Madison’s game development convention had some amazing inspiration… what do I have to do to bring this to Milwaukee??? How to build a vision…
So, February 14th is a day… when… most people would be in the romantic mood. In case you forgot, that’s Valentine’s Day. But, being on a Thursday this year, my wife and I would have to wait until the weekend to drop the kiddos off with babysitting grandparents in order to actually have a decent enjoyable dinner conversation where we could actually talk without having to get up every 5 seconds to clean up spilled milk or refill milk or get a napkin or be interrupted by explosion and robot noises coming from my son who love Transformers more than anything on this Earthly plane.
With my Valentines Day officially “delayed” until the weekend, to allowed me to go to MDEV on the 14th this year… and it had some really cool presenters this year. The convention is actually pretty small… maybe 200-300 attendees, all with a shared passion for building games and other interactive projects.
Conventions are a really unique thing (and no, I’m not saying this just because I work on designing events and tradeshows and things like that), where there is something magical about all of these eager, optimistic, creative folks come together to just …. talk. And listen. And share.
That, in and of itself, is cool.
It can feel like you’re stuck on an island sometimes here in Wisconsin, when designing and developing a game or any other creative project. It’s not quite like the coasts… there’s not a massive amount of companies all eagerly hiring creatives to build out the next AAA game or film the next blockbuster, or crank away at some amazing startup inventing the next electric vehicle or AI simulation destined to eventually take overt the world and destroy us all. No… it’s a quieter creative landscape here, and in this wilderness it is a really good thing to find others huddled around the creative-camp fire at a base-camp like MDEV.
At this year’s MDEV (I’ve been to 2 out of 3 so far and I’d definitely go again) I had a few opportunities to connect with fellow indie game developers and there were some stories that stuck with me. But overall, I think the interesting connective thread between everyone was that they were confused about where to go… next.
It’s not particularly clear how to bring your vision from dream to playable-reality… especially if it’s a more complicated and experimental project. I suppose this is the point of conventions… that if more people can talk to one another, and form more connections, the better the chance that we can collectively figure out a path forward. For Madison, they seem to have a route that can bring up designers, artists, and game developers… BECAUSE THEY HAVE GAME STUDIOS. That’s crucial. They have a system that historically has given rise to other studios finding success in their more tech-focused climate, and as long as one studio can “prove” there’s a successful path to game-development in the area, there’s a “potential” that investors can somewhat-confidently congregate behind, a local talent pool to employ, and a University that is eager to place students in a field where there are jobs locally available.It’s an ecosystem that works for the most part, and is able to support itself.
It’s been a mystery to me over the past couple of years as to why Milwaukee hasn’t shared this tech-focused push to nurture interactive development projects and businesses. If we’re always “looking” for opportunities in new sectors to add to the local economy… we seem to be blind to a very large opportunity. It’s strange, but admittedly I feel like it’s sort of set a course for me to try to fix that… somehow! I don’t like hearing from students that graduate from Stout or MATC with a game-development degree that they plan to leave the Midwest in search of work after school because there’s no opportunities here…. that’s not good! That means we’re bleeding talent… that’s insane to let happen!
Anyway, one of the key amazing folks giving a presentation was somebody by the name of Steven Dinehart. He basically has my dream-job… he’s worked on developing technology-infused experiences for theme parks around the world, including the currently-under-construction Nintendo World for Universal Studios in Japan. The guy also worked on an interactive LARPing experience in Utah named Evermore Park, that connected these intricately woven narratives into an over-the-top themed magical world using technology to track the visitors experience and influence how their own personal adventure progresses amongst elaborately dressed actors who stay in-character no matter what. The ultimate RPG-lover’s experience pretty much.
That said, I learned a lot and met some good people and I think there’s some great opportunities to develop something new, locally. I started my game projects a long time ago (The Lost Pisces, and The Goatman is Nigh) because as a Creative Director with a passion for storytelling and an interest in how games could offer a more meaningful relationship between the audience and the story experienced, the best way forward for starting a game-development studio was to simply start building. I know its a cliche, “build it and they will come,” but that was honestly the best way I knew how to start a studio and hopefully it can act as the common seed for something larger in the future.
Time will tell I suppose. I’d love to create a meetup or mini convention here in Milwaukee because I KNOW I can’t be the only one interested in making some amazing interactive projects around here! If you’re a game developer in the area, love making unique experimental interactive projects, or want anything to do with building a team… we have to connect. We can’t stay on our own little islands… it’s too lonely and its hard to get anything done! If MDEV taught me anything, it’s that games and interactive stories are built by teams… and the only way to build teams is to actively search out and connect with other passionate folks!
In the meantime, check out Steven Dinehart’s experimental interactive theme-park project (the super cool speaker I was talking about above) here:
https://narrativedesigner.com/
https://giantlands.com/
Like I said, the guy is up to some really cool things from what he presented at MDEV and has worked on the virtual theme park called “the Void” (the guys who built out the “Secrets of the Empire” VR Experience at Disney Parks everyone talks about as a benchmark).