It was 27 th feb 2010, the time is 09:00 hours and I was standing in the queue to get spot registration for India Game Developer Summit lite 2010. This was the first time I was attending any event on Game development. Once I got the registration, I was inside the convention hall 'A' attending the keynote address. Everything was unbelievable. I was jumping from one hall to the other trying to grab the front seats ( my eye sight is not good and I don't have glasses). At end of the event I was so astonished that I was literally shaking. It took me 2 and 1/2 hours to realize that the event is over (for those 2 and 1/2 hours I was sitting in front of the forum mall unaware of everyone passing by me).
The keynote address "Envision, Enable, Achieve" by Carl Jones(CRYTEK) was very very inspiring. The experiences shared by Carl Strengthened my faith in game development. I found the address equally important for Developer, Startups as well as for Enthusiasts. This session gave me the motivation to peruse Game Development with more Passion and Enthusiasm. As a student we need this kind of motivation from time to time.
Keita Iida from NVIDIA was addressing the "Technology and Market trends In the PC Game Industry". The insights presented by him were truly amazing. I never Knew that the PC Game Industry is so big and we have so many people playing around the world. The numbers were really huge. It was the first time I got to know about the technologies and services offered by NVIDIA. The support they offer to the Game Industry is priceless.
I was introduced to APEX technology when I attended the session of Rev Lebaredian on "High Fidelity Dynamics in Games" this technology along with NVIDIA's PhysX Software enables us to create fully interactive in-game clothing, destruction, particle effects and vegetation. Getting to know about this technology worth millions or I will say billions for a student like me. I was felling like I was in future and I myself was interacting in the videos presented in the session.
"GPU Computing for Games" by Ashu Rege and Rev Libaradian enriched my knowledge on GPU Programming. Until that session I knew GPU's are very powerful for parallel processing of graphics and physics but Now we can offload the calculations for AI, animation and other effects to the GPU. The programmability of the GPU's have reached to such an extent that we can programm any thing on our GPU ( earlier this was not available to the programmers).
For the last few months me and my friends were amazed about the new technology called Stereo 3D for games. We used to go to different shops and check the demos for 3D monitors with goggles or with out goggles. In the session by Rev Libaredian on "Introduction to Stereo 3D for Games" we were presented with an overview of stereoscopic 3D Graphics technology, where the speaker Rev covered the common pitfalls and solution, achieving out of screen effects, displaying 3D video content and how to design a 3D friendly user interface. All of this was the future of gaming and we were so lucky to get an exposure to these technologies.
We used to read the papers of Simon Green in our studies of game development, now he was in-front of us presenting the topic of "Advance Visual Effects for Games", unbelievable but true. He covered the topic so well that even if i loose my memories the topic will be there somewhere in my mind. Programming GPU via DirectX11 to achieve visual effects such as water,fire and explosion in real time is awesome. nothing beats these effects in the games.
When it comes to producing a game nothing is more important than a core creative team with excellent communication and collaboration, when it comes to a game producer we have Jithin Rao. He shared his experiences in producing games at UbiSoft pune. He presented to us what the core team should be, what are their roles and how the overall production works. His session should have been over by 17:00 hours but there were so many questions people were eager to ask that the time had to be extended. Jithin cleared everyones doubts and questions about game production and getting into the Industry. He was truly professional and I would say he rocked the stage with his smiling face and excellent answers.
I would like to thank Saltmarch media and it's team members for a successful event and I would like to thank all the Endorsers, Sponsors and Exhibitors for participating in the event.
Thank you IGDS lite 2010 for this once in a lifetime experience of meeting people whom I admire.
