Reality Panic

Gamelab, the Spanish game industry conference and expo was back in Barcelona. This time across the street at the FIRA convention center (the same place used by the Mobile World Congress), with a greater focus on business development opportunities for Spanish developers.

Despite getting tossed onto a location-based game panel within the dedicated mobile day at the last minute (thanks internetz friends for all your quick input), my duties were pretty light� hosting the two keynote interviews with the invited legends from Japan: Hironobu Sakaguchi and Kazunori Yamauchi. It was a real honor/privilege and was able dig a bit on their background and process, despite the 3-way translation (English questions into Japanese, Japanese answers into Spanish, then into English).

While the expo portion was nowhere as extensive as somewhere like E3 or GamesCom, there was a solid showing by some of the bigger publishers. Sony was even hosting a GT Academy competition with Yamauchi-san presiding. Also, Nintendo was across the street hosting a dedicated Wii U and 3DS XL showcase for the press. I played some of the games and have to admit gameplay enabled by the pad is quite compelling. And, ZombiU�s example of orthogonal game modes is exciting. Now someone just has to use it to make a version of Will Wright�s �love story� concept�

(FYI, RTVE’s Zoom Net posted their special video summary of Gamelab, Spanish only…)

Sadly, this time around I didn�t have as much chance to be a tourist. Though, I did take the time to go see the inside of the Sagrada Familia (last year I got there just as the doors were closing). The pictures below do not do it justice. I wandered around speechless and in complete awe.

View from hotel room: Plaza Espana, the FIRA convention center, palace, etc�

Cathedral in the old Gothic quarter.

Tight winding roads in the Gothic quarter.

�United Nations� pre-dinner on the beach: Paul Trowe (Replay/USA), J and Zakk Lee (iTreeWorks/Korea), Dmitri Bourkovsky (Mail.ru/Russia), Andreas Stecher (Fish Labs/German).

Post meal stroll on the Barcelonetta beach.

The snazzy W Hotel, known to locals as the �sail hotel�.

Mobile day panel on non-iOS monetization opportunities: Chris James (Pocket Gamer), Andreas Stecher (Fish Labs), Paul Flanagan (Tequila Mobile), Tim Harrison (Sony).

Teemu Huuhtenan (Rovio) deconstructing the Angry Birds empire.

Sketch inspired by the location-base game panel I was on. Not sure why I�m shooting lasers from my eyes?!?

Alex Seropian (Industrial Toys), Chris Avellone (Obsidian) and Dan Pearson (GamesIndustry.biz) getting warmed up for dinner and the semi-final Euro match between Spain and Portugal.