Jean-Richard Beaudry is a 3D animator who has worked at several video game studios in Montreal. At 27 years of age, he's witnessed much of how video games evolved, and is as excited as ever to contribute to such a dynamic branch of entertainment. Now, he's a part of an ever-growing trend in the industry: indie games.

As a child, Beaudry watched and rewatched characters flesh themselves out on screen as they pranced around in The Lion King or floundered wildly in Toy Story. He also dove into games like Super Mario Bros. and Donkey Kong Country for hours on end. "I always liked to play with stories and characters," he says, "whether it was role playing or drawing, there was always something about giving life to a persona that I enjoyed." Beaudry confessed that he got the idea for studying animation when he cleaned out his room and stumbled upon pen-and-paper flipbooks he had made as a boy.

Pokémon trainers gather at Concordia university for a halloween themed tournament

Watching over 50 Montrealers of various ages gather at Concordia University for a Pokemon tournament, I'm taken back to when I used battle my cousins in the first generation Pokémon games. As one game after the next came out, the franchise grew exponentially. I held onto the first two generations until many of my CEGEP friends encouraged me to get back into the spirit of collecting all of the Pokémon. The game had changed for the better and there was no question about whether or not I would continue with sixth generation. This is what led me to the Montreal Pokémon League, their project, and their tournament on October 25, 2014.

Most of the students at St-Johns were francophone, and by grade six, we were expected to be fluent English speakers. I went to class, made some lifelong friends, held secret drawing contests, and all the while another language was softly seeping into my brain. I walked the halls of that small public school for a total of twelve years, and most of the learning I did occurred without me even realizing it.

In between geography and long division, our third grade teacher would pull out a picture book and read to us. Whenever an unknown word was spoken, every nine year-old child's language instinct did its magic and filed it somewhere for easy retrieval, along with its category and usage. Whole sets of rules for syntax and subject-verb agreement mapped themselves in my head, adjusting and expanding with each sentence I heard. This bundle of unconscious knowledge grew into a substantial pool of information, a magic spring that always held more than when I last tapped into it.