Reality Panic

I had such a good experience when I last attended Penny Arcade Expo out in Seattle, I figured it was a no-brainer to head down to Boston for the East version of the event. And so, I jumped into my car and zipped down the 89.

Compared to GDC just two weeks ago, I had a fairly light schedule of a few meetings, a lecture in the conference program and a few parties/social activities. So, was nice to take a more leisurely approach to things. That said, the event was jammed packed. The official numbers have yet to come out, but early estimates put it at about 20,000 visitors per day!

Of note, it was really nice to see the mix of big publishers and indies. For example, one booth is the big Xbox stand, and then right next to it is The Behemoth’s booth, selling Castle Crasher t-shirts. Also, there were a couple European studios showing off games and someone noted how a bunch of Europeans came over for this PAX (which is much quicker to get to than trekking all the away across the continent for the Seattle version).

Overall, I enjoyed the event, but didn’t get quite the same mixed sense of euphoria and sadness from the one back in Seattle. Not sure if that was an issue of the packed venue or the East Coast vibe, or maybe it was just a one-time PAX-virgin effect…

Also, while I was in town, I took the opportunity to visit MIT. Specifically, the GAMBIT game lab and a tour of the famed Media Lab. Impressive.

Anyway, some quick PAX pics:

The Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab.

GAMBIT director Philip Tan.

Column art in GAMBIT.

One of the Media Lab workspaces.

Another Media Lab workspace, with inflated elephant thing. No clue what that was for, or does…

The funky Gehry designed Stata Center.

Darius Kazemi welcomes everyone to the “Made in MA” industry party.

Nearly 1000 industry folks mingling.

Best t-shirt of the night! Classic!

The registration line on the first day of PAX.

Similarly packed expo floor, trying to get to the Splinter Cell Conviction booth.

Oh my, you know you are in hardcore gamer land when you can buy performance eyewear!

Oooooh, Crackdown 2!!!!!!

Fellow Scotts, Realtime Worlds’ APB on display.

Indie fav, Joe Danger.

The Boston Indie Showcase.

Alex Rigopulos (Harmonix) and Jane Pinckard (Foundation 9) discussing the finer points of wine…

…while Nathan Vella (Capybara Games), Stephanie Bouchard (UQAM), Kris Piotrowski (Capybara Games) and others deploy their Irish car bombs.

Despite the fact that my session blurb in the program was screwed up (no name attached, and copy/pasted from my original brainstorm email on what I could cover), my room was jam packed.

That Handsome Devil performing at the Harmonix charity concert.

Every year is the same: total exhaustion, broken feet, horse voice, etc. But, more importantly, a head exploding with new ideas and information, and a rolodex worth of new connections. Indeed, GDC is a marathon.

And, despite the fact that I didn’t have to handle all the usual IGDA stuff, my schedule was completely crammed with non-stop meetings, sessions, and, uh, social activities. Anyway, just some high-level thoughts to share:

• juxtaposition between big games and small games was evident more so than in past years. For every Uncharted 2 session, there were a handful of iPhone, web, social, casual, etc, etc, style sessions
• related, the best party of the week was the Gamma “One Button Game” showcase event, put on by indie collaborative Kokoromi - in the same big venue that has been used by EA and Sony in past years
• the expo floor was full of vendors and bustling with activity the whole time, which is a good sign, as many use the floor as a barometer for industry health
• the career pavilion was doubly full with folks looking for work, but encouragingly, there were many studios there to snap up CVs
• most panels suck, not because the speakers lack expertize, but the format de-emphasizes any one panelist’s need to “perform”. I had to walk out of several panels that put me to sleep, despite value of content
• despite previous point, the annual rant panel that Eric Zimmerman and I organize was spectacular - probably our best ever. Paul Bettner taking blame for Ensemble’s crunch culture got a standing ovation.

Some quick snaps from my week at GDC:

The Social Game Summit was packed the whole time. Here, InsideSocialGames.com editor Justin Smith gives a state of social gaming overview.

? and Tim Laning (Grendel Games) with a Wii surgery game? Yes.

Kellee Santiago (thatgamecompany) gives a great talk on leadership at the Education Summit…

…which includes admitting that you are wrong sometimes.

Eric Zimmerman in caveman mode.

Susan Gold (FullSail) and Kumar Garg (Office of Science & Technology, The White House) setting our post dinner plans.

An animated Justin Hall (ngmoco) takes on Scott Jon Siegal (Playdom) during the ngmoco party.

A lunch and panel hosted by Canada. The desert had maple syrup drizzled all over it ;)

Roof-top view from Jane McGonigal’s condo building during her super-secret happy hour.

Indie devs jammed in for the Indiecade party.

Chris Hecker shows off Spy Party to Jason Rohr.

The Gamma party and One Button Games showcase.

Baiyon an awesome set during the Gamma party.

Devin Monnens, Henry Lowood (Stanford) and Bonaventura Di Bello (ViGaMus) discuss game preservation and history.

David Edery (Fuzbi) covers the biz details of various emerging business models and platforms.

Corey Seifert (Koas) and Brian Reynolds (Zynga) cheer on as Bob Bates wins IGDA “Person of the Year” accolades.

Penny Arcade’s Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins prior to picking of their Ambassador Award.

id’s Todd Hollenshead and Lifetime recipient John Carmack settle in perfect the ceremony starts.

Kyle Gabler (2D Boy) and Erin Robinson (Wadjet Eye Games) co-host the IGF portion of the ceremony.

The guys from Closure win for best Audio.

Randy Smith (Tiger Style) collects the best mobile award for Spider.

After hosting the IGF ceremony for years, Andy Shatz (Pocketwatch Games) scores the big prize with Monaco.

Ah, Warren Spector, you’re so cute… After the Disney gag was up, he did a fine job hosting the Choice Awards - hatless.

John Carmack picks up his award, with Will Wright looking on.

The legendary Sid Meier (Firaxis) delivers the keynote on the psychology of design.

Oh my! Budgeting issues at the IGDA?

Neil Young reveals the inner workings of ngmoco’s development process.

The expo floor always had a lot of traffic.

VR hamster ball…

The annual game design challenge: Eriz Zimmerman (moderating), Jenova Chen (thatgamecompany), Kim Swift (Airtight Games), Heather Kelley (Kokoromi) and Erin Robinson (Wadjet Eye games).

Heather Kelley (Kokoromi), Matt Toschlog (Reactor Zero) and Babsi Lippe telling stories during the “Level99″ speaker party…

Will Wright on the metaphysics of play.

Funnily enough, the A/V dude at the back of Will’s room was playing games on his laptop.

My first GDC wedding: Ben Smith (Blizzard) and Robin Hunicke (thatgamecompany) tie the knot.

Ben and Robin hosted the post wedding party/reception at the Exploratorium. Eric Zimmerman and Jenova Chen play with the smoke/vortex chamber.

This will be my 14th Game Developers Conference. And, I’m sure it is going to be as fun and hectic and overwhelming as the first was. Though, I now know I need to wear super comfortable shoes ;)

In terms of official action, I’ll be giving two sessions: the annual rant panel with Eric, and a panel on government collaboration in the Education Summit. The rant panel, with the theme of developers who were fired, was actually harder to pull together than we originally thought. But, all is set now for an exciting rant session!

Beyond the two sessions, I’ve got 20+ meetings, another 15+ social events (ie, parties, receptions, etc), the always fun IGF/Choice Awards ceremony, etc, etc. See this rough screen grab of my schedule (so far) for a sense of the intensity:

(Ya, I still do up my schedule in Excel and print it out on paper, old school style.)

I’m also serving as a mentor for the IGDA’s Student Scholarship program. My mentee is a student from DigiPen with a specific interest in project management. So, in addition to one-on-one time, I’ve booked us some time to sit down with agile/scrum guru Clinton Keith. Side note: it’s great to see that 7 of the 25 scholars are women, and similarly, 7 students are from outside the USA (including one all the way in from Dubai).

I was in New York City just as the record-setting snow storm hit. Indeed, even by hardy Canadian standards, it was a lot of snow! I was in town to do some work with game publisher, 4mm Games. And, had a bit of free time for some other fun bits, like:

• having a crazy spectacular dinner at Rouge Tomate (per Clint Hocking’s recommendation)
• strolling in Central Park amidst the crazy amount of snow (see photos below)
• getting my butt whipped during 2-hours of Kung Fu training at the USA Shaolin Temple with Eric Zimmerman
• checking out the Tim Burton exhibit (and other interesting stuff) at the Museum of Modern Art

Also, I was staying at the Ace Hotel on 29th and Broadway, a super hip boutique style hotel that was a real pleasure to be at. Anyway, here are a few photos I snapped:

Super delicious oysters + pomegranate appetizer at Rouge Tomate.

Snow covered benches in Central Park.

Snow everywhere.

Nicely lit trees at the Tavern on the Green.

Lanterns from Chinese new year’s celebration.

Tim Burton monster in the lobby of MoMA.