There is a gaming industry in Israel!

Yesterday I went to GameIS, which is probably the closest thing to GDC in Israel.
To tell you the truth I expected a lot less, but got a lot more.

I can now honestly say, that there is a gaming industry in Israel, which is great.
Although, it's still a grassroots movement, but a movement nonetheless.

The lectures themselves were worth the trip, most of them were interesting and informative.
The lecture given by the CEO of Funtactix, was definitely inspiring, it's great to see somebody so excited about the gaming industry in Israel, and about Israel in general.
I just hope he doesn't get let down by our small country, because it can do that to a man :)

The lecture given by the co-founder of Invasion Interactive, was probably the closest thing to a GDC-like lecture, which I've heard so much times before in GDC/E3/DICE online lectures.
Which is quite obvious, since they were the AAA title representatives in that conference.
The greatest thing about it was that it was in Hebrew, which was pretty cool, in my opinion.

A lot of the other lectures were about casual gaming, and it growth in Israel.
Not that interesting to me, specifically, but informative nonetheless.

Other really interesting lectures and talks, were about designing games and why people like games, in the psychological aspect of things.
Maybe a bit too scientific, but there were definitely some things there I haven't really payed attention too, when I was looking at games or playing them or trying to make them.
Some of the points that were brought up in those lectures, I will keep in mind when designing/playing/programming my games.

Anyway, to sum up my experience in the conference, I can say it was a great experience, the community itself, Israeli game developers, seems like a great community to be a part of.
And I wish success to all the people that were there, and I also hope I can contribute to the effort.

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