Baf Game Festival Review

I Recently Visited The BAF Game 09 Festival, I went not really knowing what to expect if anything I had visualized A showcase of games for you to try out from new to old with the developers there giving talks on the games, So when I arrived I was not really expecting to be sat in a theatre room in a kind of Conference atmosphere listening to several companies give in depth talks about a wide variety of topics including about the business, the way the business is run, rolls in the company , development of the game and promoting themselves and the Products within the company, Although this was not entirely what I was expecting I got a lot of information out of it and even possible career roles I might take.
My favourite talk off the day was Amanita Design, who was the company I’d like to work most for. They are a group of good friends from Eastern Europe who showed off their game Machinarium, The reason why this was my favourite as I really loved the artwork involved in game and The sketchbook work which included thousands of sketches from development of ideas to storylines, which is something I’m really keen on and enjoy getting my ideas on paper and just letting myself and ideas loose. Other thing I was really appealed to me was the fact that they did a lot of their work at home and communicated with each other from there. I really like this Business model as its more a relaxed atmosphere, while getting the work done at same time, I also noticed that there not directly a Games company and have done work for some big companies such as Nike which appeals to me as I’d like to vary my work a bit and not just design art for Video Games.
Over the day I learned some useful information from other company’s talks, both personal information and information about the Industry such as the way different companies are setup such as Sony UK who have a boss and departments specialising in each area and are very professional in the way they present and the way the business is run, and Team 17 on the other hand who don’t really have a major boss, and are each designated certain roles however they help out one another and all put their input into development of the game and ideas they have. I also like the fact the Team 17 have set hours as one thing I have learnt after listening to several company’s is that there is times where they may have to work very long shifts and It was mentioned that in one case they had to perform around 22 hour shift and had to sleep at work and carry on the next day, Which to me is really off-putting but it’s something to be expected with the demanding deadlines.
It was also good to hear that they are some company’s out there such as Blitz who have come up with Blitz 1up which is a programme to help smaller teams get their game to market. In addition to advice and studio resources, and also offers help with funding, legal guidance and marketing. Which I think is a great Idea as it benefits both parties involved and is an approach I’d defiantly consider in getting my work out there.