Today, the conference caught up to me, and it was somewhat lazy. With the exception of getting up at the ungodly hour of 8:00am to go to a Schell Games breakfast, I spent the morning in full nappage. After we checked out of the hotel, I took my napping to the little park area behind the Metreon, where I was lulled to sleep by the water feature.
For lunch I had 2 banana-strawberry-nutella crepes from the fancy food court, which perhaps wasn't the wisest decision I've made, and resumed my lazy day at the bean bag lounge in the conference center. I happened to run into Olivier there, and eventually Drew showed up, and then some Schell Games people, and so on (the more people in a cluster, the more magnetic it is, I guess).
Several of us went to the afternoon talk about level design in Far Cry 2, and how it supports varying player types and allows for player expression. It was certainly an interesting lecture, and drew some fascinating analogies that I'm not sure I agree with, but were interesting nonetheless. More delicious food for thought.
The Schell Games crew bid the fancy food court a final farewell, and now I'm chilling with Andy and Edmundo, waiting for M.E. Chung to come and fetch us and bring us to her abode.
Overall, I had a fantastic GDC! I got to see so many people again, and the talks I did see were very good. A worthwhile experience for sure!
Showing posts with label game developers conference. Show all posts
Showing posts with label game developers conference. Show all posts
Friday, March 27, 2009
GDC Thursday
Goodness, today was a very busy day! I'll be friendly and cut it for my LJ list.
This morning I went to Valve's talk on Playtesting, which turned out to reflect a surprising amount of tips and techniques that we use at the ETC and at Schell Games. The things that we don't do which I find super interesting are the physiological tests - monitoring heartrates and EEGs and eye-tracking and such. It made me think of Scott, who was wondering if there was a role in the game-industry for a full-time scientist. So it would appear! At least on the front of collecting playtesting data. That sort of thing, however, is way way expensive, and likely out of the scope of the ETC (though I can imagine a future project working with the psychology department on main campus and what that might yield).
Afterwards, I got to meet up with Colin, who was my lead from the summer. I love Colin! He is one of the awesomest of people, and we strolled about the Expo floor for awhile whiles't catching up on one another's adventures. I am ever grateful for Colin's trust in me over the summer, which gave me a huge confidence boost, and transformed me from pre-Insomniac Lisa to post-Insomniac Lisa. It was delightful to spend time with him once more.
In the afternoon I went to Blizzard's talk about how their quest system evolved from Vanilla WoW through WotLK. It was pretty interesting! I especially liked the "lessons learned/mistakes" portion of the talk, where they went over problem points that needed to be improved, and how they were problematic from a design standpoint. At some point I will have to type up the notes I jotted down during all these talks.
Today was a day for reunions, and in the evening I met up with Steph, seeing her for the first time in 4 years! Amusingly, the last time we were able to visit we were both in New England, and now we both happened to be on the West Coast. I went out with her and some of her friends to Bucca de Beppo, and was graced with the delightful gift of two of her print book collections! (You can take a look via her art blog: http://stephsketches.blogspot.com/ ) So good! It was wonderful to catch up, and hopefully I'll get to hang out with her more tomorrow.
The night ended with a very pleasant gathering in the 5th floor lounge of the Palomar. Comprised mostly of ETCers, and joined later by Drew, there was a lot of catching up and story-swapping. Also, there was the revelation of the app that makes it so I MUST OWN AN IPHONE.
http://appbeacon.com/apps/023144/kitty-parade
Sooooo good! Bryan Cash said that I was reaching some point of Critical Delight while playing with it, and feared an explosion. I managed to contain myself, though.
I've really had a splendid GDC so far, and I hope it will finish out strong. We shall see!
This morning I went to Valve's talk on Playtesting, which turned out to reflect a surprising amount of tips and techniques that we use at the ETC and at Schell Games. The things that we don't do which I find super interesting are the physiological tests - monitoring heartrates and EEGs and eye-tracking and such. It made me think of Scott, who was wondering if there was a role in the game-industry for a full-time scientist. So it would appear! At least on the front of collecting playtesting data. That sort of thing, however, is way way expensive, and likely out of the scope of the ETC (though I can imagine a future project working with the psychology department on main campus and what that might yield).
Afterwards, I got to meet up with Colin, who was my lead from the summer. I love Colin! He is one of the awesomest of people, and we strolled about the Expo floor for awhile whiles't catching up on one another's adventures. I am ever grateful for Colin's trust in me over the summer, which gave me a huge confidence boost, and transformed me from pre-Insomniac Lisa to post-Insomniac Lisa. It was delightful to spend time with him once more.
In the afternoon I went to Blizzard's talk about how their quest system evolved from Vanilla WoW through WotLK. It was pretty interesting! I especially liked the "lessons learned/mistakes" portion of the talk, where they went over problem points that needed to be improved, and how they were problematic from a design standpoint. At some point I will have to type up the notes I jotted down during all these talks.
Today was a day for reunions, and in the evening I met up with Steph, seeing her for the first time in 4 years! Amusingly, the last time we were able to visit we were both in New England, and now we both happened to be on the West Coast. I went out with her and some of her friends to Bucca de Beppo, and was graced with the delightful gift of two of her print book collections! (You can take a look via her art blog: http://stephsketches.blogspot.com/ ) So good! It was wonderful to catch up, and hopefully I'll get to hang out with her more tomorrow.
The night ended with a very pleasant gathering in the 5th floor lounge of the Palomar. Comprised mostly of ETCers, and joined later by Drew, there was a lot of catching up and story-swapping. Also, there was the revelation of the app that makes it so I MUST OWN AN IPHONE.
http://appbeacon.com/apps/023144/kitty-parade
Sooooo good! Bryan Cash said that I was reaching some point of Critical Delight while playing with it, and feared an explosion. I managed to contain myself, though.
I've really had a splendid GDC so far, and I hope it will finish out strong. We shall see!
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
GDC Wednesday Night
I'm chilling out in my hotel room wearing an outrageous zebra-print bathrobe, for it seems that the hotel provides tacky animal-print bathrobes for all its guests. Classy!
I spent the afternoon schmoozing about the expo floors. The amount of booths on the floor was somewhat dismal, and the career floor was packed, but I suppose that isn't surprising given the times. There was a lot of me introducing people to other people, and a lot of randomly bumping into folks, and other such socialization.
The evening was a restful one - Tracy, Chris and I ordered in food and hung about the hotel room. Afterwards, I joined a pack of ETCers and headed to the ETC Gathering, picking up Drew along the way. The party was loud and crowded in a small space, and I was proud of myself for lasting a good 15 minutes in there. I am, as always, terribly apt to be drained by large and loud social gatherings.
Drew and I then headed over to the top floor lounge at the Marriott to meet up with a bunch of people from Project Horseshoe. Much like the gathering on my first night in San Francisco, this social setting was MUCH more to my taste. We didn't sit and chat for long before someone busted out the card games - Family Business taking the forefront.
Family Business is a fun little card game in and of itself, but the true joy in the game is from the gimmick where all the players have to speak like mobsters. This, of course, amplifies hilarity in every action, and I was happy to observe the rise and fall of the city mobs, particularly the vicious rivalry between Olivier and Brenda (I suspect that feud may last for generations on end!)
Tomorrow I'm planning on hitting up the Valve and Blizzard talks, and hopefully catching up with Steph and Colin if I am lucky.
I spent the afternoon schmoozing about the expo floors. The amount of booths on the floor was somewhat dismal, and the career floor was packed, but I suppose that isn't surprising given the times. There was a lot of me introducing people to other people, and a lot of randomly bumping into folks, and other such socialization.
The evening was a restful one - Tracy, Chris and I ordered in food and hung about the hotel room. Afterwards, I joined a pack of ETCers and headed to the ETC Gathering, picking up Drew along the way. The party was loud and crowded in a small space, and I was proud of myself for lasting a good 15 minutes in there. I am, as always, terribly apt to be drained by large and loud social gatherings.
Drew and I then headed over to the top floor lounge at the Marriott to meet up with a bunch of people from Project Horseshoe. Much like the gathering on my first night in San Francisco, this social setting was MUCH more to my taste. We didn't sit and chat for long before someone busted out the card games - Family Business taking the forefront.
Family Business is a fun little card game in and of itself, but the true joy in the game is from the gimmick where all the players have to speak like mobsters. This, of course, amplifies hilarity in every action, and I was happy to observe the rise and fall of the city mobs, particularly the vicious rivalry between Olivier and Brenda (I suspect that feud may last for generations on end!)
Tomorrow I'm planning on hitting up the Valve and Blizzard talks, and hopefully catching up with Steph and Colin if I am lucky.
GDC Wednesday Morning
After a whirlwind of excitement (by which I mean a 5 hour delay in Dallas), I finally arrived in San Francisco last night to be bombarded with social greetings. We're staying at the Hotel Palomar, which is multitudes better than they sketchy place we stayed last year (sans purple track lighting and a palm tree painted on the wall, though) and much much closer to the convention center.
Andy and I met up with Drew and some of the Insomniacs and there was much greeting and hugging. Amusingly, Insomniac and Schell Games seems to have booked the same hotel. Before long, Reagan joined us, having "heard my laugh" from God knows how far across the floor. I'm flattered that my laughter is a beacon, but occasionally embarrassed by how loud it apparently is!
There was chattering and drinking and people came and went and I gave out many hugs. Jesse stopped by, and Schell Games Austin showed up, and then the ETCers started filing in. It was much fun! These are the sorts of social encounters that I truly enjoy, rather than exhausting myself at the IGDA party.
This morning I hit up Clint Hocking's lecture on Fault Tolerance, which was about Intentionality and Improvisation in the design of Far Cry 2. There, Drew and I found and greeted Olivier, and subsequently threw things at Brenda Brathwaite a few rows in front of us (she brandished threateningly and there was much giggling from our row).
The talk itself was very interesting! I thought that looking at gameplay patterns in a cycle of composition/planning phases and execution phases was a pretty insightful way of analyzing how a player interacts with the game, and one I hadn't thought of before. While I think his use of the word "Improvisation" was misleading, the ideas behind it were sound and fuel for much thought. Plus, after chatting with Brenda Harger afterwards, we agreed that having the phrase "Improvisation" more accessible in this industry was a good thing, even if it was not being used accurately. Having it get exposure may lead people to investigate, and that's always good!
After the talk, Drew and I went and grabbed lunch with a friend of his from Infinity Ward whose name slips me. The fancy food court in the shopping center is just as delicious as I remember it! Paninis for the win!
As I expected, I was exhausted after lunch, and in need of a nap. I think I'm pacing myself much better than last year, now that I have an idea of how GDC is gonna roll. Looking forward to social gatherings tonight! Stay tuned for ADVENTURE!
Andy and I met up with Drew and some of the Insomniacs and there was much greeting and hugging. Amusingly, Insomniac and Schell Games seems to have booked the same hotel. Before long, Reagan joined us, having "heard my laugh" from God knows how far across the floor. I'm flattered that my laughter is a beacon, but occasionally embarrassed by how loud it apparently is!
There was chattering and drinking and people came and went and I gave out many hugs. Jesse stopped by, and Schell Games Austin showed up, and then the ETCers started filing in. It was much fun! These are the sorts of social encounters that I truly enjoy, rather than exhausting myself at the IGDA party.
This morning I hit up Clint Hocking's lecture on Fault Tolerance, which was about Intentionality and Improvisation in the design of Far Cry 2. There, Drew and I found and greeted Olivier, and subsequently threw things at Brenda Brathwaite a few rows in front of us (she brandished threateningly and there was much giggling from our row).
The talk itself was very interesting! I thought that looking at gameplay patterns in a cycle of composition/planning phases and execution phases was a pretty insightful way of analyzing how a player interacts with the game, and one I hadn't thought of before. While I think his use of the word "Improvisation" was misleading, the ideas behind it were sound and fuel for much thought. Plus, after chatting with Brenda Harger afterwards, we agreed that having the phrase "Improvisation" more accessible in this industry was a good thing, even if it was not being used accurately. Having it get exposure may lead people to investigate, and that's always good!
After the talk, Drew and I went and grabbed lunch with a friend of his from Infinity Ward whose name slips me. The fancy food court in the shopping center is just as delicious as I remember it! Paninis for the win!
As I expected, I was exhausted after lunch, and in need of a nap. I think I'm pacing myself much better than last year, now that I have an idea of how GDC is gonna roll. Looking forward to social gatherings tonight! Stay tuned for ADVENTURE!
Friday, February 22, 2008
GDC Thursday and Friday
So I fell behind on my daily updates, whoops! Thursday was largely uneventful. I worked the career floor and talked with a lot of different companies. I went to one panel about the Future of MMOs, but it grew so snippy and snarky that I decided to duck out early, especially after learning that Andy had met up with Bryan Cash on the expo floor. <3 Bryan Cash!
We had a lovely lunch, but the rest of the afternoon was lost to me. I had forgotten to take my medicine the day before, and so was quite exhausted and in a lot of pain by the afternoon. Andy, growing more and more ill by the day, was also ready to turn in, so we went back to the hotel and had a very restful evening.
Today was much better (and I kept my exhaustion in check with a Mt. Dew). I saw two very interesting talks: one about Entrepreneurship and Pandemic, and one which was an Expo of start-up companies (none of which were game companies, but which had some innovative tie to the game industry: patch clients that doubled as social networks, microtransaction management services for MMOs, and the like).
After lunch, we hit up the career floor to watch Andy impress the crowd with his Guitar Hero skills, and then the expo floor again to play some of the Independent Game Festival games. For now I'm relaxing and considering attending the Portal post-mortem. At 5 I'll be visiting my mentor at Ubisoft, and then the lot of us ETCers will be flying back to Pittsburgh on a red-eye.
All in all, I'm very glad I came to GDC. There was much to learn and many people to see, and I feel it was well worth it, and am thrilled to have won the scholarship. I am, however, exhausted to the core of my bones. So many people! I am drained and dry, but still excited to get back to the ETC and apply what I've learned to Bandology. I will, however, likely need a full day of sleep to catch my brain up, and another full day of emailing follow-ups to everyone I've met at the conference.
Hooray for GDC! Hooray for Lisa Brown: Game Designer!
We had a lovely lunch, but the rest of the afternoon was lost to me. I had forgotten to take my medicine the day before, and so was quite exhausted and in a lot of pain by the afternoon. Andy, growing more and more ill by the day, was also ready to turn in, so we went back to the hotel and had a very restful evening.
Today was much better (and I kept my exhaustion in check with a Mt. Dew). I saw two very interesting talks: one about Entrepreneurship and Pandemic, and one which was an Expo of start-up companies (none of which were game companies, but which had some innovative tie to the game industry: patch clients that doubled as social networks, microtransaction management services for MMOs, and the like).
After lunch, we hit up the career floor to watch Andy impress the crowd with his Guitar Hero skills, and then the expo floor again to play some of the Independent Game Festival games. For now I'm relaxing and considering attending the Portal post-mortem. At 5 I'll be visiting my mentor at Ubisoft, and then the lot of us ETCers will be flying back to Pittsburgh on a red-eye.
All in all, I'm very glad I came to GDC. There was much to learn and many people to see, and I feel it was well worth it, and am thrilled to have won the scholarship. I am, however, exhausted to the core of my bones. So many people! I am drained and dry, but still excited to get back to the ETC and apply what I've learned to Bandology. I will, however, likely need a full day of sleep to catch my brain up, and another full day of emailing follow-ups to everyone I've met at the conference.
Hooray for GDC! Hooray for Lisa Brown: Game Designer!
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
GDC Tuesday Afternoon
Well, I'd intended to go back to see another session, but instead I spent most of the afternoon sitting and chatting with Drew and Activision Jason, and later, Brenda. It was a fine chat about the history and motives behind GDC, the role of educators in the conference, and my curious foray into Game Design. ETCers and other industry folk joined and left our table in a steady stream. This was a much preferred environment for me compared to a packed session, especially in my sleepy state.
After a leisurely dinner at the food court, we returned to our hotels to prepare for the giant IGDA party being thrown tonight. I promptly fell asleep. I doubt I will be scorned for skipping out on the party, nor will my absence likely be noticed (they are expecting 2000 people to attend). The fact of the matter is, I'm exhausted, and the conference proper hasn't even begun yet! I need to rest up if I intend to survive the rest of the week at all.
I blame the large amount of people, which quickly drain away my energy. Andy says I should just pretend every person at the conference is actually a dog, since puppies seem to give me so much energy (Brenda agrees, thinking it would be extremely fun to think of what breeds people would be). Activision Jason says that creating a defensive energy bubble around oneself is a learned skill, and that I merely need to work my way to 375 (how I grind this skill, I have no idea).
For now, I'll call it an early night. There's a session at 9am tomorrow that I really want to go see, so an early bedtime won't hurt in the least!
After a leisurely dinner at the food court, we returned to our hotels to prepare for the giant IGDA party being thrown tonight. I promptly fell asleep. I doubt I will be scorned for skipping out on the party, nor will my absence likely be noticed (they are expecting 2000 people to attend). The fact of the matter is, I'm exhausted, and the conference proper hasn't even begun yet! I need to rest up if I intend to survive the rest of the week at all.
I blame the large amount of people, which quickly drain away my energy. Andy says I should just pretend every person at the conference is actually a dog, since puppies seem to give me so much energy (Brenda agrees, thinking it would be extremely fun to think of what breeds people would be). Activision Jason says that creating a defensive energy bubble around oneself is a learned skill, and that I merely need to work my way to 375 (how I grind this skill, I have no idea).
For now, I'll call it an early night. There's a session at 9am tomorrow that I really want to go see, so an early bedtime won't hurt in the least!
GDC Tuesday Morning
Today was the day of scholar activities, and I am quite worn out! In the morning we all met up and went over to Three Rings Design for a tour. This was great, because it was one of the companies I wasn't able to see on the West Coast Trip. Three Rings is a fantastical place, visually, and their company model is one I am fond of. They were very friendly and open, and are giving all the scholars alpha test accounts for Whirled.
Afterwards, we met up with our mentors, which was the most exciting part of the day for me! They matched up each of the scholars with an industry professional in the line of work we were interested in. Mine is a producer at Ubisoft, and is really cool. We wandered off to figure out our schedule for the conference, and had a fabulous conversation about production and the game industry in general. He's going to arrange a tour of Ubisoft for me (the studio here is mostly a publishing house with a small development team).
He set off to another meeting and I wandered about until I found Carlos, who is also doing computery sorts of errands. Tonight is the big IGDA party, which I may go to, but am sort of dreading. Large gatherings of people drain me to the bone. But who knows, it could be fun!
For now, I think I'm going to go seek out that bean bag chair lounge again...
Afterwards, we met up with our mentors, which was the most exciting part of the day for me! They matched up each of the scholars with an industry professional in the line of work we were interested in. Mine is a producer at Ubisoft, and is really cool. We wandered off to figure out our schedule for the conference, and had a fabulous conversation about production and the game industry in general. He's going to arrange a tour of Ubisoft for me (the studio here is mostly a publishing house with a small development team).
He set off to another meeting and I wandered about until I found Carlos, who is also doing computery sorts of errands. Tonight is the big IGDA party, which I may go to, but am sort of dreading. Large gatherings of people drain me to the bone. But who knows, it could be fun!
For now, I think I'm going to go seek out that bean bag chair lounge again...
GDC Tuesday Morning
Today was the day of scholar activities, and I am quite worn out! In the morning we all met up and went over to Three Rings Design for a tour. This was great, because it was one of the companies I wasn't able to see on the West Coast Trip. Three Rings is a fantastical place, visually, and their company model is one I am fond of. They were very friendly and open, and are giving all the scholars alpha test accounts for Whirled.
Afterwards, we met up with our mentors, which was the most exciting part of the day for me! They matched up each of the scholars with an industry professional in the line of work we were interested in. Mine is a producer at Ubisoft, and is really cool. We wandered off to figure out our schedule for the conference, and had a fabulous conversation about production and the game industry in general. He's going to arrange a tour of Ubisoft for me (the studio here is mostly a publishing house with a small development team).
He set off to another meeting and I wandered about until I found Carlos, who is also doing computery sorts of errands. Tonight is the big IGDA party, which I may go to, but am sort of dreading. Large gatherings of people drain me to the bone. But who knows, it could be fun!
For now, I think I'm going to go seek out that bean bag chair lounge again...
Afterwards, we met up with our mentors, which was the most exciting part of the day for me! They matched up each of the scholars with an industry professional in the line of work we were interested in. Mine is a producer at Ubisoft, and is really cool. We wandered off to figure out our schedule for the conference, and had a fabulous conversation about production and the game industry in general. He's going to arrange a tour of Ubisoft for me (the studio here is mostly a publishing house with a small development team).
He set off to another meeting and I wandered about until I found Carlos, who is also doing computery sorts of errands. Tonight is the big IGDA party, which I may go to, but am sort of dreading. Large gatherings of people drain me to the bone. But who knows, it could be fun!
For now, I think I'm going to go seek out that bean bag chair lounge again...
Monday, February 18, 2008
GDC Monday Afternoon
The summit talk after lunch was all about revenue models for Free-to-play games, and was very interesting. It was also very popular, and the room was so crammed full that I had to escape afterwards for a re-charge.
Wandering about, I found that the convention has a bean bag chair lounge in the middle of the floor outside the exhibit hall! Brilliant! I chilled out for awhile, soon joined by Tracy, Edmundo, Jake, and Alyson. I decided to sit there on a bean bag and work out what talk I wanted to see in the afternoon, and promptly fell asleep. Doh!
Upon waking, I walked back with Tracy and Jesse. There's a big, glass-enclosed carousel outside the convention center that looks very fun, and Jesse and I resolved to ride it before GDC is over. "I will have to schedule a time this week to ride it," I said.
Jesse turned to me with the most incredulous, laser-eyed glare he could muster and scoffed, "I'm not scheduling when I ride the carousel." I barked back in defense of my inability to be spontaneous, and Tracy berated us both on the silliness of a glass-enclosed carousel to begin with. It was all in good fun, of course. We parted ways with Jesse and returned to the hotel.
Tonight, I met up with the other GDC scholars for dinner at the food court. There are an abundance of interesting people, and many a business card was exchanged. One girl is going to be a first-year at the ETC next year, so I am determined to get her properly introduced to Jesse and Drew.
Yay networking!
Wandering about, I found that the convention has a bean bag chair lounge in the middle of the floor outside the exhibit hall! Brilliant! I chilled out for awhile, soon joined by Tracy, Edmundo, Jake, and Alyson. I decided to sit there on a bean bag and work out what talk I wanted to see in the afternoon, and promptly fell asleep. Doh!
Upon waking, I walked back with Tracy and Jesse. There's a big, glass-enclosed carousel outside the convention center that looks very fun, and Jesse and I resolved to ride it before GDC is over. "I will have to schedule a time this week to ride it," I said.
Jesse turned to me with the most incredulous, laser-eyed glare he could muster and scoffed, "I'm not scheduling when I ride the carousel." I barked back in defense of my inability to be spontaneous, and Tracy berated us both on the silliness of a glass-enclosed carousel to begin with. It was all in good fun, of course. We parted ways with Jesse and returned to the hotel.
Tonight, I met up with the other GDC scholars for dinner at the food court. There are an abundance of interesting people, and many a business card was exchanged. One girl is going to be a first-year at the ETC next year, so I am determined to get her properly introduced to Jesse and Drew.
Yay networking!
Sunday, February 17, 2008
GDC-bound
Today I fly off with my project team to the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco.
I am extremely excited, if not a little nervous (this will be the most gigantic conference I've ever attended). On Monday I'll be attending a summit about MMOs, hopefully to absorb what I can learn to apply it to Bandology. Tuesday I'll be running about with the GDC scholars (I won a scholarship to attend GDC, so there's all kinds of perks with that). The rest of the week I'll be running about to this session and that, and maybe this party and that, and whatever social networking you tend to do at conferences.
I am armed with a stack of business cards and a tiny notebook, and we shall see what GDC brings!
My goal is to blog a bit about each day, but even if that doesn't happen, I'll likely be twittering left and right if you like bite-sized updates.
I am extremely excited, if not a little nervous (this will be the most gigantic conference I've ever attended). On Monday I'll be attending a summit about MMOs, hopefully to absorb what I can learn to apply it to Bandology. Tuesday I'll be running about with the GDC scholars (I won a scholarship to attend GDC, so there's all kinds of perks with that). The rest of the week I'll be running about to this session and that, and maybe this party and that, and whatever social networking you tend to do at conferences.
I am armed with a stack of business cards and a tiny notebook, and we shall see what GDC brings!
My goal is to blog a bit about each day, but even if that doesn't happen, I'll likely be twittering left and right if you like bite-sized updates.
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