So GDC is over, and I am back in New York. As I've been telling a lot of my friends, it's a little bit of postpartum blues with it being over. Fortunately, I think my summit was HUGE SUCCESS. Check out the coverage over at Worlds in Motion; some was done by me, and lots of it with the contributions of my colleague, Chris Woodard. He got sick mid-week and had to go home, sadly, so send him well-wishes!
From Wednesday on, I went to a bunch of interesting sessions. I'll repeat the same sentiment I heard a lot of others saying -- I didn't get to go to nearly everything I wanted. Such is the way, I suppose! If you want to read what I wrote on what I did go to, here are some links. Not everything I've done is up yet -- we'll be rolling out the rest of our coverage over the coming week.
Tsuchida, Shiraishi Talk Square Enix's New WiiWare Choices
Few developers have as coherent and consistent a methodology, from design philosophy to aesthetic as Square Enix. So how does the purveyor of elaborate FMV-heavy fantasies retool its approach for the lightweight Wii Ware?
Feelplus' Nakazato Details Lost Odyssey's Collaborative Process
Another interesting one, about how Lost Odyssey was made with input from three different studios and cultures. I still have not played this game.
SingStar Sings Praise For In-Game Commerce
Game consoles and content delivery platforms already have online stores for DLC. So why'd SCEE make an integrated in-game commerce storefront specifically for SingStar? Hey, if Rock Band keeps getting bigger, do you think they'll do this for it, too?
Cryptic's Emmert: 'You Are What You Are At Launch'
Refreshingly candid. I'm always intimidated and confounded at the whole process of developing and rolling out an MMO in the era of WoW, and probably with good reason. Cryptic Studios' Jack Emmert basically explained where they screwed up with City of Heroes/Villains and why it couldn't compete.
'Junk Science' Still Dogging Games Industry, Says Lawyer
Neato. A games industry lawyer talks about what the potential legal landscape around games could look like next, given there's some bullshit study coming out every few months that is sort of empirically flawed.
Blow's Ten New Challenges For Game Design
He gets accused of being pretentious a lot, but I didn't really pick up that vibe. Braid designer (and former Best of SVGL winner) Jon Blow again decries "pandering to the player's demand for mastery," and calls "pretending to give you a challenge and letting you win and giving you bright colors and sound effects to celebrate the fact that you won," "disturbing."
So that was work, and the playing was pretty fun, too. I tended to favor hanging out with a tight-knit group of friends in a close enclave rather than going to the real big parties -- huge crowds and lines to get in places are a buzzkill. I met a lot of great people, had a retarded fangirl moment over meeting Jon Mak, and got to show the Inis guys who made EBA my (blurry) cellphone screenshot of my proudest score.
From my friends:
Michael Zenke (who was also excellent enough to moderate one of my summit panels) covers my opening talk at WIM for Massively, complete with horrendously awkward mid-sentence photo of me in my giant doily earrings.
Jim Rossignol chronicles his experience in a UK pod hotel, our awful American cider, meeting Reynir Hardarsson (whose name makes me snicker immaturely) and calls me an Empress.
James Portnow tells of the utter insanity I missed at the CCP party that was too crowded to admit us when we got there. He also mentions meeting me, which is, of course, of essential newsworthiness also.
Finally, I got to meet some of you there, who were wonderfully gracious in introducing yourselves by saying you like Sexy Videogameland. Which was great, because while I'm glad my summit was successful, I'm terrified of being pegged as a virtual worlds writer. Ew.
