Introduction

The VideoGames Expo (VGXPO) isn't a game development conference. Primarily, it's a gathering of game players mainly from around the tri-state area (PA, NJ, NY) but also in some part from around the country. Still, game developers are gamers at heart, so it made sense to at the same time have a Breaking In conference that focused on game development to be held within the gaming exposition itself. So that's the basic idea, and I trekked 1.5 hours from the eastern shore of Jersey out to Philadelphia, PA (Philly to the locals) to check it out both days, Saturday and Sunday. Obviously you can conclude based on the name of the conference that the focus of the various lectures were based on breaking into the game development industry. In that respect the conference did a fairly good job. All the speakers brought their industry expertise to the table or lecturn and gave their views and opinions about how easy or difficult breaking in is, ways to go about doing it, and how to strengthen your chances of getting a foot in the door. The sad part about it all was the lackluster attendance throughout the weekend. In a room easily meant to hold about 300 people, there were only roughly 40-50 on Saturday and that number dwindled to about 20-30 on Sunday. To put those numbers in perspective, my local IGDA chapter, which mainly caters to just the northern half of New Jersey, regularly drawns in about 30-40 people for meetings these days. Granted, we don't charge any admission fees, and getting into the Breaking In conference would have set a person back $100. However I see kids riding around today in low-slung Hondas and chromed out wheels. Minimum wage has risen, so even for a working high school student $100 wouldn't break the bank if they saved for a month or two. I did see a handful of young teenagers that were accompanied by parents, but the majority were college students. For an industry that everyone's dying to get into, it's weird seeing the lack of effort evidenced at an event like this. Perhaps it's in part due to the Internet that's making kids less and less reluctant to step out of their house and meet people face to face, and these events are the best oppurtunties to do so. I'm sorry to say it, but all of you who didn't attend this conference but could have, the people that were there are now one huge step ahead of you towards getting into the industry. That's a pretty bold statement sure, but for the most part it's absolutely true, and I'll be reiterating it in other ways as I go over what was discussed at some of the lectures.

I supposed I've rambled long enough for this to be a decent introduction. Once again keep in mind that the main focus of this conference was breaking into the industry, so if you're already in the industry you might not glean much knowledge from the following pages - and yet maybe you will.

Day One