Reality Panic

Wow, New Orleans is hot. Or, more specifically, humid. The size of an event like SIGGRAPH alone is enough to burn you out, but with the heat (and all the food, and partying, and activities), I’m surprised I survived the weak!

As usual, SIGGRAPH is a nice eclectic mix of sessions and experiences. From the frying pan simulator in Emerging Tech, to the inclusion of audio visualization as a sub-theme, to the IndieCade game showcase, there’s always so much going on. Stephen Jacobs has a nice summary of some of the more game-oriented sessions from the show over at Gamasutra.

I was there primarily doing some consulting work for Greater New Orleans Inc, the economic development agency for the region. They were working to leverage the big show in attracting projects, studios and talent to the region.

Anyway, some quick pics from the week:

The frying pan simulator?!

Some fun play/light cubes…

Sam Roberts showing off IndieCade finalist PaperMint.

VR fun.

Will Wright’s entertainment/media flows.

Davey Jackson (GarageGames) enjoying a delicious muffaletta sandwich at the Butcher.

Autodesk had an eco-friendly booth made almost entirely of cardboard tubes.

Overdose!

Kim Pallister (Intel) and Meggan Scavio (Think Services) dive into the jumbo fried frogs’ legs at Herb Saint. Yummy!

New York Times’ graphics director Steve Duenes provided a fascinating keynote, giving endless example of data visualization and discussing the idea of graphical journalism. Great session.

Some beefcake at the ATI booth.

Matt Wisdom (TurboSquid) gushing about working in New Orleans during the LED/GNO party.

The “home team” booth.

Crazy float action at the Mardi Gras World warehouse, site of the closing party.

Closing party action. Too. Much. Food.

I popped down to DC last week for a photo shoot with Associations Now, a magazine for association leaders. I wrote an article on all of my radical approaches to running the IGDA, and they wanted to do a fun photo concept to compliment the article. In short, have me stand in an elevator with a bunch of stuffy status quo suits.

What I thought would be a few minutes to stand there and smile, took a full two hours. Turns out lighting an elevator is quite a challenge. By the time all was said and done, they had a good half-dozen different lighting rigs hooked up and had taken well over 200 shots.

Will be interesting to see what the end result will look like.

Plaque on the ASAE building.

Photographer Mark starts setting up some lighting rigs.

Magazine staffer, photo assistant, Mark and art director Beth Lower evaluate the initial results.

Stuffy suited models set up in the elevator.

I had the distinct honor of being the opening keynote for the GAMEplaces conference, held in Frankfurt mid June. As it’s organized by Frankfurt’s economic development agency, there is a greater focus on the business side of things, and getting industry players to connect with each other, and with local stakeholders.

My lecture focused on the evolving ecosystem of games, from the market/player perspective, as well as the development and business models that are emerging. Also covered barriers to innovation, and how regions can accelerate the process via a tight collaboration between industry, academia and government.

This was my first time to Frankfurt (despite flying through the airport many times), and was surprised by its relatively small size. The massive airport gave me the impression of a similarly large and sprawling city. Anyway. I did get some time to be a tourist and even took in the “Making of Art” exhibition at one of the museums.

Frankfurt is also home to Crytek, which I had the pleasure to visit. Impressive offices, and lots of cool stuff going on! But, I’ve been sworn to secrecy.

Some photos from the trip…

Conference organizer Manuela Schiffner opens GAMEplaces 2009.

Nicola Beer, the state secretary for European affairs of the Hessen state government gave the introductory remarks.

Silja Gulicher discussed Nintendo’s outreach strategy via book stores…

…and Tupperware parties!

The Production Panel: Klaas Kersting (Gameforge), Andre Peschke (Krawall), Chris Schmitz (Ubisoft), Ed Zorbist (ASAP Games), Jan Jockel (Keen Games), GAF van Baalen (Ranj).

The modern sports stadium right next to the convention center.

Frankfurt deputy mayor Markus Frank makes some opening remarks at the dinner reception.

Carla Hoekendijk (Hogeschool van Amsterdam) and Eku Wand (Braunschweig University of Art) awaiting their food.

Main entrance to the train station.

Cool cylindrical building, the Westhafen Tower.

Along the Main river.

Skater trolls under the bridge…

The Dreikonigskirche church across the river.

In the Romerberg area (ie, the old city center).

More Romerberg.

The very old cathedral, under repairs.

The Schirn Kunsthalle art museum.

Art…

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Art…

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Outside the Crytek offices, right next to a McFit gym.

In two-birds-one-stone mode, I spent a week over in Pittsburgh to present at the Korean Game Academy and lecture during the Game Education Summit - both hosted by Carnegie Mellon’s Entertainment Technology Center.

Given the ETC’s relationship with Korea, they welcome a delegation of Korean developers each summer to spend a week of intensive game related training and learning. I did three sessions with them: design theory (covered LeBlanc’s MDA), user research and usability testing, and a serious games overview.

A few days later, the 2nd annual Game Education Summit hosted upwards of 200 faculty, researchers, students, developers and other industry folk. Session quality of high overall, though I did fall asleep in class at least once ;) My lecture was on the need to support a culture of risk taking and experimentation, tolerant to failure.

To kill a bit of time between the two events, I looked up a local Judo dojo and popped in to train. As a special treat, I got to spare with the sensei, a 6th dan black belt (ie, he can whup some serious ass). He mostly tossed me around like a rag doll, but I did score on him once. The experience served as a good personal anecdote of risking taking and failure!

Some quick shots from the week:

The ‘09 class of the Korean Game Academy.

Don Marinelli opens the Game Education Summit with a big ETC welcome.

Terrence Masson discusses the curriculum at Northeastern Univeristy.

A terminator bot was guarding the entrance to my lecture room.

Conference organizer Mark Chuberka welcomes folks to the post-day1 reception.

Attendees playing the “Irish game”…

Leah Smith (Texas Film Commission) and Kristy Bowden (Digital Media Council) play a session of Train.

Andrew Hieronymi (Savannah College of Art and Design) discusses his physical interface gaming projects.

I did a high-level overview of serious games during the MODSIM World Canada conference taking place in Montreal this week. Far from a pure video game context (with tracks on aeronautics, defense, biotech, etc) there was still plenty of gamey stuff on the scene.

My session discussed the social impact of games more generally, covered some of the misconceptions about games, discussed the audience and challenge, along with give a good dozen+ example of cool games with positive impact.

Quick snap of the expo floor with modsim heavyweights like CAE and Lockheed Martin.

Brian Bauer (Étape Partners) gives a case study the launch of virtual world technology in a corporate environment.

Sadly, I was too busy to stick around and missed all the other cool content.

I had the pleasure of participating in the 2009 edition of the Nordic Game Conference. While I didn’t have the unique experience of staying at Sten’s beach house like last time, it was great to return to Sweden and enjoy this regional event (with big world feel).

I wrote up a more formal summary of the event for Gamasutra. So, check there for my thoughts on the sessions, vibe, etc.

What I didn’t mention in the Gama report was that I visited the IT University of Copenhagen on my way through town (ie, easiest way to get to Malmo, Sweden is to fly into Copenhagen, Denmark and take the train across the water). Was great to pop into the ITU and check out their game lab, lecture to the students, etc.

Also, I did have a free afternoon before heading home after the conference. So, since I toured Malmo last time, I went back across to Copenhagen and did some speed-touristing (aka walk as fast as you can and see as much as possible in 2 hours!)…

Here are some random photos of the entire week:

Main entrance to the IT University of Copenhagen.

Inside the ITU. Very modern, funky. Also the site for the annual Nordic Game Jam.

Cool wall art was all over the ITU game lab.

Miguel Sicart and Anders Drachen solving complex problems at the ITU.

Hip student dorms across the street from the ITU.

Nice Euro-style view outside my hotel window in Malmo.

Passed what seemed to be a massive submarine building facility on my way to the convention center. Nice juxtaposition of old industry versus creative economy. [Update: This is actually a wind farm assembly plant.]

Ah, OK, now I knew I was heading in the right direction…

The Malmo convention center, with the awesome Turning Torso looming in the background.

Tom Felices (Nordic Game Program) opens the conference.

Malte Berhmann, Fred Hassan (Bedlam Games) and Guillaume de Fondaumiere (Quantic Dream) give an European Game Developers Federation update.

Per Juhlen (GRIN) covers the production goals of Bionic Commando: Rearmed.

Unity keynote: Nicholas Francis, David Helgason and dude with red shoes.

Tom Felices getting in line for food during the awards dinner.

Lars Gustavsson (EA DICE) accepts the award for Best Nordic Game for Mirror’s Edge.

Johan Kristiansson (Starbreeze) and Emma Mellander (Nordic Game Program) at the big party.

Funky lit bridge while walking back from the party…

Kyle Gabler (2D Boy) and Petri Purho (Kloonigames) field questions from eager students.

Closing panel moderated by Tobias Sjogren (DDM): Per Rosendal (Guppyworks), Jonas Antonsson (Gogogic), David Helgason (Unity), Karin Ryding (Ozma Speldesign), Jonas Eneroth (IO Interactive).

Train over to Copenhagen…

Large wind-energy farm along the way…

One of the new metro stops. I missed it, and had to walk a few kilometers from the (wrong) train stop to here.

Theater house.

Garden at Kongens Nytorv, and fancy hotel in the background.

Picturesque New Haven area.

Think it’s the architecture institute… Interesting blue hex structure towards the left…

Stock exchange.

All the streets had bike lanes in addition to pedestrian sidewalks. And, uh, lanes for cars of course.

Really old, textured warehouse style building. Hmm, interesting tower in the distance.

Church tower. Only found out later that you can actually climb the spiral stairs to the top!

Another old, textured building.

Parliament building.

Fortress of some kind.

Trees were in spring blossom.

Entrance to Tivoli Gardens, the second oldest amusement park in the world. Playful statue of the creator was not left alone for a moment, so I just snapped the shot with a random tourist in it ;)

I didn’t have a map, so I discovered that hotdog stands had maps on their side. So, I basically had to navigate from stand to stand…

City hall and square.

A remnant of the old city wall/mote structure.

Orstedsparken park tucked away in the middle of the city.

More park action.

At dinner with IGDA-Denmark leaders Jacob Buck and Gorm Lai.

Night shot of the Tivoli entrance.