The initial Rules of an Unconference are remarkably simple. Turn up, introduce yourself to anyone that you don’t know, pour yourself a coffee, sit down and then (according to MacGuffin’s Scott MacMillan, organizer/master of ceremonies) “make this shit up as we go along.”

Which is exactly how GameLoop 2010 kicked off on a day when the average person was taking advantage of the gorgeous weather in Beantown.

This annual event held on Saturday at Microsoft NERD allowed 195 attendees (not just Boston-based but drawn from across the region,) access to some of the gaming industry’s leading lights and principle players with an entire floor of One Memorial Drive to play with. Throw in the chance for unlimited, freewheeling gaming discussion coupled with the occasional difference of opinion, a mouthwatering array of sandwiches and you have GameLoop 2010.

Once everyone is seated comfortably, an ‘unconference’ requires an element of structure. Fifteen minutes was set aside for audience suggestions as to what the scheduled sessions and discussion groups should cover and the eagerness of the crowd to get their own particular peeve/opinion/suggestion debated by their peers saw a sea of hands shoot up.

Mixing topics such as the representation of females within games, marketing for indies, the gaming press or even the limits of government with technical workshops that allowed developers to discuss the software being used on a daily basis by the industry saw the original whiteboard disappear behind a mass of red ink.

The action then moved towards the blank Big Board where a democratic voting process ensured that the morning sessions could be organized into what people believed were the important issues that needed addressing. Having made their choices, the attendees could then decide to attend sessions in areas as diverse as Combat Level Design, Mobile Games, Prototyping, Game Design for the Disabled, Dynamic Music, Game Journalism (and Criticism), User Generated Content and the pain of Killing Babies – in a development sense.

Sessions were well attended and lasted for 60 minutes with moderators ensuring that discussions did not turn into ill-conceived rants or Us vs Them paranoia. As ever at events like these, there were too many interesting discussions taking place at the same time to be able to fully engage in everything and careful consideration was required to ensure that attendees were making the most of the debates on offer.

The Big Board had deliberately been left blank for the afternoon, allowing the organizers to engage in a flurry of activity and room placement whenever a certain topic or idea was considered to be worthy of deliberation. Our friend Ichiro Lambe (Dejobaan Games) had been conspicuous by his absence at the brainstorming session in the morning, but, as ever, his ideas on marketing and the best way to maximize the limited resources that indie developers face drew a large crowd to his session.

Such was the demand for topics, that “Moar Talks” were set up – chat rooms lovingly named after retro-game icons Pacman and Galaga- and they added to the general feeling of pace that had characterized GameLoop 2010 from the beginning.  One of the elements that characterizes an ‘unconference’ is the ability to be off-the-cuff, but kudos must go to Scott MacMillan and Darius Kazemi for ensuring that the wheels of the event continued to turn smoothly.

In the world of the game developer, the ‘Game Loop’ allows the game to run smoothly regardless of a user’s input or lack thereof. This is not something that was in evidence at GameLoop 2010, and the desire by the attendees to input as much as possible into the day, whilst ensuring that they received maximum output only served to whet the appetite for next year’s event.

When you get a group of people in one place who care what they are talking about and the direction of an industry that provides so much innovation and joy to those who invest in it, then even an ‘unconference’ is structured enough to be a resounding success.

And there wasn’t even time to discuss the pros and cons of moving your gaming company to a rival state. Maybe that can be on the agenda for next year.