MIGS25: The Standout Panels and Discussions

As I mentioned in a recent post, MIGS is a B2B-focused gaming summit rather than a gamer-focused convention. It’s light on game demos and strong on resources for attendees to to investigate and talks by accomplished industry veterans. I was able to check out a good number of discussions across the two-day event. Here are the highlights for me.

The Combat of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33: Michel Nohra, lead game designer at Sandfall Interactive

There is no denying the thunderous impact Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has had on the gaming world. This outstanding experience blends stunning visuals, excellent design and, most importantly to this talk, innovative turn-based combat mixed with real-time elements.

Michael Nohra is one of the early members of Sandfall Interactive, but when he joined, the basics of the game were already in place. His task was to work with the teams and adjust the combat, which was deemed “too hard,” “too complex” and “cumbersome” in early testing.

Nohra and his team’s focus, as described in this overview, was to look at the actions, the attack sequences, and the systems, and streamline them to be not only fun but satisfying. This meant reducing the amount of hits from enemies to allow parries to occur, removing magic attacks and many items, and making the systems function better together in general.

This was a great discussion of how a game that already looks great and is feature-full can be refined and iterated – and how sometimes more is not better. I have played the game and, after seeing the talk, I can appreciate the nuances and combat even more.

Friendly Fire: Surviving Success as a Studio: Linda Tiger, chief operating officer at Arrowhead Game Studios

Arrowhead Game Studios was a moderately successful group that was working on a game called Helldivers II for eight years; they expected a mild splash and then would move on. Instead, the game has sold close to 20 million copies and had one of the strongest, and most fraught, launches in PlayStation history.

Linda Tiger held a talk about what it takes to keep a game studio running, adapting, and succeeding when the unexpected happens. The game sold exponentially better than they planned for, and players were hungry for more and not patient with mistakes or server issues.

To add complications to an already untenable situation, Tiger joined Arrowhead just two weeks after Helldivers II launched. Her role was intended to be one of risk management, planning how to adapt after eight years of development, and likely make some hard choices; instead, as she described, it was all hands on deck to get the game smoothed out, augmented and growing.

She broke down many aspects of the last 18 months of her journey: maintaining culture, separating business priorities from nice-to-haves, and pivoting from “content first” to “stability first.” It was refreshing to hear her talk candidly about how they had too many managers and how they kept trying to jam content in, not realizing that sometimes less is more.

It was an amazing and frankly inspiring talk to experience. It brought to light the many challenges that success can bring, especially if the success is unexpected. I had a chance to Interview Linda Tiger as well, so keep an eye on this space for that one-on-one conversation.

Monument Valley 3: Tonality, Playfulness and Meaningful Sonic Interaction – Todd Baker, music & audio artist / director, freelancer

Parallel to MIGS25 was the MIGS Audio Summit presented by Audiokinetic, held in a separate area in the same facility. This was home to a number of discussions focused on the audio side of the gaming experience.

I had a chance to sit in on Todd Baker’s talk on how they created the amazing, nuanced, and adaptable audio for Monument Valley 3. While it is a mobile experience at heart, great care has been put into crafting the sounds and music to compel players as they go on their journey.

One of Baker’s key points was that they chose to build a massive catalog of sounds, tones, songs, and soundbites that they can incorporate into their engine and manipulate in many ways. He started by showing a simple bridge-removal section that featured ambient music, water sounds, creaks of a wheel, and moving blocks. Every sound could get distorted, moved, enhanced, and changed.

They also have distinct world types, one of which his co-lead worked on, that was paper-themed so sounds like crinkling paper, with tearing and scribbling incorporated. The audio journey they went through for the game was compelling to experience and made me appreciate the game even more once I saw how much care was leveraged to make it sound so good.

The Pulse of Canadian Gaming: A Look Ahead with the Canadian Game Awards: Carl-Edwin Michel, founder at Canadian Game Awards

This was a last-minute talk I wandered into. I had heard tangentially that there was a Canadian Game Awards, but was thrilled to hear Carl-Edwin Michel talk about what’s next. He mentioned that the awards had existed in a simpler form, held remotely, but in 2024 returned to a proper presentation partnership with TIFF Lightbox.

The awards are critical, Michel said, as there are so many talented Canadian developers that deserve a spotlight. With that he launched into the Eh! Games Expo that ran in parallel to the Canadian Game Awards and how it will be growing.

Akin to taking the band on the road, Michel and his team want to set up a platform for Canadian games big and small to be featured throughout the country. So Eh! Game Expo will assist with that. So not only has he promised that the Canadian Game awards will be back bigger and better next year, the expanded Expo presence will continue to shine a light on Canadian developers.

It was frankly inspiring to witness Michel’s enthusiasm for this industry, Canadian studios, and the gaming world in general. I am hoping to head to Toronto in 2026 and cover the Canadian Game Awards, so keep an eye out for that next year.