I missed posting about the nextMEDIA conference a few months back, so I figured I’d do a brief recap of INplay 2010.

The swanky Liberty Grand venue.

INplay is a kids media event with a loose focus on interactive products. Since most of our cash flow still comes from work-for-hire, I attended the show in order to meet potential partners.

Here are my notes from the 2-day event:

• Somewhat surprisingly, TV representatives were fairly lukewarm about funding game development based on their IP’s. My guess is that this was mainly due to a somewhat recent tendency to foster in-house studios, and the fact that everyone is still waiting to see where the chips fall from the Telefilm/CMF transition.
• Shaw has joined Bell, OMDC and the CMF with a small TV media fund, and individual TV producers (i.e., people who create custom teams to pitch for show concepts) were much more optimistic about the future. We received a few tentative proposals based on these funds, but they were obviously contingent on first getting the actual funding.
• Pretty much everyone I talked to had worked with Flash-based web games at some point, but was interested in exploring other platforms. The iPhone was still seen as mostly a marketing tool, not a revenue generating one, but Unity was making some headways. Most people knew what it was, and many were interested in trying it out or were in the early stages of actually using it to create content.

  Interestingly enough, the major hurdle for Unity didn’t seem to be the need for a downloadable plugin, but rather the fact that it would splinter an existing site’s portfolio, i.e., if all the games on the website were in Flash, broadcasters were hesitant to add other formats to the mix.

1-on-1 meetings by a fireplace. Told you it was swanky.

• We received some interest from broadcasters outside of North America, but it was all for smaller scale projects (under 50k).
• The US broadcasters and toy manufacturers still hold the biggest IP’s and are currently the only solid option for large, branding-based games.
• Funding for Flash games seems to have decreased on a global scale. Projects that used to cost 50k are now being pitched with 15k budgets in mind.
• There’s still a decent amount of buzz about alternate — or enhanced — reality games, but the interested parties seemed very naive about their scope and technical potential.

Hanging out by the entrance after I grilled Nathan of Capy and Damir of Big Blue Bubble on videogame agents.

• The most solid contract leads we received actually came from other developers who were either looking for outsourcing help or offered to pass on some work they declined.
• Everyone loved the iPad, but no one seemed to have a realistic plan of how to use it to actually make money.

All in all the conference was great for networking, but, at least on a local scale, we’re all going to have to wait and see what happens with the CMF before we get a better idea of the funding opportunities out there.

A few weeks ago, 180+ people gathered at George Brown College in Toronto to make games over the weekend.

Mike Nguyen, artist extraordinaire, greeting me to the 2010 TOJam.

The TOJam event has been going strong for quite a while now, and, having doubled its attendance since last year, shows no signs of slowing down. All three of us were interested in attending, but the date fell on one of our project milestones. I still managed to drop by on the last day, though, and got a chance to check out some of the finished entries.

While at the event, I ran into a few old coworkers and some other colleagues, but the majority of the crowd consisted of (some very enthusiastic) students. It reminded me a lot of my own week-long crunch to start and finish a full game for a contest back when I was in school. The atmosphere was great, and everyone I talked to found it a positive experience.

One of the 4+ classrooms where large groups of people probably spent a little too much time. All for a good cause, of course.

TOJam also received quite a bit of media love, and I’m definitely looking forward to its next iteration. And if we’re once again unable to participate, then we’ll at least try to sponsor some of the food and drinks!

GameOn Finance, organized by Interactive Ontario, recently took place in Toronto. It was the first gaming event I attended, and although I knew it was business oriented, I didn’t know quite what to expect.

GameOn Finance took place inside an awesome building that used to serve as the Toronto Stock Exchange.

There weren’t any publishers at GameOn Finance, but it was still an incredibly useful experience. I returned home with 50+ business cards given to me by everyone from freelance contractors to venture capitalists. Along the way, I also made a few notes:

• Although there are some Venture Capital firms that target game companies, those are few and far between. VC deals are usually based on networking and connections, and rarely happen as a result of direct pitches from unknown sources. The amounts of money involved are also very large and not really suitable for small startups.
• Angel Investors are a better bet, but even they expect to control large chunk of the company and receive a return of 3-10 times their original investment. For a list of AIs, check out this link.

A shot of the 1-on-1 meetings. I had a few of these myself, including a rather interesting chat Jason Della Rocca.

• Digital distribution is still growing and is seen as somewhat more stable than social and mobile gaming. Investors are excited about the possibilities of Facebook games thanks to the success of Zynga and Playfish, but are a bit wary of the bubble bursting. The mobile side of things is still mostly a mess, and even though the iPhone has been a huge success, its marketplace is very congested and therefore not that appealing.
• “Advergaming” is not really viable right now, and even the biggest online games only generate 7-8% of their revenue from ads. Smaller developers even mentioned that they stopped using ads altogether as their returns were too small to justify them.
• Locally in Ontario, OMDC is still the go-to organization for videogame related grants and tax returns, while Telefilm is currently restructuring but will return as part of the Canada New Media Fund. This should create a pretty significant work-for-hire market for developers interested in teaming up with TV IP holders.
• Mobile Capital Network provides consulting and aid in preparing tax returns and pitching for the above grants/funds. We will definitely be taking advantage of their services.
• Serious Games and the BREW-based Zeebo are seen as two promising venues for developers and publishers alike.
• EEDAR is a market research firm that not only helps publisher plan their releases, but can also aid developers with data for their pitches.

A shot of me at the after party. I'm pretty sure I asked for it too, but I wasn't expecting an extreme close-up.

Of course that’s not all that was mentioned at the event, but I think it’s a pretty good overview.

Oh, and for more photos, check out IO’s Flickr page!