trickysheep

We attended the 2008 X|Media Lab in Wellington at the end of May, held at the awesome Te Papa. The Lab had two parts. The Keynote day was attended by anyone interested in hearing digital media veterans discuss the challenge of taking ideas and commercialize them into sustainable businesses, with a focus on export. The second part of the conference was a two day “Lab” where selected companies brought their in-development projects and business ideas to the speakers from the previous day, in one-on-one mentoring sessions.

Trickysheep was chosen to attend the Lab from a pool of over 60 applicants. We focused our questions on our unique brand as a developer of responsible/positive games and the business of gaming. We also spoke to people about our multiplayer game server for mobile phones.

The connections formed at the conference have added the most concrete value to our company. Hanging out with other Lab participants over the long weekend was great, and we have become closer as local industry through the experience.

The inspiration of the lectures gave us a lot to think about and get excited by. Some insight we found valuable was Chris Deering’s various projections of the huge future for mobile devices. The growth of the platform is astounding, and will only continue. Advertising on the platform will continue to grow, so there will a big demand for creative work from people who know how to maximize the unique potential of a device that knows who you are and where you are, all the time. Also interesting was the insight that the “gaming generation” are becoming parents, and they are demanding social responsible gaming for their children, an area that Trickysheep has focused on. There were also some good war stories from several speakers about the challenges of growing a creative company, and preparing to take such a business to the global market.

The advice we gained from the individual mentor sessions was for the most part quite helpful. It was difficult to introduce all issues and background for every question we had in a short session that often moved on to very interesting tangents. Hugh Mason helped us identify the unique and most appealing aspects of the Trickysheep brand (universal appeal, safe, fun, quirkiness) and how we could leverage that for areas even outside of gaming.

Noah Falstein gave great advice about the art of game design, and the challenge of organizing a business around a sometimes unpredictable creative process. He also pointed out that our brand and skills would work well in the industry of serious games and social issues games, and area that we followed up on a session with Chris Adams. Chris has lots of experience with social issues groups, and suggested several ways we’d be able to leverage our skills, and gave us contacts to help us explore that area. Sean Kauppinen also had tons of great contacts for us, and advice on how to focus our brand. He has an encyclopedic knowledge of the game industry, and pointed out several key competitors, success stories and possible partners for us to follow up with. Xin Chung gave helpful advice about standing out on the world stage by making the most of our unique position as developers of positive games from tiny New Zealand, whose green image and natural beauty inspires the global imagination.

Overall, the conference was a very positive experience and we would definitely consider participating in future events with this format and quality content.