Personally, I had a really awesome and productive GDC.  I went to  a couple talks about money.  I talked to all my favorite awesome advice people.  I met many very cool new folks, and reconnected  with some people I haven’t seen for awhile.   Some very cool potential businessy things came out of it.  None of which I’m ready to talk about until I get a better sense of what is actually going to happen.  So let’s move on.

One thing I found really intriguing about this year’s conference was the diverse international presence.  At least on the Expo floor.  There were booths from all kinds of countries, telling you why you should start a studio in the Netherlands, attend a conference in Dubai, or relocate to Canada.  Especially Canada.  Our Northern neighbors took up the whole left-most row of the floor.  They demoed games and talked about how awesome Canada was for developers.  They even brought along their Olympic Mascots.  Some neat projects were on display.  There was a great Facebook arcadey Pirate game, and a hillariously Candadian (and very fun) curling  game for the Wii (I’ll try to dig up the links for these later).  One of the neatest and most ambitious looking however was a game called BotColony from a company called Northside.  Check out this demo video to get an idea of what this natural language, AI driven adventure game is capable of.

I cannot write a post-GDC post without mention of my good buddy Chaim Gingold’s talk, The Human Play Machine.  It was amazing and very inspiring.  I only took this very short video clip because I wanted to pay attention to the talk and not taping.  Chaim discussed the ways in which we, as human play machines, are wired and built for play and what this means to people who make things for humans to play with.  It was philosophical but very salient and directly  applicable to my life as a game developer.  My favorite part of the talk however was the last five to ten minutes which was Chaim’s addendum of sorts.  In it he turned his attention to the question: Why do we do this?  Why do we make make games at all?  Is there good in what we do?  Chaim had a couple answers to this question but here’s my favorite: Science has shown us that when we are at play, its one of the few times when our brains truly feel joyful.  Therefore, if all we are doing by giving people fun and engaging things to play with is to “improve the global happiness quotient”, then we are providing the world with an incalculably positive service.  I left this talk feeling awesome.  Thanks Chaim!

You can see his slides and notes here.

Well that’s it for this year’s GDC wrap up.  See you again next year!  (Hopefully before that though…)

Read On Below!

This conference, which was put together by my Alma Mater Geogia Tech, took place in multiple spaces at once, both physical and virtual.  It was physically embodied in Atlanta of course, but it was also streamed live on the web and inside of Second Life.  There were also multiple options to connect to an IRC channel for chatting during the conference, and the channel was cleverly linked up to Second Life as well so that Second Lifers and IRCers could hear each other and communicate.

Since I was at home in lovely El Cerrito, I opted to give the Second Life conference a go.  Most people reported having a beautiful stream of the conference, but unfortunately my sound and picture was choppy throughout.  I blame my “broadband — but barely” internet connection.  Nonetheless, I was able to glean enough from the talks and the virtual attendee’s  chitter chatter to really learn alot and have a great overall experience.

I have a huge list of things to look up — games, books, articles, people, and got alot out of just chatting with people.  But here are my top three personal highlights from the actual talks.  Its not really fair, because the following people spoke after my stream was more or less under control, and I know there were folks before this point that said some really interesting things.  But I am going to have to look those people up later I guess.  For now, here are my favorites from what I actually got to see.

Craig Kronenberger of Good Egg Studios gave a talk about his (and his wife’s) company’s game, Elf Island.  Even though this talk again was pretty choppy in my stream, this game and whole concept just blows me away!  This game is an online game for kids which, through the kids playing it and participating in it, actually translates into building REAL houses for Habitat for Humanity.  I didn’t really get how it all came together (again, the stream’s fault, not the speaker’s) but this game is amazing, the concept is amazing, and you can be bet I’ll be delving in to find out more.  Just take a look at this.  I’m in love.

Sam Lewis from Cartoon Network’s Fusion Fall had this simple but clear and brilliant message for designing games for kids.

1) Know what they find fun.

2) Know what they don’t find fun.

3) RESPECT THEIR FUN!!

This should be instinctual to game designers designing for any audience, but its one of those messages that helps to be spelled out from time to time.  The third point is especially important: Once you know what your audience wants, don’t try to make a game that they don’t really want because you want  to implement the features YOU think are fun.  This isn’t to say you shouldn’t innovate or try to find new ways to do things, but just be clear about your goals and who the audience is.

There was preview of Fusion Fall during the lunch break, but unfortunately my stream was so bad I couldn’t really see what was going on.

The last panel of the conference was the Pioneer’s Panel, featuring Richard Bartle (MUD1), Randy Farmer (Lucasfilm’s Habitat), Pavel Curtis (LamdaMoo) and Brian Green (Meridian 59).  It doesn’t matter how much I read about the history of online games or how often I hear guys like this speak, I just eat this stuff up. This was also the panel for which my stream was least choppy, so I got to really enjoy it.  Here’s what I took away, in a sentence, from each speaker:

Richard Bartle: MUD wasn’t a stroke of genius, it was a collection of almost hapharzard influences and circumstances and this kind of thing could easily happen again.

Randy Farmer: VRML based worlds failed, mostly, because companies confused cool technologies with social needs.  (Good lesson there, and one that companies in this industry seem to have to learn over and over again…)

Pavel Curtis: A big reason LambdaMoo grew is because it was a nice and welcoming place, but eventually the wizards had to put their feet down about certain things and not apologize for it.

Brian Green: Love your players and they will love you back.

They said alot more of interest, of course, but those are the kernals I appreciated the most from each one.  Also this AMAZING promotional video Randy Farmer showed for Habitat.

The other bonus of attending the conference via Second Life was getting another chance to check out Second Life itself.  My first go at Second Life was not overly successful.  Second Life is NOT a very newbie-friendly place.  The UI is a mess, there isn’t very helpful help, and the options you have when you first enter the world are overwhelming and confusing.  The first time I tried Second Life, I couldn’t figure out how to do anything, couldn’t find anyone to talk to, and couldn’t make my way to anyplace that sounded at all cool.  This time I was given an easy way to get to where I was trying to go (the virtual conference space) and when i got there I was given alot of hand-holding and  help (not to mention some very groovy items) from established SL residents.  It was through these patient and friendly gals that I began to get the hang of things and see just a teensy sampling of the variety that can be found in SL.  I visited an awesome pirate ship, an Alice in Wonderland inspired tea room, and heard rumors of a very cool sounding Steam-Punk world, Fairy Land, and role-playing environments.  Now that I have  a little bit of orientation, I am definitely intrigued enough to stop back in and see if I can’t explore a little more.

Here is the schedule of the event, if you’re curious who all was there talking.  Hopefully they will post videos of the individual panels so that those of you who missed the talks, as well as those of us with crummy internet connections, can see what they missed.

This was a great time, and I intend to attend next year as well.  I’d like to go in person next time though if I can swing it.  I wonder if anyone would mind if I wore my pajamas to the GVU?

I attended KublaCon this year, as usual. It is a very different experience attending a gaming con 6 months pregnant than, oh say, not. For one thing, no drinking allowed. I also couldn’t really LARP because of the energy it requires. This was a bummer because there were some sweet looking LARPs this year. In all my favorite flavors too. Alot of time was spent resting and keeping me and baby fed, which wasn’t too much of a surprise. I did squeeze in a couple of board games and even a table top RPG called Goblin City.

Goblin City is interesting because it is a homebrew system that came out of a game design challenge among the person who ran it and his friends. The challenge was to create a full role playing game — including mechanics, background story and even artwork — all on one sheet of paper. The result is super basic mechanics (which totally work by the way), an interesting little background story, and yes, even some little illustrations. And very small print. But its readable, and it fits on a page (even if you have to squint a little to read it). The designer discusses it a bit here. Unfortunately the link to the actual page RPGness seems to not work. In a cute little irony, the designer’s name is Will Wright. It was good for a quick snicker anyway.

I like this idea, about containing an RPG to a page. Goblin City sort of assumes that you have decent, mature players. Not “mature” in the rated M sense, but rather you can trust them to have fun with a very flexible rules set and not see it as an excuse for utter abuse. Basically, you only have two real stats: your forte (what your character is best at) and your foible (what your character is worst at). These can be whatever you want, from picking your nose to magic powers. So obviously one of the hardest parts of the game is just deciding what you want these things to be. Its wide open. My mom had a hard time with this freedom, until she finally picked “Finding things” as her forte and “Knowing what those things are good for” as her foible. Finding things came in really handy as it turns out. Whenever you are trying to do something that requires a die roll, you get an extra die if your forte could be helpful in whatever it is you’re doing, and one less die if your foible could be getting in the way. It’s simple and it works, but like I said it seems like it relies on having a solid GM and good players.

It did put me in the mind to think about RPG mechanics, though. Specifically, mechanics are things that people who like to role play prefer to avoid as much as possible. How would you make a system where the mechanics THEMSELVES are just as much fun as everything else? Interesting thought…

The other con I have been involved in recently (though completely in a minor peripheral sense) is Ziggurat Con. This is a gaming con coming up this week which is being held in Iraq by US troops. Yeah, its a gaming con in a warzone. This to me is phenomenal that these guys and gals are out there in the desert with what I at least would consider one of the crappiest jobs in the world and they came together to organize a gaming convention. They wanted donations for games and things to give as prizes and what-not, so I got some people together from the office (plus my mom) to send them two boxes full of games. Most of this is thanks to my co-worker Brendan Ferguson, who brought in a huge pile of really good boardgames for the troops. My mom sent some good stuff too — D&D 3.0 DM’s guide, Player’s Guide, and Monster Manual plus several sets of dice. Best of all, the company covered the shipping. So we sent all our loot priority mail and I am keeping my fingers crossed that it gets there in time.

It may seem like a small thing, but I feel like I have done good for the world by getting these games shipped out to the soldiers. I think the best thing we can do for the world is to simply spread as much happiness as possible, and I think those people out there could sure use some happiness right about now. I sometimes wonder if making games is the best way I could help the human race. Thing is, games have the power to do lots of good. They have the power to bring people together, get their brains working, give them space to relax and escape from their current circumstances. And sometimes, just getting a little space now and then is all we need to get back to our own worlds refreshed and better able to handle whatever is thrown at us.

Games = Joy

It’s not too late to send some donations, by the way. Click the link above for the address. (In case you didn’t already know, there’s a nice military shipping rate which is way cheaper than actually sending stuff to Iraq).

As a woman game developer, its easy to have bouts of lonliness. The people at my company are really fantastic when it comes to any sort of gender issues, in that it’s something that rarely comes up. When it does, its usually in reference to something someone outside the company has said and then my co-workers, men and women alike, will rail against the offending comment. My company is 20% female, which is much higher than the average game company. And yet, there are still those moments when you’re trying to explain an idea and its clear that the men you are talking to just.don’t.get.it. Which is sad and frustrating.

Anyway, that was a really long way to go about mentioning that the WIGI was really fun because here we are with all these great women, in all disciplines, with lots of awesome ideas. And I could contribute by moderating the roundtable I was on and giving advice and help to women who want to break in to the industry, or are from the educational sector and want more industry contacts, or just offering tips on social networking. I found it to be a very fulfilling experience.

OK, on to GDC — but maybe tomorrow. I think my little tummy friend and I need a nap.

The succinct answer is holding onto the toilet for dear life and falling asleep in brainstorming meetings. Yep, I’m pregnant, and I’ve had just about enough energy to make it to work everyday, try to stay awake, and make it back home. Any and all side projects (including my dear blog) had fallen by the wayside.

The good news is I am starting to get my energy back. A little. But its interesting how something as simple as growing a baby inside you(!) can change things.

Take GDC. I usually look forward to this week with unrestrained ready to party till I drop relish. But “till I drop” happens alot earlier this time round. Monday night I went to the Telltale party and I really did have a blast. I consumed a ginger ale, a non-alcoholic beer (which I found out actually has 0.5% alcohol) and any food that wandered into arm’s reach. The non-alchoholic beer actually gave me a little buzz, which was a nice surprise. I had a great time hanging out with my Telltale peeps and our extended family, and I met some new folks as well. So even though I wasn’t drunk and I went home at around 11, I would consider it a successful event.

Yesterday I went to the Women In Games International conference. Really good time, learned alot. More on that later. What was really awesome for a PGD (pregnant game developer) was the fact that there was a ten minute break between each session to go pee and grab some of the copious snacks that overflowed in that place. I mean they had every type of nutrition bar on the market (in various flavors) plus the rich sweet looking treats that I knew my stomach wouldn’t be able to handle, and bags of nuts and stuff. I had brought along a whole barrage of snacks and didn’t have to eat any of what was tucked away in my bag. Oh and at the reception afterwards? Hot foods included chicken skewers (they had peppers though, so I avoided them), super yummy stuffed mushrooms, and grilled vegetable quesadillas. On top of that they had MOUNTAINS of awesome cheeses and crackers and sourdough bread. I unabashedly had one plate of warm mushrooms and quesadillas, and two plates full of cheese and bread. Hey, the little guy (or gal) needs ta eat, ya know?

So I was driving home from EA and I had two different parties I could go to. The IGDA members party and the IGF nominees party. Both sounded fun. As I was weighing them in my fatigued mind, however, a third possibility swam its way to the surface of my thoughts.

So I went home. It was only 8pm, but man I was tired. And cuddling on the couch with my husband while reading seemed a much better way to spend the rest of the evening. Pregnancy strikes again.
I’m heading in to GDC today, and can’t wait. But first we have to go in to the doctor and get our first ultrasound. I’ll miss some really exciting looking talks, but seeing our baby for the first time…Well, it just doesn’t get any more exciting than that.

Keep ya posted on the PGD’s look at GDC…tune in tomorrow!

Tonight we went to the San Francisco IGDA chapter meeting. By “we” I mean of course myself and an assortment of my usual cohorts from Telltale. By “assortment” I mean Emily didn’t make it tonight. And Dave Grossman has been too busy on Tuesday nights playing Bocce to make it for quite some time.

Nonetheless, we went and saw a panel comprised of our compatriots speaking on CSI: Three Dimensions of Murder. I have to say, Dan, Greg, Tony and Chris did a really good job of talking about some of the main good and …difficult points of creating this game. Mostly good though. And honestly, from what I’ve heard from the CSI crew “mostly good” really is a fair representation of the process of making CSI. So go Telltale/Ubi-soft!

The Q&A part was refreshingly good. Most questions made sense and were completely valid and interesting. My favorite question was (from a non-dev guy; I recognized him as one of the voice actors we’ve worked with in the past) “So you have X amount of space that you can use for all this stuff, for voice, for sound, for graphics, for story. How do you plan how much stuff gets how much space, and how do you decide what gets cut if you go over?” Good question! Dan mentioned that our tools are tailored to create content that takes up very little space. He had said earlier in the evening something about how our tool is designed so that we can create very low-poly models that pull off tricks that make them look really good even though they are so low-poly. Be that as it may, the problem still stands. How DO you decide what stays and what goes? How do you figure out from the beginning oh we want to devote this amount of space to graphics, this to sound, etc.? I actually don’t know, and other than saying they try to plan everything out ahead of time and then sometimes have to make hard decisions about what to cut, our panel didn’t go into too many details. The fact is that sometimes you have to make priorities about what is more key to the user experience, and balance space with impact. The same is true of where you spend the money, and how you judge risk in a project. Doug — resident Disney expert — was actually telling Dierdre and myself on the way down there that Disney’s Pinnochio has in the very beginning the most expensive shot of any Disney movie to date (once accounting for inflation). They had to build a special camera for it and it cost a ton of money, but Walt Disney was damn well intent on having it. To make up for the expense, however, other shots in the film suffered — such as Pinnochio and Gepetto paddling away from Monstro in some crummy animation loop. So would the movie have been better if the whole thing was at a consistent quality level? I know we have all played games that had some part that stood out as awesome and another part where we thought “what the hell?” What would the experience be like if instead the baseline for quality was more consistent, game wide? Even if it meant sacrificing that one awesome moment?

The question that annoyed me the most (and don’t get me wrong — thank you to the guy who asked it) was about whether CSI was a “casual game experience” since “casual game experiences need to have the 5 to ten minute play experience”. Huh? So now we know exactly what a casual game is and we can pigeonhole it? How bout we just accept that there is an audience who likes to play CSI games. There is another audience who likes to play Bejeweled. These audiences may or may not intersect. This desperate attempt to draw some boundaries around what a casual game is so we can all know how best to sell and market it — is that useful to game developers? I suppose it could be in a sort of “know your audience” way but to me it just smells like a desperate attempt to figure out how to target market the right people.

Afterwards was the usual mingling with cocktails that accompanies these events. The “mixer” if you will. It was nice. I had a dirty martini, which is usually my preferred drink at these soirees. What’s fun about these things is you never know what kind of conversation you might have and with whom, but that it will be about games and will probably be interesting. The nice thing about games (at least for me) is that really its all fascinating. I love hearing about all the different jobs people do, what people are working on, their opinions on recent events. The game industry is huge and small at the same time.

After the “mixer” (that sounds so cheesy; in a 50′s kinda way) Doug, Dierdre and I went to Mel’s. There I succumbed to the temptation to fill my poor suffering body with crap, which nonetheless tasted very good. Especially the Oreo malt. Mmmmmm……

Now I go to bed. I would like very much to stay up way too late and play games. But alas, getting good sleep makes my job alot easier. So I should get some. Sleep, that is.

I do very much enjoy being a game developer. Sometimes the sea is rough and choppy. Sometimes it threatens to pull you under. Sometimes it is so becalmed that you fear you will sit in the same spot forever and slowly let yourself drift into an endless sleep while your body dehydrates to nothing. Sometimes you don’t know what’s going on at all because the sky is just the wrong color and you can’t tell the water from the horizon. But its always the sea. And its always an adventure.

“This highly interactive exhibition examines the exploding videogame industry from the game design process to games culture and beyond. Come experience the past forty years of electronic gaming.”

Highly interactive — check. They had so many arcade machines and consoles set up that it was a blast to play, say, Tennis on the original Magnavox Odyssey with my dad, or feel how awkward the controller for the Atari Jaguar was. A MAME emulator was set up and projected onto a giant screen for all to see. There was definitely alot to play with. One of my favorite aspects of the exhibit was watching kids play the old games. It’s amazing, they really do see to have a natural instinct for digial gaming. I messed around with Manic Miner on an old british Spectrum, got quickly frustrated, and backed off. Some nine year old stepped up and cleared the board without even trying. The other intersting thing about the kids was that it really didn’t seem to matter to them which of the games were the newest or prettiest. They’d play anything in front of them and seem to love it. My mom got to watch in awe as someone played Steel Battalion (she really likes mechs).

Interactivity: A

Game Design Process — Weak. There really wasn’t much at all on the actual process of making the games. Incidentally, this was a big reason I had dragged my family to San Jose in the first place. I was hoping to share with them a bit of what I do. There was a little bit on music in games, which my dad (being a jazz musician) found interesting, and there were some artifacts from the design process of GTA III and Tomb Raider. But what I was hoping for was something that examined the different roles in a game company and how they all work together. There was really nothing of the sort.

Examining Design Process: D

Games Culture — eh. The games culture “section” of the exhibit featured four big franchises (GTA, The Sims, Lara Croft, Pokemon), a few Japanese games, a tiny handful of indie games and a tiny handful of “Kid’s Games”. The franchises section basically showed off some interesting artifacts for each one (the original game outline for Tomb Raider, the post-it note design map for GTA III, etc.) and had a tiny blurb on how the game in question has found itself under non-game-player’s scrutiny. But the blurbs were so cursory, they didn’t really get into any of the issues at hand. For example, on the little plaque for GTA there was a sentence to the effect of “The Grand Theft Auto series has been the target of some controversy.” Uhmm, ok…care to elaborate on that?? The gameplay wasn’t even described, just the fact that Rockstar made it, it sold this many copies, etc. Weak. It was much the same for the other highlighted games. Zero context. This annoyed me, especially if you consider that the audience of this exhibition isn’t neccesarily the game-savvy. I was hoping that there would be interesting information to the non-gaming public. Alas, I was sorely disappointed. The Japanese games, indie games and kid’s games were not any of the more interesting ones I’d seen…I would’ve picked different ones and again, provided more context as to why.

Culture: D-

40 Years of History: Oh yes! Can’t argue with this one! How awesome was it to see an original PDP-1, the type of which helped spawn Spacewar! Or one of these gorgeous Computer Space cabinets. (This image stolen from the very excellent Dot Eaters site.) They had the yellow one too. Fun to see old ads, play ancient consoles and learn about the business that caused the rise and fall of each machine and company. The trip was worth it if only for all this.

History: A+

Summary:
I was disapointed by the exhibit, but I would still have to say it was worth the trip. Not mind-blowing by any means, and I am sad that the exhibit will probably be more interesting to people already enthralled by game history than educational to the general public. But since I am one of those game history fans, I enjoyed it. I would have done a ton of things differently, and this will always color one’s experience.

Overall: B-

This past weekend we attended the California Extreme in lovely San Jose. Was it extreme? Words cannot begin to describe…

Picture a warehouse filled with classic arcade games and pinball machines. Pumping 80′s tunes. And everything on freeplay. If they only had free martinis to boot, this would be my idea of heaven.

Playing these classic games makes me think of a couple things. One is what a difference a custom interface makes. My old Atari 800 had a set of paddles that you could use to play breakout. “Paddles” doesn’t really describe what they were: twisty knobs would be more descriptive. Playing games like Discs of Tron, Robotron 2048 and Tempest make me wish I had a custom controller for every game I own. They really do make a huge difference to the feel of the game. Are the games we play on our home consoles constrained by the interface? (I feel less stupid for having bought my Donkey Konga drums).

The other thing that occurs to me is the importance of gameplay. These games sometimes had an extremely loose framework “story” and of course graphics were not at their visual peak. But it doesn’t change the fact that the games are fun. You can play them over and over again, unlike our modern marvels with epic storylines that take 40 hours to complete. Then, exhausted, you never want to look at the game again.

I am a firm believer that game designers need to constantly study their craft. These games, free of the trappings of beautiful graphics (though they are beautiful in their own way) and lovely stories boil the game down to the gameplay experience, allowing the student of games to easily get right to the heart of the matter.

Ironically, this week Gamasutra also posted answers to “Question of the Week: Coin Op Favorites”. I definitely know which games I want in my personal arcade. Do you?

Marriage proposal at Game Developer Choice Awards
One of the guys from Chronic Logic (makers of Gish) accepted their indie game of the year award and proposed to his girlfriend on stage. She was crying her eyes out and accepted and it was all really sweet. I had tears in my eyes.

Sheri Graner Ray Gets Community Award
I was so stoked that Sheri Graner Ray was acknowledged for all her work making women an actual force in gaming, both in the workplace and as consumers. It warms my heart that the IGDA cares about women in gaming.

Richard Bartle
I love Richard Bartle. Love love love him. Not only was he the force behind the first MUD (and wrote lots of excellent material that helped my LARP and MMORPG paper) but the man is funny as hell. A couple people said he was smashed, but he seemed pretty lucid to me. And who cares anyway. He was the most entertaining part of the award ceremony.

Andrew Stern Throws out Semantics
I went to the panel on why are there no interactive stories. It was comprised of Michael Mateas, Tim Schaefer, Warren Spectre, and Neil Young. They all had interesting things to say, things I mostly knew but had forgotten to think about for a while. But the real kudos go to Andrew Stern who was moderating. Right off the bat he said that this was not going to be a semantic argument, and let’s not get into discussing what a story is or a game is. Instead, let’s focus on the pleasures we want in our games and try to discuss it from that point of view. Can you imagine how this talk would have gone without that very important set up? Bleah. Yay Andrew! Think of how far we could get in the academic world of gaming if we dispensed with the ridiculous semantic arguments!

Women’s Group Gathering
The women’s group gathering was nice once again, although I had to miss the experimental gameplay workshop to go. I met a number of nice people and it just made me happy to be surrounded with other women at a male-dominated conference. The space we had to meet in was way too damn small though.

Daniel James Exhibits Lack of Paranoia
I went to the production talk on Puzzle Pirates, and it made me very happy that SOMEONE in this industry is willing to be open about their business in the hopes that it might help someone else. There is too much damn secrecy and paranoia in the gaming industry. WHY can’t I talk to you about my up-coming title? WHY do I have to suppress my excitement over the thing we are going to try to do differently? I know Peter Molyneaux wishes he had talked less before Fable came out, but if I am having a problem designing one part of my game, I have no one outside of my (tiny) company to go to for input. This kinda sucks. I wish the culture would change a bit so we could feel free to actually communicate with others in our industry for the betterment of all.

Martinis on the ETC
The ETC knows how to throw a party, make ye no mistake. I loved drinking their free drinks and devouring their fancy hors deurves. I long for the day when the EGL has this much money to throw around.

Bonding over Cheese
At the ETC party, I was about ready to leave for the Puzzle Pirates party, but I had only had two olives to eat since lunch and was famished. So I made my way to the snack and cheeses table to tastelessly gorge myself (in a tasty way!) before moving on. There I met a party crasher (though a related profession: he was an electrician) who had somehow found his way here and was also enjoying the cheese and snacks. He guided me through the taste sensations on the table, and we had a fun chat. At one point I was finally getting full and informed him of this. He shook his head. “Then this relationship is over!” Nonetheless, I gave him my email address. Maybe we’ll get to chat over fancy cheeses at a party he’s actually invited to sometime.

ARRRR!!
The Puzzle Pirates party was, of course, the best party hands down. We trekked blocks and blocks on aching feet to get there, but it was way worth it. The rum punch flowed freely in their spacious and stylish office space, and the company was terrific. I had many fantastic conversations and got a good lot of advice from other industry pros who had good advice to give. I ran into some fun people I hadn’t seen since the MUD-dev conference last year. I invited my husband to meet us, and he had a grand time geeking out about the Puzzle Pirates game itself with another attendee. I loved reading the fan mail in the bathroom and was tickled to score two decks of Puzzle Pirates playing cards. I also got to tell Daniel James all about my mom’s Puzzle Pirates obsession, which seemed to make him very happy.

Steve Jackson said I was Awesome!!
I met Steve Jackson! THE Steve Jackson!! Wait. You know who Steve Jackson is, right? If you don’t, hit yourself in the head with something, then read this artice. Then google him or something. Anyway, for the rest of you, not only did I meet him, but it turns out he’s a huge fan of Bone! He said I was awesome because we were making a Bone game at Telltale. He also warned me that we’d better not screw it up. I think I may have been a bit gushing when I met him, because when I walked away Eric Zimmerman mocked me. “That was kind of flirty.” Shut up Eric. Steve Jackson!!

The Rant Session
I went to the game developer’s rant. It was absolutely fantastic! One of the best sessions in any of my three GDCs. Warren Spectre ranted, after a sluggish start, got up to speed and complained bitterly of the developer/producer business model and encouraged developers to find new ways of getting their games out into the world and support others who try. (Like Telltale Games…) Finally Eric Zimmerman (moderating the panel) had to cut him off, just when he was on a true roll. Jason Della Roca, head of the IGDA ranted about game developers’ apathy and ignorance. Apathy towards helping make the world of gaming a better place, and ignorance of anything outside their small little game universe. He encouraged developers to look at other industries for business models. He didn’t use the word “arrogance” but he basically was calling on developers to stop being so arrogant about their own games and game industry practices and look at the rest of the world with an open mind. Then Greg Costikyan stood up and reamed everyone and everything. Nothing – and no one – was sacred. “My friends,” he said “we are fucked.” Between his blisteringly scathing criticisms of the industry and the big movers and shakers within it was a message of how innovation is being forced to give way to greed. And how the future is just going to get worse, as game development costs just continue to grow, causing even less risk to be undertaken. Brenda Laurel stood up next. I had never actually heard her speak before, but she made a convincing case for game developers to take responsibility for the content of their games. She was a great speaker. Finally Chris Ecker ranted about how the PS3 and X-Box 2 are going to be royal pains to program for (which of course increases the development costs). This whole session was freaking awesome, and if Gamasutra has any humanity, the whole thing will be put up in audio format on the web for all to hear. And all should hear it!!

Seanbaby!!
That’s right, I ran into Seanbaby! I told him a bit about the ET project and documentary, and he said it sounded like fun and he would love to be interviewed for it. Yay! I have to get back on that.

Spreading the Telltale Word
Like a true apostle, I spread the gospel of Telltale Games and our up-coming Bone game. Many people were very excited to hear that the former Sam and Max crew was doing their own thing, and people were intrigued about our downloadable content business plan. As for Bone, it was interesting to see people’s reactions. There were only two: blank looks and nods or else jumping up and down with barely controlled glee. The gleeful quickly turned to their blank companions and explained the story of Bone, and how it would make a great adventure game, ending their harangues with offers of loaning out their one volume editions of the comic. The blank smiled and agreed to read it. I take all of this as very good signs.

Camaraderie
The best thing about GDC is just feeling like part of something. In this case it might be a giant behemoth that is just awkwardly growing out of its teething rings. Nonetheless, I had a great number of great conversations with great people and had a chance to indulge myself in the company of people just as obsessive about games (and making them better!) as me. I am still not quite recovered, but I am getting there.

Can’t wait for next year!