My coverage for the Montreal International Game Summit is now officially wrapped up. It’s as good a time as any to look back at the event, and talk about what transpired.
Joystiq-wise: I pseudo-liveblogged the keynotes of Tetsuya Mizuguchi, Ken Perlin, and Reggie Fils-Aimé. Considering my normally short attention span, I was surprised by my ability to transcribe the structure of each presentation, while pulling accurate quotes and taking the occasional picture. When it’s liveblogging for reals, I would imagine it gets much, much harder.
I interviewed Chaim Gingold and Chris Hecker my first day, asking questions about Spore, Maxis, and related stuff. The day after, I talked with Elan Lee about 42 Entertainment’s current projects. I feel like both interviews went fairly well, though after listening to each on cassette I realized I could probably stand to improve the substance of my questions. Not “hard-hitting” enough, I suppose. Or something like that.
In between my feature-length coverage, I snuck in posts about the Great Canadian Video Game Competition, my sub-par swag bag, Reggie’s cameo appearance on the show floor, and more. After a long day of studio tours, I was able to take a one-hour tour of the Arcadia Festival, and you better believe I took photos.
Me-wise: Before embarking for the actual event, I had a bit of anxiety about my role at the Montreal summit. I wanted to be there in two capacities: as a journalist for Joystiq, but also as a game designer, and I had some reservations about my own ability to wear those two hats simultaneously. Ultimately, I focused on my Joystiq assignment, and it was only through that coverage that I was able to meet a large number of people. I don’t regret my choice of focus.
The summit took most of our time for the first two days in Montreal, and the third was spent doing studio tours and visiting the Arcadia Festival. We stayed until Sunday morning, and left Saturday open for exploring the city. Unfortunately, Montreal chose that day for its torrential downpours. We did what little exploring we could while fully saturated, caught The Departed at Paramount Cinema on rue Ste. Catherine (c’etait très bon), and called it an early night.
In the overall, I’d have to say the experience far exceeded my expectations. My expectations weren’t low, but I certainly didn’t expect the actual summit to run as smoothly as it did. I do wish we could’ve seen more of the city, but I enjoyed what we saw, even in the rain.
» Images from Heroine Sheik on Flickr, and taken by me.