GameDev Drinks brings together local video game community

Last night I attended the first ever GameDev Drinks organized by Bret Measor (@BretMeasor) at The Pheasant Plucker on Augusta street. The goal of GameDevDrinks is to “create a social gathering where students and members of the Hamilton video game industry can meet and share ideas, stories and more about the gaming industry, mechanics of design and development or just what everyone is up to”. And that’s exactly what happened last night as local students mixed together with indie game developers.

There was a table full of students from triOS College’s video game program in particular which was great to see. The internship option offered by the program is something that a lot of firms could use to help grow their companies in a way that’s also mutually beneficial to students looking to get their foot in the door of the industry.

A lot of the conversations centred around current industry trends and innovative video game designs. For a long time now AAA video game console titles have become more and more expensive to produce, which has led to companies shying away from innovative but financially risky game concepts. There was also a lot of consolidation, as a few major publishers began to dominate the industry. The video game industry was beginning to look a lot less like the Wild West and a lot more like Hollywood.

However, recently we’ve had a rise in smartphones and tablets with more accessible content delivery methods in the form of app stores, which has facilitated a huge rise in indie game development. Social gaming also emerged, and though it may be facing a decline it should not be discounted in terms of its disruptive ability just yet. And of course there’s Steam. These new platforms are bringing the Wild West back to video games. The innovative upstart can compete with the major league players again. It’s probably why I spend more time playing iPhone games than I do my consoles.

There’s been potential for awhile now for Hamilton to get in on more of this indie video game industry growth, especially with our highly active arts and creative scene. A more active video game community can help us get there!