Chats and Games at Hull Tech Sessions

Hull Tech Sessions are wonderful. They come round four times a year or so, and tonight (thanks to Ross reminding me) I went along. Anthony Main started things off by talking about “Chat - the New Product Channel”. They say that “In the future we we won’t need roads”. Anthony explained why in the future we might not need apps either. Apps are hard to write, expensive to keep going and users don’t like having to install them. If you need to communicate with users, why not just chat to them? Anthony showed off some neat technology that lets you build interactive systems, you can find out more about what his company does here.

Then it was the turn of Simon Grey to talk about “Reflections on 30 Years of Games and Technology”. This was a potted history of game development, a peek at where it might be going and a whole bunch of game titles that had input from graduates of Hull University. We even had “game title bingo”. Simon finished with some thoughts on why you should even think about going into the game development industry at a time when artificial intelligence is supposed to taking over.

Simon made the point that while things are pretty tough in the industry at the moment there are lots of opportunities for building expertise which you can make available as a service to game makers. Lots of small firms earn a good living making niche game elements. Look closely at the credits for any triple A game and you will find a whole bunch of components for things like combat mechanics which are bought in from specialist suppliers. You can be part of a game without having to become a game publisher. AI will find a place in the business, but it will always need people who know what they are doing as well.

It was a great evening. I was so busy taking notes and chatting (actually mainly chatting) that I didn’t get around to taking any pictures. I should take the photos first, and then start talking. Keep an eye on Tech Sessions. They are well worth the trip and they have free food.