Indie Madness

I think I’ll file my one GDC post under Madness…. since that’s entirely what it was. Sorry for not being one of the many folks blogging from the CA lounge, posting cellphone pics of session slides moments after they happened with in-depth commentary on what everyone was saying about whatever all was new in the land of game development. It might have been interesting for the hardcore blog-surfers out there, but I barely had time to eat, sleep, or talk to my girlfriend — so the blog thing had to take a backseat.

First I’ll summarize a few key points about my experience with the GDC Conference Associate volunteer program.

Tim and Ian have put together a brilliant program… Everyone I met was interesting, somehow… (how????) which means that whatever filtration methods they’re using to parse the pile of essays, I am a supporter of such methods. Not only was everyone interesting, but nearly everyone was nice… and very nearly everyone was intelligent, to boot. Throw all that together and then remember that the number of CA’s (note, I didn’t really meet all that many of them) was about 260, and you’ve got quite a party of orange-shirted Madness. These were good people, and good times, and I hope to beat myself up again next year by doing it all over again.

While not working, I was networking, and learning a ton about the industry. I don’t think it’d be too safe to try to summarize what I learned or who I talked to here (just because I’d probably fill my 50 gigs of hard drive space), but on both fronts it was VERY worth taking a week off of work (both the day job and Ghost Ship Studios) to do. I especially recommend the CA program for anyone who is looking for a JOB in the industry. I was trying my best to avoid getting a normal industry job, but GDC, and especially the CA program, is a fantastic place to be for those who are looking in that direction.

Highlights:

Kornelia told me I had “nice shoes… good style.” This made me smiley. She is, after all… Kornelia.

Will Wright’s keynote. This guy is truly the maestrotaku… His wandering (but artfully crafted) speech flowed from one near-and-dear geek topic to the next, from procedural (er… generative) content creation to Drake’s equation for the distribution of extraterrestrial life… He takes his work seriously, researches very thoroughly, and deserves every sale his titles get.

I was working the cancelled Peter Molyneux session (which still required working since it was replaced by some other folks) — and Will Wright walks up to see it. The look of disappointment on his face, complete with hanging his head and sagging his shoulders… was almost as dramatic as my own 15 minutes earlier.

I had my head stepped on… that was new to me.

There is too much to say… it’d end up sounding like the rambling war stories of an ancient veteran. I’ll spare you and just say — next year, GO. Be a CA volunteer.