Edinburgh Interactive Festival

I'm attending the Edinburgh Interactive Festival today, which is being held in the International Conference Centre.

It's been a fascinating day that has helped me understand the computer games industry, which is a £50 billion industry. Of particular interest was trends in the games industry that include growth of gambling and collaborative games, huge increase in online games as the Internet becomes ubiquitous, location-based games that use your current location as an intrinsic part of the game, and new types of game that mix gaming with reality (Alternative Reality Games). The key message from today is: the future of gaming/entertainment is social i.e. games that involve lots of people and maybe mix the virtual with the real.

I'm currently involved in two related developments: the on-going HND Interactive Media development and the about to commence HND Computer Games Development. Today has been a big help to my understanding of the computer games industry... and how hugely important that industry is going to become in the next decade.