-
mardi 13 décembre
-
Cool ideas, what are they made of ? how to work on them ?Nicolas EYPERT, Conception Director Ubisoft FunHouse - Ubisoft MontréalCool ideas, what are they made of ? how to work on them ?
Everybody wants to pitch their game idea... but where to start ? How to keep making real progress ?
Having a starting idea is easy, but making it a producible a game is a whole other story, and a lot of work. It is easy to get lost and either abort or deliver an unfinished pitch which will drag into production.
We will first dissect a pitch to explain what is really important, and then see how the job of creative people is to develop it, to shape it around the value it has for the player, for the creators and for the company.
We will close with a few tips on presenting a pitch to an audience.par Nicolas EYPERT
Biographie
Nicolas has 25+ years of industry experience, starting as a programmer in the 16bits era, up to being Creative Director at Ubisoft. He has worked on both AAA games and new creations in the online space. He stills does its own programming to prototype ideas. Lately his focus has been on coaching creative designer on developing their ideas mixing his own tools with other creative processes.
He also recently created a game conception toolkit (The FunBox) for the Ubisoft Montreal FunHouse which helps anybody with an idea to work it.About Ubisoft Montréal
Ubisoft is a leader in AAA games creation and publishing and is recognized for his immersive games set in vast open worlds. The company has 10000+ employees with offices all around the world.
-
From prototype to “final” game, what production is really made of.Stéphane ASSADOURIAN, Expert Game Production Consultant / CEO - Stephane Assadourian Consulting Inc.From prototype to “final” game, what production is really made of.
You received the game concept documents on Friday and you’re starting production on Monday, but you have the vague feeling that you’re forgetting something…
In this 45 minute presentation, we’ll look at why pre-production is so important and how it helps transition towards an efficient production period and cover common mistakes and caveats related to these two critical game development steps. We’ll finish with a healthy, busy production on the verge of winding down to finally ship the game.par Stéphane ASSADOURIAN
Biographie
Stephane has over 18 years of experience in the videogames industry and has extensive knowledge in Game Production. He comes from an Artificial Intelligence background, and is also a Gameplay and AI specialist. He was a core member of the team who created Assassin’s Creed and also the director of Gameplay and AI on the franchise. During the 12 years spent at Ubisoft, he also became a Production Advisor for AAA franchises like Far Cry and WatchDogs, as well as director of Gameplay and AI Programmers for the entire studio (150+ people). He is now the CEO and owner of Stephane Assadourian Consulting Inc.
About Stephane Assadourian Consulting Inc.
Stephane Assadourian Consulting Inc. is working with professionals of the video game industry worldwide. Offering strategic advice and producers’ coaching services, we help organize the productions of game dev studios and publishers around the game they want to make and on the various platforms they wish to release. We drive their development while finding solutions to ship with market quality. We work with studios of various teams’ sizes ranging from North America to Europe.
-
Production is done, but is the game really ready ? How to finish and run it for enduring success.Andréane MEUNIER, Consultant and Business Coach - Self-employedProduction is done, but is the game really ready ? How to finish and run it for enduring success.
So you had a great idea and made it into a game, but are you really ready to put it in the hands of your players? In this 45 minutes presentation, we will see how and why reaching the gold master version is nowadays only one of the required steps on the road to the ever more important live operation phase. From finalizing the game to marketing strategies, we will take the game from production status and go through: production closing, live operations preparation and post-launch game content management.
par Andréane MEUNIER
Biographie
With more than 18 years experience in the digital entertainment and gaming industry, Andréane has leveraged her computer engineering background into strong leadership roles. From being one of the first Live Producers to Montreal’s online Studio Director, she shaped online game production and management at Ubisoft on brands like Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, Watch Dogs and Rainbow Six.
Today, she works as a consultant to share that experience and help teams reach and exceed their goals through management, production, human resources and marketing initiatives.
About Self-employed
-
Le jeu mène à tout, il suffit de sortir du jeu vidéo (Skype)Jean-Noël PORTUGAL, General Manager - DaesignLe jeu mène à tout, il suffit de sortir du jeu vidéo (Skype)
Le game design est peu enseigné et pratiqué en dehors du jeu vidéo. Pourtant, il peut être appliqué à d’autres disciplines, du marketing à la politique et passant, bien sûr, par la pédagogie.
par Jean-Noël PORTUGAL
Biographie
About Daesign
Studio de création et d’édition de serious games récemment acquis par Nathan.
-
-
mercredi 14 décembre
-
FATED: The Silent Oath – Lesson learned and best practices of VR DevelopmentVincent MARTEL, Executive Producer specializing in virtual reality - Frima StudioFATED: The Silent Oath – Lesson learned and best practices of VR Development
Based on his experience developing FATED: The Silent Oath, Vincent will examine the creative process and best practices for creating a VR game. Covering the entire product development cycle from conception to marketing, Vincent will take a close look at the challenges that he and his team had to overcome during the production of FATED.
par Vincent MARTEL
Vincent MARTEL Executive Producer specializing in virtual reality
Frima Studio http://www.frimastudio.com/en/Biographie
Executive producer at Frima, Vincent has, in the past 8 years, overseen the production and release of over 30 titles on almost every existing platform, from mobile to console to PC. Now entirely dedicated to VR, he and his team are working on FATED, an interactive gaming experience that focuses on storytelling and emotions.
About Frima Studio
Frima ( www.frimastudio.com) is a leader in the entertainment and innovation industry. Since its creation in 2003, the company has developed a wide range of digital products, from video games to visual effects to animation. Frima’s know-how also includes virtual reality, augmented reality, and connected toys. In addition to working in close collaboration with such prominent partners as LEGO, Mattel, Oddworld, Zynga, Ubisoft, Hasbro, and Electronic Arts, Frima’s original property division has released several hit titles, the likes of Chariot, Nun Attack, Zombie Tycoon, and FATED. With over 400 industry professionals on-board, the studio launches high-quality products that stand out both artistically and technologically.
-
Maps within maps within maps: Technological challenges and first mover advantages in the developement on location based, geolocalized interactive experiences.Guillaume LANGLOIS, President - Space&Dream Inc.Maps within maps within maps: Technological challenges and first mover advantages in the developement on location based, geolocalized interactive experiences.
Just like Niantic's Pokémon Go or Google's Ingress before it, the Reactour toolkit by Space&Dream enables the creation of super rich and meaningful geolocalized interactive experiences. Mixing varied media, such as AR, VR, 3D, video and more traditional assets like pictures and sound, creating an app with Reactour defies only the imagination of developers and content producers. Throughout this presentation, we will share the lessons and hard earned experience we've acquired in the 4 year development of the platform. We will conclude the presentation by giving the audience a look at our roadmap and the challenges that lie before us, before finishing with an interactive Q&D session.
par Guillaume LANGLOIS
Biographie
Guillaume Langlois is a creative software engineer with more than 10 years of experience of advanced computer graphics and interactive technology development. As Space&Dream's president, he steers the company's ship towards the shores of innovation, research and development and effective products. He also holds an adjunct professor position at Champlain College of Vermont, in software development and game design.
About Space&Dream Inc.
Space & Dream: an interactive branding agency with a serious penchant for radical design and innovation. We develop interactive software that improves communications, education, entertainment, and business sales. We're also very dedicated to pushing the limits in the research fields of virtual reality and immersive environments.You might have heard of "Technocreativity?" It's where technology and creativity converge, and also where you'll find us.
-
Cinematic Storytelling Through GameplayLiz FIACCO, Game Designer - Naughty DogCinematic Storytelling Through Gameplay
Naughty Dog is known for incredibly cinematic game experiences, and designing for them comes with a unique set of challenges. How can a designer enforce a specific character arc within a specific narrative when games are an interactive medium? What are some of the techniques games can borrow from film, and how can they translate to player-driven moments?
par Liz FIACCO
Biographie
Before Naughty Dog, Liz Fiacco worked at Obsidian Entertainment on Role Playing Games such as South Park: Stick of Truth and Pillars of Eternity. She has taught Writing for Games at the University of California Irvine, funded an award-winning independent game called Axle, and she is a board game juror for IndieCade. Outside of games, Liz is an avid cinephile, and an enthusiastic D&D player and Dungeon Master.
About Naughty Dog
Naughty Dog is a subsidiary of Sony Interactive Entertainment, known for developing the franchises Crash Bandicoot, Jak & Daxter, Uncharted, and The Last of Us. The company’s signature style is third-person action, state-of-the-art graphics, exceptional linear storytelling, and cinematic design. Uncharted 4, released in May 2016, is the company’s latest release.
-
Evolution of a Tale: Production at TelltaleDavid BOWMAN, Vice President of Production - TelltaleEvolution of a Tale: Production at Telltale
This presentation shows the evolution of a specific Telltale narrative scene from original idea, through each step of the production pipeline. You will get to see how the original concept is shaped into a fully-realized commercially-released scene. Scheduling a creative process is always a challenge, but you will learn some of the ways that Telltale handles that challenge; bringing text, voice over, programming, character models, environments, choreography, camera-work, lighting, animations, music and audio all together to form a narrative story.
par David BOWMAN
Biographie
David joined Telltale in 2016. He manages the production of all Telltale games. Telltale is famous for its unique delivery of interactive narrative games such as: Minecraft: Story Mode, The Walking Dead, Batman, Game of Thrones, and The Wolf Among Us.Prior to joining Telltale, David enjoyed successful spells in varied roles at Bungie, Turbine, Artifact Entertainment, Certain Affinity, and Crytek.
About Telltale
Telltale is a leading and award-winning independent developer and publisher of games for every major interactive platform from home consoles and PC to mobile and tablet devices, and is the pioneer of the episodic delivery of digital gaming content. By successfully developing games as an episodic series and frequently releasing in the format of a game season, they create longer consumer engagement than traditional games for each release. Founded in 2004 by games industry veterans with decades of experience, Telltale has quickly become an industry leader with numerous honors and awards from the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences, BAFTA, SXSW, the IMGA, and more, as well as being named Studio of the Year across multiple years. Telltale's reputation for quality has been established across more than two dozen different product releases over the years with recognition and acclaim from publications like IGN, The New York Times, and Variety, including over 100 "Game of the Year" awards from publications like USA Today, Yahoo! Games, Wired, Spike TV VGAs, E!, Official Xbox Magazine, The Telegraph, Metacritic, and more. Telltale is a fully licensed third party publisher on consoles from Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo, and also publishes games on the PC, Mac, iOS, and Android-based platforms.
-
VR and other research at PlayStation Magic Lab (Skype)Richard MARKS, Senior Research Engineer - Sony Interactive EntertainmentVR and other research at PlayStation Magic Lab (Skype)
This talk describes several previous and ongoing research projects at the PlayStation Magic Lab, a research group within Sony Interactive Entertainment R&D. These projects include Interaction in VR, VR Social Presence, Believable Virtual Characters, Augmented Virtual Reality, and Real-World Play.
par Richard MARKS
Richard MARKS Senior Research Engineer
Sony Interactive Entertainment https://www.playstation.com/en-us/Biographie
Richard Marks is a Senior Research Engineer at Sony Interactive Entertainment and directs the PlayStation Magic Lab, a group which explores using technology to enable new interactive experiences. He studied avionics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology before getting his PhD at Stanford University in the Aerospace Robotics Lab. Marks has worked at PlayStation since 1999, leading the creation of EyeToy, PlayStation Eye, and PlayStation Move. Most recently, he has been helping develop and promote PlayStation VR, PlayStation’s virtual reality system.
About Sony Interactive Entertainment
Sony Interactive Entertainment, LLC is a multinational video game developer, product manufacturer and research and development company, and is an owned subsidiary and part of the Consumer Products and Services Group of Sony.
-
-
jeudi 15 décembre
-
The Future of Digital Content Creation Platform, and 25 things I learned that are worth sharing!
Jean-Colas will talk about how technology used in the process of creating digital content will evolve in the next years. In the second part of this talk, Jean-Colas will share 25 useful things he learned in almost 25 years of career, that are worth sharing with you.
par Jean-Colas PRUNIER
Biographie
Jean-Colas has worked in the VFX industry for more than 20 years. Inspired by a conference in which John Lasseter the world famous Toy Story director presented his early CG short films from Pixar, Jean-Colas decided to join ExMachina the foremost CG animation studio in Europe in the early 90s. He then moved to the US to work on breakthrough hardware-accelerared 3D rendering technology before joining ILM and shortly afterwards Weta Digital New Zealand where he worked on the Lord of the Rings trilogy, King Kong and Avatar among other films.
About
-
Action gameplay development & iteration with Motion CaptureMaksym ZHURAVLOV, Principal Animator - Remedy EntertainmentAction gameplay development & iteration with Motion Capture
The lecture focuses on utilizing Motion Capture for character action gameplay prototyping and iteration needs. It will be a tight blend of methodology behind the process, useful tips and a case study based on production material from "Quantum Break".
par Maksym ZHURAVLOV
Biographie
Maksym works as an animator in videogames for over 12 years. During this time he worked in 3 countries and his projects include 3rd person action games: Collapse, I am Alive and Quantum Break. Throughout all his career he has been tightly focused on gameplay animation and artistic, technical and design aspects behind it. Outside of his main duties as a Principle Animator at Remedy, he conducts one of the Motion Capture workshops at ianimate.net and plays a lot of games of almost any kind, obviously for gameplay research purpose solely.
About Remedy Entertainment
Storytellers at heart, Remedy creates cinematic blockbuster action games that break media boundaries and push the envelope of 3D character technology and visual effects. We believe the Remedy name is a seal of quality, packed with iconic characters, narrative and stylized gameplay.
-
We believe in games !Francesco CAVALLARI, Founder - Video Games Without BordersWe believe in games !
Francesco will present how he is applying his international experience in developing commercial games to Video Games Without Borders (VGWB), a non-profit organization and a global community of people who believe games will change the world for better. Games can bring education in emergencies, raise funds for NGOs, raise awareness about the suffering of war, etc... and that's exactly what VGWB does!
par Francesco CAVALLARI
Biographie
After 15 years at Ubisoft (as Programmer, Producer and Production Director) and many developed games, including critically acclaimed titles (like Beyond Good & Evil or Splinter Cell Chaos Theory) and casual blockbusters (like My Secret World by Imagine and Motion Sports), Francesco decided to become a social entrepreneur who founded Video Games Without Borders. He is now applying his passion to enrich the non-profit sector and maximize the positive contribution of video games to society.
About Video Games Without Borders
Video Games Without Borders (VGWB) is a non-profit organization and a global community of people who believe games will change the world for better. Founded less than 2 years ago, VGWB is already collaborating with several international Schools, NGOs and Game Companies on 3 projects, ranging from teaching literacy to Syrian children, to helping sustainable development in Africa and to raising awareness about war among western youth.
-
