GDC Monday Morning

So for today, Bandology split up between the Casual Games Summit and the Worlds in Motion Summit. I went to the latter, which is about virtual worlds and massively multiplayer experiences (as Jesse says, "it sounds like a girl came up with the name to that summit," at which I shook my fist threateningly, at which he smirked).

I picked the summit to learn what I can about MMOs to apply to Bandology. What I discovered, to my surprise, is that there exists in this industry an animosity between "virtual worlds" people (Second Life, Social Networking experiences, etc.) and "mmo game" people (WoW, Club Penguin). This startled me, as I'd never perceived the friction between the two groups until today in this room!

The first two speakers were so-so, but the third guy from GoPets () gave a great talk about Game Interface over User Interface. I think I absorbed a lot of Bandology-relevant tidbits from that talk.

For now, I must finish my lunch and head back to the summit. Stay tuned for more!

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.

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.

Snow!

The other day we had a great snow, and the ETCers went out and built a GIANT SNOW MONSTER. It was a true group effort.

Here's a video clip of us getting the top half up onto the bottom half.

He's starting to lean over, slowly, and is probably a safety hazard. Oh well!

Snow!

The other day we had a great snow, and the ETCers went out and built a GIANT SNOW MONSTER. It was a true group effort.

Here's a video clip of us getting the top half up onto the bottom half.

He's starting to lean over, slowly, and is probably a safety hazard. Oh well!

Adventure Time!

I am so excited about our next Game Design assignment!

The assignment is to run a one-shot adventure game session using a very simplified D&D-derived ruleset. Many people in the class have never played a table-top roleplaying game before, so they created groups based on experience. The assignment is in association with studying the challenges of interactive storytelling.

I'm considered the "expert" of my group, and so have to run my one-shot first, so that others may follow my example. Pressure! I haven't DMed a game in ages, but I think I've learned a lot I can use from the most recent games I've played in.

This should be a ton of fun, and I'm thinking back to some of the Nobilis one-shots we did in the past for ideas on how to run a good, condensed story. However, it's been awhile since I've used the D&D ruleset; my mind is still fresh with Nobilis and Dogs in the Vineyard.

First thing's first, time to think up a fun story. For you, internets, if you've played a tabletop rpg one-shot that you really enjoyed, share the experience? What was fun about it? What did you like better or worse than a campaign over an extended period of time? Tips? Tricks? Advice? Ideas?

Photoshop Advice

Helpful photoshop advice for those of who use Photoshop, but maybe don't use some of its more advanced features.