In less than two weeks we'll be in very midst of the video game industry's biggest event, the Electronic Entertainment Expo, aka E3. For big publishers, it's their time to shine, not just wow everyone with releases down the road, but to help accentuate said games with all manner of pomp and pageantry.
That last part, perhaps more than anything else, is why E3 is looked upon with such disdain. If it was just about the games, that would be one thing, but all the sideshow, carnival antics is what turns most people off.
There are two types of people who in said camp: consumers who know a little better, and who find promotional blitzes to be at best distracting and at worse disingenuous, plus game makers, in particular the little guys who cannot hope to compete on such a playing field, and as a result, whose games are often not noticed.
That's where HORIZON comes into play. The brainchild of game cultralist Brandon Boyer, best known for being the Chairman of GDC's Independant Games Festiva, along with MOCAtv, the digital extension of The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angles, it's being presented as an "the alternative press conference".
Boyer explains further:
"… the conference will present games from studios both small and large, and will showcase new looks at and details about some games you may have already heard of, as well as brand new games from some of your favorite developers, and very possibly some super secret new surprises that will be entirely unexpected."
Some of the participants for HORIZON have been revealed, and they include Double Fine (Psychonauts, Broken Age, and most recently Massive Chalice), Media Molecule (LittleBigPlanet, Tearaway), and CAPY (Critter Crunch, Sword & Sworcery, Super Time Force).
HORIZON will take place not at E3, but very close to it, at the Museum of Contemporary Art, and on the last day of expo, Thursday, June 13th. The event will also be livestreamed for the rest of the world.
