From the 22nd to 23rd of January, Pocket Gamer Connects London took over popular venue The Brewery in the heart of London, within the City of London district and stone’s throw away from The Barbican. The formerly mobile-focused event was out in force, complete with XR and PC sections, as well as an impressive selection of speakers.
PGConnects London 2018 fused together three, traditionally separated, events. Each one covered different gaming mediums: PC, XR (‘cross reality’ — a term that encompasses augmented, mixed and virtual reality) and Mobile. For each of these types, there were several ‘Tracks’ (mini-schedules of on-topic talks) as well as one of Steel Media’s (the organiser’s parent company) Indie pitches. This culminated in three distinct mediums crossing over in an impressive event featuring three judging events; nearly two hundred talks and panels; and an impressive meet-and-match system aimed at facilitating meetings.
Almost two hundred topics ensured that a fair few experts cruised through the doors; among the many names talking at the event, there were some very highly regarded industry names: Innes McKendrick (Hello Games) joined a panel on ‘How to Get Ideas to Happen’ and Mike Rose (No More Robots) gave a talk on PC sales figures, while Jo Twist (Ukie) hosted a panel which included Ian Livingstone (Fighting Fantasy, Sumo, and formerly Edios Interactive) on the ‘State of Play in the British Games Industry’. The thirty-one tracks covered almost every topic imaginable, from funding to founding and finishing games, as well as a lot of talk on marketing, publishing and dealing with the press.
There were also two floors with areas partitioned off for booths and demos; games, services and publishers packed out the halls between the track rooms. For somebody who is a step away from the mobile scene, the amount of middleware available to organise adverts, payment structures and other revenue streams is actually quite surprising. This middleware was definitely at the forefront of the building’s upper floor, lining the walls around a meet-and-match section, both teeming with development chatter.
The downstairs was more B3’s scene. Day two of the event saw the mobile pitch finalists add their games to the selection of mobile, XR, PC and physical games, which had already been showcasing at the event. This meant that FINUFUGI’s fantastic Too Many Cooks, Wee Door’s Oil, Shuttershade Studios’ Hyper VR Party Ware and Astrofish Games’ Ground Runner: Trials were among those that populated the show-floor.
The reason I was at the event was for the aforementioned pitches, this time specifically the PC ones. For the developers, it’s a chance to work on their pitch and a chance to win some funding and marketing — well worth it for those who can enter. For me personally, it’s also a fantastic way to see upcoming games and spot approaching trends: you’ll see that as our posts for each of the games entered into the PC pitch go live on the site over the next short while. This year’s finalists, Robert Potter’s This Dead Winter, ASA Studios’ BFF or Die, and Playniac’s Insane Robots, were certainly standout among the selection, but they had tough competition.
Considering the mass of industry veterans walking around throughout Pocket Gamer Connects London, the fact that food is supplied, the excellent meet-and-match app, and that there are — in the pitches — more events going on around it, the price of entry for the two days is brilliant. The event is especially well structured to serve those looking to rapidly gain further knowledge within the industry, or meet new potential business contacts/partners, and it does this in a highly concentrated yet finessed manner which exceeds that of most other events I’ve been to.
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