First night down at AGDC with Team Bondi.
John De Margheriti started the conference off with the announcement that this is the last AGDC.
It seems that John in the interest of the game industry has decided to bow out and make way for another conference organized by the GDAA, which may or may not be called AGDC, starting next year.
So here’s is hoping for the future success of the new conference and good times to come at the last of the old.
Ian Livingston then gave the opening keynote of the conference “Life is a Game”. Ian is a veritable gaming legend, going way back to the D&D gaming days with Games Workshop and White Dwarf, his famous series of books, Warhammer then transitioning to modern gaming with Tomb Raider at Eidos. Amazing to hear from someone with such breadth of experience in gaming and a fitting speaker to open the conference.
Ian’s perspective was one of how essential IP ownership is to a developer and publisher, with Lara Croft being the example. The full history of Lara was explored as a case study and one could hardly walk away without an idea of the great importance of IP in game development.
After the talk it was drinks and socializing with at the “Microforte Big World Cocktail Party Night”. Notable because it was the only cocktail party I have ever attended without any actual cocktails or party to speak of. Jokes aside it was a great opportunity to network and catch up with old industry friends, so I did enjoy myself.