IGC Rocked
by John Quigley · in General Discussion · 11/05/2002 (11:11 pm) · 1 replies
Just wanted add my $0.02 to the growing list of IGC comments.
In simplest terms, IGC Rocked. I had my doubts at first, but they were all completely and quickly dispelled. The main benefits were:
1) Its great to actually meet and talk to people. IRC/Forums are better than nothing, but there is no good substitute for face to face communication. In fact now that I'm back using the "virtual" interface to GG and the indie games community, I feel handicapped.
2) All of the presentations that I went to were quite informative, or at least thought provoking. Randy Dersham provided a fascinating glimpse (as in, fascination for the abomination :) of the decision making processes in commercial publishing. That coupled with Jeff's talk on indie publishing reinforced my confidence in the eventual viability of indie gaming.
C) Marble Blast and Orbz really show off the unique power of torque, and, I think, the potential of the indie games community. Both are simple and very fun arcade-style games that are well within reach of the part time indie developer. You hear a lot about MMPX and realistic FPS games on these forums, and while these are interesting ideas they take a long time to produce for even dedicated teams. It really feels like the sweet spot for indie games is to instead make these small, unusual, innovative, fun, and relatively quick to develop games. With a couple of these games on the market, you can probably expect some interesting income even if each is not a blockbuster.
4) IGC definitely a kick in the pants when it comes to motivation. It is sooo easy when you're working alone or disconnected to get in a rut of inactivity. But IGC put the carrot back in front of the horse (along with some cabbage and other goodies :).
Finally, Jay Moore is a force of nature. It is simply amazing that he was able to plan so much in such a short time and yet still have it come off really well. Kudos!
In simplest terms, IGC Rocked. I had my doubts at first, but they were all completely and quickly dispelled. The main benefits were:
1) Its great to actually meet and talk to people. IRC/Forums are better than nothing, but there is no good substitute for face to face communication. In fact now that I'm back using the "virtual" interface to GG and the indie games community, I feel handicapped.
2) All of the presentations that I went to were quite informative, or at least thought provoking. Randy Dersham provided a fascinating glimpse (as in, fascination for the abomination :) of the decision making processes in commercial publishing. That coupled with Jeff's talk on indie publishing reinforced my confidence in the eventual viability of indie gaming.
C) Marble Blast and Orbz really show off the unique power of torque, and, I think, the potential of the indie games community. Both are simple and very fun arcade-style games that are well within reach of the part time indie developer. You hear a lot about MMPX and realistic FPS games on these forums, and while these are interesting ideas they take a long time to produce for even dedicated teams. It really feels like the sweet spot for indie games is to instead make these small, unusual, innovative, fun, and relatively quick to develop games. With a couple of these games on the market, you can probably expect some interesting income even if each is not a blockbuster.
4) IGC definitely a kick in the pants when it comes to motivation. It is sooo easy when you're working alone or disconnected to get in a rut of inactivity. But IGC put the carrot back in front of the horse (along with some cabbage and other goodies :).
Finally, Jay Moore is a force of nature. It is simply amazing that he was able to plan so much in such a short time and yet still have it come off really well. Kudos!
About the author
Torque Owner Jay Moore
Default Studio Name
For everyone who couldn't come, remember this was just a practice run so we could get it right for next year (we'll announce the date as soon as we book the location, but expect mid to late July based on the consenus at IGC '02).
It really was a grand community experiment and I want to say thank you to everyone who assisted in pulling this off: The entire MGO Team - Ed & Adrian, thanks for everything and I promise I'm really going to ship all your switches back to you! The Wild Duck Restaurant & Brewery - Shannon Overman, Brenden, Mike, Jason, Bob, Dave and the entire team we couldn't have Graf painted any other massive warehouse in town and had the best food ever served at a conference, Thanks (Spank Dog rules). Thank you to the GG team for believing in the noob, Jeff (with speakers & the checkbook), Rick (on website), Mark (on Marbles), Tim (e-commerce support) and Alex & Rick (presenting & system support); I think my best sales feat yet was actually having you believe me when I sold you on the idea we could do this in 6 weeks (well Mark always had his reservations, but he bought into the SDS - shared delusional syndrome too). CyPR Media and Thin Air Design - thanks. To nVIDIA & XFX without your support we could never have pulled off such a successful Con - Jim, Cyril, Carrie, Paula and the whole team - Thanks.
To everyone Speakers/presenters, scribes, ShowOFF room volunteers, pipe and drape movers, system unpackers and packers, random tech support providers. Thanks. This truely was OUR IndieGamesCon and I just had the priveledge of finding us a big garage and making sure we had some food and a few kegs of beer.