[Event] Cape Town Open Workshop on for Game Development 12 November 2014

Comments

• raxter

  11:25am 10 Nov 2014

  dang it, during work hours too :(
  
  oh well, anyone here going who can report back to the rest of us?
• LexAquillia

  11:50am 10 Nov 2014

  *updated OP*
• creative630

  12:35pm 10 Nov 2014

  I just got the an invite through UCT too. I will be attending!
  
  @LexAquillia is the committee attending the round table discussion tomorrow too?
• LexAquillia

  12:37pm 10 Nov 2014

  @creative630 I'll be there, and Danny as well.

  Thanked by 1creative630
• Karuji

  1:46pm 10 Nov 2014

  O_o wow short notice. Would have loved to come if I didn't have exams and had more than 2 days to get there :P
• raxter

  2:58pm 10 Nov 2014 edited 2:58pm 10 Nov 2014

  arg, I'll just work late that evening, count me in (i.e. rsvp-ing now)

  Thanked by 1creative630
• raxter

  5:01pm 10 Nov 2014

  I would like to point out that tomorrow is not Wednesday :p
  
  Naz also said "see you tomorrow" when I emailed so I thought the date was wrong. Have confirmed with Naz that it is indeed on Wednesday. Seems to be an infectious typo lol
• francoisvn

  6:16pm 10 Nov 2014

  Just RSVPed. See you all there :)
• raxter

  3:56pm 12 Nov 2014 edited 9:05am 13 Nov 2014

  REPORT BACK
  
  Since I wanted a report back I thought maybe someone else did too, so I'm going to just post a few words on what the day was about. Please note that this is my interpretation of another person's interpretation so the whole description is subject to my selective/poor memory and a double layer of perspective.
  
  Basically we were given a talk about design rather than a workshop vibe (though it did break away into discussions afterwards so it was workshop-ish). The talk was a brief history of Swedish culture (culture in the broad sense, i.e. general ways in which Swedish people go about doing and thinking about things). Turns out that because of their harsh climate and poor economy (150-200 years ago) each household was forced to learn all the necessary survival techniques and constantly improve on those (else they'd starve and freeze to death).
  
  That culture of constantly testing and improving carried forward into modern days and was a major component of the great success stories of Swedish business (IKEA, Ericsson, and like a billion other huge companies). All relied on constant and rigorous testing and re-evaluation to design the best possible product for that company.
  
  If this sounds familiar then you have cottoned-on that this is basically our beloved rapid prototyping, fast failing, design by iteration process that we usually employ in games. This design process seems core in Swedish culture and business.
  
  There was then some discussion about how our local culture and context has given rise to unique business models. There was discussion of government and corporate funded game stations that are brought to rural communities (since many of these communities are usually not willing to part with their very limited supply of money for things like games), MXIT's model and an interesting model that worked in India which is basically local stores renting out game time on mobile devices.
  
  After this the discussion went to and fro and in interesting directions that I can't all remember now. We then broke away and spoke about game jams, getting a more diverse crowd involved in games, privilege, feminism, criticism, conversation, and a bunch of related topics. But by now we were all just having a conversation.
  
  So a pretty good day, thanks all :)

  Thanked by 10Bensonance dammit francoisvn dislekcia MCA SUGBOERIE Boysano EvanGreenwood Ramperkash Oneil_CT