EGX 2015 (CGA Year Two)

I was extremely lucky this year as I was able to attend EGX 2015 with a small group of classmates.

We arrived at roughly 10:30am after travelling for 3 hours. The very first thing We did is play Total War: Warhammer. Whilst playing I got chatting to a guy called Henry from Creative Assembly. He pointed us in the direction of Creative Assemblies Careers Fair booth. We headed over and spoke with experienced animators, coders, concept and environment artists; all of which provided us with valuable advice on how to build a portfolio and improve upon our work. We spent the best part of an hour talking with them.

We continued to walk around surrounded by Gamer's, Press, Cos Players, Indy Developers and Triple A Game Devs; I tried to soak up as much advice as I could from multiple sources. And look at what games are up and coming. I was amazed at Star Wars Battlefront. It looks incredible and I cannot wait to get hands on and play when the beta comes out. For Me personally that's my number one upcoming game of 2015.

Other games such as Tom Clancy's: Rainbow Six Siege, Tom Clancy's: The Division, Assassins Creed Syndicate, Just Cause 3, Hitman, Deus Ex, Forza Motorsport 6 and Fifa 16 were all on display.

DLC for already existing games was also on show, such as; Destiny: The Taken King. And Elite Dangerous: Horizon's.

Multiple games were on show new and old. Old consoles such as N64's and Sega Mega Drives were plugged in and ready to play. I was surprised to see lines upon lines of people queuing to play these now dated consoles. I suppose its the nostalgia hit You get from playing old games that created these queues. This could be why companies have recently taken to remastering their old games. Gears of War 1, Halo Franchise, The Last of Us and Tomb Raider have all recently been given a face lift and remastered. Each of these remastered versions have sold very well.

One of the highlights of the day for Me was attending Mike Bithell's (Creator of Thomas was Alone and Volume) 30 minute Q&A session during a developer conference. Listening to him talk about making and developing Indy Games was both inspiring and eye opening. 

It was interesting to hear members of the audience ask Mike questions. It answered questions for Me that I didn't even know needed answering.

All in all I had an absolutely incredible day. The biggest single thing that this day did for Me actually didn't have anything to do with the games on show. Or the developers. It was My own passion for games, it was renewed after visiting EGX. 

Making and studying games does to some degree dull down your passion for them, visiting EGX made Me fall back in love with games and inspired Me to try harder in both My coursework, and in the games I play.