By Kate Pietrelli TriplePoint Rolls the D.I.C.E. Summit This Year
Out in the vast desert of Las Vegas, the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences® (AIAS) hosted the 2010 D.I.C.E. (Design, Innovate, Communicate, Entertain) Summit and the 13th annual Interactive Achievement Awards ceremony, and the TriplePoint team was in attendence. Julia Roether, Joe Ziemer and I joined in the event to learn from video game industry leaders, connect with likeminded individuals…..and enjoy that dry, ultra dehydrating weather that only Las Vegas can provide. Overall, we found that the D.I.C.E. Summit is a can’t miss event with informative and thought-provoking discussions from seasoned industry professionals, and we’ve included some of our key findings from the summit below.
One of the most interesting portions of the summit were a series of “Hot Topics” presented by Electronic Entertainment Design and Research (EEDAR). Adam Sessler, Host of “X-Play” and Editor-in-Chief for G4tv.com, led debates on a few different themes, including a discussion on casual games with David Jaffe of Eat Sleep Play and David Crane of AppStar Games. Crane weighed in on the casual market saying that it will likely collapse on itself because development studios have to compete not only with the large scale publishers of the world like EA, but also the average teenager who is creating games in their basements without financial risk. Sessler also spoke with Dan Connors of Telltale Games and Richard Garriott of Portalarium about the importance of storytelling. Garriott expressed that most games with storylines have failed to integrate this properly. Additionally, Sessler spoke with Chris Taylor from Gas Powered Games and Mike Capps of Epic Games about the challenges of being an independent studio, and Taylor joked that his kids probably wouldn’t go to college because of the financial risks he’s had to take in order to finance the studio’s games.
You can also view brief video clips from the Hot Topics session here:
The D.I.C.E. Summit also featured a series of informative presentations from industry leaders, including Jesse Schell, a professor of game design at Carnegie Mellon University and head of Schell Games, who clearly gave the favorited talk at D.I.C.E. this year. Schell spoke about the impact of social games on Facebook platform over the last year, as well as the future of games beyond the online platform. He talked about the convergence of game-like interactions happening offline, and being incorporated into everything else that we do. He also projected that in the future, censors will detect everything in your life and will be used to engage people in gameplay. You can view Schell’s full presentation here:
The 13th annual Interactive Achievement Awards ceremony took place on the final evening of the summit to pay tribute and recognize the individuals and products that have contributed to the growth of the video game industry. It was truly a pleasure to watch Jay Mohr host the event as he jabbed at well-known industry executives with his sharp, totally uncensored comedy. In the end, we found the D.I.C.E. Summit to be a must-attend event for video game industry professionals both for its engaging and insightful content, and its focus on fostering relationships and growth in the industry.
