VFS was pleased to host James for an inspiring visit with Game Design students yesterday, which left many in the room considering how to shape their own upcoming contributions to games. We’re lucky to have current student Isaac Colon give us a full rundown of the event.

Guest Post by Isaac Colon

The old bait and switch? Yes, please.

On Thursday evening the Game Design campus was treated to a talk by James Portnow about the aesthetics of our craft. As a game designer, journalist, speaker, the CEO of Rainmaker Games, and as the writer for the online game design series, Extra Credits, James has made an enormous impression on the industry that he so obviously loves.

His original plan called for a talk on the shape of narrative in the massively multiplayer space, but instead Portnow asked and answered questions for a solid hour, leading a standing-room-only audience to pithy conclusions not only about what he believes are our shared responsibilities as the future backbone of the industry, but also (especially) about the very core of the game-playing experience.

The theme of the event was that understanding what is happening on the player side of the screen, rather than what’s on the screen itself, is the key to understanding why Call of Duty, FarmVille, and Minecraft are such compelling and lucrative experiences in not-so-different ways. Lacking any visuals besides a PDF of MDA: A Formal Approach to Game Design and Game Research, Portnow called on the audience to explain why we play the games we do and broke down several of our favourites based on the core aesthetics for each.

To sum up, we professionals aren’t only in the business of making fun. We are in the enviable position of making interactive experiences that tap into the many shared desires and needs of a vast audience – an audience far greater than the prepubescent teens of which it may have once been comprised. In James’ eyes, the opportunities presented by our field are basically limitless, and he sounded almost envious as he told us that the games industry’s Citizen Kane will “come from you guys.”

Portnow, via Extra Credits, has been accused of “white-knighting” the industry, or making it seem like it should only be focused on building games that send strong social messages or act as art installations. Rather, his message has almost always seemed to be that the relatively young but oh-so relevant and now widespread videogame medium has staggering potential beyond just “fun.” Of course there’s still room for that, but the potential for videogames to educate, for example, must be explored.

The 2010s are an exciting time for our industry, and frankly, I’m looking forward to seeing what we can do with it.

Thanks, Isaac. And many thanks to James Portnow for his inspiring visit!

In a recent interview with The Vancouver Courier, Nathan says the team spent a combined 5,000 hours making the game over a period of three months. A key feature is integratation with your friends list on Facebook, giving you the option of either saving them…or letting them succumb to zombies.

Congratulations, team!

After years of collaborating from their native UK with Vancouver-based director Katrin Bowen, their screenplay for Random Acts of Romance is finally seeing the green lights of production. Shooting began yesterday not far from VFS.

It’s not the first time Bowen has worked with Writing grads on a feature; her 2010 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) debut, Amazon Falls, was penned by VFS grad Curry Hitchborn. She and Kevin also collaborated on the award-winning Port Short called I, Stalker during his year at VFS.

With their first film featuring award-winning actors Amanda Tapping (Sanctuary), Zak Santiago (Shooter), and Sonja Bennett (Elegy), Kevin and Jillian are excited to see their work hit the big screen soon – especially considering the epic journey they underwent to get to this point.

It all began when their screenplay was picked up for development in 2007, which brought on a deluge of rewrite notes from various parties.

“Funders, broadcasters, producers, actors…” Everyone had an opinion, Kevin says. “It’s a hard thing to deal with and get your head around when you are thrown feet-first into the thick of things as we found ourselves at this point. Being so far away, we were getting constant emails with notes about the script from all angles. All of a sudden this ‘great script’ was now just a ‘good script’ and here we were presented with 101 people’s opinions on how to make it ‘great again’.”

The project began to grow, attracting financiers and a producer.

“Countless rewrites later, it’s late 2008 and our producer tells us we are good to go for production in the New Year,” Kevin explains. “It all starts to seem very real.”

Then the storm clouds gathered. The team lost a chunk of production financing and an internal contract dispute prevented the film from moving forward until June 2011. It was during this time that Katrin unveiled Amazon Falls at TIFF to much acclaim, and that clout helped bring back the interested parties once she reignited Random Acts of Romance last year.

Could you tell us what is the film is all about?

Jillian: Random Acts of Romance is a comedy/drama about the transience of relationships and how couples get together then fall apart. It takes quite a cynical view of love and infatuation, but also looks at the comic absurdity in some relationships. Each couple, and each character, has their own set of problems which damages their love lives.

Kevin: There’s also a lot of humour added to the mix as not to make the film come across all Blue Valentine. (Great film, just not the laugh-a-minute I wanted it to be!) The story itself deals with two couples and three singletons whose lives all intersect as they live up to the realization that love and happiness is not an easy road. The film is a cynical take on relationships but it is also very truthful about the realities of love. We tried hard to move away from the black and white conventions of the romantic comedy genre and instead spent time addressing the intriguing “grey area” where the lines are blurred on what is acceptable and what is normal when it comes to the pursuit of the opposite sex.

This project has been in the works for a few years now. How has it developed over that time?

Amanda Tapping will play "Diane"

Jillian: It’s come a long way! It started out with all the same characters that it has now, but the script has been pared down to the nitty-gritty bones of the story, which is exactly what it needed. In the beginning there were some scenes and attributes of the characters that just didn’t work. Notes from the director and producers helped us to hone in on what the themes of the script were and what the story was actually trying to say. As writers, sometimes it was hard to receive notes on things that we didn’t want to change because they were funny or a good character reveal, but for the sake of the film you have to let them go. The production of the film has been a waiting game, but the script is better for it.

Kevin: It’s easy to put all your hopes and dreams into one screenplay when someone expresses an interest. You have to be realistic and have to ensure you have many projects on the go because the fact is, not everything you write will get produced. But finding someone who believes in your work, that’s the most important part. Because if you find that person, as we did with Katrin, you soon learn that anything is possible.

Now that the film is actually in production I can honestly say, despite all the frustration of the development process, it was actually worth it. I am a firm believer that everything happens for a reason. As screenwriters, if Jill and I hadn’t gone through what we did, I don’t think we would have evolved as writers. Our experience has made us better writers and more aware of the pitfalls of the industry. Believing in yourself as a writer is the most important thing you can carry through the development process. Learn to trust your instincts and fight for what you think is important.

What are some tips aspiring UK-based screenwriters should know about the industry as you’ve experienced it these past few years?

Kevin: Move to Canada. Seriously. The open-mindedness of the market is inspiring. Canada welcomes and rewards creativity. I spent a year in Vancouver and the amount of opportunities that are available for Canadian creatives is excellent. Back in the UK, it’s a very insular industry. From my experience there is a tendency in the UK to reward the established and the tried-and-tested. There is not so much love for the new and innovative. It’s frustrating because there are so many talented writers in the UK, it’s just they don’t have the platform to have their voices heard.

My advice: find someone who appreciates and gets your work, and surround yourself with like-minded people. Writing can be a lonely pursuit and it is difficult to go it alone. I would say to any writer, persistence is key. If you are jumping through the hoops and nothing is happening, just go out and do it yourself. Aim big, high, far and wide. You have nothing to lose.

Jillian: Never give up! When I first started writing an established screenwriter told me that it was virtually impossible to have a screenplay made when you’re an unknown writer, but we worked hard to create a solid script and heard that Katrin was looking for a low-budget feature so we took the plunge and sent it to her. She called us at 7am the next morning to say that she loved it. I think it’s key to know the right person to send the right script to. The other tip I would give to aspiring writers is to be flexible with your writing – fight for the things that you think are important to the story, but try to understand any notes that you receive and make them work if they have a point.

Congrats, Kevin and Jillian! We can’t wait to see the finished film.

There’s something in the water over at Classical Animation, and the results are all over the internet. A few week’s ago Vimeo chose a grad’s final project as a Staff Highlight, and now animation site Cartoon Brew has posted the final project of alumnus Andres Tapeton.

As described on the site, Andres hopes to make it a series: “And well, luckily my life brought me to the point that I actually know how to do that now, hah. And that’s why this one is just a prologue of what hopefully will become a personal animated project.”

Well done, Andres!

Update: And now it’s on Applied Arts!

Now many of those companies will have access to a local server farm that will help them to strengthen and quicken production on high-profile feature films in the future.

And that may mean more ways to see VFS alumni work as more studios — with bigger projects — flock to BC to take advantage of the deep talent pool of artists.

The Hollywood Reporter ran this story on Friday as the news broke.

“The opening of RenderCloud makes us competitive with such cities as London and New Zealand, and puts Vancouver into consideration for the next generation of Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings productions,” Catherine Winder, president and executive producer of Rainmaker Entertainment, said Friday.

Guest Post by Hugo B. Gauvreau

Students in the 3D Animation & Visual Effects program are familiar with the daily routine: get up, get dressed, go to school. But today The Studio had an unusual number of students wearing dress shirts and nice sweater vests. Truth is we had a perfectly good reason to dress up, and it was called Rhythm & Hues.

Joe Caggiano, Head of Recruiting, Anjelica Casillas, Digital Production Manager, and Recruiter Maggie Lee not only came down to give us a big presentation on the R&H pipeline and recruiting, but also came in for a tour of our facilities, stopping by The Studio to take a closer look at some of our work. I was lucky enough to be amongst those who got to show off their work. It was a slightly overwhelming experience having not only those industry professionals around me, but also about twenty students grouped around my two computer monitors. As they did for the other work they reviewed, they gave very constructive, straight forward criticism.

During their presentation in the Main Theatre a great deal of emphasis was placed on explaining how the studio is in constant contact with its client, and how the client’s critiques direct the work. R&H has a world-wide reputation as a major player in the industry of visual effects. They currently employ over 700 people in five different facilities: Los Angeles, Vancouver, Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Kuala Lumpur.

Now, here is what we all had been waiting for: yes, they hire students straight out of school. Joe went on to tell us about their great in-house one month paid training program, which counts new grads in its ranks. Those “training camps” often happen in the early spring, and they post all the news related to it on their website. R&H uses its own proprietary software, and that month of training is mainly their way of getting people to be familiar with the pipeline before they move them into real-life production. It is important to note that the majority of people that R&H hires (students or not) are put directly into the real-life production pipeline.

Maybe I could sum it up like this: if you were not there, you truly missed something.

Thanks, Hugo!

Craig Berkey

The honour is for his work on Hanna, a feature film scripted by Writing for Film & Television grad Seth Lochhead.

With his frequent collaborator Skip Lievsay, Berkey has been nominated for three Oscars for sound editing/mixing on True Grit and No Country for Old Men. He has also previously been recognized with BAFTA and Golden Reel nominations.

Congratulations, Craig! VFS students and faculty are lucky to have such an acclaimed mentor.

Dionne Gordon and Jennifer Siddle, the Program Managers for Writing for Film & Television and Entertainment Business Management, respectively, are amongst the many Mad Men fans who can’t wait for season five to finally arrive. They decided to take the critically-acclaimed series into their own… hands.

With the help of many VFSers, they launched Plaid Men this past weekend – a web series that puts hand puppets inside the feisty Manhattan ad agency and picks up where season four left off. You can catch a new episode every Sunday night at PlaidMenWebSeries.com. In March there will be two episodes per week on Sundays and Thursdays in the lead up to Mad Men‘s season premiere on the 25th.

Plaid Men features the talents of Writing grads Bob Woolsey, Derek Thompson, Steve Toms, and Wade Fennig; Film Production grad Ryan Jackson; Writing/Film instructor Rudy Thauberger; Acting for Film & Television grads Naomi Dayneswood, Shannon Lang, Lauren Martin, and Aaron McCallum; and Head of Acting Bill Marchant.

Oh, and that title sequence? It’s created by Ian Berg, a grad of both Foundation Visual Art & Design and Digital Design.

Check out the first episode and ‘like’ the series on Facebook.

Saturday’s sold-out Industry Speaker Day featured some of the biggest names in gaming. Bruce Nesmith of Bethesda, the Director of Design on the runaway choice for 2011′s Game of the Year, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, delivered the keynote presentation. To date Skyrim has sold 10 million copies, an amazing feat for a game released in November, and part of its success is the Radiant Story system Bruce and his team used to create dynamic quests. But, Bruce warned, “Radiant Story is a tool. You can use a tool poorly. It will not make content. Storytelling is a uniquely human endeavour; people make good stories.”

Associate Lead Designer Emmanuel Lusinchi, who helped start BioWare’s Austin studio to create the most-anticipated MMO in years, Star Wars: The Old Republic, walked the captivated audience through the lessons his team had learned, lessons that he admitted were freely given by the developers of another, high-profile MMO. “They told us we could know their secrets, because no one ever followed them.” He said that a lot of what they learned about player interaction came from their own experiences, such as in high school where you learn that talking to strangers can lead to ridicule. “But,” he added, “maybe you had a different childhood.”

Other presentations featured Dan Taylor exploring the fallacies behind entrenched views on level design, VFS grad Bruce Kelly‘s journey from family games to the gritty near-future of Deus Ex: Human Revolution, and Mark Acero of Radical Entertainment on how you can create more organic, fluid combat systems. The day’s talks ended with a fairly raucous panel discussion with local indie developers, moderated by Victor Lucas of Electric Playground, which discussed whether multi-millionaire developers could still be considered “indie”, why some of the most innovative game design is coming out of Scandinavia, and how to stay true to your ideas while still paying the mortgage.

On Sunday, people came out in the hundreds to Vancouver Film School for a free Game Design Open House, the first in the new Game Design campus, for a day of learning, meeting the people who make the acclaimed program tick, and giveaways, games, and standing-room-only sample classes.

The Open House also marked the official launch of the 2012 Women in Games Scholarship, a wonderful opportunity for an aspiring female game designer to receive a full scholarship to the program. In addition, there are scholarships from G4TechTV, Radical Entertainment, Slant Six Games, Annex Pro, and Microsoft/BigPark totaling $15,000. You can read more about them – and apply – right here.

Thank you to all our speakers, sponsors, exhibitors, volunteers, and everyone who came out to share this weekend with us. We’ll have more highlights coming soon from Game Design Expo 2012, including videos of all the presentations. For now, check out photos from both days below, and keep in touch through Twitter: @gamedesignexpo and @vfs.

There was a time in the not-so-distant past when a video game could only be played on a purpose-built cabinet at an arcade. Suffice it to say the times have changed, and your average mobile phone now has more computing power than the original NASA command station. With gaming theory influencing almost everything we do, from interacting with friends to buying groceries to getting healthy, games are set to take centre stage in the popular consciousness in a big way. How big? Well consider that in 2011:

• Approximately 16,000 people were directly employed in the Canadian video game industry
• The industry had an estimated $1.7 billion of direct economic impact on the Canadian economy
• In the U.S., 72% of households played some form of video games, and 29% of gamers were over the age of 50
• 59% of Canadians are gamers (have played a video game within the last month)
• 45% of Canadians played a game at least a few times a week

In the following article, VFS grads – nine Game Design alumni, a Classical Animation grad, and a Sound Design for Visual Media grad – present their thoughts on games and the industry’s future.

A NON-EXISTENT GAME THEY’D LIKE TO PLAY

Annie Dickerson (Game Design, 2011 | Digido Interactive): I want a game that tracks every activity I do throughout the day. Brush my teeth – 2pts. Walk the dog – 5pts. My real world efforts then feed into a virtual world that rewards me for my deeds, challenges me to try new things, and helps me visualize patterns in my daily life.

Bruce Kelly (Game Design, 2006 | Eidos Montreal): Because they’re the only games I can think about right now: I want a game that looks like Skyrim, plays like Dark Souls, feels and sounds like Battlefield 3, and theoretically never ends like Diablo. I’m pretty sure that game would be considered a crime against humanity, though, so it’s probably for the best that it never sees the light of day.

McElroy Flavelle (Game Design, 2008 | Vancouver Social Games): Though I spend a lot of time talking about how the console era is coming to a close, I’d love to play a Red Dead Redemption-like game set in the Pacific Northwest. I imagine this is interesting to very few other people and there’s a good reason nobody will ever build it.

Grayson Scantlebury (Game Design, 2008 | Radical Entertainment): Still waiting for a “holodeck” to be a real thing.

Jake Kazdal (Classical Animation, 1996 | Haunted Temple Studios): I want the 16-bit adventure game genre to be revived. That may or not be a hint about what I want to do next!

Brennan Massicotte (Game Design, 2007 | Independent): I’d like to see games that have compelling personal journeys that exist in a social space with your friends. There’s so much potential for experiences where the players generate the content and the meaning of the world that hasn’t yet been explored.

Lawrence Metten (Game Design, 2009 | BigPark): I want to play a fighter where you face off against your pet-peeves. I’d love to kick the stuffing out of slow walkers, bad drivers, and nail biters. Virtually, of course.

Bruce Kelly was a Level Designer on Deus Ex: Human Revolution

Jordan Fehr (Sound Design for Visual Media, 2008 | Independent): Some great ideas have been floating around about trying to make a game about photojournalism, especially as it pertains to war. I also would love to see something new created about maps and map-making. I have no idea how a game like that would even work, but since maps are such a central thing in video games, but only used as a tool, I would love to see where someone could go with trying to make the game actually about maps.

CASUAL GAMING VS AAA TITLES

Annie: Casual games have created experiences that a broader audience can enjoy, but there will always be gamers who demand AAA titles.

Bruce: I don’t see why their respective existences need to remain mutually exclusive, because if anything the gap between “casual” and AAA is shrinking. As far as winners and losers go, I can’t imagine the success of one being bad for the other. Casual gaming will arguably become the dominant form, but that kind of success will mean exposing more and more people to our culture, inevitably bringing new gamers into the fold; today’s casual gamer could be tomorrow’s hardcore gamer. It’s win/win as far as I’m concerned.

McElroy: I don’t think casual or AAA will die. I think we`ll see the line blur, and it’s already started. I think tablets will be the most common tool for delivering hardcore games and at that point there will have been a lot of lessons learned in the casual space to bridge the gap between core and casual.

Grayson: The key is finding innovation. I think casual games have the edge there, as they typically have more freedom and smaller production cycles. The next step is to take that innovation, create a title around it, and give it the polish it deserves to become a AAA title. Neither side will win or lose – the industry needs both.

GAMES AS ART

Annie: Art is a form of expression, and games definitely fall into that category. Some art is beautiful and poignant; other art stirs up anger or confusion. Similarly, games can summon fears, reflect on society, and change people’s views. Just like art, games are a form of expression and engage people through interactive experiences.

Bruce: This obviously depends on who you ask, and I’m not going to pretend that I’m at all educated on the subject of what constitutes or defines art in the traditional form, but I will say this: You can’t tell me hearing Jose Gonzalez’s “Far Away” for the first time as you ride across Mexico in Red Dead Redemption isn’t a work of art. Or climbing to the highest peak in Skyrim and watching the sun set and an aurora borealis come to life. The ballet of someone surviving a bullet hell maze in Ikaruga, or the look on some kid’s face as he captures his first Pokemon. All of these moments are works of art as far as I’m concerned. Anyone who says otherwise is probably a colossal snob and not much fun to hang out with.

Jake Kasdal is lending his unique art style to Skulls of the Shogun!

McElroy: Of course they can. But I don`t care. Irrelevant to me what anybody thinks about games as art.

Mark Barazzuol (Game Design, 2007 | Independent): Of course games are art, in their entirety or individual components. Art is a piece of skilled work that evokes spirit and emotion. I would love to see any decent argument as to why they could not be considered art.

Jake: Games are absolutely art. Games can make you feel a personal bond with characters that, when at its best, is even better than movies in my opinion. Creating new experiences that can actually be lived in and played through by other people is a special ability unique to game makers.

Brennan: I think the games as art debate is really a personal perspective for everybody. If you’ve created something meaningful then you’ve created art. I think people who argue games are ‘just toys’ are trivializing the process of creating, and I have a feeling it’s simply a kind of fear or misunderstanding of what it means to create in general. A child on the playground messing around with jacks is expressing an idea he has, something he wants to see for its own sake, nothing to do with survival. He’s creating something he cares about, and that makes it art. People who feel the need to distinguish between that and Picasso think that there’s some magic line you cross when creating becomes important, validated and officially meaningful. But that happens as soon as someone decides to make something they want.

Lawrence: Gaming will be art when we stop using the word “epic” and start aspiring to be more than interactive Bruce Willis movies.

Jordan: I can’t believe people are still talking about this, honestly. Video games in particular are made up of several things that are already considered art – music, visual art, sound design – why wouldn’t the combination of these things also be art, as in a film or an art gallery, simply because they are interactive?

Download (PDF) survey results from grads working in the industry!

Annie: I tried Plants vs. Zombies on a whim. I was blown away by the potential for this game to be used for educational purposes. The sunflowers teach you to save, the pea shooters represent different investments, and the zombies represent unexpected future challenges. It was the first time I realized the educational value of “normal” games.

Bruce: I suppose Ultima Online changed the way I think about relationships as a whole. Games have an incredible power to bring people together (and I suppose tear them apart, ironically) that I think really defines the whole of the medium as something greater than its individual parts.

Clinton: I will always remember the first two Wing Commander games for the way they immersed me in their worlds so completely. Although they had the aid of cutting edge visuals for their time, these games also made great use of cinematic storytelling techniques. They made me care about non-player characters to a degree that I never thought possible and they did things like design branching mission paths depending on your successes or failures. They straddle that border of experiences that makes you feel like you’re watching a movie, reading a book, and playing make-believe as a kid all at once.

Mark: Those who know me shouldn’t find this surprising, but I’d have to point out Dungeons and Dragons. It is the core of what games are: a construction of fantasy, challenge, and fun brought from the mind of the creator to delight the audience. Remembering that forces me to realize that the driving force of fun in games has little to do with technology or time, but more to do with imagination with a bit of structure.

Lawrence: I started thinking about numbers differently after playing Math Blaster. Does that count? I’d love to see the instructional game space evolve. I should be able to set high scores and earn achievements while learning how to cook, play guitar, or speak Japanese.

Melanie: Two years ago, I was doing some research and started to play FarmVille. I quickly sent neighbour’s requests to all my Facebook friends, and realized how many of those friends I wasn’t even talking to on a daily basis, although I would take the time to harvest their virtual crops and feed their virtual chickens for bonus experience points or random gifts. That was a mind opener and I started to actually garden outside, and I am also regularly sending handmade custom postcards to loved ones. (I simultaneously got fed up with all the recurrent pop-ups, unique-but-unlimited collections, seasonal key items, and the pretty things that are only available for real-life money. I vowed to never harass my players, no matter how lucrative it can be.)

Annie Dickerson's student game Blokhead was a Unity Award Finalist

Annie: Games will increasingly rely on social mechanics to increase their audience and retention. People are becoming more and more connected through the web and mobile devices. As lifestyles change, so too will gaming habits. People will increasingly rely on social notifications, leaderboards, and other social mechanics to enrich their gaming experiences.

Bruce: Bold predictions? The next “big thing” will be an MMO for iOS and mobile devices that finally dethrones World of Warcraft. Or maybe it will just be WoW for iOS.

Clinton: There will be a cataclysmic disaster that destroys our technology, forcing us to play board games around candlelight. Joking aside, I have really become more appreciative of board and card games since getting into the video game industry. These were the social games before there were social games, after all. It would be great to see more crossover between digital and analog gaming. As people become more enclosed within their personal space, having things like board games bring people together for real – instead of over a chat window or headset microphone – is a good thing in my opinion.

McElroy: Consoles are dinosaurs and the extinction is coming. Mobile is stupid big. Games should be free. Tablets change EVERYTHING.

Mark: I can’t say it will be in 5 years’ time, but I think most media will go the way of the public library. That is, basically free and easily available, but those who really enjoy a “work” will buy it. It’s funny that book publishers believed public libraries would destroy book sales. Ironically, the reverse happened. It comes down to the disposable income people have, and doing work people like.

Grayson: I don’t expect games to be radically different in 5 years’ time, unless someone finds a way to cheaply mass produce more immersive real world simulations.

Jake: I want my virtual reality! WHERE IS IT?

Melanie: I like bold predictions! I think games will be more predominant in our lives, and not only in the living room or mobile devices. I see a future where HTML5 and CSS3 make every web experience richer, more vibrant and interactive. I hope designers such as Brenda Brathwaite and Jane McGonigal will help us shape our future, so we can learn about serious topics in a more interesting way than our current educational systems allow, and live in a world that is more enjoyable, more engaging, and more compassionate.

BONUS POINTS

Jordan on inspiration: I’ll be honest, a lot of my inspiration on some of these independent titles comes from the game’s creators. When you work on a game that only has two to five people, oftentimes the person you answer to is the same person that invented the ideas that became the game. I think the rest of it is just the desire to create new things, to really bring the other half of the visuals to life, or to convey something important to the player. I just love making sounds.

Find out more about Game Design at VFS.com, and stay tuned to the VFS Twitter for updates from this weekend’s sold-out Game Design Expo.