Twitch, a social video platform for gamers, announced an array of presentations for TwitchCon 2015. Here are some of the competitions and exhibitions:
Founder Faceoff: Twitch CEO Emmett Shear will take on Blizzard president Mike Morhaime in “Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft.” Since this is a high-profile battle, expect commentators and coaches, as well as special guests.
VCGW (Video Game Championship Wrestling): Since VCGW is best known for customized character wrestling matches, expect some familiar competitions.
Super Smash Brothers Exhibition featuring Twitch versus Red Bull: This competition pits San Francisco-based Twitch against Los Angeles-based Red Bull in a “Super Smash Brothers” exhibition match.
WorldGaming: This organization is hosting a grand prize giveaway for event attendees. The winner will receive an all-expenses paid seven-day trip for two to the Maldives to watch the grand finals of WSVG October 5-10, 2015. WorldGaming also is hosting a “Chill Out Charge Up” lounge, where people can participate in head-to-head challenges, win gaming hardware, DLC and giveaways every hour for such games as “Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft,” “StarCraft II,” “NBA 2K16” and “FIFA 16.”
H1Z1 Invitational: In this competition, players who qualified from the Daybreak’s H1Z1 “Road to TwitchCon” contest come together and take each other out in the ultimate survival mode-PLAYERUNKOWN’s Battle Royal. The current prize pool is over $125,000.
Rock Band 4 Broadcaster Battle of the Bands: Hosted by Harmonix, Twitch broadcasters will compete against each other and be judged by their stage performance.
Hi-Rez Studios: This company will showcase two games: “Paladins” and “Jetpack Fighter.”
HTC: The HTC Vive will be demonstrated at the event; this is a first of a kind virtual reality system that enable “360 roomscale VR.” This system also features wireless controllers for VR interaction. The company also will feature demos from WEVR, Radial Games and Northway Games, Skillman and Hackett, and Valve.
Blizzard Entertainment: Blizzard will show off content for the upcoming “StarCraft: Legacy of the Void” expansion.
To view other exhibitions and competitions, visit the TwitchCon 2015 events page.
TwitchCon 2015 takes place September 25-26, 2015, in San Francisco.
Nintendo is going all-out at EGX 2015, bringing tournaments, stage shows and more than 30 games to the event.
Some of the featured games include “StarFox Zero,” “Xenoblade Chronicles X” and “Super Mario Maker.” There also will be a “Splatoon” tournament in which eight teams of four players will compete against each other in ranked battles. Other tournaments will be held for “Mario Kart 8,” “Super Smash Brothers” and “Mario Tennis.”
Nintendo 3DS fans will be able to play a demo of “The Legend of Zelda: Tri Forces.”
EGX 2015 will take place September 24-27, 2015, at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham, United Kingdom.
The finalists have been revealed for the 2015 Unity Awards; the winners will be officially announced at Unite Boston 2015. You can vote for the winners at Unity’s website.
Here are the finalists:
Golden Cube
Cities Skyline (Colossal Order)
Endless Legend (Amplitude Studios)
Her Story (Sam Barlow)
Kerbal Space Program (Squad)
Ori and the Blind Forest (Moon Studios GmbH)
Pillars of Eternity (Obsidian Entertainment)
Best 3D Visual Experience
Adventures of Poco Eco (POSSIBLE Games)
Counterspy (Dynamighty)
DeadCore (5 Bits)
Endless Legend (Amplitude Studios)
Mobius Final Fantasy (Square Enix Japan)
Grow Home (Ubisoft Reflections)
Best 2D Visual Experience
Alto’s Adventure (Snowman)
Angry Birds 2 (Rovio)
HAROLD (Moon Spider Studios)
Ori and the Blind Forest (Moon Studios GmbH)
Pillars of Eternity (Obsidian Entertainment)
Sunless Sea (Failbetter Games)
Best Gameplay
Dungeons of the Endless (Amplitude Studios)
Implosion: Never Lose Hope (Rayark)
Kerbal Space Program (Squad)
Oddworld New N Tasty (Just Added Water)
Pillars of Eternity (Obsidian Entertainment)
TIS-100 Zachtronics
Best VizSim Project
JLG Equipment Simulator (ForgeFX Simulations)
Parachute Training Simulator (Pennant PLC)
Phalasarna (Dept. of Media and Communication, University of Oslo in collaboration with CodeGrind and Tag of Joy)
Rolland Garros TV Studio Application (On Air Proof Studios)
Square Enix has just revealed its game lineup for the 2015 Tokyo Game Show. The games include “Dragon Quest Builders” for PS4, PS3, PS Vita; “Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward” for PS4, PS3, PC; “Star Ocean: Integrity, and Faithlessness” for PS4 and PS3. All of these games can be played on the show floor.
The Tokyo Game Show is an event where all big names in the video game industry come together to showcase their projects. There is also speculation that “Dragon Quest 11,” “Final Fantasy XV,” “Nier 2” and “Kingdom Hearts 3” will be shown at the show.
Gematsu says that the company will stream its showcase on YouTube and Niconico. Square Enix had a fantastic showing at E3 2015 with games like “Just Cause 3,” “Rise of the Tomb Raider,” “Kingdom Hearts 3,” “Deus Ex: Mankind Divided” and “Final Fantasy VII.”
XDS 2015, which is set to occur in just a couple of weeks on September 9-11 in Vancouver, is the only annual international games industry event held in Canada. The event’s primary focus is on external development for art, animation, audio and software engineering.
We had the pleasure to chat with Dilber Mann, the senior project manager at Capcom Vancouver, to talk about his upcoming attendance at XDS. He shares with us what external development means to the games industry and how XDS is helping to bring together developers to learn more about its potential.
Events for Gamers: What exactly is ‘external development’ and why is it important to the games industry?
Dilber Mann: Looking at console, PC, mobile, our technology for these gaming platforms continue to advance, and so have audience expectation and appetites, growing the need for higher quality content and large encompassing gameplay experiences. As a result, scalability and sustainability of resources have become a challenge. External Development looks to solve this by distributing the development of a product across one or more external partners, often at a time when specialist aren’t readily available for a particular domain of game production and to the scale that we need them at.
E4G: We see that you are a Speaker, Advisory Committee Member, and Industry Influencer for XDS 2015 – can you give us a little information about XDS and why it’s important to you?
Dilber: It’s just a great platform for sharing knowledge. We gather to talk about process, workflow, and methodologies that help to not only share our experiences, but to reflect on those experiences and evolve the way we work with external development. As a summit that gathers experts in this niche, we have the ability to collaborate and effect positive change to improve this industry. This is what makes XDS so important to me, but it’s more than just knowledge sharing. XDS is also a great venue for discovering new partners, and to build relationships with key developers and service providers. Further we have a strong line-up of software, tools, and middleware companies that are integral to supporting a wide range of development criteria, making XDS a great forum for these products.
E4G: You’ve attended XDS since its 2014 event, how has XDS since evolved?
Dilber: I have definitely seen changes since I first attended in 2014. The quality and line-up of the presentations for this year are by far the best. We’ve put a process and support system in place that allows us to make the best selections, and pair each presenter with a knowledge expert. This ensures that we can deliver the best XDS experience to our audiences.
E4G: What are you most looking forward to about XDS 2015?
Dilber: I am definitely looking forward to re-connecting with colleagues. Even on the Advisory Committee we may have one or two opportunities to see each other within the year. It’s great to meet up in person, to catch up on the latest and greatest. It’s also great inspiration for me when meeting with like-minded individuals that are tackling similar challenges, and achieving success.
E4G: You’re presentation is on ‘Metrics that Matter’ – are you able to briefly describe why this topic is important to you and external development?
Dilber: The idea behind the “Metrics that Matter” series is to help managers pair analytics with reliable and meaningful metrics that touch their work at an interpersonal level, or on a level that reflects genuine concerns. Last year, my presentation focused on stakeholder concerns, converted those into reliable metrics, and then showed how to use those metrics to make decisions when planning the volume of work for external development. This year, the intent is the same, but instead of external volume planning, the focus will be on external team planning. The list of metrics that we have access to can be exhaustive and time consuming. With “Metrics that Matter”, I do my best to filter through that list and focus on data that is actionable and can be used by managers to make informed decisions that are impactful in a big way.
E4G: You’ve spoken about how office technology is allowing ever more connectivity between global teams. How is the traditional office environment changing towards a more distributed workforce structure?
Dilber: This question is definitely a keynote presentation :), but the best way I can describe this is to talk a bit about “Perceived Comfort”. In the office, we are most comfortable talking to people. For example, a manager just needs to walk a few steps to see how an individual on their team is progressing with their tasks. You don’t have the same “options” of interaction when you work with an external team. My goal in the workplace is to not try and replicate the “options” for when we work with external teams. Instead, the goal is focused on replicating that “feeling”, or “Perceived Comfort”. One of the ways that I try to do that is by using similar processes, workflows, and technologies both internally and externally, creating an environment where development is truly distributed across multiple partner locations. Cloud technology and social intranets are examples of technologies that have worked to re-enforce team interactions.
E4G: For those interested in your talk but cannot attend XDS this year, what online resources do you have available for them?
Dilber: I have a number of articles on Linked-In that I do end up writing throughout the year as supplementary material. They are more of an exploration on topics I discuss at XDS as I can’t always delve into specifics during a 40 min presentation. XDS also has a YouTube channel that publishes a selection of presentations. If you don’t see my 2015 presentation published there, then at the very least people can look back at my 2014 presentation. For those attending the event, but miss out on my presentation, there is also an option during registration where you can choose to purchase all the video content from the summit which includes all the key note presentations.
E4G: Any advice for developers looking to attend XDS for the first time?
Dilber: Don’t be in such a rush. Vancouver is the perfect setting to relax and get to know people. We organize the event schedule in a way that allows you to attend the presentations, meet with business prospects, but still have time to come up for a breath of fresh air. Don’t miss out on the “Welcome Reception”, and other special events that we are hosting during the event.
For more about Dilber Mann, watch his XDS 2014 presentation here:
Did you attend XDS or have your own thoughts about the direction of external development in the games industry? Share with us your thoughts!
To help you plan attendance for this month’s game industry conferences, conventions, festivals and other events, we post a consolidated list of events each month. View the complete September event list below!
September 2015 Game Industry Conferences and Other Events:
Game Music Connect 2015 is planning to host “The BAFTA Interview 2015” at its event. This interview will be about the talent behind the BAFTA award-winning audio for Creative Assembly’s “Alien: Isolation.” Joe Henson, Alexis Smith and fellow composer Christian Henson will discuss the creation and implementation of the music in “Alien: Isolation.” The game is a first-person survival horror game based on the fear and tension of Ridley Scott’s 1979 film.
Joe Henson and Alexis Smith also have worked on soundtracks for “Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag.” The score for “Alien: Isolation” was nominated for a 2015 BAFTA Music Award and Best Score/Soundtrack at the Game Awards. Christian Henson’s other credits include “Robot Overlords” and “Inside No. 9.” Game Music Connect was created by James Hannigan and John Broomhall to celebrate and explore the music in video games.
Digital and tabletop indie developers gather for a one-of-a-kind celebration of the local gaming industry
August 20, 2015 – Cambridge, MA – The Boston Festival of Indie Games is proud to announce that this year’s festival will host over 100 expert-curated indie games from around the country. This year’s festival takes place on Saturday, September 12th, 2015 at the MIT Johnson Athletic Center, and tickets are available here.
From among hundreds of entries, festival curators have hand-picked the most unique, amusing, edgy, and refreshing games to be a part of this year’s festival. The list of games accepted into this year’s Digital and Tabletop Showcases can be found on bostonfig.com. Our annual gathering of developers, publishers, fans, gamers, bloggers, and reporters is family-friendly and is the perfect way to dive into the world of independent games.
With side-scrolling shooters, casual flash games, colorful and fast-paced puzzle challenges, wild and wacky card games, and so much more, the Boston Festival of Indie Games has it all! Meet the best and brightest minds in the indie games scene – and maybe even play some games.
Attendees will be able to choose both a tabletop and digital game of their choice that will receive the Audience Choice Award. Votes will be cast by ballot, and the winners will be announced at the Figgy Awards Ceremony after the exhibition hall closes.
The Boston Festival of Indie Games is open to the public and will take place at the Johnson Athletic Center at MIT in Cambridge, MA. Festival attendees play video games and tabletop games in a casual, inclusive environment, plus attend a musical performance by Videri String Quartet and keynote speech by Susan Gold, Founder and President of Global Game Jam. Tickets are available now at www.bostonfig.com – online tickets are just $12 a piece, and kids 12 and under can attend for free!
About the Boston Festival of Indie Games (www.bostonfig.com):
The Boston Festival of Indie Games is a celebration of independent game development with emphasis on the New England and neighboring regions. The Boston Festival of Indie Games seeks to support and showcase the efforts of independent game developers by providing an inclusive, safe, family-friendly event that encourages attendees to share and interact with games in various media, from video games to tabletop games and beyond. The Boston Festival of Indie Games is focused on creating an intersection between community, academic and development interests in game play.
Atari has announced that it will showcase “Rollercoaster Tycoon World” at Pax Prime 2015. There will be hands-on demos of the game at the Nvidia booth, No. 252, in the Washington State Convention Center in Seattle. The game will include a mixture of new and classic fan-favorite features, such as user-generated content tools, a 3-D track editor, curved paths and service management features.
Fred Chesnais, CEO of Atari, said that PAX is the best venue to show off “Rollercoaster Tycoon World” to the fans of “Rollercoaster Tycoon.” Atari also will show demos of “Pridefest,” a social-sim game coming to IOS and Android devices.
DevGAMM, the leading conference for gaming industry professionals in CIS countries, will take place in Hamburg, Germany, for the first time September 10-11, 2015.
The event has a long history of successfully connecting small beginner teams of game makers to industry veterans in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. The Hamburg conference is going to become a bridge between developer’s communities of Eastern and Western Europe. DevGAMM gives gaming experts a chance to keep up with the latest thinking and developments in making games, pass on the knowledge and experience to those who have just started out in the form of quality sessions.
DevGAMM Hamburg 2015 will feature presentations about games that continue reaching myriads of players all over the world: “The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt,” “DayZ,” “Hotline Miami 2,” “This War of Mine,” “World of Tanks Blitz,” “SteamWorld Dig” and “The Room.”
Representatives of Unity, Microsoft, Unreal Engine, Chartboost, Bigpoint, tinyBuild, Wargaming and other industry experts will provide the invaluable first-hand insight into the game making process. The topics selection is so unconventional that it truly shows how diverse game industry is, with everything from VR, Kinect, Kickstarter, eSport to Clones, Motorhead and Dinosaurs.
“I’m hoping to meet other passionate game developers that are willing to share their work experience. Listening to stories about other’s games from the first hand is the best way to question and improve methods that you are used to”, says Stan Just, Art Producer of CD Projekt RED and one of DevGAMM’s keynote speakers.
Mike Rose from tinyBuild shares his thoughts about the upcoming event: “I am so super pumped to talk at DevGAMM, the last few events I’ve attended have been a blast, and it’s really exciting to see the conference venture Westward”
“We have visited (and spoken at) DevGAMM in Minsk and found it an enriching experience”, says Hendrik Peeters, Managing Director of Tivola Publishing. “We’re delighted that DevGAMM chose to come to our city, Hamburg, this year and are looking forward to connect with fellow developers of kids and family games from all around the world.”
“Germany has a vibrant scene of developers big and small which we from Unity have always supported. So we congratulate DevGAMM for their move to Hamburg and look forward to interesting talks, meetings with old and new friends and a great show in a beautiful venue!” says Markus Wiedemann, Business Development Director Germany at Unity Technologies.
DevGAMM Hamburg 2015 will provide developers and publishers with a traditional set of opportunities:
Speed Game Dating allows developers to show their game to 20 publishers during one hour.
GAMM:Play Showcase is meant for developers who want to demonstrate their game for free for three hours and still be able to visit lectures and engage in networking.
DevGAMM Awards acknowledges and rewards indie developers and small teams for their accomplishments in game creation. All events require a ticket and pre-registration.
DevGAMM conference organized by Renatus Media is aimed at indie developers, game designers, programmers, artists, business development managers, recruiters, journalists and everyone involved in game industry in any way.
DevGAMM is a part of Hamburg Games Celebration hosted by Gamecity:Hamburg which also includes Indie Gameleon Festival and Play15 Festival.
From ICV2.COM: Gen Con 2015, which wrapped earlier this month, was bumping up against the limits of the available space in the Indianapolis Convention Center, its home since 2003. This isn’t the first time a growing Gen Con has bumped up against the limits of space at the Indianapolis Convention Center. By 2005, the third year after moving to Indianapolis from Milwaukee, Gen Con was already maxing out the facility (see “Gen Con Wraps Third Indy Convention, Maxing Out Venue”). A major expansion, nearly doubling the space to over 1.3 million square feet, was completed in 2011. But since 2012, when attendance hit 41,000 unique attendees (see “Gen Con Nets 41,000 Unique Attendees”), attendance at the annual summer tabletop game show has grown by 50%, to 61,000 this year (see “Gen Con Up 9%”).
AUSTIN, Texas, August 11, 2015 /3BL Media/ – SXSW Eco®, a conference that celebrates the power of design, technology and business to drive global change, revealed two Keynote speakers for the 2015 event: Dirk Ahlborn, CEO of the futuristic Hyperloop Transportation Technologies; And President and Chief Engineer,Chris Lewicki of asteroid mining company Planetary Resources. SXSW Eco takes place October 5-7 at the Austin Convention Center in Austin, TX.
“SXSW features a unique and contagious optimism that technology and design can solve some of our greatest challenges. Our events are platforms to showcase bold, ambitious ideas that will change the way we live, work and relate to each other,” said Morgan Catalina, SXSW Eco Executive Producer. “Hyperloop Transportation Technologies and Planetary Resources will keynote SXSW Eco 2015 to share their visionary solutions shaping the future.”
Additional speakers, including the nation’s leading energy experts Dr. David Danielson (US Department of Energy), Dr. Cheryl Martin (NYSERDA), Dr. Ellen Williams (ARPA-E), as well as speakers such as Dr. Gulrez Azhar (The Public Health Foundation of India), Christopher Ferguson (The Boeing Company and former NASA astronaut), Anajli Jaiswal (Natural Resources Defense Council), Hunter Lovins (Principium), Daniel Lee (Levi Strauss Foundation) and Helen Davis Johnson (Kresge) have been added to the conference lineup.
The thought leaders listed above join previously announced speakers: Nancy Pfund (DBL Investors), Mark Magaña (GreenLatinos), Anica Landreneau (HOK), Andrew Chung (Khosla Ventures), and Jennifer Kim Field (United Nations Foundation), Dr. Robert Fraley (Monsanto), Mark Fischetti (Scientific American),Blaise Bertrand (IDEO), Ben Schiller (Fast Company), Alicia Garza (#BlackLivesMatter), Grace Kim(GOODcorps), Sachin Malhan (Ashoka Changemakers) and Neil Katz (The Weather Company).
New sessions being added to the schedule include:
Energy + Water
Space Age Solutions to Earth’s Complex Challenges
Powering the Internet of Things, Sustainably
Policy
Climate & Heat Adaptation in the Developing World
Corporate Social Responsibility
Radical Transparency: From Pushing Paper to Powering Performance
Fossil Free Portfolios: Transforming Finance From the Bottom Up
Close the Loop: From Waste to Wealth
Design
Is Civic Tech Leapfrogging Design?
PXD Bootcamp: Philanthropy–Process & Possibility
Startup Central
Moving Materials Towards a Circular Economy
Inventing the Future: How Black Swans Can Solve the World’s Sustainability Problems
SXSW Eco will feature three days of informative panels and workshops, inspirational speakers, intensive coaching programs, pitch competitions, workshops, networking events, receptions and more. The SXSW Eco 2015 schedule is now live and can be viewed at schedule.sxsweco.com.
Now in its fifth year, SXSW Eco features an increased focus on technology, business and design, represented through the following themes: Cities, Energy + Water, Policy, Corporate Social Responsibility,Communications, Design and Startup Central. In addition, Biomimicry Institute will host the Nature, Innovation and the Future of Design track and Bloomberg BNA will return with the Policy Action Series, featuring an array of industry experts to highlight valuable data and spark conversation about programs and policies.
About Hyperloop Transportation Technologies
Founded by JumpStarter Inc. utilizing JumpStarter’s crowdfunding and crowd collaboration platform JumpStartFund. The company has assembled a team of high-level engineers and contributing corporations which include ANSYS for computer simulation sources and UCLA : Architecture & Urban Design for considering social interface of the Hyperloop project.
About Planetary Resources
Planetary Resources’ vision is to do the “impossible” now. The company is bringing the natural resources of space within humanity’s economic sphere of influence. Asteroids will play a key role in the development of a space economy and be the main driver in allowing humanity to become a flourishing multi-planetary species. Water from asteroids will fuel the in-space economy and habitation, by creating rocket fuel and consumable water from space, for space. Rare metals will increase Earth’s GDP when mined from asteroids in our Solar System – the very same objects that brought them to Earth in the first place.
About SXSW Eco
SXSW Eco creates a space for business leaders, investors, innovators and designers to advance solutions that drive economic, environmental and social change. In its fifth year, the conference will feature collaborative events to facilitate direct connections, as well as focused panel sessions and exciting competitions that will introduce attendees to transformative products, technologies and ideas. sxsweco.com
SXSW Eco 2015 is sponsored by Austin Energy, Austin Technology Incubator, Biomimicry Institute, Biomimicry 3.8, Direct Energy, Bloomberg BNA, Energy Thought Summit, Timberland, XPRIZE, City of Austin Resource Recovery.
Events for Gamers: What exactly is ‘external development’ and why is it important to the games industry?
