Got a bit of a backlog building that I really need to clear out. There's the MS Developer Day stuff that I've made a start on - some things, like XNA Build, are really cool - and after that, I've got to report on the sessions I attended today: "How to prototype a game in under 7 days" by Kyle and Kyle from the experimental gameplay project at CMU (very much fun) and "Xbox Live Arcade" which includes a ton of information that a large number of you folks will be interested in, I think. It includes something of a "getting your game onto Live Arcade HOWTO," with detailed overview of processes, some info on costs (or lack of them), and even contact details. I'm not yet sure if I should post the contact details; Microsoft likely won't thank me if I direct a load of 14-year-olds with poorly defined MMORPG concepts to their email inboxes. Ah well, we'll see.
I also went to a lecture by a couple of folks from Valve about their design process on HL2 - it was playtesting-driven, basically - and the Battlestar Galactica keynote, which while interesting will require some digging if I'm going to find a way to make it relevant to games.
Last but not least my evening was spent at the IGF and Game Developer Choice awards. 'Twas cool to see the Introversion team pick up the Best Indie Game award for Darwinia, and the little video clips were amusing. However, someone really didn't think the logistics of press seating through very well; they sat us right at the front, but out at the sides, so if you were to the left of the stage (which I was) then you weren't actually able to see the podium or anyone standing behind it. I've tried grabbing some shots of people as they walk up there with Graham's camera (he ran off to the Lucasarts party, lucky bastard) but I don't know how well it came out. We'll see. In the meantime, it looks like I really should get hold of a PS2 and play Shadow of the Colossus...
