Yesterday I gave a talk at the Platform 2011 event in Hull, which went down very well to a full room of people. My talk was about Ideas, Story and Writing for Games, which was a broad topic for a talk lasting just 20 minutes. I originally wrote it to last 25 and only last week discovered that the talks should be 15-20 minutes, so I was forced to cut a few paragraphs and still had to speak more rapidly than I’d intended. At least I kept it moving along and punchy.
The event as a whole was pretty good, but my feeling is that it should be a little larger with more involvement from developers and publishers, particularly the ones in the region. I think that they missed a real trick not showing the public that local developers have a good presence in the industry. The organisers should also get the event into the gaming calendar so that it appears in MCV and Develop and gets better publicity.
There was a strong college/university presence with students being involved in a number of things, but I’m not convinced that having their protfolios on display is necessarily showing off their individual strengths.
I hope they invite ma along next year and that they continue to expand.