1UP Conference — not a great experience
So this weekend, there was a new Game Developer oriented conference with an additional second day as an expo.
I found it really fast and was so happy to see another Game event in Belgium besides Gameforce. I jumped on it and bought an early bird ticket without knowing what would be presented. A few days later they announced that kids younger then 12 would enter for free, but I never got I refund for the bought ticket.
Unfortunately I was unable to go to the conference but was determined to go to the expo with my daughter. After a busy morning we arrived at 1UP around noon.
On arrival we saw that it was a really small venue but that should not have to be a bad thing. But when entering we experienced the second bummer, no more bags. I don’t know if it was a goody bag or not because I never saw one.
What I first noticed was a lot of kids and families so that’s a good thing. So we started strolling around in a fast pace to get an overview what’s there and to decide where we would spent time waiting to play.
The first thing we saw were air castles to jump on followed by a Cosplay corner. The cosplay area had the usual stands with materials and communities, a stage and some booths for pictures.
E-sports, little kids allowed ??????
Next stop was the e-sports area and what I noticed was of course a bunch of shooters but I was baffled to see so many young/small children to play these games. I saw kids of age 5, 6, 7 shooting around in CS and Farcry. Sorry 1UP but this is unacceptable, that parents are already ignorant and don’t know what PEGI is one thing.
But from a game expo I expect they give an example and inform. At Gameforce the booths are checked on age my kid was not allowed to see the “Detroid become human demo” for example and all shooters were kids not allowed.
Indie games we played
Next to the e-sports area was a big octopus which contained the indie games, in my opinion the best area and kudos to the creators of the octopus boots. It was an original setting.
Pixel Picasso
The first game we played was “Pixel Picasso” an AR memory game which is a great concept and great fun to play in group. Unfortunately not everybody has a beamer at home.
Elixirs
Next we played “Elixirs” an overcooked style game but educational. The same idea you have customers and you have to serve them potions. But this time the main objective is mathematics. You can combine ingredients which contains numbers and by using effectors you can create the right calculation to serve the potion. It will cover all the basics and more of Mathematics. I am looking forward to this release which is expected at Steam in Dec 2019.
A story of Two
Then we saw “A story of Two” a story about a wolf and a human joining forces to defeat a common enemy the Bear. The graphics popped off the screen and had a great color pallet it was a pleasure to look at. And above that it had a great game feature I didn’t see before. By rotating your mobile upside down you can play with the other character. It reminded me on GTA5 which has a feature where you could switch between the 3 characters no matter where the were in the world suuuuuper fast.
Ok the game is an experiment/thesis between a game developer and a moviemaker/animator. But I have to admit it’s a nice result. I have downloaded the APK and started playing around with it, it has some issues but I think it will be ok when they will release it. You can find everything at https://www.astoryoftwo.com/
And on top on that they have put the thesis online which describes the whole process in a production document. https://www.astoryoftwo.com/portfolio
Ary and the Secret of Seasons
Another game that caught my eye but I could not play is “Ary and the Secret of Seasons”. https://ary-game.com/. Again the graphics and color jumped out of the screen, and is available on steam in Q3 of 2019.
VR, VR, VR
The rest of the expo was stuffed with all kinds of VR games. Don’t get me wrong I am in awe to see what you can do with VR and I am a big fan of AR. But VR for gaming I don’t get that, gaming is a social thing and standing there with your gun and a headset in your living room while friend watch at the screen, that’s not for me. I rather like to see some AR stuff added to games or AR games outside. I can’t wait to play Ingress https://www.ingress.com/ via an AR glass and see XM floating around or look at a control field in the sky or see the color of a portal switch change when you take it over. Same goes for Pokemon GO by the way.
Some disturbing rumors
I talked with a lot of people developers, animators, sales people and visitors and this is what I heard.
First of all I received a text from a friend that if I did not left already I would better not go and do something useful with my time. When talking with 2 students they told me that the boot prices were huge, I did not get the pricing for that but they made clear that if they did not get sponsored they would not be able to be there. I heard the same from some people that had a shop that it was rather expensive for what they got in return.
This made me think, 1UP promoted itself als a conference/expo for game developers. To create opportunities for our Belgian scene and try to keep them here. But if pricing is so high, like it is at Gameforce I get the impression that it’s all about making money and not about creating opportunities or exposure for our developers.
Anyway I hope the next edition will be better and maybe we should join forces some how to create an event that does it better.
