EGX - Birmingham Conference

We were fortunate enough to visit the EGX conference in Birmingham this weekend. This was quite important that we attended the event as it was a yearly show case which presented to the goers what new games were coming out. Not only this, but it also ran talks by game designers, such as Mike Bithell, the creator of Thomas was Alone. There was also a careers fair, which was most important that we had to visit.

Me Playing Total War Warhammer.

The first thing that we decided to do was head towards creative assembly booth, where the new game that they were working on, Warhammer Total War, was on display with a level in which you control a set of dwarfs, fighting Sevres goblins. After having several battles on the game, I really couldn't wait for it to come out. I was so impressed with the game I ended up talking with one of the staff members at creative, just talking about the game and the course that we partake in, where he directed us to the careers fair.

Controlling the Dwarfs.

At the careers fair, several companies had set up stalls, with many members of their teams talking to people interested in the game industries and the jobs that were offered. We ended up talking many different members of the Creative Assembly team. This was great as we managed to get an insight of what the industry was like and the people in it. They gave us many helpful tips when it came to creating a portfolio and what they, as a company, where looking for in a student when it came to employment.

After an hour and gathering as much information as we could, we decided that it would be best to move on, where we wanted to see what the current games industry is currently pushing out and developing, so we can see what sort of level we need to get to. There were many games on display that hadn't even come out yet, but the main ones that we picked out were Star Wars Battlefront, Tom Clancy's The Division and Assassins Creed Syndicate.

We decided that we wanted to attend one of the talks. In this one Mike Bithell was going to answer a Q and A from a speaker and fans. This was great as we got to see what had inspired him as a game designer and what, as upcoming game designers, to aim for, when it comes to being an indie designer. I managed to record the whole of the session, which I have added to the blog post, which was extremely interesting.

A to Scale Spider Queen.

After the session we walked around the whole of the complex and had a look at even more games. One interesting section was the Independent games that were on display. This is something that I am inspired because at certain stages, this is currently what we are, a bunch of people that want to make games. It was interesting watching people play these games as they were really getting stuck in, something that they really enjoyed, which is want I want to create.

The day as a whole was such a fantastic experience and I cant wait to go next year, but next time we will plan to go there, we will have to go there for several days, as the queues were many hours long. But overall the day was fantastic and I cant wait to go again.