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J. Isaac Gadient

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Madison, Wisconsin: An hour west of Milwaukee and half its size; two hours west of Chicago and a tenth its size. But Madison does boast one feature (in addition to the best cheese curds in the world): A robust local game development scene. To name a few studios: Raven Software, Respawn, PUBG, Filament Games, and Lost Boys Interactive.

Ben Kvalo (CEO of Midwest Games, formerly Lead Program Manager of Games at Netflix) has stepped up this year as the new Board President of the Wisconsin Games Alliance (WGA). Kvalo brings new energy and a new approach to the Midwest’s largest video game industry-focused event. 

Most significantly, the “show”, as Kvalo called it all weekend, is now two (2) days long instead of just the one as it always had been. MDEV25 took place on November 7-8 at the Alliant Energy Center here in Madison, WI. There was a kickoff social the night before as well that had some talks and drinks—a bit of a “red carpet” style event. Some folks dressed up in formalwear, others wore casual attire, and others still came in full cosplay! The celebratory preconference set the inclusive tone of the weekend.

The conference had no trouble expanding to fill two days of content—there were loads of amazing talks by developers, keynote speakers, and indie games on display at the showcase. The opening talk by Gordon Bellamy (Gay Gaming Professionals, Designer on the original Madden games) was dense in the best way. Bellamy dropped so many nuggets of wisdom in this single talk that I could barely keep up with writing them down in my notebook. One gem I was able to capture was that “Wisdom compounds when we honor where we come from.” This got me to stop thinking, “Why is this guy from D.C. who lives in California speaking at a conference in and about the midwest?” I felt invited to feel enough where I was—indie and in-between the coasts. He told us: “You don’t need permission from anyone to do this.”

The most profound moment of Bellamy’s keynote was when he asked the entire MDEV crowd to get out their phones, open up LinkedIn, and hand their smartphones to someone next to them from another state. Some folks of course were reluctant to do so, but the energy in the room was buzzing. I met two new people, one of whom I spent some nice time with during the conference: A fellow writer, all the way from Arizona, who was able to attend thanks to a gifted pass from Amir Satvat’s Gaming Community.

The other keynote speaker, Chris Melissinos, mused that web-based gaming could be the future of our industry thanks to HTML5. Instead of purchasing more consoles, we could all use the hardware we already have: Our computers, TVs, and smartphones. In addition to discussing the future, he talked about the past (he is, after all, a video game archivist), and brought out onstage one of the original PONG motherboards, which honestly impressed me more than I would have guessed. Neat to be in the same room with such a material piece of game development history.

As a narrative designer myself, I was delighted there were several talks on writing. Quinn Elmer (previously Lost Boys Interactive and The Initiative) finished his trilogy on The StorytellingToolkit with adroitness and aplomb. He even put on his (metaphorical) turtle neck to get scholarly and technical with us.

The focus for this third and final installation of The Storytelling Toolkit was on implementation. Elmer used Unreal Engine’s Blueprints as an example, since that’s what he used when he was working on the cancelled Perfect Dark reboot and suggested Lua as a relatively simple programming language that narrative designers could learn that would teach applicable skills for scripting in whatever languages and tools studios may have them use.

Perhaps the most interesting talk I caught was a panel of folks who brought to life the game Powwow Bound: A Menominee Homecoming, a narrative adventure created by a partnership between 

Nebraska Public Media and PBS Wisconsin. The Game Designer Jacob Schwitzer and Writer Justin Eagle Gauthier were on the panel and discussed the deep cultural importance of representing a contemporary Native experience with respect and authenticity.

To catch more excellent words from all of these keynote speakers, keep your eyes peeled: This will be the first year since the first MDEV that all the talks will be uploaded to YouTube. Keep a look out for WGA getting those edited and posted (I assume sometime early next year).

I didn’t delve deeply into the indie games showcase because—good problem to have—I had so many friends at the conference! I got to enjoy friends old and new from Chicago; I had impromptu meetings with devs I’d been connected with on LinkedIn; I got to see some local Madison gamedevs that I don’t often see the rest of the year; and I was able to speak with some of the presenters whose talks inspired me.

The game I did spend the most time with was Midwest Goodbye. The devs were kind and excited, and explained that the title was chosen from many adjectives and nouns on a whiteboard, and they had to build something that it evoked for them, jam-style. The combination of 2D hand-illustrated characters and 3D environments was fun and inviting. The setting and premise of the story was pleasant—I’m a sucker for slice-of-life games. 

As a former marketing volunteer for WGA, I can say objectively that the best thing the team did for promoting MDEV2026 was to put on a truly amazing MDEV2025. This year was exciting and cozy at the same time for me, and that’s all I ever want out of life. Some familiarity, some freshness; learning and sharing; having fun and getting down to business. I’m hopeful for the Midwest as a haven for gamedevs.

DISCLOSURE: The author of this article volunteered from April to October as a member of the marketing committee for the WGA.

P.S. There was a really lovely talk, “The Freelancing Life,” by author and game designer Matt Forbeck that bookended my MDEV experience.

(PICTURED: Just so everyone knows the kind of badass you’re dealing with when Matt Forbeck gives a talk…He yapped in front of this projection of his nonexistent powerpoint. Almost an hour of freestyling on freelancing.)

Matt’s awesome talk didn’t make it into my main piece, but these most gilded nuggets are too good to not impart!

TO SURVIVE THE FREELANCING LIFE:
1) Set up an S Corp for tax purposes.
2) Diversify your income streams; even in different industries.
3) If you want to tell stories with your writing, you have to learn to talk to people first.
4) ALWAYS ask for more money.
5) Explain WHY they should pay you more money.
6) Cut your expenses.
7) Read every contract is if it were written by your WORST ENEMY.
8) NEVER agree to any job “paid upon publication.”

and this trinity:
A) Don’t be a jerk;
B) Show up on time;
and C) Do what you say you’ll do.

Babette Norton

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Vancouver is one of Canada’s great media hubs; home to a majority of the animation and film industry, Vancouver also boasts a massive chunk of the games industry as well.

This weekend was the XP Biz & SIGNALS joint event in the heart of the city. In two different downtown venues, October 3rd and 4th featured a true celebration of games, XR/VR, and tech as a whole.

Once again, I was lucky enough to have been given an all access pass courtesy of Amir Satvat (wonderful human – go check him out!!). This time however, the event was a little further from home, and I took the 5 hour flight down to network and talk about my experiences in the industry.
There were a lot of familiar faces – Simply Sweet Games showcased Criss Cross Castle again at the event following their soft launch, INSERT COIN did several talks throughout the first day, and

Then there was all the excitement of the new faces and studios I got the chance to meet. I loved Buffalo Buffalo’s game FRESH TRACKS, a VR and non-VR friendly rhythm game where you ski alongside the tracks to help the gods. MONSTERHEARTS: Welcome to Drowned Lake scratched a narrative itch I had been having, and the unique artstyle captured me immediately.

Outside of games, there were also some awesome set-ups and interactive media projects on display. Binga! Brands had this super cool AR toy collectible that I loved interacting with, and the project came so much from the heart that it was awesome to see. There were movie-esque projects too, like the Lily Project setup which retold a more modern surveillance-heavy story from Iran with a focus on Lady Macbeth.

I think one of the bigger questions folks may have is “Is this worth attending”? As it’s known, a lot of events in the industry that are B2B have a bit of a steeper price point – one that’s not always accessible for those searching for or out of work.

All in all, I’d say within Canada XP Gaming’s events are not just top notch, but also extremely well known by the industry. Big names like Riot Games, Serenity Forge, and lots of veterans from groups like EA and Ubisoft come to these events, and especially as an entry level searcher, these events are critical in making connections within the industry. Even if you don’t land a contract at the event, you are sure to meet people who you will connect with along your gamedev journey.

Another important topic of this is that these tickets are more accessible than ever. Giveaways through Amir Satvat’s Community on LinkedIn are constant; it’s how I had all 4 of my attended events comped. Outside of that, schools often have discounts or are able to partial pay for tickets, allowing you to get them at a significant discount.

MIGS is the next big event; one I went to about a year ago (and my first ever game event in Canada)! I hope to continue seeing faces and admiring how everyone pushes this industry to be smarter, more inventive, and more accessible.

Franco E. Pacho

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Recently, I’ve been thinking about portfolios, more specifically on how we build one. Since I am in the process of updating my writing portfolio. 

By now, if you are aiming to work at the gaming industry you must have heard (and read, even here at ENTRY LVL) some advice to build your portfolio or perhaps attended Portfolio Reviews. If not…, do it. RIGHT NOW. 

The most common advice you get is “Show your best pieces”, “Work in various pieces as a unified project”, and “Show complete breakdowns”.

Usually, the resume of the advice is “you must present a detailed version of what you can do while aligning what you are showcasing with the expected work of where you want to apply”, so you get more hits than misses; that and a good amount of luck. 

And this is all advice that many can understand when it comes down to Art portfolios, since this is where the portfolio idea mostly comes from. Animation, Concept Art, also applicable to 3D. 

But this does not translate well to some other Game Dev disciplines. 

I approached my Narrative portfolio with this mentality. I wrote an interesting character, their Bio, their mechanics and how the player interacts with them, wrote barks and some dialogue. And then when I received feedback for it, I was hit with “This would be an automatic failure for any writer test you do”. 

The reason: This character did not consider the limitations of systems and game design needs. This character spoke like this: “I/We are pleased with your help/service”. They told me this would be confusing, and if there were the plans for this character to have voice over, there would be complications on how to approach it for voice acting.  

So, I had to dial the complexity back, rethink how the character I have already designed and rethink their voice. Same thing with the place where the player would encounter them. This was new to hear for a portfolio.  

Not do you most complex pieces? Think of your budget? 

When it comes to Design at least for Game, Narrative, Level, I learned a new advice for portfolio. Show you clearly know how “games work”. 

1.Be mindful of UI  

…like the number of words in each dialogue box or how you make a player clearly understand effects through clean and neat icons while traversing levels. 

2. Be mindful of UX 

The processing of information you give to each player, or how to dial up or down tutorials and pop ups so they don’t feel you are hand holding them, how you communicate this information. 

3. Technical budgets 

…since you can’t design epic pieces with crowds that would most likely crash your computer.  

Example of a pretty looking but not so functional portfolio (my old one) 

The breakdowns were completely different too, in Art portfolios, some notes and materials breakdowns with some timelines are great and explains the artist thought process when the art is done. 

Breakdowns on design must show what you are trying to convey to the player in real time. And a lot of the times a portfolio for design roles will have screenshots of the behind the scenes with explanations of why the decisions were taken, sometimes it feels wrong since putting literal excel sheets on with ramblings of a eloquent concise madman. 

I’m sharing this for anyone that has a great looking portfolio but with not-so-great explanation and thought process of the design choices taken. Try and look for points of your work when shows things a little too out for a budget you are aiming for things that shouts “Naughty Dog”, but you are applying to “We-are-3-people-and-a-dog” indie studio.  

Start thinking how to replace just great pieces with great pieces that have actual thought on the collaborative effort of games. Show you can work with someone to reduce the cost and time of making a game from 4 years… to 2 years. So that we collectively can retire the awful saying that “it’s a miracle that games are made”. It makes us look kind of incompetent, you know?