2018's first EGX conference was held in the beautiful capital, London. I attended day 2 of the 3 day event, and boy was there stuff to see.
THE INDIES' LAIR
I spent most of my time in the Indie section, trying out all the new and revolutionary concepts, there were many great ideas budding with some great potential.
One of my favourites was the game 'Bushy Tail', a choice driven illustrated narrative game with really cool voice acting and nice visuals. In the demo, you play as a little fox, trying to find his parents and getting into all sorts of trouble. The narrators make the story up as you go, and they mould it based on your choices throughout the game. The game world follows these changes really closely, to the point where you can see 'the forest' grow out of the ground around you, or 'the labyrinth he stumbled upon' form from the trees of the forest.
I admired the idea and how they implemented it, so it's most likely a game I'll buy once it comes out.
Another game that tickled my fancy was 'The Sinking City', an open world investigation game sent in the 1920s Massachusetts, New England. The town in question has been subjected to enormous floods most likely of supernatural origins; you as the detective are responsible for solving the mystery behind this.
I immediately fell in love with the visuals of the game and the somewhat unnatural setting. Don't believe me? See for yourself:
Last, but not least, a truly small indie game: Like Roots In The Soil; a narrative game that uses a really cool mechanic to tell two stories in two different eras simultaneously. The screen is divided into halves and each half represents a different time period, a different story. This on its own would not be that exciting, however you can look around in both worlds by rotating the camera, subsequently revealing little details in either to further improve the story. Here is a little .gif to show it off:
THE DEV STAGE
Another big part of my day at EGX was listening to industry experts on the dev stage.
Phoenix Point
I had the chance to talk to industry genius, father of XCOM Julian Gollop again, and listen to him reveal the newest improvements in his new game 'Phoenix Point', an XCOM style turn based strategy game.
Thrones of Britannia
Up next was one of the biggest title in the strategy game scene, Total War, with the new Total War Saga: Thrones of Britannia. I watched their real time demo and developer commentary on the major changes to this newest Total War game, and how these affected the game play, and more importantly (to me at least), the development of the game.
THE FUTURE SHOP
In between browsing indie games and soaking up developer advice, I managed to stumble upon the in house careers fair, with many of the regions universities offering courses and post-grad diploma programs, and industry giants, such as Creative Assembly giving helpful tips and hints on portfolios and CVs alike. I have gained a useful insight to the mind of the recruiter and CEO, and am currently working on incorporating the advice they gave me to my employability skills.