Impressions from Big Dream Fest
Last week, I attended the Big Dream Fest - a game development festival organized by the Higher School of Economics. I must say, this was not the first festival held under the auspices of one of the higher educational institutions in Moscow.
Recently, the gaming industry has received a considerable amount of attention from the government and central media, which means funding as well. However, the financial situation is not so straightforward — the infrastructure for the production and support of studios is still in its infancy, experienced teams with recognized projects are few and far between, and this means that investors have limited opportunities to assess risks. So, while there are plenty of newcomers with sparkling eyes, those willing (and able) to take on serious projects with significant budgets turn out to be quite rare.
That’s why many institutions related to IT are, on one hand, trying to keep up with the times by opening specialties in game development, and on the other hand, trying to attract attention to these specialties, so that someone would actually want to get an education in this field and be able to apply it in practice later. Events like Big Dream Fest serve both of these functions (as well as some others).
As for the games, the projects at the festival were mostly from the finalists of the National Technological Olympiad. The NTO includes a variety of different tracks from medicine and space to IT and architecture. Accordingly, at Dream Big Fest there was an awards ceremony for the winners competing in the profile of "Computer Game Development," and the Olympiad participants could showcase their work to their potential audience.
Interestingly, game development was not the only NTO track presented at the event. There was also a whole booth with drones, where interested participants could take control of a miniature flying device. However, flights were confined to a cage so that inexperienced operators wouldn’t fly off course.
There were also several booths with "full immersion" driving simulators, but I had already seen such at "Igroprom," "Red," and similar festivals. Well, the representations of the various faculties of HSE didn’t particularly interest me, although I did take a couple of flyers from their booths.
However, the main focus of my attention became the speeches of the speakers, which took place on three venues — the main stage, pitching stage, and the future laboratory. It’s amusing that the pitching stage was located in a separate room, while the "future laboratory" was, on the contrary, nothing more than a stage organized in a corner of an ordinary corridor.
However, it was on the “laboratory” stage that the most interesting speeches occurred. Initially, the co-founder of the studio "Smola" (the one that released "Russians against Lizards," and is currently working on "MurZavod") Daniil Kosachev talked about the main mistakes that novice developers make. But what was interesting was not this, but the subsequent free communication with answers to audience questions. And it was here that some less obvious aspects became clear compared to basic discussions.
For example, although Daniil initially said that one should start their journey in game development not with indie development, but with working at a proper company, it turned out that to get into a company, you first need to build a "portfolio" of your own projects. So in reality, the path is this: first, you are an indie novice, making projects or even assets to create your reputation, develop your style, and gain experience; then you get hired by a company not only to understand the development processes more deeply, gain new experience, but also to learn how a team operates and coordinates actions; and only at the third stage do you return to the indie sector to create your dream project, which (thanks to the knowledge and connections you have gained in the industry) you finally have a chance to see through. Yes, the phrase about "developing your own style" was not mentioned by chance — according to Kosachev, he would just scroll through candidate lists looking for those with typical portfolios, but he was ready to hire someone who was less trained but doing something original. And in general, if you have learned to do something unusual that no one else does, you will be able to get a job when someone needs exactly what you create. In contrast, the chances of receiving standard job requests are significantly lower due to high supply.
Also amusing was the master class "Breaking Game Design," where the audience was invited to think about how to update and reinterpret ideas for shooters. Not that they came up with anything extraordinary, but the exercise of breaking down a game into separate mechanics and trying to change one of them in an unusual way is worth noting for game designers. I also enjoyed the lecture on how to convey your "vision" to team members, audiences, and of course, investors.
Lastly, I want to mention one of the presentations held in the pitching zone. "Easy Start in Game Development: Games on Web" was essentially a promotion of the GamePush service, which offers developers distribution, porting, and operation of browser games across all popular platforms for such games. Despite its promotional nature, the presentation included quite a bit of specific information on which genres and approaches in this category of games are currently worth paying attention to and why. Plus, at the end, there was a Q&A section where additional questions about web games could be clarified.
So, that’s about it. Essentially, there was also a sector from "Lesta," where you could play "World of Ships," "World of Tanks," or Tanks Blitz. But one can generally do that at home. There was also a couple of lotteries, one of which had… instant noodles in a box branded with the game "Saturn." A kind of "space noodle" reminiscent of breakfast for astronauts.
Overall, as an event to attract youth to game development, Dream Big Fest is, in my opinion, quite good. And the winners of the NTO were surely pleased that a separate fest was arranged for them, where they could also showcase their projects to a larger audience. But for others — ordinary players seeking entertainment, or developers already established in game development — it’s not so straightforward. I wouldn’t say there’s nothing interesting and useful at all, but spending an entire day for a few worthwhile moments is not quite an adequate use of time unless you are someone who lives or just happened to be nearby that day. Then it’s worth dropping by. Also, for students, such an event also adds variety to their academic routine.