Monday, April 9, 2018
By: Matthew Doucette
Just getting back from the two main game industry events we attend each year:
We mixed up our business cards, so here's a blog about them both!
GDC & PAX Veterans:
This marks our seventth time to GDC & PAX:
GDC:
PAX:
- PAX East '12
- PAX Prime '12
- PAX East '13 (vids)
- PAX East '14
- PAX East '16 (vids)
- PAX East '17 (vids)
- PAX East '18 (vids) (this trip!)
We have attended many conferences, and it is the best way to meet us!
Videos:
PAX East 2018 Boston playlist.
GDC 2018 San Francisco playlist.
Connections:
Just a few of the many individuals and businesses that make this industry happen. What an inspiration it is to be surrounded by all this talent and motion.
Companies:
- Microsoft
- ID@Xbox
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- Microsoft's indie developer support team (vid)
- Unity! (vids: 1,2,3)
- Epic Games
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- developer of Unreal engine (vid)
- EA / EA Sports
- Criware (vid)
- Aorus
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- developer of a VR racing simulator (vid)
- Ubisoft
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- developer of Star Trek: Bridge Crew VR (vid)
- Another Indie
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- developer of Sinner: Sacrifice for Redemption (vid)
- Loomiarts
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- developer of Squadron 51, a shmup! (vid)
- SwanVR
- Autodidatic I
- Gungrounds Games
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- developer of Serious Sam: Tormental
- we were invited to playtest, based on industry recommendation, due to our shmup experiences!
- JoyMasher Game Studio
- Cat Nigiri
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- developer of Necrosphere Deluxe
- Fully Illustrated
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- developer of Wulverblade
- Magic Spell Studios
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- developer of Fragile Equilibrium
- gorgeous shmup with a fracturing environment
- Talegames
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- developer of Faeland
Individuals:
- Karen Stevens, EA Sports Accessibility Lead
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- interesting discussions about accessibility, which relates to general UI design in all products
- Adrian Babilinski, VR/AR Developer, Parkerhill Reality Labs
- Mauricio Longoni, Head of Studio, Aquiris
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- developer of Horizon Chast Turbo
- Brent Waller, 5 Lives Studios
- Eduardo Gottschald, Revolver Gamestudio
- Ron Martin, Evangelist / Business Development - FILM, Unity
- Lucas Rowe and Kevin Mabie, Red Blue Games
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- developer of Sparklite
- Chris Robinson, 3D Digital Artist, 3D Robinson Design
- Sean Brennan, Darkwind Media
- Antoine Leclere, Wysilab
- Tom Shannon, Technical Artist / Education, Epic Games
- Vidhi Shah, Studio Head / Game Designer, Candor Interactive
- Nathan Fouts, Mommy's Best games
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- developer of Pig Eat Ball
- in a 4 player tournament of Pig Eat Ball, I placed first! What Craziness this game is.
- Tom Brown, Technical Lead
- Andrew J. Prell & Jay Moore, Covergence (XR: Augmented / Virtual Reality)
- Ari Bodaghee, Shadow Knights Studio
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- developer of The Lighthouse
- I playtested this game, and it was an amazing surreal experience!
- The developers are great people.
- Dan Plate and Gary Porter, Dan And Gary Games
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- developer of Super Daryl Deluxe
- Anthony Marquette, founder and program director, Pixels and Polygons / School of Digital Arts & Animation
- Bart van der Werf, Director, Game Developer, Plukit
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- developer of Staxel
- Richard Mitchell, Project Lead, XPO Game Festival & Tulsa Community Foundation
- Marc Breuer, Falkenbrew
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- developer of Devader
- Adam da Rocha, PR and Community Manager, Toxic Games
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- developer of Q.U.B.E. 2
- Michael Meyers & Baily Meyers (Associate PR Manager), MMPR
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- I hope to work with these people in the future...!
And more...
Funding:
We also wish to thank all the funding support. This year eight separate entites allowed our trip to the Game Developers Conference!
GDC 2018 Funding & Support:
- NSBI
- NATI: $2,400 GDC Alumni All Access Pass
- Consulate of Canada Silicon Valley: $315 GDC Expo Pass
- Global Affairs Canada: GDC Play booth
- Heritage Canada: GDC Play booth
- NSCC Truro Campus
- Jason Doucette: ~$1,350 personal funding (our co-founder)
- Xona Games
PAX East 2018 Funding & Support
- Xona Games: 100% funding
- NSCC
With appreciate NSCC Truro Campus for on-campus support in the absence of all my trips.
A Note on NSCC:
I am the core faculty (not an official title) of the NSCC Game Development program at NSCC Truro Campus, with a concentration on the Game Programming concentration. These trips are either supported or partially funded by NSCC. It is these conferences which have allowed us to have the successes we have. It helps keep the NSCC program up-to-date and relevant. It is important to maintain industry relationships -- and some of these include relationships with colleges and universities. Large efforts go into the creative financing for these trip, that would also not be possible without all of the support of government agencies. We have a huge appreciation for all the support our company has received. A win-win.
That is all.
About the Author: I am Matthew Doucette of Xona Games, an award-winning indie game studio that I founded with my twin brother. We make intensified arcade-style retro games. Our business, our games, our technology, and we as competitive gamers have won prestigious awards and received worldwide press. Our business has won $190,000 in contests. Our games have ranked from #1 in Canada to #1 in Japan, have become #1 best sellers in multiple countries, have won game contests, and have held 3 of the top 5 rated spots in Japan of all Xbox LIVE indie games. Our game engines have been awarded for technical excellence. And we, the developers, have placed #1 in competitive gaming competitions -- relating to the games we make. Read about our story, our awards, our games, and view our blog.