More On The Student Experience at FuturePlay

Gavan Acton is a graduate of Algoma's Computer Science programme and has been to each and every edition of FP. He has also been a frequent guest on T6. I emailed Gav the other day and asked him a few questions about his experiences at FP 05, 06 and his hopes for the 07 conference in Toronto. Currently, Gav is a grad student in Computer Science at UWO.

Dave Brodbeck: Gavan what are your best memories of past FuturePlay conferences?

Gavan Acton: My first Futureplay experience was completely insane. Futureplay 2005 - I went down not really knowing what to expect from the speakers. I was blown away by the keynotes. Their depth of knowledge, clarity of ideas and perspectives really got me thinking. When I left the conference, my head chewed on their ideas for weeks.

I still remember the ride home after the conference vividly, I sat in the back seat of the van thinking of how to apply so much of what I had heard over the last couple days into a new gaming experience. The result was some of the fundamental game mechanics that we later used in a game called Flux( that won a few awards at Dare to Be Digitall and Futureplay 2006.

Presenting and pitching a game to Clint Hocking was pretty dam cool. I also really enjoyed the games competition and not because I had a game in it. There is always so many interesting games that make you look at gaming differently. Last year there was this one game made for the blind that blew me away. You basically had to ski down this mountain only using your ears to guide you. I found the experience very visceral and left me thinking about a whole set of new game mechanics that could make use of senses other then the visual. Very interesting stuff and definitely not conventional.

DB: What are you looking forward to this year?

GA: What you are looking forward to

More of the same from the last two years. That would be spectacular. I am really looking forward to the panel "Players Gaming the Play, Toolsets, and Creativity in and around Games". I love the possibilities of new online worlds that seriously engage a player with a gameplay but also with content provide by both the game studio and players themselves. Online gaming communities have so many possible avenues of interesting entertainment, it's future is exciting. This panel looks to talk about some of these issues. I am also reading a fantastic book by one of the panelists(Katherine Isbister), it should be interesting to hear her speak.

The other panel that looks awesome is "Games for Immersive Learning in other Subjects". The panelist line up looks fantastic. The conversations will definitely be interesting.

Did I mention Keynotes? I am pumped.

DB: Do some name dropping, who have you met at FuturePlay?

GA: Ha. I am terrible with names. Let me dig up some business cards. ;-)

Clint Hocking (Ubisoft - Splinter Cell anyone?)
Micheal Mateas ( Co-Creator of Fascade - Ranked third most influential AI game according to aigamedev.com )
Ernest Adams ( The man with the insane hats! and a ton of game design books)
Ken Perlin ( Inventor of Perlin Noise - used in Half Life 2 a so many other games for NPC character motion and emotion expression).
Ricardo Rademache (Insane Physicist meets creator of WOW type learning world)

I really could keep going but wont. Futureplay has always pulled amazing people from both the industry and Academe. Luckily not many of them have rabies, so you can just go talk with them. Its not like GDC were its almost impossible to talk with anyone because your all crunched like sardines. It definitely has a relaxed feel.

DB:What was your experience like as an undergraduate at FuturePlay 05 and 06?

GA:My experience as an undergrad was fantastic. I walked around like a tourist, taking in as much as I could and all the while being a little awestruck. Although I have played video games my whole life, I had no idea the depth of creative thought that goes into them. Everything from the player experience, to the economics, to the legal, psychological and moral issues are all discussed. Futureplay definitely got my feet wet to the gaming world.

DB: Now you are a graduate student, do you expect your experience to be any different this time around?

GA: Ha good question. It will definitely be different in that I have much more experience in games now. Having been had the opportunity at Dare to be Digital to apply what I learned at Futureplay, I can listen with the experience of real game development. This will help me get a better understanding of the possible application of the speakers ideas. More then that, now that I have a very specific research area in AI for games, I will definitely be attending specific research presentations within my field.

Other then that, my guess is that I will be as blown away as I have been previous Futureplay conferences.

DB: At FuturePlay 2006 you spoke about your experience at Dare to Be Digital, was that a little scary?

GA: Public speaking can be scary. I always try to use coping mechanisms like drinking and/or dressing up in a Halo Master Chief suit. For whatever reason, I find imagining the crowd naked to be terrible distracting...Honestly, having presented the game 200 times over the course of 10 weeks at Dare, speaking in public becomes much easier. My nervousness fades after the first 20 seconds or so and then... i just look awesome in an armor suit. ;-)