Colombia 4.0 Conference | Video Games Conference Day in the Life

morning everybody's got 5 a.m. here and getting ready to head out for the Columbia for a conference and excited for for this conference I'm gonna be there from T leaving today which is Tuesday through Friday so almost the full week and I went two years ago and spoke there and it was a really fantastic conference so excited to head out catch you later [Music] drive in Houston Texas winning from our layover to Bogota it's an airport order food lounge tables here work

it hooks on chilling out here at the Centurion lounge Houston preparing for my talk there I am making the game so it looks like my presentation will be tomorrow at 10 a.m. yeah the talk I'm gonna give is is about how to operate in this new world that we live in where there's a lot of key trends that are praying in the world and based on these trends what is that impact on how we live and work and start companies and I'll build the influence and things of that nature so hopefully I don't know it's a different talk for one that I the kind of talks that I've given before but hopefully it works out all right we arrived in Columbia [Music]

pretty nice you alright guys Columbia 4.0 it's it's go time today I'm going to give my presentation you can see the conference behind me but excited to give this talk here at this conference and hopefully hopefully it'll turn out ok 30,000 oh

yeah it's yeah it's really big because it's not just video games but it's also animation and music [Music] mr. proximal speaker is Joseph team and Joseph in his coma Saiga NBCUniversal is - botella de la música con hace mucho age' jack told me the sink went dry in Natasia poor empezar whistle prefers to do yoga I say so in contrast Astoria is

the different these days nacio lo que sera que makers in the dark of the urban area [Music] [Music] hey how's it going hey dude good very good can you tell us who you are and what you do I'm Mika Libya the VP of partnership that's super skill yeah it's okay I'm here to check out Columbia 4.0 yeah and we did an interview right back in GDC yeah it's good to see you again in what

why do you like Columbia 44.0 I think it's like uh Columbia is a very fast growing economy right now the fastest-growing economies in the country and it kind of like brings together the Latin American companies so it's not just games but I think it's kind of like slush of South America right so for me it's always interesting because if that's right it's just like kind of encompasses a lot of industries not just games I kind of like that okay okay has gone hey well good can you tell us who you are what you do yeah my name is Michael and cherish and I'm a direct LD way I broke a super-state okay what's what's that what's the secret to doing good you a [Laughter] that for at least two hours okay this is your first time to come yeah has it been so far I'm kind of tired okay but all you know ready good okay you mention the

nightlife so what did you do to one party yesterday all right kita see you I what you do hey Joseph hi I'm Reese dierckman I'm based out of Germany in Berlin I'm originally from the Netherlands and I am consulting in games on the business side okay I used to work for still games and flare games in Germany yeah guys look for quite a long time but yeah it's good to be here and what's your objective in coming to Columbia for data basically connecting more to the Latin American game developer community I haven't been here before so and I've been flying around the world to meet developers but it's good to expand also the networking and let them and see what's going on here and then see what yeah what what the studios are looking for and see if there are some businesses as well so thank you oh pretty good

could you talk a little bit about the company you were for and what you do we are not the Dryden were or Aging's we're consulting agency yeah so we help the will pursue those made a better games better beaches well they're my good connections or publishing investment on the work-for-hire right and you're located here in Columbia yes I'm the Colombian part of the company - it's most of Latin America on war-club with other hey guys I'm here with Martin huntin can you tell us a little bit about who you are and the company that you work for sigh Martin from Nouveau giant entertainment we our studio has been around for almost 20 years a scene where no sellers Argentina we do mostly a piece young console games okay shooters and the malls the strategy games and what's the main project that you're working on right now right now is quantum leap it's a competitive one be

one shooter arena huh we Time Trial mechanic and when is that going to be released is going to be released generally in 2020 all right awesome we'll be like doctor thank you thanks everybody quick intermission before we go back to the conference but you know up to this point you've had a chance to meet with some of the other speakers at the conference but after that you'll actually be able to hear from some of the local game development studios and hear kind of what they're working on so with them you'll also be able to not only hear about what they're working on but you'll also see a few game demos and some game concept pitches as well in addition I want to share three perceptions that I wanted to share with you and for you to potentially keep in mind as we meet with some of these local game studios first the Colombian video games industry is still early is still developing but it's actually developing in a quite quite fast pace and I believe the reason why is that the spirit and the energy of the community here is

actually extremely positive and so there is definitely more of feeling of collaboration relative to competition and a lot of the studios meet together and and share a lot of information with each other and so the first perception is essentially that you know while still early I do believe that Colombia is gaining very quickly especially given the strength of their community here the second perception I have has to do with the strength of the art capability here in Colombia I believe there's something that has to do with the culture or something with the the country and maybe it's all of Latin America but clearly when it comes to art capability that's actually extremely strong you'll hear us talk about this issue with some of the local game studios as well but I certainly believe that that one of the key strengths here in Colombia and again I'm not sure about the other countries but potentially all of Latin America and finally it's interesting to note the similarities in terms of the business model of a lot of Game Studios here in Colombia and so you

know I mentioned that our capability is quite strong but if you look at a lot of that video game companies here you know I would say even 90% of the studios that develops generally start from a services business and typically from an art services business where they are developing art on a work-for-hire basis generally for companies outside of of Colombia and then as they start to build cash into the company then they then start bringing in development capability of them from there start to work on their own internal games and generally that shift is you know starts with maybe all work for hire then they'll start working on their own games and start go 50/50 and then some of them if they're successful enough will then just fully shift into an independent game studio and focus on that finally make sure you hang on to check out some of the Colombian nightlife I think you'll find that pretty interesting especially the flaming shot that appears later in this video coming up so stay tuned hi son Vega I'm a senior technical artist roster games I came here a couple years ago

because I want them to see like I'm really into secret so I'm a organizer for the animation portion and I came here all those years back and thought it was great and he came up with my friend who pulled me about I was going with the video game industry here and they want to have a bless from Colombia to come definitely yes and what did you talk about in your talk so today we can spoke about like what it's like to get into the industry basically yeah especially from a Columbia to the outside world comes like this like what do you have to do to make it outside and what has been the secret of Rockstar success making money Thank You Jacob what brought you to Columbia well first of all who are you what do you do and what brought you to Columbia for not oh I am the program director of Modi game the Lord Lord game conference and also the no D game discovery contest the conference is the largest one in Europe and we are celebrating our 16

years anniversary next May I've been invited here to talk about what we I call the Nordic games industry wonder I was part of a government initiative back in 2004 which were trying to establish a common Nordic games industry so instead of just being you know the Nordic countries by themselves we try to unify them and try to make a whole region know industry and that is what I'm talking about today thank you everyone this is a Barajas I'm a founder of the practice studios I'm part help in the studio to develop businesses in services but in IP and we mainly focus on a PC console development mostly content 3d art animation concept part yeah this is

right and some of your some of the work that you guys have done for example or can you talk about some of the other projects that you guys have worked on previous arc or after arc we were involved in other projects like dark and light that was a really big massive project from China other project that we used to help it was Atlas the project after arc and we helped to generate a lot of content for after launching arc like DLC is a several stuff I'm now currently working with the Square Enix working with Buncombe with I mean other like big big studios where we just had a conversation about you know why is it that in Columbia you have access to really great artists so what is it so maybe you could talk to us a little bit about why you think artists are so good here in Columbia relative to other disciplines

well this interesting thought we were wondering a previous this video but I think one of the most important part is being aligned it culturally with North America I mean we we watch all the TV shows from from North America all the Hollywood movies so all the cultural alignment with us with North American consumers is really easy for us to understand it but at the same time our context as a Columbia is very different as a an average American so so I think one of the the most important skills for a designer is being flexible is trying to push the borders of the of the design to find new ways to express that feelings or that art or that 3d model so all the artists that you used to find here are trying to to cross that border to not be the average our 3d model is

trying to find new ways to express that so thanks to that and to this alignment culturally helps these guys to have a better skills and not just technical skills [Music] [Music]

hey guys and that's a wrap for day one here at Columbia 4.0 well actually day two really sensitive one was travel here and but you know I kind of realized so I flew in last night gave my talk this morning and I'm here till Saturday so

looks like I'm gonna gonna hang out for a couple more days well I mean I'm sure I can work and find other good uses my time the app I try and meet with a few other game studios here and and yeah enjoy my time left here in Bogota Colombia night hey guys colombia 4.0 day two and one thing I didn't mentioned yesterday is that when in Colombia you gotta pick up some coffee so I've got some red Mina's coffee buy from a VARs farm the CEO of efecto and another coffee brand that he recommended that he thinks is really good anyway start of day two today basically just going to meet with a few local video game companies here and see if there's in a way I can help them out or we could potentially partner in some way all right let's go we are initially

games we are a little bourbon from Cali sent you here in Colombia crap we work mainly mobile games we are promoting with Ames like after an error system sorry Celestion and right now we are working in an animal fury in half for PC and Mobile it's missing in development ok liquidate great and I could could you introduce me to the shoe Jorge great to meet you I am part of the animation okay we have we have been also working in some conferences about the entrepreneur mint so we're working really hard in

innovating and trying to bring up the industry of video games yeah okay games working on three games the first annual animal theory which is almost completed development and then two games that are kind of in the concept based less tame and Earth resistance for a can you take us through each of the games kind of what you have yes so maybe it's starting okay well yeah so you guys also have our services this is some of the concept right that you guys have done right yeah okay yeah this is the resistance and animal food okay and maybe to be jump into some of the games well medieval noses like suppose because layers in this dunya and again you guys are looking for

funding for this game about 40,000 US dollars right yes very pleasant for Celestia this is a yes yes yeah the concept art is really really good it's a Celestia very nice those characters are awesome and then a feat what was the other game your sister earth resistance and you said this is a tower defense game yeah and for this game you are also looking for funding felicity nice yeah the concept art is very very good

[Music] [Music] [Music] alright guys ignition games thanks a lot my name is ah portobella yeah I'm an attorney and I work really close to video game studios here in Colombia and in South America so I represent them under publishing deals and their international contracts and basically help them on all their business around

the globe and you know trying to get deals and hearing economy 4.0 because I also work next to the government and regional government of the Atlantic oh right and we are also sponsoring or been our own version about Colombia for Queen OH in November 6 & 7 yeah and one of the other reasons I'm here is because I I'm also gonna be the moderator at a panel that's gonna talk about you know how to deal you know how local companies here in Colombia are dealing with their with their teams how to keep them motivated and stuff like that right in Hawaii you actually represent a lot of companies in South America and so if if if you're a South American company need legal advice those are the types of companies that should we try to contact you right yeah and then also because you know so many of the video games news in South America would you suggest that if people are interested in business development with companies in South America that they reach out to you and ask you for advice

on some of the better games you do to try and contact yeah for sure like one of the things that everybody has been doing here is it's a really solid community um like as a contra Colombia it's part of what's called the Federation which is basically a group that is that it's a it's all of the Federation's from from the other countries like Argentina Brazil different countries from Qatar Ephraim Central America right and we're all pretty aware of you know our strengths and you know which stood is doing what and we're pretty aware of you know how to point in the right direction if you're searching for business or for a particular studio to develop X or Y function or service okay thank you very much thank you from dreams incorporated could you tell us a little bit about your company who you are and then maybe the game project that you read out my name is Tsubasa majora I am the art director on a mission of crystals as the

game we are working on it's a very very amazing game is very beautiful I work on drinks on corporations I'm sick and dr. Han tomorrow I got a panel on the sea drop here in Bogota so I'm going to talk about the character design process generation versus steel and everything related to animation and artists conferencing and crystals has been getting a lot of publicity especially here in Latin America can you tell us a little bit more about the game um John a lot of publicity from the game is because it's like there are a lot of talent of people from here from Colombia and some people are talking about a lot of the game it's virtually very well people love the game a lot and yeah it's it's amazing to see how the people are

receiving to him in that kind of a beautiful way yeah [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] however one my name is Isaac I am from Barranquilla Colombia I'm the CEO of qeh an indie studio right now currently working on a narrative pain we are really special our direction with our that has this black and white no our cinema style and and I hope you guys find interesting and here is a video [Music]

[Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] okay and you lost your voice and why did you lose your voice because game

development is hard part acquires alright everybody I'm here with one and Oliver but once with indie level one they are a company working on to the ocean game projects including a female focus game a coding game and actually a pretty interesting VR project and Oliver you're here as a friend to help translate right yeah and so but the one game that we wanted to share to people is the VR game which is like a VR cooking game am i right yeah we're on COO scene okay yeah let's let's check it out so what the scene is about preparing food our place from all over the world where you besides preparing food you have to treat good to your customers because they better to treat them the more money you will get and you will be able to buy more stuff that you can use

to prepare even more food from another part of the world on things like that is as pcs a VR game squares oculus rift HTC vive is mostly finished is already very close to finish development stage mosquitos Thomas's constant em integrity garden mess flutter kick on the eternal you can take a minute okay yeah so that basically they want to keep supporting the game to add more and more plate so it can be a huge library with many options of plate above the world it says one so what is one looking for is he

looking for funding or for a publisher or for yeah he's looking for a publisher so okay alright so if anybody out there in YouTube land is interested in publishing this game I will leave Juan's contact information in the show notes thank you thanks guys thank you very much hey guys you guys because it's already 4:00 p.m. so I hope you have some energy left if you have them just place so today I'm going to talk about saucepan and my name is Mikey I change [Music] [Music]

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[Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] I work creating and composing music for video games with sound bits

I've been doing this for a long time creating music since I was lying here so [Music] right now project see which collaboration finder to make it introduced in this frame is fabulous in this way that is terrific that it's my my other passion and aside from - and that is a wrap for day three super it was really hard to network with local developers here when when you're at a really loud bar but you know I got to meet a few folks and then it just got a little too loud for me so I bailed out but anyway it was pretty cool and the flaming cocktail was actually pretty interesting so anyway all right into day to day

[Music] Hey are you doing milk it's a nice office right River River named Davi hey guys I'm here with Alejandra and Jairo from jam city book without you guys rebranded right we were branded okay awesome can you tell the audience you're a little bit boggy you guys aren't what you guys do sure a co-founder of brains knowledge MC Bogota and then we run the local studio here for MC yeah I'm Hiram Andros partner and co-founder of what used to be brains now gem city but I'm the creative director

here uh and yeah we we make games from bullets and we have a lot of fun doing it and maybe for the audience that don't know a lot about Columbia could you talk to us about a little bit about you know what's what's great about making games here in Bogota Colombia sure the game industry in Colombia is very drunk so I'd say that that a holiday eight years ago if you'd say and we may be the game spirit nobody would take your reward for it it's both quite a bit so community here is pretty cool some very interesting and talented developers and studios contain different kind of very generous and platforms and and indeed a for the most part I guess that it has similar challenges to any emerging market and just getting kind of a government universities to just work together about a very kind of cooperative and open kind of community yeah I definitely like Double Down how

you know cooperative the difference to us are we work very closely with you know with I would call everyone in the different studios or friends yeah because we we don't see ourselves as competition but more as you know if if everyone does well if you want as well all of us will start doing well and so we yeah we we like to help each other out whenever we can and I would also say that one of the things that has been interesting in Colombia and get local ecosystem is that it first was very centered around forward and it's now expanded to a lot of cities in Colombia the rest of the in the rest of the country so it's not just about what I'm making games pretty much although all those cities in Colombia are somehow involved it is and there are pretty beautiful games coming out like film and right so it's it's going on yeah I mean I have to totally agree with you guys the one thing that I noticed as

an outsider is just the positive energy right the cooperative spirit with it you know you guys and effect oh and television now you guys really try to build a community here and make it really positive but yeah that's that's been really cool about Colombia well III think this helped us ich and shortened the distances like a we started pretty late in the game of making games to be redundant but I think that that cooperation and kind of gives openness and and being able to rely kind of in one another and share and it has been like just sharing have been major I'm pretty positive overall all right cool thanks guys thank you thank you I am leaving early tomorrow morning it's about 1 or 2 a.m. right now so I'll probably sleep for about four hours three or four hours and then I head over to the airport so yeah wrap it up the trip it's up it's four am thinking for the airport

hey guys it's 409 a.m. at the airport the hotel woke me up at 3:30 so I probably slept anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour and a half but at least I'm headed home all right [ __ ] there's a long ass you wait United Airlines thanks whatever well touch down in Houston looks like I got six hours to kill in this crazy-ass layover but looks like I'll probably just hit the century in the head you get some more gun [Music]

alright guys that's a wrap for Colombia five a day I arrived at San Jose and heading home now [Applause] [Music]

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