I’ve been contemplating going to the Montreal International Game Summit at the end of November. In part because I want to participate in Kokoromi Collective’s Gamma256 competition and event but mostly because of the great speakers and sessions they have lined up. I could also stand to visit the city even if it is in the end of November, but the $500 price tag is keeping me at bay and that’s not even counting accommodation and transportation.
Of course I could just skip that and wait for the (considerably cheaper) Toronto Independent Games Conference, but just as Toronto’s game development community is a pale shadow of Montreal’s, TIGC is a weak replacement for MIGS. To this day I don’t understand why our city’s game development community is so non-existent. All we seem to get are cheap consumer events.
At the same time I really do hope that the Toronto event is a success and picks things up. The city might not be able to woo the big name, triple A publishers and developers but maybe it can foster a grassroots independent gaming scene. Metanet’s success and the success of Jonathan Mak’s Everyday Shooter will hopefully mark the start of such a scene.
(And hopefully I can somehow get myself in there too.)
> “I don’t understand why our city’s game development community is so non-existent.”
I am lending support to TIGC for exactly this reason. The local game development community is only going to get stronger if local game developers put time and energy into collaboration, cross-pollination and innovation.
I’ve only been to a few local events, but it seems the same people show up to everything. We need more voices, a wider range of interests and skills, and more opportunities to expand existing social networks.