GameDevHacker Event Brings Devs And Publishers Together

[Fanghawk]

GameDevHacker Event Brings Devs And Publishers Together

This January, GameDevHacker will bring developers, publishers, and marketers together to discuss the industry's future. And The Escapist's Alex Macris will be there!

Game development is a dream job for many, where you can use your creativity to craft amazing interactive games. But it's also a business, which means dealing with publishing, marketing, and gaming demographics in ways that not everyone is familiar. But they're not insurmountable problems, which is why events like GameDevHacker can be very valuable.

GameDevHacker will be held on Jan. 28, 2015 in New York City, where game devs and business people alike can discuss challenges facing the industry. Panel topics cover everything from indie publishing, to advertising, to approaching competitive gaming. What's more, The Escapist founder Alex Macris (aka <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/profiles/view/Archon>Archon) will be there to discuss how modern gaming companies can develop their marketing.

GameDevHacker's website includes the full schedule of events, plus an impressive list of speakers from a wide range of gaming companies. If learning about the business side of game development is something that interests you, this event should be well worth checking out. Other GameDevHacker events will be launched in Boston, San Francisco, Seattle, and Austin later in the New Year.

Source: <a href=www.gdhevents.com>GameDevHacker

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[Arnoxthe1]

Actually sounds pretty awesome. It's about time we had a dialogue now with publishers.

 

[Hazzard]

I can't help but read this as "Game Industry corporations get together to find new way to screw consumers," because these last 2 years have really soured my view of "marketing"

 

[slimbiggins]

As someone that won't be going. Will they stream it online?

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

What they really need to discuss isn't marketing, its release schedules and how they plan to up their QA plans instead of foisting the majority of QA on the consumer while calling it a "release". Rushing games, setting absolutely insane deadlines instead of planning releases on a sliding scale according to QA reports and developer feedback first needs to be addressed before they think about marketing new products.
If anything, any consumers who are able to speak at something like this or offer their opinions and experiences should stress how we want games that work rather than be promised releases within a year or two after announcements are made. I'm fairly sure we'd all sacrifice a few extra months on development to have a finished working product than have a game released before its really ready. Also address the DLC issue, that we don't want microtransactions that gate content (vanity content in microtrans is fine, but gating levels/maps/characters/story behind paywalls is not consumer friendly) and also explain that if we get more DLC that is akin to expansion packs we're probably more willing to pay for it. And day 1 DLC that isn't just vanity art (skins and such) isn't cool.
And for the love of God, Jesus, FSM, Buddha, Ganesh... please don't copy your competition and expect it to sell. Innovate, tell stories worth telling, give us player agency... break the mold a bit. Don't be afraid to toss your developer/publisher hat in unknown territory. We want new games, new modes of play.
That should be the main topics, and the only thing we want from marketing is not to be lied to. Be fucking honest, tell us if a game is having issues with development, don't keep us in the dark. And don't try to sell us a product that is under-specs, like saying something is 1080p but really is just gimmicked or upscaled to "look" 1080p. I think some of us would be fine if you downscaled resolution in order to bring up FPS rates as long as you tell us you're doing so because of hardware limitations.
Did I hit everything?

 

[Strazdas]

GameDevHacker will bring developers, publishers, and marketers together

So the hackers here are the publishers or the marketers?

I can't help but read this as "Game Industry corporations get together to find new way to screw consumers," because these last 2 years have really soured my view of "marketing"

The last game dev conference was EXACTLY that.

What they really need to discuss isn't marketing, its release schedules and how they plan to up their QA plans instead of foisting the majority of QA on the consumer while calling it a "release".

Oh they definatelly need to discuss marketing. like how for example not to call your legitimate costumers pirates just because they didnt download the patch that adds basic features and were asking why the features were missing from their 60 dollar copies?