I went to the CMF’s 2018 Consultation Tour event in St. John’s this morning, and I was impressed. The representatives had a prepared presentation with a ton of information regarding both media in Canada and their specific role, as well as how that role is change. They were also extremely receptive to feedback from everyone, including those of us in attendance focused on  game development.

I was encouraged to hear that they are actively working to include more diverse voices, and that they’re aware that there are many ways to achieve diversity in a project. Their challenge is to balance those factors in a meaningful way.

I was also glad to hear that the CMF want to ensure there is room in their programming for small projects as well as larger ones. I explained our ecosystem of many small studios as best I can, and others expanded on that at several points in the conversation.

One of the themes that I tried to focus on this morning was sector development. The presenters already had this on their slides for the Convergent stream, and there was a discussion about ways that also applies to the Experimental stream. We had a good discussion about how to incentivize programming that brings new people into the industry. In particular I suggested that they should look at ways to encourage studios to help new game developers get concrete credits that will help them move upwards in their career.

One small note of concern about this morning’s event is that there were not a lot of people in attendance. I believe there were a total of 6 people in the room besides the representatives. Given the constructive dialogue  this morning, I’m surprised at the low turnout. Hopefully we can build that presence in years to come.