DMW Games LA Games Conference 2014 - Event Review Part Two - David L. $Money Train$ Watts - FuTurXTV...

8/12/2019 DMW Games LA Games Conference 2014 - Event Review Part Two - David L. $Money Train$ Watts - FuTurXTV - 5-

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DMW Games LA GAMES CONFERENCE

2014 Event Review Part Two 5-21-20145-21-2014 - Written By David L. $Money Train$ Watts FuTurXTV Howard

Hobson

Funk Gumbo Radio

Raymond C. Reed

Global Media Village

Auggie Cavanagh FuTurXTV Partners David Velo Stewart & Brandon Bowlin

(L-R) Raymond C. Reed, Global Media Village, #LAGC attendee & David L. $Money Train$ Watts,

FuTurXTV and Funk Gumbo Radio and media partnerswww.hhbmedia.com&www.thedarkroome.com

The Future of Gaming in a F2P and Cross Platform WorldBlossom RoomKeynote Conversation with Owen Mahoney, CEO & President, Nexon and Mike Vorhaus,

President, Magid Advisors

Funk Gumbo Radio: http://www.live365.com/stations/sirhobson @FUNKGUMBO [email protected] www.funkgumbo.com
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(L-R)Owen Mahoney,CEO & President, Nexon andMike Vorhaus,President, Magid Advisors & NedSherman, CEO & Publisher Digital Media Wire

Owen: Big upfront marketing does not move gamers in the free to play market. It is bad

enough that over half of the free mobile games on the iTunes store are Flappy Bird clones.

Hollywood & Games: Opportunities at the Intersection of Contentand TechnologyAcademy Room

This panel brings together a mix of companies and executives from the movie, television

and games industries to share ideas about relationship between games and Hollywood and

how to create new business opportunities at the intersection of these two exciting media

industries.

PANELISTS

Susan Cummings,Executive Producer, Doctor Who: Legacy

Jon Radoff,Founder & CEO, Disruptor Beam

Paulus Bannink,Creative Technical Director, Zoic StudiosJean Mathews,Consultant, Strategy & Business Development, iMAGINATE

Avi Gandhi,Digital Agent, William Morris Endeavor

Moderator:Marc Graser,Senior Editor, Variety

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Jean: Disney Interactive tried to develop a Beyonce fashion mobile game that in the end did

not work. Beyonce is more known as a singer than a fashion designer, so one has to really

make sure a game is good before spending a lot of money. One can build a long term game

development strategy and not rely on a hit driven console game solely.

Avi: I disagree with Jean and that only works with free to play games.

Susan: And I disagree with Avi because our Doctor Who: Legacy free to play game will be

big over time and not need premium charges to be successful.

Jon: Zynga stresses Zynga relies on analysis data driven games.

I felt this panel was well represented by many diverse interests in Hollywood gaming. And I

truly enjoyed Jean talking about re-skinning a game like Temple Run and take an existing

engine to create a new hit game. Or other discussions about the Fast & Furi ous 6and

Hobbitgames went to Kabam Games for development. My suggestion for this panel next

year is to have major actors or celebs who are either hardcore gamers themselves or are

regularly doing voice-overs or motion capture as avatars for a big platform game release.

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Playing it Smart from classroom to consoles with Game Design

GraduatesAcademy Room

USC is home to the #1 Game Design Program in North America, and counts among its

graduates innovative developers who are breaking ground in all areas of the industry, from

mobile to VR, and experimental to educational games. Meet some of the young designers

and entrepreneurs who are at the heart of projects such as Journey, The Unfinished Swan,

Nevermind and Thralled.

PANELISTS

Jenova Chen,Founder & Creative Director, thatgamecompany

Ian Dallas,Creative Director, The Unfinished Swan

Erin Reynolds,Creative Director & Creator, Nevermind / Founder, Flying Mollusk

Miguel Oliveira,Team Lead, Thralled

Moderator:Tracy Fullerton,Electronic Arts Endowed Chair of Interactive Entertainment and Associate

Professor USC School of Cinematic Arts, Director, USC Game Innovation Lab

Miguel: I have been working well with the new Ouya indie game console and platform.

Ian: I think the type of people who typically makes games are making games that they like

to play.

Jenova: Mobile games will get better if the gaming industry wants to have longer

development times than 2 or 3 months.

Ironically, there were many USC graduates like myself asking questions. I actually

wondered now if USC has taken such a decisive lead with offering gaming courses and

cranking out many successful indie game developers, then how far behind are other top

Southern Cal colleges like UCLA, The Claremont Colleges, Irvine, Pepperdine and USCB.

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I actually liked this panel as one of the best at #LAGC because it involved something that

the LA Games Conference has badly needed for as long as I have been covering them and

that is actual young game developers. I almost feel that many of the #LAGC attendees

should be high school and college gaming students and Indie Cade game developers

because this event needs to be not always about what major game publishers like EA,

Activision, Zynga, etc., are doing. But the LA Games Conference in my opinion needs to be

where gaming is going next and most importantly who in Los Angeles is making

groundbreaking games, profitable games or just something that is simple and fun to play.

We need young people to not only be consumers of video games, but also realize that theythemselves can use many free mobile game building apps like Appy Pie to easily create

their own mobile games:

AppyPies driving mission is to make the entire app creation process effortless and

enjoyable, where anyone can create a mobile app in 3 easy steps, Appy Pie founder Abhinav

Girdhar said. The public launch of Game Builder is an extension of that goal, and were

looking f orward to seeing the plethora of mobile games generated on our Game Buil der

platform, the worlds first cloud-based mobile game creator with HTML5 technology.

.. Once you have an app of your own, Appy Pie will upload for fr ee to its site. I f you drop some

money, the company wil l al so enable you to upl oad it to iOS App Store, Google Play, or the

markets for Blackberr y and Windows Phone. Not only that, but you can put push noti f ications

into your software as well as ads and, eventual ly, in-app purchases. Thats right, you can fully

monetize your gameAppy Pies tools are much more powerful than something like

Code.orgs Flappy Bird game that teaches people how to code a clone of the popular mobile

ti tle, but i t may lead to a simi lar resul t. While its unlikely that someone will make the next bighi t using Game Bui lder , the tool i s a great way to show people how easy it i s to release a

product for mil l ions of people. Several r esour ces have popped up to teach people (mostly

young) how to codeits a whole movement. If people can see how simple the process of

publishing apps has become through Appy Pie, its possible they may take the next step and

boot up Code.org to start learn ing the other parts of the processGameBeat5-20-2014



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Introductory Remarks by Peter Marx, Chief Innovation Technology

OfficerAcadamey Room

Introductory Remarks by Peter Marx, Chief Innovation Technology Officer

Peter Marx,Chief Innovation Technology Officer, City of Los Angeles

Peter Marx spoke before the next panel in the Academy Room an introduced himself and

talked about Tech LA on May 31stwhich is already sold-out on Event Brite. Peter was

stressing that he came from the tech and gaming community, so he knows what it takes to

help change or improve the image of Los Angeles and Southern Cali as not only an

entertainment leader, but also a great place for tech and game companies to flourish. Peter

himself had never heard about the LA Games Conference before a few days ago. Which

only reinforces my earlier point that LA is a passive tech and game environment when

compared to Silicon Valley or the Bay Area. People think film and TV first and tech and

gaming last. Peter says one of newly elected Mayor Eric Garcettis mandates is to increase

the amount of new tech and game startups. For example, tech and game start-ups can go

for 3 years without paying city taxes. Something that all the developers on the next panel

had no idea about and were all very interested in exploring as soon as they got back to their

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offices. Peter has an uphill task to convince mainly everyone in Los Angeles and the rest of

the world that tech and gaming companies and start-ups are going to be now better

promoted, marketed and supported by the city. New York is aggressively positioning itself

as they next big place to be other than Silicon Valley or san Fran to open up a start-up. So

it is going to take a Herculean effort by Peter, lots of ad dollars and some more great

stories like Oculus Rift to really change peoples impressions to think tech and gammingwhen they think about Los Angeles. But from what I learned about Peter and heard from

him at his #LAGC he seems highly confident and eager to disprove the many LA doubters.

Join Los Angeles Mayor Garcetti, Controller Ron Galperin, and members of the Los

Angeles City Council at the first technology and innovation conference at City Hall.Speakers from USC, UCLA, Art Center College of Design, Factual, Morphosis, and many

others will be discussing technology and innovation, including:

Technology Track

autonomous self-driving vehicles and the future of transportation big data, visualization, and sensing the connected city

Innovation Track

civic innovation and engagement alternative reality games the digital divides

There will also be a hack-a-thon operated byHack for LA.

Hack for LA brings coders, designers, entrepreneurs, students, government agencies,

activists, and other civically engaged individuals together for two days of coding and app

development for civic good. It will be one of the biggest and most important events during

the 2014 National Day of Civic Hacking. Hack for LA offers great prizes to teams

competing in sponsored challenges, and inspires new uses for public data. Hack for LAevents bring together hundreds of technologists focused on innovation for civic good.

Registration is free at http://www.hackforla.org/hackathon_signup_2014

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There will also be a jobs fair organized bySchmoozd.

Schmoozd works closely with partners in the technology and investment community to

design and execute high impactful social events around Los Angeles. Come mix and mingle

up close and personal with some of the hottest tech companies in Los Angeles.

Register at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/la-technology-job-fair-tickets-11522581351

Mayor Garcetti today appointed Peter Marx as the city's first Chief Innovation Technology

Officer. A key part of Mayor Garcetti's back to basics agenda, Marx will oversee the

implementation of new tools and technologies across L.A. city government better solve

problems for residents and make City Hall work more efficiently and effectively. In

addition, he will partner with L.A.'s growing tech industry to deploy innovative technology

and promote local job creation.

Among his first projects will be improving MyLA311 for one stop customer

service; revamping the City's scores of web sites to make them more useful and user-

friendly; and capitalize on sharing and analyzing data to upgrade performance throughout

City government in the same way LAPD's COMPSTAT system has been used to drive

down crime.

"Incredibly talented, a force in the tech community, and an L.A. native to boot, Peter was

my top choice from a very strong pool of applicants," said Mayor Garcetti. "I'm thrilled to

have him on the team and look forward to working with him to better serve Angelenos and

foster the already strong tech ecosystem here in the City of Angels. Harnessing technology

is critical to the future of our economy and improving city services."

"I'm looking forward to working with the Mayor to take the city of the future further into

the future," said Peter Marx

Before joining the Mayor's Office, Marx served as the Vice President of Business

Development at Qualcomm Labs, Inc., commercializing a variety of emerging technologies.

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Previously, Marx was the Vice President of the Technology and Digital Studio at Mattel,

Inc. where the company received a Webby award, the highest award for excellence in

online content. Marx managed Analog Protocol, a media-technology consultancy; served as

the Chief Technology Officer for Vivendi-Universal Games and Vice President of

Emerging Technologies for Universal Studios; and held engineering and producer positions

at Electronic Arts. Early in his career, he served as an engineer on a variety oftelemedicine, digital video, radiological imaging, and biomedicine applications for UCLA

and 3M Company.

This appointment is the latest in Mayor Garcetti's efforts to reform and reorganize City

Hall to make it more efficient and effective in serving the people of Los Angeles. Garcetti

cut the number of Deputy Mayors from a dozen to four, focused on the key areas of City

Services, Budget and Innovation, Homeland Security and Public Safety, and Economic

Development.

Within the Mayor's Office, he appointed the city's first Chief Sustainability Officer in

addition to a dedicated point person for immigration affairs, veterans, and theentertainment industry. Upon taking office, he required every department head to reapply

for his or her job. Last week, he appointed a new General Manager for the Department of

Water and Power and is bringing new leadership to the Fire, Harbor, Transportation, and

Cultural Affairs departments.

To Live and Indie in LA: Indie Game Development in the Southland

Acadamey Room

The Indie Game scene has exploded around the world. Independent developers far and

wide are hard at work redefining the meaning of the word game itself. Platforms from

iPhone to Steam and Android to Ouya offer developers new risks and rewards. So how isthe indie game scene evolving in Los Angeles? What are the unique challenges and

opportunities taking the indie road in SoCal? Join a panel of LAs own to tackle those

questions and more.

PANELISTS

Peter Marx,Chief Innovation Technology Officer, City of Los Angeles

Kellee Santiago,Head of Developer Relations, OUYA / Co-Founder, thatgamecompany

Spencer Yip,Director & Founder, YummyYummyTummy

James Liu,Founder, CEO, Writer, Developer, BoxCat Games

Brendon Chung,Founder, Blendo Games

Mariel Cartwright,Lead Animator, Lab Zero

Moderator:Jamison Selby,VP, Games bspot and Board Member, IGDA Los Angeles

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I felt this was a very good panel that followed up to Peter Marxs short, but meaningful

talk. Again I felt there needs to be a definite emphasis for the LA Games Conference to

showcase and highlight as many new, upcoming and veteran game developers in Los

Angeles, Orange County and Southern California. The only thing that is still missing from

#LAGC is an emphasis to attract more African-American and Hispanic game developers,

gamers and bloggers. There are many talented minorities interested in gaming or already

working in the gaming and tech. But somehow I can usually count on one hand the number

of Black and Hispanic speakers at previous LA Games Conferences. And there have been a

few minority speakers on panels, but I am not that surprised that there was not one Black

speaker or moderator on any #LAGC panels this year. I personally believe we who are

minority game developers or working in the multi-billion game Industry have to be pro-

active and should be doing everything possible to become visible, heard and opportunistic.

Overall, I had a highly enjoyable time at this years LA Games Conference. I wish I could

have spoken to Peter Marx about making the mega-huge E3 Expo more inclusive to indie

game platforms like OUYA like they did at E3 2013. It was kinda beneath E3 organizers to

put up a 50 feet trailer on the Hooters parking lot on Figueroa & Olympic to block a clear

view of OYUAs off-site E3 Expo party/DJ booth/OYUA demo. Peter needs to be able to

make even an E3 not fear a Kickstarter driven company like OYUA and embrace them as

another new gaming opportunity for the city. And I expect #LAGC 2015 to be even better.



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Poolside Reception - Hosted By Fiksu -Tropicana Pool:



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#LAGC 2014 Sponsors & Media Partners:


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