What was Cineme 2004: Video Game Development Summit like you ask? Well, here is a quick summary of my experience, and view on Cineme 2004. The key parts I comment on are the: Ambience, People, Classes, Activities, Small Advertisement, and Speakers.

Ambience - The overall feel of Cineme: VGDS was nice. It seemed to be quite well organized, with everything east to get. The classes/lectures ran smoothly, and everything was well planned. The only thing that should have been different was there should have been more activities, and it should have been bigger.

People - All the people at cinema were very kind. There were such people for all the aspect of game making. (I.e. designers, musicians, artists, programmers, marketers etc...) There were people with exceptionally good talents who were showing new utilities to buy such as an artist from "DiGiTALPiCTUREeS" drawing directly on his computer with a digital tool type of pen.

Classes - Lectures/Classes were very informative, and allowed me to learn much on the game industry that I didn't know. I took about 6-8 pages of notes from all 3 sessions I went to. I wanted to go to more but a friend of mine wasn't quite as interested in Cineme as I was. The classes contained all the aspects of game making. They stressed the importance of impressing marketers; how you should be able to make your game relate to the outside world so that the player can connect either through the character or story.

Activities - Besides the lectures, there were demos, shows, and games, such as the HALO tournament which I didn't decide to participate in. A preview of work being done with the new 3D Maxx7, and lectures on topics of the game industry such as "Games that Girls play" and "The Production Checklist"

Small Advertisement - At Cineme 2004 many colleges were there showing their classes and courses involving game development; brochures and demos for new software were distributed, and various items from: 3D Maxx 7(and 3d Maxx plug-ins), Purdue College, DePaul University, The Illinois Institute of Art Chicago, and FERRIS Grand Rapids(for digital animation and game design).

Speakers - Before I talk about speakers there is one person I did talk to who was quite interesting. In my first session I met the president/starter of D.E.F.R.A.G. (DePaul Fundamental Research in Academic Gaming) they were a fascinating group of people who hang around playing the latest videogames, but also made videogames. They had degrees in Computer Game Development, and Digital Cinema. They also had very up-to-date computers, and had been talking to videogame companies to try to get source engines from their old but not to old games of the company (I believe they are still working on achieving this), so when the times comes for a senior projects, or just group game making projects, and your goal was to make a videogame which you had planned out previously, the resources were there, and ready for you to use. The speakers at Cineme were all quite professional, and all came from different, diverse game companies which covered many different types of games (some more popular than others), but were all top-notch. Such as speakers from Midway, EA games Chicago, and other companies. These companies had helped in the making of games such as HALO and HALO2, MechAssualt and Oddworld. They all each talked of the same things stressing your game to reach out to the viewer, and to please your marketers. With some stressing parts of the game industry more than others, but they all helped those interested in game design.

Was it worth the trip and why?

I feel everything from Cineme: VGDS is GREAT for you if you wanted to get into the game industry. In each area of game making they had many classes for you to go to and learn. It would have been better if it was bigger, with more advertisement, activities, and games going on, but this is not your main purpose for going. If you were someone already in the business it would be a great opportunity for you to sharpen your skills, and add new suggestions for you or your group since you are hearing from people at the top-level of game making. It's defiantly worth the trip if you are really interested in the game industry. And you will greatly benefit from the people, classes, and speakers. My only regret is that I did not ask more questions, and go to more sessions. Out of 10 I give Cineme 2004: VGDS a 8.

Note: views and opinions expressed in this article are the author's and are not necessarily those of Wolverine Soft.