GO3 07 - Wrap Up

Posted By: Nic Fillingham | Apr 11th, 2007 @ 12:51 AM

Well my first trip to Perth was a beauty.

Hung out with Hideo Kojima (see below), Tetsuya Mizuguchi, Masaya Matsuura, Rod Fergusson and many other luminaries from the gaming industry which was both awesome and humbling.

Since I was speaking at the conference I had an opportunity to meet with most of the other presenters and chat with them about the gaming industry, where they were heading with their current and future projects, their thoughts on Microsoft and what they thought of Australia as both a holiday destination and an international video gaming market.

I was organised enough to have my camera handy when catching up with Rod Fergusson and Mizuguchi-san and therefore video evidence of both encounters exists. For Kojima-san and Matsuura-san though I didn't have my camera with me but I was made privy to so many awesome secrets that I wouldn't have been able to blog about them on10 anyway ;P

For those of you who were unable to make it to GO3 here's a quick wrap up of (just some of) what went down

Rod Fergusson spoke about the importance of building a franchise. Case in point: Gears of War.
Luke from Kotaku was live blogging and caught up with Rod for an 1:1 afterwards
Bennett from IGN also sat down with Rod for an interview
Check out my video interview with Rod here for the scoop on the REAL inspiration behind GoW

Hideo Kojima gave us some insight into the history of the Metal Gear series and how both the limitations and advances in gaming hardware over time helped shape the direction of Solid Snake. We didn't see any new MGS4 footage unfortunately but it was great to hear Kojima-san walk through the design processes he and his development teams have gone through over the past 20 years.
Kotaku grabbed an interview with Kojima-san here and live blogged the presentation here

Tetsuya Mizuguchi presented on his experiences in the gaming industry and the challenges associated with turning inspiration and creative ideas into fun, interactive entertainment.
Kotaku live blogging coverage here
I managed to grab a 5 minute video interview with Mizuguchi-san out the front of his hotel which was great for lighting but terrible for audio - you've been warned.

Masaya Matsuura spoke about the importance of music in games and how music and audio can and should be used in game design. This was a fascinating session however my translation earpiece device was on the fritz so I didn't quite catch everything.
Kotaku have a brief overview from Matsuura-san's presentation here

Unfortunately I wasn't able to make Goichi Suda's session but Kotaku was there live-blogging and caught up with Suda-san for an interview on Killer 7, No More Heroes and much more.

For now here's some more photos of me with Mizuguchi-san, Kojima-san and Rod Fergusson. Rod and I found a bar in Perth called the 'EPICBAR' which we took as an omen and so used as a back drop for our self portrait. Not the most flattering of angles but I don't look much better either,.. ha!! me so funnie!!