GDC Day 4

I'm getting tired and looking forward to going home. But I've had a blast this week.

Yesterday, GDC Day 4, I didn't get to as many sessions as I had planned to. That often happens in the last day or two of the conference. For me, anyway. There's only so much new information I can take in before I start feeling...full? And as the week draws to a close I would rather just sit and talk with people I've met or only see at GDC once a year.

I went to "Fluid Loop: The Splendid Tangle of Science Design in Ciname, Games, & Life" by John Underkoffler yesterday. A very interesting talk about the intersection of real science and media, and how science is portrayed in media, and how science is influenced by media. The talk centered on the technology portrayed by the movie "Minority Report". How the tech was researched and extrapolated (a word John used a lot) into the future. He stressed creating "self-consistent" future worlds, instead of just grafting a tech onto a culture without considering all the implications of that.

In the afternoon, accompanied by John Hattan and Elaine Cho, I made a sweep of the Expo floor and picked up some very cool stuff. I adopted a very forward style this year, walking into a booth and asking for...well...everything: posters on the wall, figurines, games, anything that struck my fancy. It didn't work all the time, but you might be surprised how often it did work. Of course, it definitely helped that I have a press pass and companies want press coverage.

I saw a book called "Origami Design Secrets: Mathematical Methods for an Ancient Art" and picked it up for my wife. The author, Robert Lang, is supposed to be demo-ing his folding at the Expo today (Day 5) so I'm going to get it signed.

I went to the WildTangent demo of their new "casual RPG" game, "Fate." It looks really snazzy. The first thing I said when I walked into the room was, "I want a poster." (I got one I expect my son will like.)

About posters: GDC Expo exhibitors need to giveaway more posters, in tight comic-book-store rolls. A lot of developers make some damn cool posters for their games, stuff my son would go bananas for. And he's hardly the only one. So why not more posters?

After that, I picked up my crew (the "GiG Gang" it's been called), and we headed out to the parties. The Women Celebrating Women in Gaming party we arrived at too late, so most of the excitement (if there had been any) had passed. From there we went to the Charles River Media author party. Didn't expect much excitement there, actually, and we weren't disappointed. ;-) Still, it was a nice do.

Then on to the tail end of the Great Aussie BBQ 2 where I got to hook up with Amelia King (of Film Victoria) and Helen S. (of ACMI) who had been instrumental in flying me out to Melbourne last year. I was excited to learn that the Free Play indie game dev conference will be held again this year. Now to get myself flown out there again. =) I loved Melbourne, and would jump at a chance to go again. And maybe take my wife this time. (She's getting tired of me travelling so far afield and she has to stay home.)

Then the Speaker's party, which Sande got us into, and the RealArcade party, which Eric got us into. At the Real party, I got to meet Brian Feet (sp? I didn't get your card, man, so I'm not sure). Brain and John Vechey (who I missed meeting) had played Paintball Net back in 1997-ish while they were working on ARC. Brian said, "Oh! You're DavidRM! You guys were an inspiration that we could make a game and then make money on it." We chatted a bit and then the crew pulled out and pulled me with them. Sorry, John. Still love to actually meet you. No one *really* believes me when I say I knew the Popcap guys back before they were the Popcap guys. ;-)

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Today...it's 8:21am as I write this, and I have no idea what I'll do today (besides getting the origami book signed; I have even set my alarm for when the guy is supposed to show up). But whatever I do, I'm sure it'll be cool. As I explained to Elaine last night: "When you got to a party, you bring your fun with you."

Have fun!

-David