also get to meet folks from other regions and workplaces where their ideas, work habits, insights and such may be radically different than your own. New methods and technologies you and/or your team may have not known about will reveal themselves to you and the chance to share your own insights will be possible as well.
The next best thing is the chance to network. While I suggest that you keep your “can you get me a job” face tucked away, I also suggest you keep your business cards ready and be more than happy to share your accomplishments (though be smart enough to package them in a good story as to not seem like some pompous ass). Now when I say networking I mean to say that you should keep your ears to the ground with regards to job openings and letting others know you’re a potential resource to them. Do it.
Finally, I find that there is no better way to know where the industry is going than to talk to the folks around to get a general idea of what gets people excited. As an example, I took note of the fact that when folks interested in my friend’s game (Turba) asked if the game will be ported to other systems I would always say, “Turba’s design lends itself to the tablet platform and touch screen interfaces in general. We’re hoping to eventually port this game to both the iPad/iPod/iPhone as well as the Android phones and tablets as well.” Most folks were very excited to hear about Android and many would take that as their cue to rave about their Android phones (as well as a few that explained that they gladly abandoned their iPhone for a Droid or something similar.) This tells me that while maybe not as big as Apple’s line of products, Android phones and tablets are certainly in the minds of gamers. Maybe their competition is not as omnipresent in the media nor are they toting giant stock prices but their strength certainly seems to be in number and diversity (something Apple seems to sorely lack).
And that’s about it, for now.
tags / pax east / turba / benefits / game development / networking
