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A few weeks ago, I went up to the Montreal International Game Summit to see what kind of secret Canadian game development know-how could be learned.

Spoiler: A lot!

Here are my notes and pics from a few standout sessions:

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Character Flaws and Choices: How to Engage Players Emotionally Without Alarming Your Producer
Alex Epstein, Compulsion Games

– Games are the only medium that offer story choices

– The player emotionally owns the choices they make

Contrast: In games, the player chooses what happens and when. In traditional storytelling, the storyteller chooses what happens and when.

To communicate exposition, have character argue with each other instead of agree – more compelling to watch/engage with

Foreshadowing: Let the player do the foreshadowing for themselves through gameplay actions, not scripted sequences

Importance of setting up the ending: “The ending should be in the story’s bones”

Flaws: “Flaws are what make us care about characters”

However, NPCs often lack flaws and act like robots

“The intimate opponent” – setting up an NPC ally as someone close to you but an antagonist, traitor, or inconvenient love interest

Ways to use flaws to make for more interesting gameplay:

1. Make a character flaw a core gameplay mechanic. Ex: In Ico, the princess Yorda needs to be led by her hand through the environment by the player.

2. Reveal an NPC flaw to send the player on an unexpected adventure.

3. Use an NPC flaw to increase the gameplay challenge.

4. Balance NPC flaws with virtues.

5. Let the player choose from NPCs with flaws that best complement their play style (instead of making it more difficult or annoying)

Also: Consider using character flaws to close plotholes

Why Does Free Work?
Nicholas Lovell, Games Brief

Show of hands: Who in the audience has games they’ve bought on Steam but never played? Says it’s not that different from the underlying concept behind f2p – you want to express yourself through what you spend money on, at the core.

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Says the $0.99 price point is the worst: it communicates that “the game isn’t good enough to be expensive or good enough to be free.”

The f2p first time user experience (FTUE) has 30 seconds to convince players to play. “Show them where fun lives.”

A PR Playbook: Executing an Effective PR Program, with Real-World Insight from a PR Maven and Demiurge Studios

Albert Reed, Demiurge Studios
Elicia Basoli, Elicia Basoli Communications

Elicia:

When coming up with positioning for your game, brainstorm a list of adjectives that describe the game and the studio

Basic questions to ask yourself:

1. What is the game?

2. What makes it/you unique?

3. Why is it fun/entertaining?

4. Why should someone care?

Embargoes: Can be a great tool, the press appreciates embargoes on assets and news stories since it gives them more time to prepare and write stores.

-> However, only send embargos to select press you know, not 200 random ones – they might break the embargo and piss other press off

For bigger shows and conventions, send press invites early – bigger studios tend to book press quickly at events