Swedish Game Conference 2011

Attended the first day of SGC today and there were yawns. Good advice for publishers to people who want to pitch games for them, but a little much "we are awesome"-talk from them as well.

Interesting talks by the founder of Atari, and during the day he and others said some stuff that must be repeated over and over and over to people doing creative work again until the end of time. Namely, stay focused and try try try again. Fail but don't lose enthusiasm for it, try again. And again. Expect failure and have new ideas in the pipe. Try again.

I think it was Daniel Kaplan, maybe not, that said that perfection is a curse and that it keeps you away from the market. Not new but it needs to be repeated. Perfectionists seldom release their stuff onto the market. The others do release their stuff - some fail, some sell. And those that sell may grow because their author gets funds in the process and can let it grow.

Another important concept that was touched is that, more or less that, 1% of target audience liking (and paying) you is eternally better than 100% that doesn't because they can't. That was actually not at all the wording that was used today but it's more or less the same. Never releasing your product aiming for perfection is endlessly more worthless than a blemished product on the market. The latter actually has the potential to sell. And selling isn't just about money money money - it's about getting funds to survive and being able to keep doing what you like doing.

Talked to a bunch of really nice people today. My previous employer's new animator Cezar, talked and lunched with Daniel Kaplan of Mojang, chatted away with a mr. Wowbagger, a Jonas Berling of a smaller (yet epic-sounding) project. A Richard formerly at Immersive Learning but now employed by Pieces. Feels like I'm forgetting people, crap. Anyway. Everybody seems to know somebody in every company. Game development is a nice, small and intense arena.

I also got a very interesting talk with mr. Badylak and it seems as if there might be a few gold nuggets to get from Gothia Science Park of help to me afterall. This makes me slightly more confused, but still not.

Conclusion: A lot of work ---> A lot of potential

Now bed, tomorrow the second and last day of SGC. After that, probably Civilization 5. Good game. And as mr. Kaplan said today, which again is old wisdom but something that must be repeated, make a game that you will like. Make a game for you. I'd make complex turn-based strategy/tactics games.