Category Archives: Conferences

Things I may have encountered at GDC or Project Horseshoe or Indiecade, etc

GDC 2016: Lisa’s Favorite Talks

This year at GDC I had an amazing 100% streak of seeing all good talks! I credit this to finally being able to intuit a talk’s quality based on how the description in the scheduler is worded (Of course, I have no data on the talks I skipped to back up that they weren’t good. Maybe all talks were just good this year!)

For context, when I go to a talk at a conference, I am looking for practical takeaways. I want to see how designers solved hard problems and learn something that I could feasibly start applying to my work right away. This is not to say that I dislike inspirational talks, I just try and reserve GDC for practical learning. Here were my favorite talks:

And now in great detail…

Continue reading GDC 2016: Lisa’s Favorite Talks

PH 2013 Beats

And now, a brief overview of my favorite beats from this year’s Project Horseshoe.

 

1. Things were already looking up on the trip to the conference at our layover in Las Vegas. I put $1 into a slot for funsies, and after a long interval of incomprehensible flashing lights, I got $15 back. This was used to purchase a victory sandwich.

2. We played Two-Truths-And-A-Lie and I managed to fool someone into thinking I had been a magician instead of a synchronized swimmer at one time in my life (the other truth was Glassblower).

3. Had wonderful conversations the first evening, which sparked that first insight about spontaneous shared experiences.

4. Next morning at breakfast, had folks play a prototype I’ve been working on and got a pile of wonderfully helpful feedback

5. Pitched the spontaneous shared experiences idea for a workgroup topic the next day and it got chosen! Many interesting conversations followed!

6. Topped the evening off with many exciting rounds of Artemis. My favorite job is Comms, where I constantly pester the Science officer for the latest gossip concerning enemy ship captains, such that I may insult them more effectively.

7. Did field research with my workgroup the next day, which involved trolling another workgroup with a cow puppet on a stick.

8. Epic potato gun battle at lunch! (no no no, this kind of potato gun, not the dangerous kind)

9. Delightful workgroup presentations that night, mine may or may not have involved a “spontaneous” appearance by G.O.B. Bluth.

10. Had the most epic stories that night playing Once Upon a Time. I love that game SO MUCH!

11. After discovering a  potato in the hood of my jacket, I took revenge on the wrong person. Whoops.

 

Tl;dr: A good time was had by all! The only downside is a case of classic con crud. I blame the communal M&M jar.

Indiecade 2012

I was starting to think that I had been cursed to never again attend Indiecade, as 2 years ago I came down with the flu this time of year*, and last year it was Nick who was let's-go-to-the-hospital sick right over Indiecade.  But this year we were both in good health, and ventured down to Culver City to check out all the games.  There was lots of cool stuff, but here are some of my favorites:

Continue reading Indiecade 2012

BlizzCon Wrap

So, I had a really great time at BlizzCon, even though I did not go see any panels (I hear I didn’t miss too much on that end).

I got to try Diablo III (I like the Monk), StarJeweled (BEST STARCRAFT MOD EVER), Left 2 Die, (probably would have been more fun if we’d had more time), and Cataclysm beta (<3 Goblins). I enjoyed seeing all the costumes, and of course seeing Will's epic dance contest entry. On the downside, Jay Mohr is teeeerrible, how is this his 5th BlizzCon? His humor is off and his jokes are tasteless and he nearly ruined all of the costume/dance contest for me, bleh! The most surprising part of the event was how much I enjoyed watching the Warcraft III and Starcraft II matches, and the WoW Arenas were great, too. I think I spent most of my time there at one of the two stages, watching the epic battles unfold. I suppose this seals in a new layer of geekdom that I never thought I would have acquired. My favorite part about the matches was how positive the audience was. One annoying thing about watching sports for me is how much team support can override and diminish the experience of just watching a good game. For example, watching football or watching the World Cup, when "the other" team makes a good mood, it is impossible to acknowledge without scorn, and I haaaaaate it when the non-home-team makes a great play and is met by booing from the home fans. So annoying! With these tournaments, the audience just wanted to see people who play really well. Sure there were favorites, but all in all, if either player made a fantastic play, the entire audience erupted in cheers. The atmosphere was fantastic! It's a shame there aren't many Starcraft II tournament viewing venues in the US. Anyway, I have a long layover before getting back to Kentucky, but I can't wait to see my family!

San Francisco wrap-up

Ugh, I have been sick like a dog all week with post-convention funk. I think I’m finally killing it, though.

So, GDC was fun times for sure, but several of us stayed an extra day over the weekend to hang out around San Francisco. Andy, Edmundo and I stayed with M.E. We got up the next morning and headed for Chinatown to meet Carlos, Carren, and Carren’s sister. The goal was dim sum, but no no, not just ANY dim sum.

You see, when the crew went on their ETC West Coast trip two years ago, they went to a specific dim sum place while in San Francisco. They were all determined to find the same place again, but had no idea what the name of the restaurant was, and nothing but fragmented memories about where exactly it was located.

Between looking up dim sum places and seeing if they looked familiar on Google Street View, looking at photos from their West Coast Trip to see if any pictures contained street signs in the background, and trying to combine their memories (“I remember it was at the crest of a hill!” “I think we were parallel to the Transamerica Tower!” and no less than a dozen “THIS LOOKS FAMILIAR!”), we walked up and down nearly every block in all of Chinatown and STILL didn’t find the place.

I suggested that perhaps it were a magical place, and you could only find it if you’d never been there before. All the same, I wasn’t about to go wandering around by myself to test the theory.

Nevertheless, there is no shortage of good dim sum in Chinatown in San Francisco, so we still had a DELICIOUS lunch!

The other big highlight of the day was going to see the Exploratorium. I had heard many sing the praises of this science museum, and was anxious to check it out for myself. The songs of praise are true! It is, by far, the best science museum I have ever been to. All of the exhibits are 95% interaction and only 5% text (The Louisville Science Center’s newest installations could learn from this place for sure) and the interactions were significant and engaging (not just “press this button”).

Of course we didn’t see it all, and I really wanted to check out the Touchdome, but it was sold out for the day. This is fine, for it will give me an excuse to go back to San Francisco at some point so I can finishing exploring the museum. HEY COLIN!! Can I come visit you sometime so we can go to the Exploratorium? 😀

Anyway, it was lovely time spent in San Francisco. (it was actually sunny for the whole week! Not a cloud in the sky! MADNESS!!)

GDC Friday

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!

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.

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!